Richard Somers & the Tripoli Pirates
PART I Chapter 1
Richard Somers, Jr. was born during the American Revolution, on September 15, 1778 at the home and tavern of his father, Col. Richard Somers, Sr., a building that stood at the intersection of Shore and Bethel Roads in Somers Point.
It is now a totally remodeled office building that stands today as the Somers Manor office building. There is a small marker at the site, and Veteran’s Park is just across Bethel Road.
A month after Richard was born, on October 15, his father Col. Richard Somers was involved in the Battle of Chestnut Neck, which is known in the British Naval Annals as the Egg Harbor Expedition, the purpose of which was to destroy the village of rebel pirates.
Some might consider it ironic that Richard Somers, who would become famous as a pirate fighter, was the son of an American revolutionary privateer, who the British called a rebel pirate.
As a Colonel in the local revolutionary militia, Col. Somers was responsible for a regiment of local volunteers and mlitiamen who were mustered together whenever needed, but he also commanded a number of local schooners that were given letters of marques by the Continental Congress authorizing them to attack and commandeer British merchant ships.
Those ships that were captured off the coast of New Jersey were taken to Egg Harbor or Chestnut Neck, where the captured crews were transferred inland to Mays Landing or Batsto and then on to Philadelphia while the cargos were auctioned off to the highest bidders. When they began to brazenly advertise the auctions of the contents of British ships in the Philadelphia and New York newspapers, the British Admiral in New York referred to the operations at Chestnut Neck as a “nest of rebel pirates,” which is what historian Frankly Kemp named his book that details the battle.
The British invaded Chestnut Neck with a fleet of ships and soldiers who captured several ships and burned the town to the ground, but Somers and his men put up some resistance and fought a guerilla style campaign that kept the British at the mouth of the river, away from Batsto, and were chased up the river where one of the British ships ran aground. While viewed as a success by the British, they failed to capture Batsto, where much of the rebel army's ammunition was made, and dissuaded them from venturing too far into rebel territory very often.
The local Col. Richard Somers chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution conduct an annual memorial service at the monument which includes Somers’ name, and stands at the base of the Parkway Exit (#48) just south of New Gretna.
The threat of a British invasion of Somers Point further south at Egg Harbor was also very real, as it was well known to be the home of Col. Somers, and he took precautions.
About a mile south of the home of Col. Richard Somers on Shore Road is Somers Mansion – originally the home of Col. Somers’ father, John Somers - a large brick house built in the late 1600s that still stands today as the oldest building in Atlantic County.
As the home of his grandfather, Somers Mansion was quite familiar to young Richard Somers, and he undoubtedly spent time there growing up, as that was the focal point of Somers Plantation, a self-sufficient community of a half-dozen or so Quaker families. While some Quakers distain violence and warfare, the Somers were said to be “Hickory” Quakers. When the young boys were bad, it is said they were taken to the hickory bush in the back of Somers Mansion and whipped with a hickory branch.
That is also where it said a tunnel was constructed, originally designed as an escape tunnel if the British attacked unexpectedly. They could go down into a cellar with their most prized possessions and escape through the tunnel that ran underground about six hundred yards to the Highbanks. It came out above the bay near the mouth of the Egg Harbor river, where a boat would be waiting to enable their escape up river. The tunnel was said to have also been used by pirates, or to escape from them when they put in to plunder the few houses of the small fishing and boat building town.
Other than sensationalized newspaper reports from the 1920s and the questionable memories of locals, no evidence of the tunnel has ever been found.
It is from the bluff of Somers Mansion where you can see the extent of the watery horizon, the bay waters and the barrier of Ocean City beyond, all of which was Richard Somers’ backyard when he was growing up. It was here where young “Dickie” Somers learned to swim, fish, hunt and sail.
Besides the tunnel, Col. Somers also built a small fort that was defended by a few cannons that had command of the bay. Eventually however, after the British attack on Chestnut Neck, Col. Somers decided to remove his family from Somers Point and for awhile they lived in Philadelphia when it wasn’t occupied by the British.
After the eventual success of the American Revolution, life settled back to normal, and life on Somers Plantation consisted primarily of the maritime life of building and sailing schooners to New York, Philadelphia and the West Indies, trading local lumber and raw materials.
News didn’t travel very fast in those days, so it was many months before they learned that Algierian pirates off the Barbary Coast of Africa had seized two American merchant ships en route from Marseille to Gibraltar.
Barbary Pirate Corsair Galley
Then on October 11, 1784, a Morocco pirate corsair seized the American brig Betsey, and in February 1785 Algerian pirates seized two more U.S. vessels. They demand ransom for the enslaved passengers and crews and wanted to be paid an annual tribute in order to discontinue to practice. At first the ransom and tribute was paid, and in 1785 the United States began official diplomatic relations with Barbary States of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, but it was an uneasy truce that hedged on the payment of ransom and tribute.
Congress had been reluctant to fund the construction of ships or a Navy, but news accounts of the enslavement of the Americans by the Barbary pirates forced their hand and the funding was approved for the construction of six frigates as well as the establishment of a Navy.
In December 1787, former Revolutionary war captain John Barry sailed the ship Asia from Philadelphia to China and back, helping to establish a far eastern trade route, but he wanted a commission as an officer in the new navy.
Commodore John Barry - "Father of the U.S. Navy."
The following June 21 1788, a new Constitution was waiting to be approved by the Pennsylvania assembly in Philadelphia, but those opposed to the strong union of states boycotted the meeting, instigating Capt. John Barry and a few of his fellow “persuaders” to strong-arm two delegates and escort them to the hall in order to ensure a quorum.
As a young boy who grew up in a merchant seafaring family young Richard must have heard the stories of the Barbary pirates, possibly imagining being part of the navy that was being organized to fight them. As the son of a prominent Quaker landowner, Richard Somers was sent away to boarding schools and trained in the arts and sciences and the proper behavior of a gentleman.
In 1791 Richard Somers attended Hunter School, Woodbury, N.J. and in 1792 it is noted that he took classes in navigation.
But Philadelphia was then the capitol of the young nation, and it was there on May 31 1790, when President George Washington signed the first copyright act. A week later, on June 6 1790, Philadelphia Schoolmaster John Barry, a teacher at the Philadelphia Free Academy, published the 1st copyrighted publication in the USA, which was called the “Philadelphia Spelling Book – Arranged Upon A Plan Entirely New.”
When not in school, the 15 year old Richard Somers served as the first mate on a family schooner trading in West Indies, and on one trip to the Caribbean, when the Captain died, young Somers took command and returned the ship safely home.
Captain John Barry was even younger when he became a mate on his uncle’s merchant ship out of Wexford, Ireland, eventually landing in Philadelphia, which became his adopted home. As an expert sailing Captain, Barry was given command of warships during the revolution, with an excellent and courageous record in combat against the British.
In 1794 Congress passed the Navy Act, creating a new Navy, and authorized the construction of a fleet of frigates, one of which was to be built in Philadelphia by Joshua Humphries under the direction of John Barry.
On June 14 1794 President Washington ordered Captain John Barry “to form and train a class of midshipmen who would then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy.”
President George Washington and Captain John Barry with Midshipman - possibly Richard Somers or Stephen Decatur
Barry was promised a commission as Captain, United States Navy and supervised the construction of the frigate USS United States, which was constructed on the docks just south of Philadelphia, where the Navy Yard is today.
On October 22 1794, Col. Richard Somers, Sr. died and it was around this time that Richard moved to center city Philadelphia to live with his sister Sarah, who was married to William Keen, an attorney.
On April 9 1795 William Keen’s sister Betsy had married John Barry’s nephew, merchant sea Captain Patrick Hayes. The ceremony took place at Christ’s Church and was presided over by the Reverend Bishop William White, who had earlier married John Barry and Sarah Austin.
Bishop White was co-founder of the Philadelphia Free Academy, so it wasn’t surprising that young Richard would be enrolled there. John Barry the schoolmaster was a namesake, neighbor and fellow Hibernaian with sea Captain John Barry, and while they were not related, they must have known each other.
It was at the Philadelphia Free Academy where young Somers met schoolmates Steven Decatur, Jr., son of U.S. Navy Commodore Steven Decatur, Sr., and friend of Somers’ father from their Revolutionary War days. Other students at the Academy included Charles Stewart, who would, like Somers and Decatur, become famous as a naval hero, and Richard Rush, son of prominent Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush, who included the Barry and Keen families among his patients.
In their book
A CALL to the SEA – Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution (Potomac Books, 2005)Claude Berube and John Rodgaard write, “Young Charley attended Dr. Abercrombie’s Academy in Philadelphia. Known later as the Episcopal Academy, it was attended by the elite sons of the city. 3. Little other than the name of the school is known, except that it was one of several Episcopal academies located in the city before the turn of the eighteenth century. One such Episcopal academy was founded in 1785 by Reverend William White to educate the sons of Philadelphia’s Episcopalian community. Courses included Greek, Latin, mathematics, and business – all practical courses for young boys who would become the city’s merchants, traders, and ship owners, if not captains. At the academy, Charley met three other youths whose futures figured prominently in his life and in the U.S. Navy and diplomatic service.”
“The first and most famous friend was Stephen Decatur, Jr., the son of an American Revolutionary War ship captain, Stephen Decatur Sr. The elder Decatur was a sailing master on board a ship owned by the Philadelphia merchant firm of Stewart and Nesbitt.”
“A second friend, Richard Somers, less than two months Stewart’s junior, was born in Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, but during the Revolution his family lived in Philadelphia. His father served as a militia colonel and judge…..”
“In scenes that would replay themselves in their naval careers, the young Stewart, Decatur, and Somers often crossed the street from the academy, located on Fourth Street, to settle their arguments with fisticuffs. Stewart remembered that Decatur “would sooner lose his dinner than miss an opportunity of avenging the wrongs of some small boy who had been imposed upon by a superior in size. Steve was the universal champion of the small boy.” 5. Fortunately they did not have the pistols they used later in formal duels. 6. But if one feature of Philadelphia life influenced Stewart, Decatur, and Somers more than any other, it was the call to the sea.”
At the Philadelphia Free Academy, schoolmaster John Barry would play a significant role in the education of Richard Somers, Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart. After graduation they would come under the stewardship of Captain John Barry, who would complete their education as officers in the new US Navy, and thus making the Philadelphia Free Academy an early Annapolis, where the first young officers of the US Navy were trained.
Captain John Barry, while overseeing the construction of the USS
United States, must have been dismayed by the news reports of a December 21, 1795 of a United States treaty with Morocco and Algiers, because under a rider attached to the Congressional authorization of the funding of the Navy, such a treaty would automatically suspend work on the six frigates.
Then in January 1796 the Secretary of War reported that all six frigates could still be completed within the year, but in April 1796 Congress only approved the completion of three ships at Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore,
the United States, the
Constitution and the
Constellation.
On September 19, 1796 an estimate for outfitting the
United States with 305 officers and men, fifty-four marines, for one month came in at $7, 285.
Around the same time, on the other side of the world, a French built Ketch the
Gheretti/Mastico was launched, and would later achieve fame as the USS Intrepid.
Washington, on his birthday February 22, 1797, issued Commission No. 1 in the American Navy to John Barry, though it was backdated “to take rank from the fourth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four,” three years earlier, when Barry began to oversee the construction of the United States.
On March 4, 1797 John Adams became president and on June 7, 1797 the Treaty of Tripoli was approved by Senate. [See: NARA Treaty Series #358 – American State Papers – Foreign Relations - #18-19.]
Four months later, on July 10, 1797 the frigate United States was launched at the South Philadelphia wharf to a crowd of 30,000 people, most of the citizens of the city.
There were 350 applications for 59 commissions in new U.S. Navy, and on March 9, 1798 Charles Stewart was commissioned Lieutenant, which actually predates the Congressional authorization of the Navy, an event that officially occurred on April 30 1798, when Congress established the Department of Navy. It was to be directed by secretary of cabinet rank, and Benjamin Stoddert, a Maryland merchant, was given the appointment and he immediately gave John Barry the necessary supplies to complete outfitting the USS United States.
The same day the Navy was officially established midshipman warrants were issued to Richard Somers and Steven Decatur, who were ordered to sea on the shakedown cruse of the USS United States under Commodore John Barry.
That Barry would select Charles Stewart as one of his first officers and Somers and Decatur as two of his first two midshipmen could not have been a coincidence, as they had all been educated together at the Philadelphia Free Academy, and were well known to Barry through his association with the Keen family and Bishop White, the founder of the Academy.
There is also evidence that Decatur and probably Somers and Stewart as well, worked on the construction of the United States while they were students at the Academy. Situated in the same small center city neighborhood – the Academy, Barry’s home and the Keen residence were all within walking distance of each other and Independence Hall.
Legend has it that Somers, Decatur, Stewart and other students would often settle disputes by engaging in fisticuffs in the old cemetery behind Independence Hall, where John Barry is buried today, and Barry’s statute guards the back door to the hall where the Liberty Bell rung.
On May 7, 1798 President John Adams appeared in Philadelphia at rally, an event that Somers undoubtedly observed, as it is recorded in the Keen family records that he returned home more than once that day to retrieve funds from the tiller. The following day Richard Somers took the oath of allegiance and became a midshipman in the newly constituted United States Navy.
It was about time, as the
United States was then engaged in a quasi-war with our former allies, the French, as well as having unsettled affairs with the Barbary pirates.
On May 30, 1798 Richard Somers returned to Egg Harbor to get his affairs in order, and records indicate he launched a new schooner at Mays Landing and met with a girl friend before returning to duty.
Somers may have still been at home on June 8, 1798 when, just off the coast of Egg Harbor, Stephen Deactur’s father Commodore Stephen Decatur, Sr. captured a French prize,
Le Croyable while commanding the 20 gun Sloop
Delaware.
On July 7, 1798 the USS
United States got underway under Capt. John Barry with Charles Stewart as an officer and Somers and Decatur as Midshipmen, and headed south for the West Indies in search of French ships.
On Nov 4, 1798, while the new American Navy was still getting organized, Congress reluctantly agreed to pay tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping.
It was at that time, in 1798, when Somers is said to have been given a ring by George Washington, who had served as the first President until a year before.
One possible occasion was on November 9, 1798, when the frigate to which Somers had recently been assigned as a Midshipman, the USS
United States, was anchored at Chester, Pennsylvania. At 7 P.M. that evening, Captain John Barry and the ship’s designer and builder Joshua Humphries came aboard. Shortly thereafter, George Washington arrived at Chester, where the horse troops of Philadelphia received him. Washington stayed in Chester overnight, possibly aboard the United States, which gave him a 15-gun salute upon his departure the next morning.
Since Richard Somers was one of the young officers that Barry had recruited, based on Washington’s June 14 1794 orders “to form and train a class of midshipmen who would then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy,” it is likely that it was on this occasion that Washington presented Somers with the ring that includes a lock of Washington’s hair.
If Washington dined aboard the
United States with Barry and Humphries, it is likely that the officers and midshipmen were also invited to dine at the Captain’s table.
On January 20 1799 Richard Somers given commission as Lieutenant, and on June 2,1799 Richard Somers had his brother-in-law William Keen write out his last will and testament, as Keen had also done for John Barry.
Later that month Richard’s brother Constant died in boating accident in Russia, apparently falling to his death, and was buried at sea.
That same year the Schooner Nautilus was built as merchant vessel on Maryland’s East Shore, and would later be purchased by the Navy and become Richard Somers’ first command.
Then an add appeared in the local paper on January 10 1800 – To Be Rented – Great Egg harbor Residence of Col. Richard Somers, Apply to Wm. Jones Kean , Front St. Phila.
With the death of his father, mother and brother, and with Richard Somers at sea in the Navy, William Keen elected to lease the Somers family home and tavern where Richard was born.
Somers was appointed first lieutenant to the
Boston, a 28 gun, 250 man sloop sent to deliver Chancellor Livingston to France, and patrol the Mediterranean. When the 1801 Treaty of Tripoli was violated by Yousuf Karamanli, pasha of Tripoli Somers aboard the
Boston was there and it was while serving as first officer on the
Boston when Somers first saw Tripoli harbor and the old castle fort on the horizon, not aware of the hand that fate would later play.
As Dr. Somers attests, "After landing the minister, the Boston proceeded to the Mediterranean....He visited many ports, gave frequent convoys, and even went off Tripoli, the scene of war, but from accident or design, all this was so timed as to destroy every thing like concert and combination. In this cruise Somers had an opportunity of seeming many ports of Italy, Spain, and the islands, and doubtless he acquired much of that self-reliance and experience which are so necessary to a seaman in his responsible station of a 1st Lieutenant. He was then a very young man, not more than 23; and this was a period of life when such opportunities were of importance. Nor does he seem to have neglected them, as all of his contemporaries speak of his steadiness of character, good sense, amiable and correct deportment, with affection and respect. The Boston returned home at the close of 1802, when Capt. McNeil retired from the service, under the reduction law, and the ship was laid up never to be employed again. The commander subsequently returned to the seas, in the revenue service, but the frigate lay rotting at Washington, until she was burned at the inroad of the enemy, in 1814, a worthless hulk."
When President Thomas Jefferson refused to make the annual $250,000 payment in tribute, Yousuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli symbolically declared war on the US by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the US Consulate.
Tripoli Slave Market
In July 1801 the schooner USS
Enterprise, under Lt. Andrew Sterrett, encountered the ship Tripoli in the act of pirating an American merchant ship, and engaged in the first battle between the Americans and Barbary pirates.
The action was described by Somers in a letter to Decatur, along with the fact that the Congress had approved the funding of a fleet of Schooners, one of which was to be given to Somers and another to Decatur and used to fight the pirates.
Somers wrote, "My Dear Decatur: Here we are going aloft, with a fair wind, while I am perfectly sure that the sail reported off the starboard quarter is one of the squadron - ...if Commodore Dale wins in this chase, he will be a seaman equal to Paul Jones himself. For Captain McNeill is one of the very ablest seamen in the world, and, much as his eccentricities annoy us, his management of the ship is so superb that we can't help but admire the old fellow...he is doing a good service giving convoy and patrolling the African coast so that the Barbary corsairs are beginning to be afraid to show their noses when the BOSTON is about."
"...While running for Malta, on the 1st of August, the ENTERPRISE came across a polacca-rigged shp such as the Barbary Corsairs usually have, with an american brig in tow. It had evidently been captured and her people sent adrift. Sterrett, who commands the ENTERPRISE, as soon as he found the postition of affairs, cleared for action, ran out his guns, and opened a brisk fire on the Tripolitan. He got into a raking position, and his broadside had a terrific effect upon the pirate. But - mark the next - three times were the Tripolitan colors hauled down, and then hoisted again as soon as the fire of the ENTERPRISE ceased. After the third time, Sterrett played his broadside on the pirate with the determination to sink him for such treachery;but the tripolitan rais, or Captain, appeared in the waist of the ship, bending his body in token of submission, and actually threw his ensign overboard. Sterrett could not take the ship as a prize, because no formal declaration of war had reached him from the United States; but he sent Midshipman Porter - you remember David Porter... - aboard the pirate to dismantle her. He had all the guns thrown overboard, stripped her of everything except one old sail and a single spar, and let her go, with a message to the Bashaw of Tripoli that such was the way Americans treated pirates. I understand that when he got back to Tripoli,...he was ridden through town on a jackass, by order of the Bashaw, and received the bastinado; and hat since then the Tripolitans are having great trouble in finding crews to man their corsair ships because of the dread of the 'Americanos.'"
USS
Enterprise engages pirate corsair
Tripoli
"Now I must tell you a piece of news almost too good to be true," Somers wrote to Decatur, "I hear the Government is building four beautiful small schooners, to carry sixteen guns, for use in the Tripolitian war, which is to be pushed actively; and that you, my dear Decatur, will command one of those vessels, and I another! I can write nothing more exhilerating after this; so, I am, as always, your faithful friend, Richard Somers."
Congress had ordered the construction or purchase of four schooners - the
Siren (16 guns), the
Argus (16),
Nautilus (12) and
Vixen (12), with Somers, age 24, being given command of the
Nautilus.
On May 13, 1803 Richard Somers was ordered to oversee the refurbishing of the schooner
Nautilus, and a week later Captain Edward Preble was given command of the Mediterranean squadron, with frigate USS
Constitution (44) as his flagship. Somers’s schooner
Nautilus ordered to join the Mediterranean squadron under command of Captain Edward Preble.
On September 13, 1803 Commodore John Barry died. The former Captain of the USS
United States, and primary mentor of Stewart, Somers and Decatur, had been offered command of the Mediterranean Squadron, but declined because of his health.
Somers and
Nautilus reach Gibraltar on September 14, 1803 and shortly thereafter Captain Preble made a successful demonstration in Tangier, convincing the emperor of Morocco to cease and desist from pirating American ships or his ships would bombard the city.
Commander of the Mediterranean Squadron Commodore Captain Edward Preble (Maine neighbor of the family of Lt. Henry Wadsworth)
1803 October 31 USS
Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge in command, runs aground off Tripoli, surrenders with full compliment of crew, 300 men.
Captain Bainbridge of the USS
Philadelphia and the Basha
On November 7, 1803 The
Argus, under Stephen Decatur, joined the
Nautilus and
Constitution in Gibraltar.
1803 Dec 23, Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the schooner
Enterprise, captured a Barbary pirate ketch, which is entered into the US Navy logs as the USS
Intrepid.
Stephen Decatur, Jr.
1804 February 16 Decatur leads mission aboard
Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor disguised as a pirate ship and successfully scuttled the captured frigate USS
Philadelphia, one of the first covert special operations of the US Navy, which England’s Lord Admiral Nelson is quoted as calling “The most bold and daring act of the age.”
Burning of the
Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor.
In July 1804 the Mediterranean squadron headed for Tripoli, lead by Preble’s flagship, the frigate
Constitution, four brigs, the
Argus, Siran, Vixen and Scourge, two schooners, N
autilus (Somers) and
Enterprise (Decatur) and eight gunboats (156 guns in all).
1804 July 25 - Septebmer 4 - Battle of Tripoli.
On August 2d and 7th,and again on August 28th and September 3d, 1804 - Somers and Stephen Decatur lead flotillas of gunboats against Tripoli fleet, and won the battles decisively, though Decatur’s younger brother James was killed, as was another young officer, Lieut. Caldwell, whose body is not recovered.
Dr. J.B. Somers, MD wrote: "The Tripolitans fully expected the attack of the 2d of August, though they little anticipated the desperate character, or the results. They had anchored nine of their large, well-manned gunboats just outside of what are called the Harbor Rocks, or the northeastern extremity of the reef, evidently with a view of flanking the expected attack on the town, which, lying on the margin of the sea, is much exposed, though the rocks in its front were well garnished with heavy guns. Accustomed to cannonading at the distance of a mile, those gunboats expected no warmer service, more especially as a nearer approach would bring their assailants within reach of the castle and batteries. In addition to the nine boats to the eastward, there were five others which also lay along the line of rocks nearer to the western entrance, and within pistol shot of the batteries in that part of the defences. Within the reef were five more gunboats and several heavy galleys, ready to protect the outer line of gunboats at need, forming a reserve."
"Com. Preble had borrowed only six gunboats from the King of Naples, and these were craft that were much inferior in size and force to the generality of those used by the enemy...These six boats were divided into two divisions; to the command of one was assigned Lieut. Com. Somers, while Lieut. Com. Decatur led the other. Somers was thought to be the senior of the two, though Decatur was at this time actually a captain, and Somers himself was a master Commandant, as well as Stewart, Hull and Smith, though the intelligence of these promotions had not yet reached the squadron."
With Somers was Lieut. James Decatur, the younger brother of Stephen Decatur, Jr.
Dr. Somers tells us, "It was the intention of Preble to attack the eastern division of the enemy's boats with his own flotilla, while the ketches bombarded the town, and the frigate and sloop covered both assaults with their round and grape shot. With this object in view, the whole force stood in towards the place at half-past one, the gunboats in tow. Half an hour later the latter were cast off and formed an advance, while the brigs and schooners, six in number, formed a line without them,and the ketches began to throw their shells. The batteries were instantly in a blaze, and the Americans immediately opened from all their shipping in return."
"Circumstances had thrown the divisions of gunboats commanded by Somers to leeward of that commanded by Decatur. It was on the right side of the little line, and, under ordinary circumstances, it would have been the most exposed, being nearest to the batteries and the weight of the Tripolitan fire, but Decatur gave a new character to the whole affair by his extraordinary decision and intrepidity. The manner in which this chivalrous officer led on in a hand-to-hand conflict will be related in his own biography, but it may be well to state here that he was sustained only by Trippe, in No. 6 and his brother James, in No. 2;....No. 5, Lieut. Bainbridge, was disabled in approaching, though she continued to engage, and finally grounded on the rocks....Somers found himself alone, within the line of small vessels, and much exposed to the fire of the leeward division of the enemy's boats, as well as to that of the nearest battery...As soon as he ascertained he could not fetch into the most weatherly divison of the enemy, Somers had turned like a lion on that to leeward, and engaged the whole of that division, five in number and at least of five times his own force, within pistol-shot,...In the end, the enemy was obliged to make off, and Somers was extricated from this perilous position by the approach of the Constitution, which enabled him to obey the commodore's signal to bring out his boat in triumph."
"Although the extraordinary nature of the hand-to-hand conflict in which Decatur had been engaged threw a sort of shade over the efforts of the other vessels employed that day, the feeling of admiration for the conduct of Somers in paricular was very general in the squadron. Apart from the struggles with the pike, sword and bayonet, his position was the most critical of any vessel engaged in the attack, and no man could have behaved better than he was admitted to have done..."
Fourteen men were killed and wounded in the attack, while three enemy boats were captured and taken. "The Americans employed themselves between the 3rd and 7th of August in altering the rigs of the three boats they had taken in their first assault, and in equipping them for service...At half past two the ketches began again to throw their shells, and the nine gunboats opened a heavy fire, still in two divisions commanded as before (by Somers and Decatur) though the enemy this time kept his small vessels too far within the rocks to be liable to another attempt at boarding. While No. 1 was advancing to her station on this occasion, Somers stood leaning against her flagstaff. In this position he saw a shot flying directly in a line for him, and bowed his head to avoid it. The shot cut the flag-staff, and on measuring afterwards it was rendered certain that he escaped death only by the timely removal. The boats were under fire three hours in this attack; one of them, commanded by Lieut. Caldwell, of the Siren, having been blown up...."
Lieut. Caldwell's body washed ashore and the American prisoners from the Philadelphia, locked in the gallows of the old castle fort, could only watch as dogs ripped his body apart.
Dr. Somers notes that, "A strange sale hove in sight near the close of this attack, and she proved to be the John Adams 28, Capt. Chauncey, last from home. This ship brought out the commissions already mentioned, as having been issued sometime previously. By this promotion, Somers became a master commandant, or a commander, as the grade is now termed; a rank in the navy which corresponds to that of a major in the army, and which entitles its possessor to the command of a sloop of war."
"It was the 28th of August before another attack was made on Tripoli, in which Somers participated. The ketches bombarded it on the night of the 24th, but finding little impression made by this mode of assault, Commodore Preble determined to renew the cannonading. On this occasion Capt. Somers led one division of the gunboats, as before, while Captain Decatur led the other, the latter having five of these craft under his orders, and the former three. The approach was made under the cover of darkness, all of the boats anchoring near the rocks, where they opened a heavy fire on the shipping, castle, and town. The brigs and schooners assisted in this attack, and at daylight the firgate stood in, and opened her batteries. The Tripolitan galleys and gunboats, thirteen in all, were principally opposed to the eight American gunboats, which did not retire until they had expended their ammunition. One Tripolitan was sunk, two more were run on shore, and all were finally driven into the mole by the frigate."
"On the third of September, a fourth and last attack was made on Tripoli by the gunboats, aided by all the other vessels. The Turkish boats did not wait, as before, to be assaulted off the town, but, accompanied by the galleys, they placed themselves under Fort English, and a new battery that had been built near it, with an intention to draw the American's shot in that direction. This change in disposition induced Preble to send Captain Decatur and Somers, with the gunboats, covered by the brigs and schooners, into the harbor's mouth, while the ketches bombarded more to leeward. On this occasion, Somers was more than an hour hotly engaged, pressing the enemy into his own port."
"The season was now drawing to a close," Dr. Somers' account explains, "and the arrival of reinforcements from America had been expected in vain for several weeks. It was during this interval that a plan for destroying the enemy's flotilla as it lay anchored in the innermost harbor was conceived, and preparations were soon made for putting it into execution. The conception of this daring scheme has been claimed for Somers himself, and not without a share of reason. There existed between him and Decatur a singular professional competition that was never permitted, however, to cool their personal friendships. The great success of the latter in his daring assaults stimulated Somers to attempt some exploit equally adventurous, and none better than the one adopted and offered. The five attacks on Tripoli, with the vigorous blockade, had produced a sensible effect on the tone of the bashaw,and it was hoped that a blow as appalling as that now mediated might at once produce a peace...."
"....That Commodore Preble says that the project has long been in contemplation, though he does not say who suggested it. The plan was as follows: The ketch that had originally been taken by Decaturin the Enterprise, and in which he had subsequently carried the Philadelphia frigate, was still in the squadron. She had been named the Intrepid, for the brilliant occasion on which she had first been used, but had since fallen from her high estate, having latterly been employed in bringing water and stores from Malta. The craft had been constructed for a gun vessel by the French in their expedition against Egypt; from their service she had passed into that of Tripoli; had fallen into the hands of warriors from the new world; by them had been used in one of the most brilliant exploits of naval warfare, and was not about to terminate her career in another of the most desperate and daring character. It was proposed to fit up the ketch in the double capacity of the fire-ship and infernal, and to send her into the inner harbor of Tripoli by the western passage, there to explode in the very centre of the vessels of the Turks. As her deck was to be covered with missiles, and a large quantity of powder was to be used, it was hoped that the town and castle would suffer not less than the shipping. The panic created by such an assault, made in the dead of night, it was fondly hoped would produce an instant peace, and, more especially, the liberation of the crew of the Philadelphia. The later object was deemed one of the highest interest to the whole force before Tripoli, and was never lost sight of in all their operations."
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On September 4,1804, on board the Intrepid rearmed as a fireship, Somers lead a crew of two officers and ten men back into Tripoli harbor with the intention of setting her to sail into the anchored enemy fleet, lighting a fuse and escaping in two row boats.
The Intrepid
By the Intrepid suddenly exploded prematurely, killing the three offices (Somers, Wadsworth, Israel) and ten seaman.
1804 September 5 Captain Bainbridge, skipper of the scuttled USS
Philadelphia, and ship’s doctor Dr. Cowdery (who would later become first chief surgeon of the United States), and a detachment of prisoners bury the 13 bodies that washed ashore, three identified as officers, one cable's length east of the old castle fort.
On September 9,1804 William Eaton arrived and reported to Commodore John Barron, who replaced Captain Preble as commander of U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean. Preble returned to the United States and was given a hero's welcome.
William Eaton
