USS Philadelphia
-Jason
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was one of the most important cities in the newly created United States of America: it had served as the country’s capital city during the American Revolutionary War. As one of the premier coastal cities, Philadelphia was an important center of commerce and politics. Due to these circumstances, the city had several warships named after it, the second of which became famous.
The USS Philadelphia was an American warship that was built for the United States Navy between 1798-1799. The ship was a 124-ton, 36-gun frigate that was paid for public fundraising. It was one of six heavy frigates that were constructed for the United States as the beginning of the nineteenth century was fraught with warfare. After being commissioned in 1800, its service came to an end in spectacular fashion on 16 February 1804.
The newly created United States Navy lacked the large ship-of-the-line wooden-hulled battleships which other European powers relied upon. These multi-deck, heavily armed battleships were expensive to build, maintain, and crew. Since the United States did not possess any overseas colonies, the government did not feel that such costs were reasonable. For the sake of protecting America’s coastal cities and merchant ships, the United States Navy opted to build larger than usual frigates to help patrol the seas. What these ships lacked in size, they made up for in firepower and excellent sea qualities.
The United States found that even with its declaration of neutrality during the French Revolution; and subsequent Napoleonic Wars, its merchant ships and sailors fell prey to the warring nations. The Quasi-war with France (1798-1800) witnessed many American merchant ships falling to the French navy and privateer vessels in both the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Once commissioned, the USS Philadelphia was stationed in the West Indies in May 1800. She started operations immediately and established an excellent reputation: during her cruise the Philadelphia captured five armed French ships as well as liberating six American merchant ships. The Quasi-War ended with both belligerents agreeing to not prey upon each other’s commerce.
Due to the constant state of warfare in Europe, the Mediterranean Sea had become significantly more dangerous for merchant ships. The Barbary Pirates, based out of Tripoli, Libya, increased their raids against American and European merchant ships. This was due in part because large numbers of European warships were no longer patrolling the region. The Straits of Gibraltar and the North African coast were favored areas of the pirates. An increase in the number of American ships, and their crews, being captured and held for ransom threatened to upset the early republic’s economy and standing in the world.
Responding to these threats, the United States Government ordered the navy to assemble a small squadron and have it patrol the Mediterranean. The USS Philadelphia joined another heavy frigate, the USS President, and sailed towards Gibraltar. These two warships were meant to intimidate Pasha Yusuf Karamanli, the leader of the pirates, and force him to cease his raiding. Despite the presence of two American ships, the pirates continued their attacks. After sailing for several months off the North African coast, the Philadelphia went back to the United States to be refitted.
The ship returned to its Mediterranean station in 1803 once again to suppress Pasha Karamanli’s followers, arriving off Gibraltar on 24 August 1803. Its new; and ultimately, final, captain Commodore William Bainbridge sailed towards destiny. The Philadelphia was chasing a Libyan ship on 31 October 1803 when she suddenly ran aground on an uncharted reef two miles off Tripoli Harbor. Desperate to free the ship, Bainbridge ordered all movable items thrown off the vessel. The cannons, hand weapons, and even the foremast were ditched to no avail. The Philadelphia was stuck fast and could not be easily retrieved or destroyed. Not wishing it to be used by the enemy, Bainbridge ordered the gunpowder to be soaked and holes drilled into the frigate to make it unseaworthy.
Pirates descended on the trapped ship and crew before the demolishing could be finished. Commodore Bainbridge, his officers, and crew were captured and enslaved by Pasha Karamanli. The Philadelphia was refloated by the Libyans and towed into Tripoli Harbor as a prize. This represented both a major humiliation for the United States and a dire threat if the frigate was rearmed and repaired by the pirates. The ship needed either to be recaptured or destroyed.
Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, the son of Philadelphia’s first commander, came up with an unorthodox, but brilliant, plan of attack. A small Libyan pirate ship which had been recently captured by the Americans and would be the key to the operation. Decatur and a group of volunteers would disguise themselves and sail into Tripoli Harbor. Pretending that their ship was damaged, Decatur and his crew were allowed to tie their ship up next to the Philadelphia on the night of 16 February 1804. Once this was accomplished, the Americans boarded the frigate and quickly set to work putting combustibles around the ship. Decatur was the last man off the Philadelphia after he was satisfied that the fire would destroy the ship. The ropes that bound the Philadelphia burned through and the flaming ship drifted into the rocks along the western side of the harbor.
The Philadelphia’s crew was eventually set free with the signing of the Treaty of Tripoli in 1805. This ended the threat of Barbary Pirates due to increased American naval presence and bombardment. The Philadelphia’s anchor was returned to the United States on 17 April 1871.