What role did Stephen decatur play in the war with tripoli?

Answer 1

Decatur was the biggest hero of the War with the Barbary Pirates. Most every other seafaring nation paid annual tribute to the Barbary Pirates, to get them to leave the ships of that nation alone. The US, being a new nation with an impoverished government, had no money to bribe pirates not to sieze US flagged ships, which led to the war. The Pirates would capture vessels, and imprison the crew and frequently sell them into slavery. The pride of the infant US was its tiny Navy, which did not have many ships, but did have six new, magnificient frigates, built during the quasi-war with France in the 1790s. These were swift and beautiful ships, and the most powerful of their class in the world. These were not the biggest warships of the era, being one size smaller than the capital, line-of-battle ships, of which the US had none. So they were the biggest thing the US had, and a match for the frigates of any other nation. (The USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", preserved in Boston Harbor and the oldest warship still in commission as part of the US Navy, is the last surviving one of these six). One of these six fine frigates, the USS Philadelphia, was cruising off the port of Tripoli in the early days of this conflict, and her captain decided to take her inside the harbor. This was an ill-considered move, as he ran her aground inside the harbor, and the ship and crew were captured. This was certainly embarrassing, a US Navy warship and her crew in the hands of the pirates. It would be something like the Somali Pirates of today getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. These warships were the most intricate and advanced machines of the day. Decatur's greatest exploit of this war was to make a stealthy expedition at night into Triploi Harbor, with a small band of picked men, and burn the Philadelphia at her moorings, destroying her and depriving the pirates of this formidable weapon. It was impossible to bring her out, with the winds and tide as they were, and with his small group of men. This exploit electrified the US, and is the reason so many places in the US are named Decatur.