USS ''Philadelphia'', a 1240-ton, 36-gun

sailing frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

, was the second vessel of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named for the city of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. Originally named ''City of Philadelphia'', she was built in 1798–1799 for the United States government by residents of that city. Funding for her construction was raised by a drive that collected $100,000 in one week, in June 1798. She was designed by

Josiah Fox Josiah Fox (1763–1847) was a British naval architect noted for his involvement in the design and construction of the first significant warships of the United States Navy. Early years Fox was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, Kingdom of Great Bri ...

and built by

Samuel Humphreys Samuel Humphreys (23 November 1778 – 16 August 1846) was a noted American naval architect and shipbuilder in the early 19th century. He served the United States Navy as the Chief Constructor for the Navy from 1826 to 1846. Naval archit ...

, Nathaniel Hutton and John Delavue. Her carved work was done by William Rush of Philadelphia. She was laid down about November 14, 1798, launched on November 28, 1799, and commissioned on April 5, 1800, with Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr. in command. She was captured by Barbary pirates in Tripoli with William Bainbridge in command.

Stephen Decatur Stephen Decatur Jr. (; January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was an American naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Unit ...

led a raid that burned her down, preventing her use by the pirates.

Service history

Preparation for War to defend Commerce Birch's Views Plate 29

USS ''Philadelphia'' put to sea for duty in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, where the United States was involved in the

Quasi-War The Quasi-War (french: Quasi-guerre) was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States. The ability of Congress ...

with France. She arrived on the

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label= Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands— Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and ...

Station in May 1800 and relieved the frigate . During this cruise she captured five French armed vessels and recaptured six merchant ships that had been taken by French ships. Returning home in March 1801, she was ordered to prepare for a year's cruise in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

in a squadron commanded by Commodore

Richard Dale Richard Dale (November 6, 1756 – February 26, 1826) was an American naval officer who fought in the Continental Navy under John Barry and was first lieutenant for John Paul Jones during the naval battle off of Flamborough Head, England against ...

. At his own request, Decatur was relieved of the command of ''Philadelphia'' by Captain Samuel Barron. The squadron arrived at

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibr ...

on July 1, with Commodore Dale in the frigate . ''Philadelphia'' was directed to cruise the Straits and blockade the coast of Tripoli, since in May 1801 the Pasha Yusuf Karamanli had threatened to wage war on the United States and had seized U.S. merchant vessels for ransom. ''Philadelphia'' departed Gibraltar for the United States in April 1802, arriving in mid-July. In ordinary until May 21, 1803, she recommissioned (having her sixteen 9-pounder long guns replaced with sixteen 32-pounder carronades at this time), and sailed for the Mediterranean on July 28, 1803. She arrived in Gibraltar on August 24 with Captain William Bainbridge in command. Two days later he recaptured the American

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

''Celia'' from the Moroccan ship-of-war ''Mirboka'' (24 guns and 100 men), and brought them both into Gibraltar.

Capture

During the First Barbary War, ''Philadelphia'', accompanied by , cruised off Tripoli until October 31, 1803. While giving chase and firing upon a Libyan navy ship, it ran aground on an uncharted reef off Tripoli Harbor. The captain, William Bainbridge, tried to refloat the ship, first laying the sails aback, and casting off three bow anchors and shifting the guns aftward, but a strong wind and rising waves drove her further aground. He ordered the crew to jettison many of the cannons, barrels of water, and other heavy articles overboard in order to lighten the ship, but this too failed. They sawed off the foremast in one last desperate attempt to lighten it. In order not to resupply the Tripoli pirates, Captain Bainbridge ordered holes drilled in the ship's bottom, gunpowder dampened, sails set afire, and all other weapons thrown overboard before he surrendered. The Pasha's officials enslaved the American officers and men as war captives.

Burning

The Tripoli pirates had finally managed to refloat ''Philadelphia''. Americans believed that the warship was too great a prize to be allowed to remain in foreign hands, so the Navy decided to recapture or destroy it. After the United States had captured the Tripolitan ketch ''Mastico'', it renamed her as , but re-rigged the ship with short masts and triangular sails to look like a local ship. Lieutenant

, son of USS ''Philadelphia's'' first captain, led a party of 83 volunteers to carry out this task. On February 16, 1804, under the cover of night and in the guise of a ship in distress that had lost all anchors in a storm and needed a place to tie up, Decatur sailed ''Intrepid'' next to ''Philadelphia''. The Americans boarded the prize and, after making sure that she was not seaworthy, burned the ship where she lay in Tripoli Harbor. Decatur's force suffered only one wounded member and killed at least 20 Tripolitans. Britain's Viscount Nelson is said to have called this feat "the most bold and daring act of the Age". The authenticity of this quote remains in doubt. The crewmen captured in 1803 were released pursuant to the 1805 Treaty of Tripoli, which ended the war. ''Philadelphia's'' anchor was returned to the United States on April 7, 1871, when Mehmed Halet Pasha, the Ottoman governor, presented it to the captain of the visiting .

Local account of the destruction

In 1904, Charles Wellington Furlong, an American adventurer, went to Tripoli to investigate the sinking of ''Philadelphia''. He later wrote about the history in his book, ''The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli'' (1909). Based on records from a local synagogue, Furlong wrote: Furlong later reported in the same book that other Arabs in Tripoli had said that the ship was not burned, but moved to the Lazaretto. There it was decorated as a trophy and its guns were fired to mark the end of

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...

, the major Moslem holiday. According to the detailed account of Hadji-Mohammed Gabroom, an American ketch sneaked into the harbor, its crew killed some of the 10 guards, and allowed the others to flee. It set ''Philadelphia'' on fire.''The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli''
, by Charles Wellington Furlong. 1909. pp. 106–12. archive.org, accessed December 2017.

Popular culture

The burning of the ''USS Philadelphia'' appears in the US DLC of the RTS game Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.

References

Bibliography

Url
* Chapelle, Howard I. (1935) ''The American Sailing Navy'', W. W. Norton and Co., New York, p. 400.
Url

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* Kilmeade, Brian & Yaeger, Don (2015) ''Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History''. Sentinel., New York, . *
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External links

*
A Journal kept on board the United States Frigate ''Philadelphia'', 1800-1801, MS 170
held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy {{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia (1799) Barbary Wars American ships Captured ships History of Tripoli Maritime incidents in 1804 Quasi-War ships of the United States Sailing frigates of the United States Navy Ships built in Philadelphia Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Vessels captured from the United States Navy 1799 ships Ship fires