Multiple Bombardments on Tripoli’s Defenses

This attack was the fifth within a month. Now another maneuver.

Continuing The Tripolitan War of 1804,
our selection from Naval History of the United States by James Fenimore Cooper published in 1839. The selection is presented in seven easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The Tripolitan War of 1804.

Time: 1804
Place: Waters off Tripoli

This disposition of the enemy’s force required a corresponding change on the part of the Americans. The bombards were directed to take stations and to commence throwing their shells; while the gunboats in two divisions, commanded as usual by Captains Decatur and Somers and protected by the guns of the brigs and schooners, assailed the enemy’s flotilla. This arrangement separated the battle into two distinct parts, leaving the bomb-vessels very much exposed to the fire of the castle, the mole, crown, and other batteries. The Tripolitan gunboats and galleys stood the fire of the American flotilla until the latter had got within musketry-shot, when they retired. The assailants then separated, some of the gunboats following the enemy and pouring in their fire, while the others, with the brigs and schooners, cannonaded Fort English.

In the meanwhile, perceiving that the bombards were suffering severely from the continuous fire of the guns to which they were exposed, Commodore Preble ran down the Constitution close to the rocks and the bomb-vessels, and brought-to. Here the frigate opened as warm a fire as probably ever came out of a single-decked ship. She was, moreover, in a position where seventy heavy guns could bear upon her. The whole harbor in the vicinity of the town was glittering with the spray of her shot, and each battery, as usual, was silenced as soon as it drew her attention. After throwing more than three hundred round shot, besides grape and canister, the frigate hauled off, having previously ordered the other vessels to retire from action, by signal. The gunboats in this affair were an hour and fifteen minutes engaged, in which time they threw four hundred round shot besides grape and canister. Lieutenant Trippe, who had so much distinguished himself and had received so many wounds on August 3rd, resumed the command of Number Six, for this occasion. Lieutenant Morris, of the Argus, was in charge of Number Three. As usual, all the small vessels suffered aloft, and the Argus sustained some damage to her hull.

The Constitution was so much exposed in the attack that her escape can only be attributed to the effect of her own heavy fire. It had been found in the previous engagements that so long as she could play upon a battery the Turks could not be kept at its guns; and it was chiefly while she was veering, or tacking, that she suffered. But after making every allowance for the effect of her own cannonading and for the imperfect gunnery of the enemy, it was astonishing that a single frigate could lie exposed to the fire of more than double her own number of available guns, and these, too, mostly of heavier metal and protected by stone walls. On this occasion the frigate was not supported by the gun boats, and was the sole object of the enemy’s aim after the bombards had withdrawn.

As might have been expected, the Constitution suffered more in this attack than in any of the previous engagements, though she received nothing larger than grape in her hull. She had three shells through her canvas, one of which rendered the main-topsail temporarily useless. Her sails, standing and running rigging, were also much cut with shot. Captain Chauncey of the John Adams and a party of her officers and crew served in the Constitution again on this day and were of great service. The commander, officers, and crew of the John Adams were always actively employed, although the ship herself could not be brought before the enemy for the want of gun-carriages.

The bombards, being much exposed, suffered accordingly. Number One was so much crippled as to be unable to move without being towed, and was near sinking when she got to the anchorage. Every shroud she had was shot away. Commodore Preble expressed himself satisfied with the good conduct of every man in the squadron. All the vessels appeared to have been well handled and efficient in their several stations.

While Commodore Preble was thus actively employed in carrying on the war against the enemy —- this last attack being the fifth made on the town within a month —- he had been meditating another maneuver, and was now ready to put it into execution. The ketch Intrepid, which had been employed by Decatur in burning the Philadelphia, was still in the squadron, having been used of late as a transport between Tripoli and Malta. This vessel had been converted into an “infernal,” or, to use more intelligible terms, she had been fitted out as a floating mine, with the intention of sending her into the harbor of Tripoli, to explode among the enemy’s cruisers. Such dangerous work could be confided to none but officers and men of known coolness and courage, of perfect self-possession and of tried spirit. Captain Somers, who had commanded one division of the gunboats in the different attacks on the town in a manner to excite the respect of all who witnessed his conduct, volunteered to take charge of this enterprise; and Lieutenant Wadsworth, of the Constitution, an officer of great merit, offered himself as the second in command.

When the Intrepid was last seen by the naked eye she was not a musket-shot from the mole, standing directly for the harbor. One officer on board the nearest vessel, the Nautilus, is said, however, to have never lost sight of her with a night-glass, but even he could distinguish no more than her dim outlines. There was a vague rumor that she touched on the rocks, though it did not appear to rest on sufficient authority to be entitled to much credit. To the last moment she appeared to be advancing. About that time the batteries began to fire. Their shots are said to have been directed toward every point where an enemy might be expected, and it is not improbable that some were aimed at the ketch.

More information here and here, and below.

We want to take this site to the next level but we need money to do that. Please contribute directly by signing up at https://www.patreon.com/history