The loss of USS Philadelphia
In October 1803, USS Philadelphia, another subscription frigate under the command of William Bainbridge, spotted a Tripolitan coastal vessel well within the shoal waters of the harbor at Tripoli. Philadelphia had been operating with the ketch Vixen, which was designed for sailing in the shallows, but Bainbridge had detached Philadelphia’s consort for other duties. Despite the standing written orders from Commodore Preble that the big American frigates were not to enter the shoals unescorted, Bainbridge put Philadelphia into pursuit, remaining just out of range of the harbor batteries.
Philadelphia possessed charts of the harbor, which were unreliable and out of date, and in the pursuit Bainbridge put on as much sail as the ship could carry under the conditions. Inevitably the ship ran aground, and its momentum when it hit an uncharted reef caused the foremast to break, with the topmast sheering off. Almost immediately Tripolitan gunboats left their moorings to attack the stricken frigate. They approached at an angle which prevented the Americans from bringing guns to bear on them as the crew struggled to free the ship from the reef. Under fire, the Americans tried to float Philadelphia off of the reef by rocking the ship from side to side.
When that attempt failed, Bainbridge ordered the damaged foremast to be cut down and cast over the side, in an attempt to lighten the bow. Forward guns, useless against the approaching Tripolitans, were first moved aft to change the vessel’s balance, and when that too proved ineffective were cast into the harbor with their carriages. Bainbridge ordered the water supply over the side, followed by the shot for the guns, and cut loose the ship’s anchors, all to no avail. All of this herculean labor was conducted under the fire of the Tripolitan gunboats over a period of five hours. The gunfire was mostly inaccurate, the Tripolitans too respectful of Philadelphia’s guns to close the range for better effect.
All efforts to free the American frigate from the reef failed and rather than wait for the incoming tide to possibly refloat the ship, Bainbridge ordered all small arms aboard to be thrown over the side and the remaining gunpowder to be wetted using the ship’s pumps. He then surrendered. Philadelphia was the second ship of the United States Navy to surrender to an enemy; the first had been USS George Washington, a 24 gun frigate also surrendered by Bainbridge (though later returned). The Tripolitans swarmed over the side of Philadelphia, its crew was taken into custody and all personal items of the officers and crew were confiscated.
The crew and officers were paraded through the streets of Tripoli to dungeon quarters, after being claimed by the Pasha as his personal slaves. During their captivity the Pasha distributed them to other ranking Tripolitans as payment for political favors or simply for gold. Tripolitan sailors refloated the formerly American frigate and towed it under the protecting guns of the harbor fortress. Within days work was underway to refit the ship, much of it conducted by its former crew, working as slaves for the Tripolitans. Others worked from small craft recovering the ship’s guns from the shallow water in which they had been discarded. The former American frigate gave Tripoli a warship equal to any but the heaviest American ships, Constitution, United States, and President.