Bombardment of Tripoli

3 August – 3 September 1804, Off Tripoli

Indecisive; Tripoli held out

Commodore Preble brought his squadron before Tripoli with six gunboats and two bomb vessels borrowed from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and attacked five times in a month. In the first attack on 3 August the American gunboats went in among the Tripolitan gunboats and fought them hand to hand; Decatur took two, and when he heard that his brother James had been shot dead after accepting a surrender, went back and killed the man who had done it. Constitution and the smaller ships bombarded the batteries and the town, but the walls were strong, the Tripolitan gunners stood to their guns, and the pasha would not give up his prisoners. One American gunboat was blown up by a shot in her magazine in the second attack.

Map

• Preble brings his squadron to Tripoli July – August 1804