Burning of the Philadelphia

16 February 1804, Tripoli harbour

American success; Philadelphia burned

Rather than leave a frigate in Tripolitan hands, Commodore Preble sent Lieutenant Stephen Decatur into Tripoli harbour to destroy her. On the night of 16 February Decatur took the captured ketch Intrepid, disguised as a Maltese trader with a Sicilian pilot calling out to the harbour watch, alongside Philadelphia under the guns of the batteries. Some sixty sailors and marines swarmed aboard, cleared her decks in minutes, set her on fire and got back to Intrepid as she began to burn, without losing a man; her loaded guns went off in the flames and fired into the town. Syren waited outside with her boats. Admiral Nelson is said to have called it the most bold and daring act of the age.

Map

• Intrepid sails for Tripoli 3–16 February 1804