rew, by the Tripolitan gunboats, when she was entirely helpless
either to fight or sail. This was a very serious blow to our navy and to
our operations against Tripoli. It not only weakened our forces, but it
was also a great help to the enemy. The Tripolitans got the Philadelphia
off the rocks, towed her into the harbor, and anchored her close under
the guns of their forts. They also replaced her batteries, and prepared
to make her ready for sea, where she would have been a most formidable
danger to our shipping.

Under these circumstances Stephen Decatur, a young lieutenant in command
of the Enterprise, offered to Commodore Preble to go into the harbor and
destroy the Philadelphia. Some delay ensued, as our squadron was driven
by severe gales from the Tripolitan coast; but at last, in January,
1804, Preble gave orders to Decatur to undertake the work for which
he had volunteered. A small vessel known as a ketch had been recently
captured from the Tripolitans by Decatur, and this prize was now named
the Intrepid, and assigned to him for the work he had in hand. He took
seventy men from his own ship, the Enterprise, and put them on the
Intrepid, and then, accompanied by Lieutenant Stewart in the Siren, who
was to support him, he set sail for Tripoli. He and his crew were very
much cramped as well as badly fed on the little vessel which had been
given to them, but they succeeded, nevertheless, in reaching Tripoli in
safety, accompanied by the Siren.

For nearly a week they were unable to approach the harbor, owing to
severe gales which threatened the loss of their vessel; but on February
16 the weather moderated and Decatur determined to go in. It is well to
recall, briefly, the extreme peril of the attack which he was about to
make. The Philadelphia, with forty guns mounted, double-shotted, and
ready for firing, and manned by a full complement of men, was moored
within half a gunshot of the Bashaw's castle, the mole and crown
batteries, and within range of ten other batteries, mounting,
altogether, one hundred and fifteen guns. Some Tripolitan cruisers, two
galleys, and nineteen gunboats also lay between the Philadelphia and the
shore. Into the midst of this powerful armament Decatur had to go with
his little vessel of sixty tons, carrying four small guns and having a
crew of seventy-five men.

The Americans, however, were entirely undismayed by the odds against
them, and at seven o'clock Decatur went into the harbor