USS Philadelphia (1799)

File:Preparation for War to defend Commerce Birch's Views Plate 29.jpg.]]

Quasi War: USS Philadelphia put to sea for duty in the West Indies and was off Newcastle on 23 April, 1800 waiting for favorable wind.{{cite web |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v05p03.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France Volume Part 3 of 4 Naval Operations January to May, 1800, April 1800-May 1800 Pg.438 |publisher=U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio |accessdate=15 July 2024}} She arrived on the Guadeloupe Station in May 1800 and relieved the frigate {{USS|Constellation|1797|2}}. During this cruise she captured five French armed vessels and recaptured six merchant ships that had been taken by French ships.{{cite DANFS|title=Philadelphia II|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/p/philadelphia-ii.html}} On 22 May she recaptured schooner "Betsy".{{cite web |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v05p03.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France Volume Part 3 of 4 Naval Operations January to May, 1800, April 1800-May 1800 Pg. 529-531 |publisher=U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio |accessdate=17 July 2024}} On 15 July, was with USS Connecticut when Connecticut captured French Letter of Marque ketch "Le Chouchou".{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v06.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VI Part 2 of 4: Naval Operations June to November 1800, July-August 1800 |pages=153 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=12 August 2024}}{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v07.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801 |pages=59 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=19 September 2024}} On 26 July she recaptured brig "Diligence".{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v06.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VI Part 2 of 4: Naval Operations June to November 1800, July-August 1800 |pages=185 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=14 August 2024}} On 26 November she recaptured British sloop "Eliza", that had been captured by privateer "Rosalie" (or possibly "La Resolute" or "Resolie"). On 27 November recaptured schooner "Sally". A few days later captured privateer "Hare"(?).{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v06.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VI Part 2 of 4: Naval Operations June to November 1800, July-August 1800 |pages=554, 556 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=13 September 2024}} On 3 December captured privateer "La Levrette" off Bassaterre, Guadalupe.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v07.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801 |pages=8 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=14 September 2024}} On 26 December she recaptured American brig "Dove" and sloop "Lucy", both captured by privateer schooner "Patriot".{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v07.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801 |pages=49 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=18 September 2024}} On 27 December she recaptured American schooner "Ann and Susan", captured by privateer "Flambeau".{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v07.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801 |pages=50 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=18 September 2024}} On 29 December she recaptured British brig "Sir John Wentworth", captured by privateer schooner "Patriot".{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_quasiwar_v07.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France |volume=VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801 |pages=55 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=18 September 2024}}

First Barbary War:Returning home in March 1801, she was ordered to prepare for a year's cruise in the Mediterranean in a squadron commanded by Commodore Richard Dale. At his own request, Decatur was relieved of the command of Philadelphia by Captain Samuel Barron. The squadron cleared the Cape on 2 June.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v01p03.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume I Part 3 of 4 1785 through 1801 |pages=485 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=16 October 2024}} The squadron arrived at Gibraltar on July 1, with Commodore Dale in the frigate {{USS|President|1800|2}}. Philadelphia was directed to cruise the Straits and blockade the coast of Tripoli, since in May 1801 the Pasha Yusuf Karamanli had threatened to wage war on the United States and had seized U.S. merchant vessels for ransom.

Philadelphia departed Gibraltar for the United States in April 1802, arriving in mid-July.Tucker, 1937, p. 39. Her crew was discharged and she was placed under command of Lt. John Cassin, Cassin in turn was furloughed until further notice with command going to her Sailing Master and put in ordinary in a letter dated 28 July.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v02p02.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume II Part 2 of 3 January 1802 through August 1803 |pages=213-214 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=7 November 2024}} He was ordered to return and assume command again in a letter dated 21 August, 1802.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v02p02.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume II Part 2 of 3 January 1802 through August 1803 |pages=243 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=9 November 2024}} Captain William Bainbridge was ordered to take command and get her ready to sail in a letter dated 21 May, 1803.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v02p03.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume II Part 3 of 3 January 1802 through August 1803 |pages=412 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=16 November 2024}} On May 21, 1803, she recommissioned (having her sixteen 9-pounder long guns replaced with sixteen 32-pounder carronades at this time), and sailed for the Mediterranean on July 28, 1803. She arrived in Gibraltar on August 24 with Captain William Bainbridge in command. Two days later she captured Moroccan ship-of-war Mirboka (24 guns and 100 men) off Cape de Gatt, Spain and the next day recaptured the American brig Celia, captured by Mirboka on 17 August, and brought them both into Gibraltar.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v02p03.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume II Part 3 of 3 January 1802 through August 1803 |pages=518-520 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=3 December 2024}} At the end of the brief war between the U. S. And Morocco, that had been started by the Governor of Tangier without permission of the Emperor of Morocco, Mirboka was returned on 12 October, 1803.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v03p01.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume III Part 1 of 3 September 1803 through March 1804 |pages=141 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=10 December 2024}}

File:burning of the uss philadelphia.jpg. (U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis)]]

{{More citations needed section|date=February 2022}}

During the First Barbary War, Philadelphia, accompanied by {{USS|Vixen|1803|6}}, cruised off Tripoli until October 31, 1803. While giving chase and firing upon a Tripoli navy ship, it ran aground on an uncharted reef {{convert|2|mi|km|0|spell=in}} off Tripoli Harbor. The captain, William Bainbridge, tried to refloat the ship, first laying the sails aback, and casting off three bow anchors and shifting the guns aftward, but a strong wind and rising waves drove her further aground.

He ordered the crew to jettison many of the cannons, barrels of water, and other heavy articles overboard in order to lighten the ship, but this too failed. They sawed off the foremast in one last desperate attempt to lighten it. In order not to resupply the Tripoli pirates (navy soldiers of Tripoli government), Captain Bainbridge ordered holes drilled in the ship's bottom, magazine flooded, pumps sabotaged, and all other weapons thrown overboard before he surrendered.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v03p01.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume III Part 1 of 3 September 1803 through March 1804 |pages=191-192 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=13 December 2024}} The Pasha's officials enslaved the American officers and men as war captives.Kilmeade & Yaeger, pp. 121–124.

{{Main|Stephen Decatur#Burning of USS Philadelphia}}

The Tripoli pirates had finally managed to refloat Philadelphia on 2 November.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v03p01.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume III Part 1 of 3 September 1803 through March 1804 |pages=14 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=3 December 2024}} The Bey communicated with his Consuls to see if there was any interest in purchasing her, where Tripoli couldn't man her properly.{{cite book |url=https://ibiblio.org/anrs/docs/E/E3/nd_barbarywars_v03p02.pdf |title=Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume III Part 2 of 3 September 1803 through March 1804 |pages=236 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Ibiblio |access-date=13 December 2024}} Americans believed that the warship was too great a prize to be allowed to remain in foreign hands, so the Navy decided to recapture or destroy it. After the United States had captured the Tripolitan ketch Mastico, they renamed her as {{USS|Intrepid|1798|2}}, but re-rigged the ship with short masts and triangular sails to look like a local ship.

Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, son of USS Philadelphia's first captain, led a party of 83 volunteers to carry out this task. On February 16, 1804, under the cover of night and in the guise of a ship in distress that had lost all anchors in a storm and needed a place to tie up, Decatur sailed Intrepid next to Philadelphia. The Americans boarded the prize and, after making sure that she was not seaworthy, burned the ship where she lay in Tripoli Harbor. Decatur's force suffered only one wounded member and killed at least 20 Tripolitans.{{cite book |last=Clodfelter |first=Micheal |title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th Ed. |date=2017 |publisher= Mcfarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina |page=197 |isbn=9780786474707}}

Britain's Viscount Nelson is said to have called this feat "the most bold and daring act of the Age".Tucker, 1937, p. 57,MacKenzie, 1846, pp. 331–335. The authenticity of this quote remains in doubt.See, Leiner, Frederick C., [https://news.usni.org/2012/07/22/searching-nelsons-quote "Searching for Nelson's Quote"], USNI News, United States Naval Institute, February 5, 2013, setting forth the evidence for and against that quote.

The crewmen captured in 1803 were released pursuant to the 1805 Treaty of Tripoli, which ended the war. Philadelphia's anchor was returned to the United States on April 7, 1871, when Mehmed Halet Pasha, the Ottoman governor, presented it to the captain of the visiting {{USS|Guerriere|1865|2}}.{{cite book|title=Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States|date=December 1, 1873|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington|pages=1140–1141|edition=1873 - Part 1, Volume II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlYLAAAAYAAJ|access-date=16 February 2018}}

In 1904, Charles Wellington Furlong, an American adventurer, went to Tripoli to investigate the sinking of Philadelphia. He later wrote about the history in his book, The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli (1909).[https://archive.org/details/gatewaytosaharao00furl The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122104535/https://archive.org/details/gatewaytosaharao00furl |date=November 22, 2016}}, by Charles Wellington Furlong. 1909. archive.org, accessed December 2017.

Based on records from a local synagogue, Furlong wrote:

{{blockquote|text=Yusef Pashaw had equipped a number of corsairs.... His captains, Zurrig, Dghees, Trez, Romani and El-Mograbi, set sail from Tripoli and shortly sighted an American vessel [Philadelphia]. Zurrig left the others and daringly approached the ship, annoying her purposely to decoy her across the shoals. She stranded, but fired on the other vessels until her ammunition gave out, whereupon the Moslems pillaged her. The American Consul [actually the Danish consul, Nissen] was very much disheartened and tried to conclude arrangements similar to those recently made between the Bashaw and the Swedish Consul; but such an enormous tribute was demanded that no terms could be reached, so by order of the Bashaw the vessel was burned.... [Footnote 2: This of course was an erroneous idea. It may have been purposefully circulated through the town, particularly among the inhabitants other than Mohammedans.][https://archive.org/stream/gatewaytosaharao00furl#page/104/mode/2up The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091201104412/http://www.archive.org/stream/gatewaytosaharao00furl#page/104/mode/2up |date=December 1, 2009 }}, by Charles Wellington Furlong. 1909. Page 104. archive.org, accessed December 2017.}}

Furlong later reported in the same book that other Arabs in Tripoli had said that the ship was not burned, but moved to the Lazaretto. There it was decorated as a trophy and its guns were fired to mark the end of Ramadan, the major Muslim holiday. According to the detailed account of Hadji-Mohammed Gabroom, an American ketch sneaked into the harbor, its crew killed some of the 10 guards, and allowed the others to flee. It set Philadelphia on fire.[https://archive.org/stream/gatewaytosaharao00furl#page/106/mode/2up The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091201104412/http://www.archive.org/stream/gatewaytosaharao00furl#page/106/mode/2up |date=December 1, 2009 }}, by Charles Wellington Furlong. 1909. pp. 106–12. archive.org, accessed December 2017.

The burning of the USS Philadelphia appears in the US DLC of the RTS game Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.

• List of sailing frigates of the United States Navy
• List of ships captured in the 19th century
• Bibliography of early American naval history

{{reflist}}

• {{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/p/philadelphia-ii.html}}

• {{cite book |last=Canney |first=Donald L. |title=Sailing warships of the US Navy |ref=Canney |year=2001 |publisher=Chatham Publishing / Naval Institute Press |pages=224 |isbn=1-55750-990-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=JEkV5RyAIKMC&q=united+states Url]
• Chapelle, Howard I. (1935) The American Sailing Navy, W. W. Norton and Co., New York, p. 400.
• {{cite book |last=Cooper |first=James Fenimore |title=History of the Navy of the United States of America |ref=Cooper |year=1826 |publisher=Stringer & Townsend, New York |pages=508 |oclc=197401914}} [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WK3mWOlYYNsC Url]
• {{cite book |last=Hill |first=Frederic Stanhope |title=Twenty-six historic ships |url=https://archive.org/details/twentysixhistor00hillgoog |ref=Hill |year=1905 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London |oclc=1667284 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/twentysixhistor00hillgoog/page/n633 515]}} [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_aAMKAAAAIAAJ Url]
• Kilmeade, Brian & Yaeger, Don (2015) Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History. Sentinel., New York, {{ISBN|978-1-59184-806-6}}.
• {{cite book |last=Mackenzie |first=Alexander Slidell |title=Life of Stephen Decatur: a commodore in the Navy of the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B7BCAAAAYAAJ |ref=Mackenzie |year=1846 |publisher=C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1846}}
• {{cite book |last=Toll |first=Ian W. |title=Six frigates: the epic history of the founding of the U.S. Navy |ref=Toll |year=2006 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sixfrigatesepich00toll/page/500 500] |isbn=978-0-393-05847-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/sixfrigatesepich00toll/page/500 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=H9iQaPTPYiEC&q=Six+frigates+Ian+toll Url]
• {{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |title=Stephen Decatur: a life most bold and daring |ref=Tucker |year=2004 |publisher=Naval Institute Press, 2004, Annapolis, Maryland |pages=245 |isbn=1-55750-999-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=1ETOxH58_kUC]

• London, Joshua E. (2011) Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey, p. 288, {{ISBN|0-471-44415-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eaAB34NFf9wC Book]
• Oren, Michael B. (2007) Power, Faith, and Fantasy, Chapter 3, W. W. Norton and Co., New York, {{ISBN|0-393-05826-3}}.
• Willis, Sam (2007). Fighting Ships: 1750–1850, Quercus Books, London.
• Zachs, Richard (2005). The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805, Hyperion, New York.

• {{Commons category-inline|USS Philadelphia (ship, 1799)|USS Philadelphia (ship, 1799)}}
• [https://www.usna.edu/Library/sca/man-findingaids/MS_170.EAD.xml A Journal kept on board the United States Frigate Philadelphia, 1800–1801, MS 170] held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy

{{USN 30 June 1798}}

{{1804 shipwrecks}}

{{Coord missing|Mediterranean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia (1799)}}

Category:Barbary Wars American ships

Category:Captured ships

Category:Military history of Tripoli, Libya

Category:Maritime incidents in 1804

Category:Quasi-War ships of the United States

Category:Sailing frigates of the United States Navy

Category:Ships built in Philadelphia

Category:Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea

Category:Vessels captured from the United States Navy

Category:1799 ships

Category:Ship fires

Category:19th century in Tripoli, Libya