"Boarders away!" Decatur shouted. We in the boat clambered up the sides of the Philadelphia. The rest of the seventy climbed like cats over the vessel's rail with Midshipman Morris in the lead and Decatur at his heels. The Philadelphia's deck was home ground to many of us, and in a moment we had cleared the quarterdecks of the enemy. Then, in a cutlass charge, we drove the panic-stricken crew before us. Some of the infidels leaped overboard. Others sought refuge below, but died at the hands of sailors who had climbed through the ports. In ten minutes' time a rocket went up from the Americans to signal to the Siren that the Philadelphia had been taken.
Combustibles had been rushed on board. Firing gangs were distributed through the ship. So swift was the work and so fierce was the blaze that Midshipman Morris and his gang, who were setting fire to the cockpit, were almost cut off by flames started elsewhere. From the portholes on both sides the flames leaped out, enveloping the upper deck. I saw that Decatur was the last to leave the ship.
The ketch, when all of the boarding party had returned to it in safety, had its period of danger too, for while it was still fastened at the frigate's stern, flames poured from the cabin of the Philadelphia into the cabin of the ketch where the ammunition was stored. The line was instantly severed. The crew laboring desperately with the big sweeps, eight to a side, pushed the Intrepid clear of the burning vessel and headed for the sea.
At last the flames reached the magazine of the vessel, which burst with a tremendous roar. Great sheets of flames arose and sparks flew like a storm of stars over the waters of the harbor. This was the end of the good ship Philadelphia.
Every man on the Intrepid returned without injury. Lord Nelson later declared this exploit to be "the most bold and daring act of the age." Decatur was made a captain. He received a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, and noted with joy that it was addressed to "Stephen Decatur, Esq., Captain in the Navy of the United States." His pride increased when he read:
"The achievement of this brilliant enterprise reflects the highest honor on all the officers and men concerned. You have acquitted yourself in a manner which justifies the high confidence we have reposed in your valor and your skill. The President has desired me to convey to you his thanks for your gallant conduct on this occasion, and he likewise requests that you will in his name thank each individual of your gallant band for their honorable and valorous support, rendered the more honorable from its having been volunteered. As a testimonial of the President's high opinion of your gallant conduct in this instance, he sends you the enclosed commission."
Some people asked if the Philadelphia could not have been saved, though Commodore Preble's orders were to destroy her. We heard one of the captive officers of the frigate say later:
"I know of nothing which could have rendered it impracticable to the captors to have taken the Philadelphia out of the harbor of Tripoli." The pilot on board the ketch, Catalona, was of the same opinion. Decatur himself told his wife that he believed that he could have towed the ship out, even if he could not have sailed her.
But Commodore Preble, in setting down explicit orders to destroy her, had written: "I was well informed that her situation was such as to render it impossible to bring her out."
He wrote thus because Captain Bainbridge himself had written: