From an old wood-cut.
“Sink the damned, treacherous creatures to the bottom!” said Sterrett. Exasperated by the treachery they had seen, the crew started in to obey the order with a will, and the corsair captain saw his fate before him. Not only did he then haul down his flag, but he brought it to the gangway, and throwing it into the sea, he bowed his head to the deck and begged for quarter. Out of eighty men the corsair had lost twenty killed and twenty-eight wounded. The Enterprise did not lose a man. Congress gave Sterrett a sword and every other member of the crew a month’s pay because of “the aforesaid heroic action.” When the commander of the corsair reached Tripoli he was paraded through the streets on a donkey and bastinadoed for surrendering.
A Schooner-of-war, Like the Enterprise.
From a wood-cut in the “Kedge Anchor.”
Following—though, of course, not because of—this action a good many changes were made in the American squadron—changes such as increasing its force and putting in new commanders two or three times; but eventually it appeared that, although here was a good squadron for open-sea fighting, the Americans were not armed for battering down a city so well fortified as Tripoli, and the Bashaw refused to make a treaty. A weary blockade of the port followed. There were conflicts of small moment with gunboats that tried to steal away to sea, and even the land forces were bombarded at times. A party under Porter once landed and fired some gunboats that had been hauled out on the beach, and on this occasion the Arabs fought by throwing handfuls of sand in the faces of the Americans, hoping to blind them.
Scene of Naval Operations IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
Finally, the 31st of October, 1803, came on, and it was a memorable day in the history of the American navy. The frigate Philadelphia, Capt. William Bainbridge, that had been maintaining the blockade off Tripoli, had been blown away from her station by a furious gale, and, while returning during the morning of the 31st, saw a corsair stealing into port. The Yankee brig Vixen, that had helped hold the station, was nowhere in sight, and the Philadelphia made sail in chase. There was a fine breeze blowing, and the Philadelphia gained rapidly, but the corsair hugged the coast, and Captain Bainbridge found he was getting into shoal water. Had he been provided with accurate charts he would have seen he was in worse than shoaling waters, for he was running among reefs, the channels of which were well known to the corsairs.
