“Keep off!” shouted the Tripolitan officer, suddenly taking the alarm; “you have deceived us—you have not lost your anchors, and we do not know your character,” and at the same moment he ordered men with the axes to cut the fasts. But, as if by enchantment, the deck of the Intrepid was alive with men, whose strong arms brought her grinding up against the frigate’s side in a moment’s time. Then a great yell went up from the frigate:
“Americanos! Americanos!” cried the Tripolitans.
The next instant Decatur, who was standing ready, made a powerful spring, and jumped at the Philadelphia’s chain-plates, shouting at the same moment:
“Board!”
Morris and Laws, two of the midshipmen of the Constitution, were at Decatur’s side clinging to the frigate’s plates. Morris and Decatur both sprang at the rail, and Morris, being little more than a boy, and very lithe and agile, his foot touched the quarter-deck first. But Decatur was second. Laws had dashed at an open porthole, and would have been the first on the frigate, but his boarding belt, with his pistols in it, caught between the gun and the port, so that he was third.
Instantly, in the dazzling moonlight, turbaned heads appeared over the rail and at every port. The Americans came pouring over the side, and as the Tripolitans rushed above they found the quarter-deck already in possession of the “Americanos.” The Tripolitans ran forward and to starboard. The Americans, quickly forming a line across the deck, and headed by Decatur, dashed at them, and, caught between an advancing body of resolute seamen and the ship’s rail, those who were not cut down, after a short but desperate resistance, leaped overboard. The Americans were more than a match for them in hand-to-hand fighting, at which they excelled, and they fought in disorder. In five minutes the spar deck was cleared and in possession of the Americans.
Below there was a more prolonged struggle. The Tripolitans, with their backs to the ship’s side, made a fierce resistance, but were clearly overmatched from the beginning; and as it is their practice never to fall alive into the hands of an enemy, those who were not cut down on the spot ran to the ports and jumped overboard, and within five minutes more there was not a Tripolitan on the frigate except the dead and wounded. Not until then did the batteries, the castle, the two frigates moored near the Philadelphia, and the gunboats, take the alarm.
The ketch, however, fastened close under the overhanging quarter-gallery of the frigate, and completely in the shadow, still escaped detection. Lights began to flash about from the ships and the batteries, but not enough could be discerned to justify the Tripolitans in firing upon their own ship. Warning had been given, though, and it was now only a question of a few moments how long the Americans could work undisturbed.
Decatur now appeared upon the quarter-deck to have the powder on the ketch rapidly transferred to the frigate. Lawrence was with him. When the moment came that Decatur must give the order for the destruction of the frigate, his resolution to obey orders almost failed him.
He turned to his lieutenant, and, grasping him by the shoulders, cried out in an agonized voice: