When the American commodore learned of the loss of the Philadelphia he was in a bad state of mind. To lose one of his best ships in this way was not at all to his liking, for he was a man who did not enjoy losing a ship; and to know that the Moors had it and were making a warship of it was a hard thing to bear.
From his prison Captain Bainbridge wrote letters to Commodore Preble, which the Moors read and then sent out to the fleet. They did not know that the letters had postscripts written in lemon-juice which only came out when the sheet of paper was held to the heat of a fire. In these the captain asked the commodore to try and destroy the captured ship.
Commodore Preble was a daring officer, and was ready enough for this, if he only knew how it could be done. Lieutenant Decatur was then in command of the Enterprise, the schooner which had fought with the Tripoli. He asked the commodore to let him take the Enterprise into the harbor and try to destroy the captured ship. He knew he could do it, he said, if he only had a chance. At any rate, he wanted to try.
Commodore Preble shook his head. It could not be done that way. He would only lose his own vessel and his men. But there was a way it might be done. The Moors might be taken by surprise and their prize burned in their sight. It was a desperate enterprise. Every man who took part in it would be in great danger of death. But that danger did not give much trouble to bold young Decatur, who was as ready to fight as he was to eat.
What was the commodore's plan, do you ask? Well, it was this. Some time earlier the Enterprise had captured the Mastico, a vessel from Tripoli. Preble gave this craft the new name of the Intrepid and proposed to send it into the harbor. The Moors did not know of its capture and would not suspect it, and thus it might get up close to the Philadelphia.
Decatur was made commander and called for volunteers. Every man and boy on the Enterprise wanted to go; and he picked out over seventy of them. As he was about to leave the deck, a boy came up and asked if he couldn't go, too.
"Why do you want to go, Jack?"
"Well, Captain, you see, I'd kind o' like to see the country."
This was such a queer reason that Decatur laughed and told him he might go.
One dark night, on February 3, 1804, the Intrepid left the rest of the fleet and set sail for the harbor of Tripoli. The little Siren went with her for company. But the weather proved stormy, and it was not until the 15th that they were able to carry out their plan.