Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 September 1937 — Page 26

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ated Corsairs’ Demand for Heavy Tribute.

By MORRIS GILBERT NEA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.—Today you wouldn't believe your eyes if the: newspaper headlines read: “U. 8S. Navy Acts Alone to Clear Mediterranean of Pirates.” Yet your Uncle Sammy—a young-

: er and rasher Uncle Sammy—did

just that in the year 1805. And the

. European nations, unlike the situa-

tion today, were content to let him go about the business of cleaning up their own waters without concerning themselves. i Not only the Navy but U. S. Marines saw action. ‘That's. why, today, their great service song goes, “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.” The reason the United States

. waged the War of the Barbary Pi-

rates, which lasted four years and was the training ground for an immortal cluster of American naval heroes, has a strangely modern ring. Piracy, up to that time, had existed there for centuries because of the complacency of the big European nations. Big trading countries, like England, preferred to pay tribute to the corsairs rather than to act against them, because the piracy kept merchants of smaller, poorer countries from competing in Mediterranean markets.

Warship Burned

The United States, youthful and impoverished, much against its will jumped into action when the piracy grew too rampant to stand. It ceased paying tribute, waged a four-year sea war, besieged Tripoli, and won its case. American commerce from then on flowed freely. Other nations followed suit, and the last vestiges of piracy (until now) ended about a hundred years ago when France conquered the northern rim of Africa. America’s hands-off policy today makes a difference. The question is whether Europe will be able to read the lessons of history and crush pir--acy—which, by definition, is crimi-

-nal acts with violence at sea—the way Edward Preble, Stephen De-

“~catur, William Bainbridge, and other American naval heroes crushed it between the years 1801 and 1805.

“Achieved Fame

Treachery and violations of all codes of international warfare were commonplaces of the war. For instance, a corsair battling an American vessel would strike his flag in token of surrender, then, having maneuvered into a favorable position, would open fire again. On one such occasion a pirate captain hauled down his flag three times, ‘the third time tossing it clean overboard to prove that he finally really meant it. Once, in battle, a Tripolitan captain surrendered. When the young brother of Stephen Decatur boarded the vessel, the captain shot him dead with a pistol. Stephen heard of the act, ranged alongside,

CO Up Moditerronenn. Pirates | Was Single-Handed Job for Brash, Youthful Uncle Sam 122 Years Ago

: Four-Year War War Termine)

An American naval disaster which turned into a triumph for young Stephen Decatur is portrayed 'above was the grounding and loss of the frigate Philadelphia after she pursued a pirate vessel into the very harbor of Tripoli. Decatur, at right, and a volunteer crew, later destroyed the frigate under the guns of the enemy, to deprive them of the use of the man-of-war.

politan in hand-to-hand combat, and killed him.

Stephen Decatur achieved the pinnacle of fame in destroying the captive American frigate, Philadelphia, pride of our marine. The Philadelphia had pursued a corsair into the harbor of Tripoli until shallow water halted her under the guns of the fort there. Coming about to make for the open sea again, the frigate fetched up on a shoal. Capt. William Bainbridge was obliged to surrender and he and his men were imprisoned after attempting to sink the vessel. It was a serious blow to our navy, especially when Commodore Edward Preble learned that the Tripolitans had managed to float and rearm her,

Kilch Enters Harbor

The Americans had recently captured a ketch whose native rigging wouldn't cause alarm to the Tripolitans. Preble ordered Decatur to man this craft with 70 men and five officers, enter the harbor and destroy the Philadelphia. In February, 1804, convoyed by the U. S. S. Siren, the little Intreped (as the ketch had been christened) entered the harbor by night, the Siren standing far off shore. Decatur’s men were kept below hatches, only a small squad dressed in native costume remaining on deck to work the vessel. The native pilot shouted to the crew aboard the Philadelphia that he had lost his anchors. He asked permission to tie up to the frigate. - Lines were passed, the Intreped ranged alongside, and at a signal the Americans burst from

clambered aboard, engaged the Tri-

the hatches, swarmed aboard the

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and serving guns. One by one, all four northern African powers, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli had enough. “That all the European) maritime powers,” writes the English historian Stanley Lane = Poole, “should have cowered and cringed as they did before the miserable

braggarts who succeeded the heroic age of the Corsairs, and should have suffered their trade to be harassed, their lives menaced and their honor stained by a series of insolent savages . . . seems absolutely incredible and yet is literally true ... These

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES:

FRIDAY, SEPT. 24, 1937

dark days of abasement were pierced by one ray of sunlight: the United States refused the tribute demanded by the Barbary Rovers.” a

WEST SIDE FESTIVAL TO END TOMORROW

The West Side Business and Professional Men’s Association second annual fall festival is to end its six-day stand at Coleman Park tomorrow night. Roscoe Conkle, association president, said attendance

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LANDLADY CHARGES ROOMER BEAT HER

/ A 13-year-old man was to face charges of vagrancy and disorderly conduct in Municipal Court today

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big warship, overpowered the crew and set the vessel thoroughly alight. The job was done under the guns of other shipping in harbor and of the fort, and as the Philadelphia blazed to her grave, the Intrepid slipped safely out of the harbor and reached the open sea.

Attacked by Sea

That summer Preble’s squadron executed an effective blockade of Tripoli and attacked the city by sea four times. Land forces under the quixotic and redoubtable Connecticut Yankee consul, William Eaton, swept westward along the coast from Alexandria, took the town of Derna and threatened the native rule. At sea, convoy work and frequent combats proved to the corsairs that the Americans were more than their match in the brutal business of hand-to-hand fighting as well as the delicate business of conning ships

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