In the summer of 2007, modern-day piracy off the coast of Somalia would become a national security issue for the United States. With great initial success and receiving ransom payments in the tens of thousands of dollars, these modern-day buccaneers decided to expand their operation and capture larger vessels that might pay substantially higher ransoms. With no coast guard to protect its territorial waters from foreign companies fishing the coastal waters off Somalia, several ingenious Somalis decided to form their own coast guard and apprehend the fishing vessels. In the spring of 2009, it would be the Aegis-class destroyer Bainbridge that would come to the rescue against the modern-day pirates of Somalia. Unable to tow the ship from the harbor due to the lack of winds, Decatur reluctantly set the ship ablaze and retreated to safer waters without a single casualty.Īfter this remarkable rescue, Stephen Decatur was the name that would be synonymous with any counterpiracy operation that the U.S. Lord Horatio Nelson, Decatur and his crew overpowered the Tripolitans and reclaimed the Philadelphia. Using innovative tactics that would later be praised by even British Vice Adm. Using cover of darkness and flying the British colors, Decatur tacked his flagship, the USS Intrepid, next to the Philadelphia and directed his crew to “board” the ship. After several attempts to free the ship, Bainbridge and his crew were captured.įaced with the embarrassment of the Philadelphia anchored in the harbor of Tripoli, Commodore Stephen Decatur adopted a plan to rescue the ship. William Bainbridge, commanding the USS Philadelphia, ran the ship aground as it patrolled the channel leading to the port. Navy faced one of its most embarrassing moments in our nation’s early history. In the fall of 1803, one of the first operations in the Mediterranean was the blockade of the Port of Tripoli. The buccaneers of the Barbary States were not only seizing our merchant ships, but holding the crews hostage for enormous ransom and forcing them into slavery. With several newly commissioned frigates, the Navy would take station in the Mediterranean, off what is known today as Libya, in direct response to the piracy. However, faced with the demanding security of our merchant fleet and the growing concerns regarding our fragile economy, Jefferson had no choice but to protect the free flow of commerce and deploy the Navy. Jefferson, one of the first true isolationists, was reluctant to deploy forces in foreign engagements. In the early years of this nation, President Thomas Jefferson found himself involved in one of the first conflicts overseas in the First Barbary War. Stephen Decatur with the crew of USS Enterprise on Dec 23, 1803, in a painting by Dennis Malone Carter.
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