The Firing of the Philadelphia in Tripoli, February 16, 1804

oil, 24" x 36"

$9,500

The 36 gun ‘Philadelphia’ was cruising off Tripoli during the First Barbary War when she ran aground on an uncharted reef. Under fire by gunboats and shore batteries, Captain Bainbridge cast off her guns and cut down her foremast in an effort to refloat her. After all efforts failed Bainbridge and his crew surrendered and became prisoners.

The ‘Philadelphia’ was too great a prize to leave in the hands of the Pasha, so on February 16, 1804, officers and men led by Stephen Decatur, Jr. stormed the frigate from the .ketch ‘Intrepid’ and burned her in Tripoli Harbor. There was no wind so the men of ‘Intrepid’ took to the sweeps and rowed for safety as the shore batteries fired upon them. When they had reached the Outer Harbor, they heard a loud explosion as the magazine ignited on the frigate and sent the mainmast flying into the air like a rocket.

England’s Horatio Nelson called this “the most bold and daring act of the age.”