USS Intrepid (1798)

The first USS "Intrepid" was a captured ketch in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War.

"Intrepid" was built in France in 1798 for Napoleon's Egyptian expedition. She was subsequently sold to Tripoli, whom she served as "Mastico". The bomb ketch was one of several Tripolitan vessels capturing "Philadelphia" 31 October 1803 after the American frigate had run fast aground on uncharted Kaliusa reef some 5 miles east of Tripoli.

"Enterprise", a schooner with Lt. Stephen Decatur in command, captured "Mastico" 23 December 1803 as she was sailing from Tripoli to Constantinople under Turkish colors and without passports. After a time-consuming search for a translator, the ketch's papers and the testimony of an English ship master who had been in Tripoli to witness her role in operations against "Philadelphia" convinced the commander of the American squadron, Commodore Edward Preble, that "Mastico" was a legitimate prize. He took her into the U.S. Navy and renamed her "Intrepid".

Meanwhile, "Philadelphia" lay in Tripoli Harbor threatening to become Tripoli's largest and most powerful corsair. Preble decided that he must destroy the frigate before the enemy could fit her out for action against his squadron. In order to take the Tripolitans by surprise, he assigned the task to the only ship which could be sure of passing as a North African vessel, "Intrepid". He appointed Lieutenant Stephen Decatur captain of the ketch 31 January 1804 and ordered him to prepare her for a month's cruise to Tripoli in company with "Syren". Preble's orders directed Decatur to slip into harbor at night, to board and burn the frigate, and make good his retreat in "Intrepid", unless it then seemed feasible to use her as a fire ship against other shipping in the harbor. In the latter case, he was to escape in boats to "Syren" which would await just outside the harbor.

"Intrepid" and "Syren" set sail 2 February and arrived off Tripoli 5 days later. However, bad weather delayed the operation until 16 February. That evening "Syren" took station outside the harbor and launched her boats to stand by for rescue work. At 7 o'clock "Intrepid" entered the harbor and 2 1/2 hours later was alongside "Philadelphia". When hailed, they claimed to be traders who had lost their anchor in the late gale, and begged permission to make fast to the frigate till morning. Guards suddenly noticed the ketch still had her anchors and gave the alarm. [cite book
last =Jackman
first =William J.
title =History of the American Nation
publisher =Western Press Association
year =1911
location =Chicago
pages =694] Leaving a small force commanded by Surgeon Lewis Heermann on board "Intrepid", Decatur led 60 of his men to the deck of the frigate. A brief struggle, conducted without firing a gun, gave the Americans control of the vessel enabling them to set her ablaze. Decatur, the last man to leave the burning frigate, remained on board "Philadelphia" until flames blazed from the hatchways and ports of her spar deck. When he finally left the ship, her rigging and tops were afire. Shore batteries opened up on "Intrepid" as she escaped only to be answered from abandoned "Philadelphia" when her guns discharged by the heat of the conflagration.

When Lord Nelson, then blockading Toulon, heard of "Intrepid"'s feat, he is said to have called it "the most bold and daring act of the age."

"Intrepid" returned to Syracuse 19 February, and the next day her crew returned to their original ships. The ketch remained in Syracuse with only a midshipman and a few men on board while the squadron was at sea during the next few months. She became a hospital ship 1 June and continued this duty through July. She departed Syracuse 12 August for Malta, where she took on board fresh supplies for the squadron and departed 17 August. She rejoined the squadron off Tripoli 22 August. A week later she began to be fitted out as a "floating volcano" to be sent into the harbor and blown up in the midst of the corsair fleet close under the walls of Tripoli. Carpenters of every ship were pressed into service and she was ready 1 September. However, unfavorable weather delayed the operation until 4 September. That day, Lt. Richard Somers, assumed command of the fire ship. His crew of Lt. Henry Wadsworth and 10 men, all volunteers, was completed shortly after "Intrepid" got underway when Midshipman Joseph Israel arrived with last-minute orders from Commodore Preble and insisted on accompanying the expedition. The anxious fleet heard two signal guns as "Intrepid" entered the harbor; at 9:30, sometime before she was expected to reach her destination, the American squadron was shaken by the concussion of a violent explosion.

Commodore Preble later concluded that Tripoline defenders must have boarded "Intrepid", prompting her valiant men to blow her up giving their lives to prevent the ship's valuable cargo of powder from falling into the hands of the enemy. All on board were lost.

ee also

Ralph Izard (1785)

References

*DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/i2/intrepid-i.htm

Further reading

*London, Joshua E. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471444154 "Victory in Tripoli: How America's How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation"] New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.