September 4, 1804: Bomb ketch USS
Intrepid, fitted out as a fireship to destroy a flotilla of Barbary corsairs, blew up in Tripoli harbor before reaching her target. Ten men, all volunteers and including her commander Lieutenant Richard Somers, were lost. Commodore Edward Preble would later report that
Intrepid was most probably boarded by Tripolitans and her crew, rather than give up their precious cargo of black powder, chose to destroy her before being able to abandon ship.
Header: Destruction of Intrepid
from a contemporary engraving via Wikipedia
2 comments:
Ahoy, Pauline! A valiant sacrifce... I like the caption on the picture, too.
No kidding, huh? I plan to speak more indepth about Intrepid later this week.
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