Seafaring Sunday: Money for Terror

November 28, 1795:  The United States paid its first tribute to the pirates of Algiers and Tunis.  This bribe amounted to $800,000 and a frigate and was supposed to insure that U.S. merchant ships were not raided by Barbary corsairs.  The U.S. soon learned that no amount of money would stop the pirates and the First and Second Barbary wars would finally put an end to their predations in the first quarter of the 19th century.

Header: William Bainbridge and the Dey of Algiers via US History Images