To apply the term war to the naval operations which followed is,
however, to lend specious importance to very trivial events. Commodore
Dale made the most of his little squadron, it is true, convoying
merchantmen through the straits and along the Barbary coast, holding
Tripolitan vessels laden with grain in hopeless inactivity off
Gibraltar, and blockading the port of Tripoli, now with one frigate and
now with another. When the terms of enlistment of Dale's crews expired,
another squadron was gradually assembled in the Mediterranean, under the
command of Captain Richard V. Morris, for Congress had now authorized
the use of the navy for offensive operations, and the Secretary of
the Treasury, with many misgivings, had begun to accumulate his
Mediterranean Fund to meet contingent expenses.

The blockade of Tripoli seems to have been carelessly conducted
by Morris and was finally abandoned. There were undeniably great
difficulties in the way of an effective blockade. The coast afforded few
good harbors; the heavy northerly winds made navigation both difficult
and hazardous; the Tripolitan galleys and gunboats with their shallow
draft could stand close in shore and elude the American frigates; and
the ordnance on the American craft was not heavy enough to inflict any
serious damage on the fortifications guarding the harbor. Probably these
difficulties were not appreciated by the authorities at Washington; at
all events, in the spring of 1803 Morris was suspended from his command
and subsequently lost his commission.

In the squadron of which Commodore Preble now took command was the
Philadelphia, a frigate of thirty-six guns, to which Captain Bainbridge,
eager to square accounts with the Corsairs, had been assigned. Late in
October Bainbridge sighted a Tripolitan vessel standing in shore. He
gave chase at once with perhaps more zeal than discretion, following his
quarry well in shore in the hope of disabling her before she could make
the harbor. Failing to intercept the corsair, he went about and was
heading out to sea when the frigate ran on an uncharted reef and stuck
fast. A worse predicament could scarcely be imagined. Every device known
to Yankee seamen was employed to free the unlucky vessel. "The sails
were promptly laid a-back," Bainbridge reported, "and the forward guns
run aft, in hopes of backing her off, which not producing the desired
effect, orders were given to stave the water in her hold and pump it
out,