this
perilous enterprise the old Intrepid which had served her captors so
well, and out of many volunteers he gave the command to Captain Richard
Somers and Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth. The little ketch was loaded with
a hundred barrels of gunpowder and a large quantity of combustibles and
made ready for a quick run by the batteries into the harbor. Certain
death it seemed to sail this engine of destruction past the outlying
reefs into the midst of the Tripolitan gunboats; but every precaution
was taken to provide for the escape of the crew. Two rowboats were taken
along and in these frail craft, they believed, they could embark, when
once the torch had been applied, and in the ensuing confusion return to
the squadron.

Somers selected his crew of ten men with care, and at the last moment
consented to let Lieutenant Joseph Israel join the perilous expedition.
On the night of the 4th of September, the Intrepid sailed off in the
darkness toward the mouth of the harbor. Anxious eyes followed the
little vessel, trying to pierce the blackness that soon enveloped her.
As she neared the harbor the shore batteries opened fire; and suddenly
a blinding flash and a terrific explosion told the fate which overtook
her. Fragments of wreckage rose high in the air, the fearful concussion
was felt by every boat in the squadron, and then darkness and awful
silence enfolded the dead and the dying. Two days later the bodies of
the heroic thirteen, mangled beyond recognition, were cast up by the
sea. Even Captain Bainbridge, gazing sorrowfully upon his dead comrades
could not recognize their features. Just what caused the explosion will
never be known. Preble always believed that Tripolitans had attempted
to board the Intrepid and that Somers had deliberately fired the powder
magazine rather than surrender. Be that as it may, no one doubts that
the crew were prepared to follow their commander to self-destruction if
necessary. In deep gloom, the squadron returned to Syracuse, leaving
a few vessels to maintain a fitful blockade off the hated and menacing
coast.

Far away from the sound of Commodore Preble's guns a strange, almost
farcical, intervention in the Tripolitan War was preparing. The scene
shifts to the desert on the east, where William Eaton, consul at Tunis,
becomes the center of interest. Since the very beginning of the war,
this energetic and enterprising Connecticut Yankee had taken a lively
interest in the fortunes of Hamet Ka