e
second squadron under command of Commodore Morris. When he again came
back, he was ordered to command the Argus, to proceed with her to join
Commodore Preble's squadron in the Mediterranean, and on his arrival
there to resign the Argus to Lieutenant Hull and take charge of the
schooner Enterprise, then commanded by that officer.

The exchange being made, Decatur sailed to Syracuse where the squadron
was to rendezvous. There he learned of the disaster to the
Philadelphia. That frigate, as the reader will recall, ran aground
while blockading Tripoli (with which country we were at war), and was
captured by the Turks. Commodore Bainbridge and his crew of more than
three hundred, among whom were Porter, Jones, and Biddle, were made
prisoners and immured in a gloomy dungeon. Decatur quickly formed a
plan for capturing or destroying the frigate. Preble, to whom the
proposal was submitted, refused at first to give his consent, but his
impetuous lieutenant won him over and was allowed to lead the
expedition.

Decatur selected the ketch Intrepid, which he had captured a few weeks
before, and manned her with seventy volunteers, chiefly his own crew.
He sailed from Syracuse, February 3, 1804, accompanied by the United
States brig Siren, Lieutenant Stewart, who was to aid with his boats
and to receive the crew of the ketch, should it be found expedient to
use her as a fireship.

The weather was so tempestuous that it required fifteen days to reach
the harbor of Tripoli. It was arranged by Decatur and Stewart that the
ketch should enter the harbor about ten o'clock that night, attended
by the boats of the Siren. A change of wind threw the Siren six or
eight miles away from the Intrepid, and, fearing to wait for the
boats, Decatur decided to adventure alone in the harbor, which he did
about eight o'clock.

The Philadelphia lay within one-half gunshot of the Bashaw's castle
and of the principal battery; two of the enemy's cruisers were only a
couple of cables' length away on the starboard quarter, and their
gunboats were within one-half gunshot on the starboard bow. All the
guns of the frigate were mounted and loaded.

Although it was only three miles from the entrance of the harbor to
the frigate, the wind was so light that the Intrepid did not get
within hail until eleven o'clock. At the distance of two hundred
yards, the frigate hailed the ketch and ordered her to anchor under
threat of being fired into. Decatur's Maltese p