seized, were then held for ransom along with
their crews. To discourage such fate, the local
powers advised Christian countries that it
was better to pay annual sums of tribute for
safe passage. Many countries, powerless in
naval terms, readily complied. Great Britain
was a notable exception, for the Royal Navy,
on more than one occasion, thoroughly chas-
tised the Arabs for their barbaric practices.
However, after 1783 a new player on the
world scene emerged—the United States,
which had successfully rebelled from En-
gland. But independence carried a price:
American vessels were no longer subject to
protection from the Royal Navy. Nobody ap-
preciated this better than the Barbary pirates,
and they availed themselves of this weakness.
Meanwhile, Yusuf Karamanli reached man-
hood fully versed in the intrigue and treach-
ery of Tripolitan palace politics. Being the
youngest of three brothers, he would nor-
mally be excluded from high government po-
sitions; ambitious and ruthless, the prince en-
tertained other ideas. In 1780, he assassinated
the current ruler, his eldest brother Hassan, in
his mother’s apartment. Hamet, the next
brother in line to the throne, then came to
power, but in 1796 Yusuf sponsored a coup
that drove him into exile. Having firmly
claimed Tripoli for himself, Karamanli began
plying his piratical trade against vessels be-
longing to the United States. This aggression
moved President John Adams to found the
U.S. Navy in 1794, but within three years fric-
tion with revolutionary France deflected
American attention away from North Africa.
It was then deemed more prudent to pay an-
nual tribute to various states than fight them
with limited means. This pattern of institu-
tionalized extortion continued unabated until
the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. The
president would have contentedly paid off the
pirates, but Karamanli suddenly increased the
amount. When Jefferson refused to meet such
unreasonable demands, the bey ordered the
American flag cut down from the U.S. Con-
sul’s flagpole on May 14, 1801. A state of war
now existed between the two nations. An
angry Jefferson then asked for—and re-
ceived—permission from Congress to outfit a
naval expedition to humble the Tripolitan pi-
rates and rescue American honor.
Jefferson’s resolve to resist Karamanli’s
state-sponsored extortion culminated in a se-
ries of episodic naval encounters known as
the Barbary War. Commencing in June 1801, a
naval squadron of four warships under Com-
modore Richard Dale departed Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, en route for Tripoli. By September he
had captured one enemy vessel and estab-
lished a loose blockade around Tripoli harbor,
but Karamanli waxed defiantly. He was safely
sequestered behind walls 30 feet high, 20 feet
thick, and mounting 115 cannons, and he felt
disinclined to negotiate. In April 1802, a relief
squadron of six vessels under Commodore
Richard V. Morris left Hampton Roads, Vir-
ginia, sailed to Morocco to resolve some
minor piracy issues, and then proceeded to
Tripoli. Morris then relieved Dale, but he
proved himself a timid, indecisive com-
mander, and little was accomplished. The im-
passe remained until September 1803, when a
new commander, Commodore Edward Pre-
ble, arrived to take the helm.
Unlike Dale and Morris, Preble was an iras-
cible, headstrong personality, ready to fight.
Pausing at Morocco to “remind” the rulers of
their treaty obligations to America, he
pressed on to Tripoli with a vengeance, im-
posing a tight blockade. However, disaster
struck when the frigate USS Philadelphia
under Capt. William Bainbridge struck an un-
charted reef in the harbor and was captured,
crew and all. Preble offered to ransom Bain-
bridge and his men for $60,000, but Karamanli
scoffed—and demanded $3 million! Unde-
terred by adversity and determined to deny
the Arabs use of the ship, on February 16,
1804, Preble authorized a cutting-out expedi-
tion led by Lt. Stephen Decatur. In short
order, Decatur captured the Philadelphia,
burned it under the guns of Karamanli’s cas-
tle, and added new luster to America’s grow-
ing naval tradition. Adm. Horatio Nelson was
singularly impressed when informed of De-KARAMANLI, YUSUF