It is a remarkable fact that before the American sloop-of-war Peacock reached home from her cruise to the Straits of Sunda, the United States had waged and concluded with honor another war. This was the second war with the African pirates in the Mediterranean. As the reader will remember, the treaties concluded with these powers by the American naval officers after the war of 1802–1805 were more favorable to the United States than any treaty that had ever been concluded with them by any other power. Nevertheless, there were stipulations by which the United States still agreed to pay a blackmail tribute for the sake of peace.

And the reader will further recall the fact that this condition of affairs was due to the attitude of the British Government toward the pirates. England was entirely able to suppress the pirates, but instead of doing so she encouraged them, for the reason that in so doing she obtained almost a monopoly of the Mediterranean carrying trade for her merchant ships. She paid a small tribute to the pirates herself, and thus recognized the right of the pirates to prey on commerce in general. The tribute protected her ships, and the pirates were careful to see, as far as possible, that the ships of no other nation traded in that sea.

By the treaties at the end of the first war with the pirates, the United States merchants obtained the right to trade in these waters, and with Yankee enterprise they secured a share of the trade, which was extremely annoying to the British merchants, to whom the War of 1812 came as a very great relief. Just how the British Government operated against the United States through the pirates will appear farther on.

When war was declared to exist between the United States and Great Britain, Mr. Tobias Lear, who had been the private secretary of Washington, was the United States Consul-general located at Algiers. No sooner did the Dey of this nation hear of the new trouble of the American nation than he called upon Consul Lear for the sum of $27,000, which he claimed was due on the annual tribute. The United States had paid tribute by the Christian calendar, but the Dey demanded that it be paid by the Mohammedan, which threw the United States in arrears. Mr. Lear, in view of the trouble with England, yielded.

At about this time an old American whaler, the Alleghany, arrived at Algiers with certain supplies which the United States had sent by way of tribute. The Dey promptly declared these stores were of inferior quality, and said:

“The consul must depart, for I will not have a consul in my regency who does not cause everything to come exactly as he has ordered.”

And Mr. Lear had to go in the Alleghany. The Alleghany sailed to Gibraltar, where she was taken by the British and her crew imprisoned. But before Mr. Lear left Algiers he saw two large British ships come into the port loaded with powder, shot, and other naval supplies to the value of $160,000, as a present to the Dey from the British Government.

Fitting out his fleet, that consisted of five frigates, three corvettes, and a lot of smaller vessels, the Dey made haste to go in search of Yankee merchantmen. Luckily only the brig Edwin of Salem, with nine men on board, was found, but in his anxiety to enslave American citizens, the pirate commander took a citizen of Virginia, whom he found on a Spanish vessel, and sold him, although the vessel went free.

Thereafter, in the course of the war with England, a daring Yankee privateer, the Abellino, Captain Wyer, of Boston, sailed into the Mediterranean and took four prizes, which were sent into Tripoli and Tunis. The rulers of these states promptly delivered the prizes to British cruisers.

The war with England having ended, the Yankee navy was in prime condition for attending to these pirates, and just five days after the ratification of the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the United States declared war against them. Two squadrons were fitted out, one at Boston under Commodore William Bainbridge, and the other at New York under Commodore Stephen Decatur. The two were to unite in the Mediterranean, where Bainbridge was to assume command, because he was senior by right of the date of his commission.

Decatur got under way first, sailing on May 20, 1815. He carried with him Mr. William Shaler as Consul-general to the pirate states; and Shaler, Bainbridge, and Decatur were fully empowered to negotiate new treaties.

The squadron under Decatur included the new frigate Guerrière (rated a forty-four); the Macedonian (captured from the British), Captain Jacob Jones; the Constellation, Captain Charles Gordon; the sloop-of-war Epervier (captured from the British), Captain John Downes; the Ontario, Captain Jesse D. Elliott; the brig Firefly, Captain George W. Rodgers; the brig Flambeau, Captain John B. Nicholson; the brig Spark, Captain Thomas Gamble; the schooner Spitfire, Captain A. J. Dallas; and the schooner Torch, Captain Wolcott Chauncey—in all, ten vessels and two hundred and ten guns.

The squadron at Boston was headed by the new Yankee seventy-four-gun line-of-battle ship Independence, and included the frigates United States and Congress, the sloop Erie, the brigs Boxer, Chippewa, Saranac, and Enterprise, and the sloop (one-masted) Lynx. The Boxer was the vessel captured by the Yankee brig Enterprise, and the Enterprise was the old favorite. But these vessels arrived in the Mediterranean too late to have any part in negotiating a treaty. Decatur had already done the work, and this is the more remarkable when one considers the force of the Algerian navy. As estimated by Maclay, the Algerian force afloat was a half stronger than Decatur’s. It included five frigates armed with eighteens and twelves, six sloops-of-war armed with twelves, nines, and sixes, and a schooner—in all twelve vessels carrying three hundred and sixty guns. Moreover, these vessels were fully manned with able seamen, and their admiral, “Rais Hammida, was the terror of the Mediterranean.” He “had risen from the lowest to the highest place in the Algerian navy” (something that cannot be done in the navy of the American republic), and he had proved his prowess and valor over and again.

Moreover the harbor of Algiers, “formed by an artificial mole, was defended by double and triple rows of heavy batteries, so that over five hundred pieces of ordnance bore upon the maritime approaches of the place.” In fact, when England in the year 1816 made war on the Dey, “five ships of the line, five frigates, four bomb ketches and five gun-brigs were deemed by the Lords of the Admiralty too small a force.”

On June 15, 1815, Decatur’s squadron arrived off Tangiers at the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, and learned that the pirate admiral, Rais Hammida, in his forty-six-gun frigate Mashouda, had sailed up the Mediterranean two days before, intending to call at Carthagena.

At this the entire American squadron sailed into the Mediterranean and after a brief call at Gibraltar came in sight of the Mashouda at daylight on the morning of June 17. The enemy when first seen was lying-to under top-sails off Cape Gata, but heading toward the African shore. The pirate admiral was wholly unsuspicious of the character of the approaching Yankee squadron until the Constellation, the nearest of the squadron, was but a mile away. At that time the American flag was set on the Constellation by a mistake. Decatur ordered the British flag set on all the other ships, but Hammida had taken alarm, and spreading his wings like a flushed partridge—making sail with a rapidity that excited the admiration of the Yankees—he headed for Algiers, not far away.

There was an easterly wind, but the Algerian soon found that the Constellation was heading him off, and when the Yankee opened fire on him he tacked about and headed for a neutral port on the north shore. At this the squadron tacked in pursuit, and the flagship Guerrière soon overhauled the enemy.

Pirate though he was, it is impossible not to feel some admiration for the Algerian admiral and his crew in the fight that followed. It was one ship against a squadron and small guns against large, but Rais Hammida never thought of surrender. On the contrary, the pirates opened with muskets as the brig Guerrière ranged up. A man was shot from the Guerrière’s wheel and others were injured, but Decatur waited until he was yard-arm to yard-arm and then fired a broadside that made the enemy shiver. The pirate admiral had been wounded by a shot from the Constellation and was unable to stand, but he had bravely remained on deck, lying on a couch. Now a forty-two-pounder shot struck him at the first broadside of the Guerrière, cutting him entirely in two.

A second broadside from the Guerrière followed and then she ranged ahead of the Mashouda’s bow. At that the pirates up helm and strove to run for it. This brought the brig Epervier fairly under the pirate’s bows. Captain Downes commanded the Epervier, and Downes was a seaman fit to be associated with Captain Stewart of the Constitution, for by backing and filling his sails he was able to give the pirate no less than nine broadsides in twenty-five minutes, at the end of which time the Mashouda’s commander yielded to the inevitable and hauled down his flag.

Decatur said he had never seen a ship handled more skilfully than the Epervier was, or a battery worked better than hers, but of course, the pirate was “completely mobbed,” and surrendered to the squadron, not to one ship. The Macedonian was in at the surrender and not six hours’ sail away.

The fire of the Yankees seem to have been ill-directed, when the results are considered, for only thirty were killed and wounded out of the four hundred and thirty-six in the pirate crew. Master Commandant William Lewis and Midshipmen Howell and Hoffman took charge of the prize, and she was escorted to Carthagena by the Macedonian.

On June 19th, near Cape Palos, a brig was chased ashore by a small vessel of the American squadron. She proved to be the Estido, a twenty-two-gun brig of the Algerian navy. Eighty prisoners were taken from her, and twenty-three dead were found on her decks. Her crew had numbered one hundred and eighty, but many escaped ashore in her boats. Having been taken within the three-mile limit she was eventually given up to the Spanish Government.

Decatur was now ready to treat with the Dey. Arriving off Algiers on June 28th, he summoned the Swedish consul, Mr. Norderling, on board, by means of signals. The Algerian captain of the port came with Mr. Norderling, arriving at noon. It was found that Mr. Norderling could not act for the Algerian Government, so the demand of the President of the United States was sent to the Dey by the hands of the Captain of the Port. Meantime, Decatur asked the Algerian where the Algerian Navy could be found.

“By this time it is safe in some neutral port,” replied the Algerian.

“Not all of it,” replied Decatur. “The frigate Mashouda and a twenty-two-gun brig are already captured, and your Admiral Hammida is killed.”

In language not too polite the Algerian expressed his doubts about this assertion, when Decatur produced the first lieutenant of the Mashouda, who confirmed the news. The Captain of the Port at once changed his bearing entirely and begged that hostilities might cease until a treaty could be negotiated on shore. To this Decatur replied:

“Hostilities will not cease until a treaty is made; and a treaty will not be made anywhere but on board the Guerrière.”

Next day the Captain of the Port came out with full powers to negotiate. The Americans presented their draft of a treaty. The Algerian objected to returning the property taken from the Americans enslaved by the pirates, saying that it had been distributed among many hands. Decatur replied:

“As it was unjustly taken, it must be restored or paid for.”

That settled this point, but when it came to relinquishing all tribute, the Algerian hesitated. Nor did he like to pay $10,000 to the owners of the Salem brig Edwin that had been captured. He pleaded that the brig was taken under a previous dynasty, and told what a great man the present ruler, Omar the Terrible, was. But Decatur refused to concede a truce of even three hours, saying:

“Not a minute! If your squadron appears before the treaty is actually signed by the Dey, and before the American prisoners are on board, I shall capture it.”

In fact the only concession that Decatur would make was to agree to return the Mashouda. But this was not to appear in the treaty; it was to be as an act of grace on the part of the Americans.

The Algerian hastened ashore with the treaty, after arranging that a white flag should be displayed in his boat on returning, in case the treaty was signed and the prisoners on board.

An hour after the Algerian left, an Algerian man-of-war appeared in the east. The Americans cleared their ships for action, but before the squadron got fairly under way the Captain of the Port was seen coming with a white flag afloat. Everything had been conceded to the Americans.

It is said that when the ten liberated captives arrived on board the Guerrière, some knelt down as soon as they reached the deck to give thanks to God, while others hastened to kiss the American flag that once more waved over them.

And it is further said that the British consul stood by in the Dey’s palace while the Dey was signing the treaty with the United States, and ordering the money and the prisoners delivered. When all was done, the Dey’s prime-minister turned upon the British consul and said:

“You told us that the Americans would be swept from the seas in six months by your navy, and now they make war upon us with some of your own vessels which they have taken.”

The fate of the liberated captives was sad. They were placed on the Epervier with the treaty, and she was sent under Lieutenant John Templer Shubrick to the United States. They sailed with happy hearts, after their cruel life as slaves, but the Epervier never reached port nor ever was heard from after passing the Strait of Gibraltar.

With Shubrick “were Captain William Lewis and Lieutenant B. I. Neale, who had married sisters on the eve of their departure for the Mediterranean, and were now returning after the successful termination of the war with Algiers. Lieutenant I. I. Yarnell (who had distinguished himself in the battle of Lake Erie) and Lieutenant John T. Drury also were on board. Midshipman Josiah Tattnall, afterward commander of the celebrated Merrimac, was in the Epervier just before she sailed, but exchanged places with a brother officer in the Constellation.”

Sailing from Algiers to Tunis, where he arrived on July 25th, Decatur learned from the American consul, Mordecai M. Noah, that $46,000 would square the account for the prizes to the Yankee privateer Abellino which the Bey had turned over to the British cruiser Lyra. Mr. Noah took the demand for indemnity to the Bey. As Maclay tells the story, the Bey said, musingly:

“I know this admiral; he is the same one who in the war with Sidi Jusef, of Trablis, burned the frigate. Hum! Why do they send wild young men to treat for peace with old powers? Then you do not speak the truth. You went to war with England, a nation with a great fleet, and said you took her frigates in equal fight. Honest people always speak the truth.”

Noah pointed out the Guerrière, the Macedonian, and another vessel as ships taken from the British, which pretty nearly, if not literally, confirmed the story of captured frigates, and the Bey submitted. And when the award was paid, another British consul listened to a stinging rebuke from a Tunis official who said:

“You see, sir, what Tunis is obliged to pay for your insolence. I ask you whether you think it just, first to violate our neutrality and then leave us to be destroyed, or pay for your aggressions?”

Tripoli was reached on August 5th, and the Bashaw, after some grumbling, paid $25,000 and released two Danes and eight Neapolitans to square the account for having delivered two of the Abellino’s prizes to the British, after which “the Guerrière’s band was landed and treated the natives to a purely American rendering of ‘Hail Columbia.’”

In October Decatur took his squadron back to Gibraltar, where it joined the squadron under Bainbridge. The gathering of such a powerful fleet of Yankee war-ships—especially of war-ships with such significant names as most of the Yankee ships carried—had an exceedingly disquieting effect upon the British officials, and for a time they found themselves unable to treat the American officers with common civility. After a number of the British had been killed in duels, however, the Americans found themselves able to go ashore without suffering insult.

Later, the Dey of Algiers succeeded in negotiating a treaty with the British, represented by Lord Exmouth, under which the British, in spite of an immense fleet to back them, agreed to pay $400,000 for the release of certain captives. His success in this made the Dey feel very badly about his treaty with Decatur. Consul Shaler was compelled to haul down his flag and leave, but the timely arrival and prompt action of an American squadron once more inclined the Dey to peace. The appearance of the same squadron off Tunis and Tripoli soothed the rulers there, also, after they had been made restive by European consuls, and from that time to this there has been no war between the United States and the Barbary pirates.