The Tripolitans were not
long in discovering her predicament, swarmed out of the harbor in their
gunboats, and soon had the American vessel at their mercy.
With what bitterness of spirit Bainbridge hauled down his flag may be
imagined. He and his men were taken ashore and imprisoned and their
vessel was got off the reef and towed into the harbor. From the window
of their prison, the Americans could see her riding at anchor, flying
the flag of Tripoli, and the sight did not render their imprisonment
more pleasant. But one night, they heard shots in the harbor, and,
looking out, beheld the Philadelphia in flames, and the little ketch
bearing Decatur and his men fading rapidly away through the darkness
toward the harbor mouth. Six months later, they watched the American
assault upon the harbor, but their hearts fell when the American
squadron finally gave up the attempt and withdrew. It was not until the
following year that peace was made, and Bainbridge and his men released,
after a captivity of nineteen months. Never since that time has the
United States paid tribute to any nation.
When the second war with England began, President Madison and his
advisers thought it foolhardy to attempt to oppose Great Britain on the
ocean, for she had the strongest fleet of any nation in the world, and
so decided to confine the war entirely to land.
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