Algerian–American War (1785–1795):
After Spain concluded a peace treaty with Algiers in 1785, the Algerian corsair captains entered the waters of the Atlantic and attacked American ships, refusing to release them except for large sums of money. Two American ships, the schooner Maria, and the Dauphin were captured by Algerian pirates in July 1785 and the survivors forced into slavery, their ransom set at $60,000. A rumor that Benjamin Franklin, who was en route from France to Philadelphia about that time, had been captured by Barbary pirates, caused considerable upset in the U.S.
The establishment of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 empowered the federal government to levy taxes and maintain a military, authorities previously absent under the Articles of Confederation. The nascent nation’s first naval vessels were commissioned in 1794 to counter Algerian piracy.
Thomas Jefferson, who was elected to the presidency twice, was inclined to the idea of confronting Algiers with force. He wrote in his autobiography: I was very unwilling that we should acquiesce in the European humiliation of paying a tribute to those lawless pirates and endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredations from them.
A proposal was made to put up a coalition of naval warships from nations at war with the Barbary states, provided that naval operations would be directed against Algerian vessels in particular, and then impose a maritime blockade on North Africa. When this proposal was presented to the concerned countries, France refused, and Spain apologized for not accepting it, because of its recent treaty with Algiers. The proposal was favored by Portugal, Malta, Naples, Venice, Denmark and Sweden. But the project failed when the U.S. Congress objected to it for fear of its high financial costs, and more Algerian ships attacked American ships because of their lack of association with Algiers by any treaty in this period. Thus, on February 1, 1791, the U.S. Congress was forced to allocate $40,000 to free American captives in Algiers. But two years later, it passed the “Naval Act of 1794” on the need to establish a defensive naval fleet, but stipulated in one of its articles that the project be stopped if an agreement was reached with Algiers.
During the presidency of George Washington (April 30, 1789 – 1797), and after America failed to form an American-European alliance against the Maghreb countries, the U.S. announced its desire to establish friendly relations with Algiers in February 1792, and reported this to the Dey Hassan III Pasha, like how Great Britain bought peace and security for its ships.
Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States of America and Hasan Pasha, Dey of Algiers, his dîwân, and his subjects: a scan of the original document handwritten in Osmanli, signed September 5, 1795 in Algiers.
Reconciliation took place between the two parties, and the dey pledged to work with Tunisia and Tripoli, to also sign this treaty, and peace would be achieved for America in the entire Mediterranean basin. When the American government began negotiating with Algiers,[29] the Dey asked for $2,435,000. He later reduec that and on September 5, 1795, American negotiator Joseph Donaldson signed a peace treaty with the dey of Algiers, with 22 articles that included an upfront payment of $642,500 in specie (silver coinage) for peace, the release of American captives, expenses, and various gifts for the dey’s royal court and family.
America suffered another humiliation when it sent tribute carried by the large armed frigate “USS George Washington (1798)” to Algiers; Dey Mustapha Pasha forced U.S. commodore William Bainbridge to hoist an Ottoman Algerian flag over his warship before sailing to Constantinople carrying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1800. As Lieutenant and consul William Eaton informed newly appointed Secretary of State John Marshall in 1800, “It is a maxim of the Barbary States, that ‘The Christians who would be on good terms with them must fight well or pay well.'”
America paid to Algiers during the presidency of George Washington and his successor, John Adams (1797-1801), $1,000,000, or a fifth of the government’s annual budget, in tribute. But paying tribute for peace did not sit well for those proud Americans as a new state. They declared war on those Barbary pirates. This war began during Thomas Jefferson’s term when he refused to pay an amount that greatly increased when he became president. A U.S. naval fleet was sent on May 13, 1801, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale. Other notable officers in the fleet included Stephen Decatur, assigned to the frigate USS Essex and William Bainbridge in command of Essex which was attached to Commodore Richard Dale‘s squadron which also included Philadelphia, President and Enterprise. They raised Hell with the Algerians and their neighbors.
Bombardment of Tripoli on 3 August 1804
The ship Philadelphia was blockading Tripoli’s harbor when she ran aground on an uncharted reef. Under fire from shore batteries and Tripolitan gunboats, Captain William Bainbridge tried to refloat her by casting off all of her guns and other objects that weighed her down. The ship was eventually captured and the crew taken prisoners and enslaved. To prevent this powerful warship from being used by the Barbary pirates, the ship was later destroyed by a raiding party of American Marines and soldiers and allied sailors from the armed forces of King Ferdinand of Sicily, led by Stephen Decatur. To go into their harbor and burn that ship right under their noses was considered a great victory by US Marines and Comador Stephen Decatur.
A treaty was reached on June 30, 1805, under which America paid Algiers $60,000 ransom for the prisoners, and agreed to continue sending gifts to the dey and replace its consul with another one, then withdrew its fleet from the Mediterranean in 1807.
When the war broke out between America and Britain in 1812, the regent on the British throne, George IV, sent a letter to Dey Haji Ali Pasha (1809-1815) confirming to him the bonds of friendship that united the two countries and declaring his country’s readiness to defend Algiers against every aggressor as long as these ties remained. By that he intended to win over Algiers to Britain against America.
James Madison recommended that Congress declare the “existence of a state of war between the United States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers.” While Congress did not formally declare a state of war, they did pass legislation, enacted on March 3, 1815, that authorized the president to use the U.S. Navy, “as judged requisite by the President” to protect the “commerce and seamen” of the United States on the “Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas.” Congress also authorized the president to grant the U.S. Navy the ability to seize all vessels and goods belonging to Algiers. The legislation also authorized the president to commission privateers for the same purpose.
Commodore Decatur’s Squadron capturing the Algerian pirate ship Mashuda, on 17 Jun. Mashuda, flagship of the Algerian Navy, 1815
During the reign of the Dey Omar Pasha (1815-1817), American-Algerian relations worsened when the Dey began to demand an increase in the annual tribute.
Commodore Decatur and the dey of Algiers Haji Ali Pasha
By now, the Americans had had enough of these Muslim pirates from Algeria and Tripole. Stephen Decatur‘s squadron left New York on May 20, 1815, with orders to destroy Algerine vessels and bring the Dey of Algiers to terms for attacking American shipping. He reached the Strait of Gibraltar on June 15, 1815, and began his mission. After learning that several Algerine cruisers had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar shortly before he did, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. decided to give them chase and cut them off before they could reach Algiers. His succeeding action was called the Battel of Gata.
Commanding a fleet of nine vessels, he encountered the Algerine flagship Mashouda (also spelled ‘Mashuda’ or ‘Meshuda’) of forty-six guns off Cape Gata, Spain. Heavily outnumbered, Admiral Rais Hamidou tried to flee to the port of Algiers, but was overtaken by the American squadron. After receiving damage from the Constellation and with the admiral himself being wounded, the Algerines instead decided to change course and try for the safety of a neutral port along the Spanish coast.
The Constellation and the sloop Ontario were able to close in and hammer the Algerine frigate. The Algerines resorted to replying with musket fire at close range, but Decatur was able to get his flagship, the Guerriere, alongside the Algerine frigate. Firing a devastating broadside, the Guerriere crippled the enemy and killed the Algerine admiral. Decatur ceased firing, expecting the Algerine ship to surrender. Instead the Algerines continued to fight hopelessly with muskets as long as they were able. As a result, Decatur had the sloop Epervier fire broadsides into the Meshuda with disastrous effect. The bloodied Algerines then struck their colors and ended the battle.
As one of his last acts as President of the United States, President Washington ordered the construction of 6 powerful war ships. Instead, an agreement was pushed through Congress to complete construction of only three: The USS Constitution in Boston, USS United States in Philadelphia, and USS Constellation in Baltimore.
Construction of the other three frigates was paused briefly, but it did not last long. While peace was being pursued in the Mediterranean, the United States began facing threats from the French in the Caribbean. The French seizure of U.S. merchant ships in the Caribbean pushed Congress to continue construction of all six frigates.
With the first of these three ships, The USS Constitution, a U.S. Navy squadron led by Stephen Decatur arrived in the Mediterranean and, defeating the Algerian fleet, promptly forced a new negotiated peace with Algiers, as well as Tunis and Tripoli, finally ending all the trouble with these Muslim pirates.
(In the following post next week, I relate the exploits of the best of these three new American war ships: The USS Constitution.)
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