American vs Algerine Pirates.

[Bligh]

Can any of my American shipmates point me to the actions between the American Navy and the Algerines and suchlike in the Med?
Rob.

[Wentworth]

Hi Rob,
Here's a few sources:

https://history.state.gov/milestones...9/barbary-wars

https://www.monticello.org/site/rese...st-barbary-war

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval...y-war-crucible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMikbOdtRXY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiv-Kh3eBfI

best,
Bill

[Diamondback]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...e_Barbary_Wars

[Bligh]

Thanks shipmates. That will give me plenty to have a go at.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

Here, have some Food for Thought... :)

Date	Event	US/allied Euro assets	Tripolitan/Algerian assets
17970516	Action of May 16 '97	Danish 40 frigate Najanden Danish 18 brig Sarpen 1 unknown Danish-hired 6-gun xebec	Trip 28 [xebec or schooner?] Meshuda 2 unknown Trip 28 xebecs 3 unknown Trip smaller vessels
18010801	Action of Aug 1 '01	12 Schooner USS Enterprise	Trip 14 polacca Tripoli
18020516	1st Tripoli Harbor	SW frigate Froja Unknown 2nd SW frigate 32 frigate USS Boston	7x Trip corsairs
18030622	Action of Jun 22 '03	30 Frigate USS John Adams 12 Schooner USS Enterprise	unknown Trip polacre 9x Trip gunboats
18040714 onward	2nd Tripoli Harbor	“44” frigate USS Constitution (SGN202) Brig USS Argus Brig USS Syren Brig USS Scourge Schooner USS Enterprise Schooner USS Vixen Schooner USS Nautilus 2x bomb vessels 10x gunboats Bomb ketch USS Intrepid	brig 2x schooners 2x galleys 19x gunboats
18150617	Cape Gata	36 frigate USS Constellation “44” frigate USS Guerriere (=SGN202) 38 frigate USS Macedonian (ex-UK Lively; use SGN105) Sloop USS Ontario 18 Sloop USS Epervier (ex-UK Cruizer) 12 Brigantine USS Spark Brigantine 12 Schooner USS Torch 12 Schooner USS Spitfire	Alg 44 frigate Meshuda (size/stats close to SGN105?)
18150619	Cape Palos	18 Sloop USS Epervier (ex-UK Cruizer) 12 Brigantine USS Spark 12 Schooner USS Torch 12 Schooner USS Spitfire	Alg 22 brig Estedio
18160827	Bombardment of Algiers	104 HMS Queen Charlotte (SGN108) 98 HMS Impregnable 74 HMS Albion (Fame-cl) 74 HMS Minden (Ganges-cl) 74 HMS Superb (Temeraire clone = SGN102) 50 spar-decker HMS Newcastle 40 frigate HMS Severn (Endymion-cl) 40 frigate HMS Glasgow (Endymion-cl) 36 frigate HMS Granicus (Scamander-cl) 36 frigate HMS Hebrus (Scamander-cl) 44 frigate HDMS Melampus (ex-UK HMS Melampus) 44 frigate HDMS Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina (FR Pallas = SGN105) 36 frigate HDMS Dageraad 44 frigate HDMS Diana (ex-HMS Diana) 44 frigate HDMS Amstel (FR Pallas = SGN105) 20 corvette HDMS Eendragt (probably close to MSS Thorn in game terms) 18 Brig-sloop HMS Heron (Cruizer-cl) 18 Brig-sloop HMS Mutine (Cruizer-cl) 18 Brig-sloop HMS Prometheus (Thais-cl) 10 Brig-sloop HMS Britomart (Cherokee-cl) 10 Brig-sloop HMS Cordelia (Cherokee-cl) bomb ketch HMS Belzebub bomb ketch HMS Fury bomb ketch HMS Hecla bomb ketch HMS Infernal aviso HMS Express	shore batteries totaling 224 cannon[1] 4 frigates 5 corvettes 40 gunboats

[Naharaht]

I see that the USS Enterprise led the way.

[Bligh]

Thanks for that more than comprehensive list DB. I can see that I am going to need another order to Rod Langton to cover all the US schooners brigantines, gunboats, and bombs. The Sloops I can just about cover.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

Sadly for us, most battles against the Barbary States are lopsided ROFLstomps where only one "home team" ship or a handful of small vessels comes out to play.

I'm also adding any "roughly contemporary" engagement with the Barbary States I can find to the table, in the hope that MAYBE we can wring some Sculpt Candidates out of the expanded data. :)

[Bligh]

Even something that could be a cut and shunt would be good. I still have two unused sloops which I can cannibalize DB. As far as the battles go, I have plenty of examples from you of the type of ships involved and can now make up a fairly balanced but representative selection of ships for both sides for my solo encounters. We only tend to do historically correct at the big shows.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

I am pretty sure the 28 gun Meshuda was a schooner not a xebec. It was the captured American merchant Betsy.

In 1784 corsairs attacked the Betsy, a 300 ton brig schooner that had sailed from Boston to Tenerife Island, about 100 miles off the North African coast, selling her crew as chattel on the markets of Morocco. Other vessels, such as the Dauphin and Maria, were also siezed, this time by Algiers, and the horrifying experiences of their captive passengers relayed back home were the cause for outrage.

The new U.S. government still sued for peace. The Betsy's release had been negotiated and to the accompaniment of America's first diplomatic accord, the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Ship-Signals, was signed with Morocco in 1786. But no sooner was the ship let go and its captives freed than it was recaptured by Tunis and renamed the Meshuda.

A Scot named Peter Lisle worked as a deckhand aboard the Betsy. Rather than become a slave he converted to Islam and took the name of an earlier corsair as his own - Murad Reis. The Bashaw of Tunis gave him command of Meshuda. The vessel now carried 28-guns and had a crew of 360 men. Reis liked to display the national flags of the vessels he took in the order of importance to which he regarded them. The American flag held the lowest rank. He eventually became admiral of Tripoli and married the daughter of Yusef, the Bashaw.

In 1803 Reis led the boarding party that captured the USS Philidelphia after it grounded on a sand bar in Tripoli's harbor. When he questioned the captured Americans, now slaves, about William Bainbridge, he wanted to know whether their captain was a coward or a traitor. The sailors defended Bainbridge, to which Murad Reis replied, "Who with a frigate of 44 guns and 300 men would strike his colours to one solitary gunboat, must surely be one or the other."

Six years earlier on May 16, 1797 Meshuda took part, along with two similarly sized xebecs and three smaller vessels, in an action against a small Danish fleet sent to attack Tripoli, consisting of the 40-gun frigate Najaden, an 18-gun brig Sarpen, and a hired 6-gun xebec.During the encounter the corsairs almost managed to board the frigate and although the smaller Danish vessels were more of a hindrance than help, the Tripolitans retreated after two hours and the Danish fleet blockaded the harbor. The Danes were commanded by then captain Steen Andersen Bille who went on to command a naval division in The Battle of Copenhagen.

[Bligh]

A sheer cornucopia of information Vol.
It also answers several of my half remembered information about other actions. I knew about Steen Anderson Billie from my research on Copenhagen but not about Bainbridge. Do yo have anything else on that action?
What I really need is a book on the history of the American 18th century navy, as I have only scratched the surface of this very interesting subject thus far.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

Silverstone's The Sailing Navy does the whole taco-bar including privateers, IIRC.

[Bligh]

Cheers DB.
Just what I was after.
Rob.

[Bligh]

Just looked up the price. Anything from £108 to 230. A bit too rich for my pocket.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

When public libraries reopen, see if anyone can interlibrary loan it. My copy was liquidation at a dying used-bookstore :( and I found a PDF somewhere that went into my "Digital Counterpart Copies" folder.

Routledge is quoting 40GBP plus shipping on the paperback or 36 ebook at https://www.routledge.com/The-Sailin.../9781138993693

[Bligh]

Thanks again DB.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

A sheer cornucopia of information Vol.
It also answers several of my half remembered information about other actions. I knew about Steen Anderson Billie from my research on Copenhagen but not about Bainbridge. Do yo have anything else on that action?
What I really need is a book on the history of the American 18th century navy, as I have only scratched the surface of this very interesting subject thus far.
Rob.

Rob there really wasn't much of a US navy during the 18th century. At the very end of it, during the AWI or you would say Colonial Rebellion, the indiidual colonies commissioned there own naval vessels, most were armed merchantmen and a lot of privateers. After the colonial congress signed the declaration of independance, several frigates and smaller warcraft were authorized for the new Continental Navy. Some of these had successful though short careers, but many were captured or scuttled before achieving much. One of these was the 32 gun frigate Raleigh.
CNS Raleigh was one of 13 ships that the Continental Congress authorized for the Continental Navy in 1775. Built by James Hackett, the keel was laid on March 21, 1776 at the shipyard of John Langdon on what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on May 21, 1776. Raleigh put to sea under Captain Thomas Thompson, who also supervised her construction, on August 12, 1777. She then joined the frigate Alfred and sailed for France. Three days out they captured a schooner carrying counterfeit Massachusetts money. Burning the schooner and her cargo, except for samples, the frigates continued on to France. On September 2 they captured the British brig Nancy and from her they obtained the signals of the convoy which the brig had been escorting from the rear. Giving chase the Americans closed on the convoy on September 4, 1777.*

Raleigh, making use of the captured signals, intercepted the convoy and engaged HMS Druid. In the ensuing battle she damaged Druid, but the approach of the remaining British escorts forced her to retire.

On December 29, 1777, Raleigh and Alfred, having taken on military stores, set sail from L'Orient, France, following a course that took them along the coast of Africa. After capturing a British vessel off Senegal, Raleigh crossed the Atlantic to the West Indies. On March 9, 1778, in the Lesser Antilles, Alfred, some distance from Raleigh, was captured by the British ships HMS Ariadne and HMS Ceres. Raleigh, unable to reach Alfred in time to assist her, continued north and returned to New England early in April 1778.

Accused of cowardice and dereliction of duty for not aiding Alfred, Captain Thompson was suspended soon after reaching port. On May 30, 1778 the Marine Committee appointed John Barry to replace him as captain.

Barry arrived in Boston to assume command on June 24 only to find his ship without a crew or stores and the Navy Board not wholly in support of the manner of his appointment. His reputation and character however, neutralized the ill-will of the Navy Board, drew enlistments, and helped to obtain the stores.

On September 25, Raleigh sailed for Portsmouth, New Hampshire with a brig and a sloop under convoy. Six hours later, two strange sails were sighted. After identification of the ships as British, the merchant vessels were ordered back to port. Raleigh drew off the enemy. Through that day and the next, he enemy ships HMS Unicorn and HMS Experiment pursued Raleigh. In late afternoon on the 27th the leading British ship closed with her. A 7 hour running battle followed, much of the time in close action. About midnight the enemy hauled off and Barry prepared to conceal his ship among the islands of Penobscot Bay.*

The enemy however, again pressed the battle. As Raleigh opened fire, Barry ordered a coarse toward land. Raleigh soon grounded on Wooden Ball Island, part of Matinicus. The British hauled off but continued the fight for a while, then anchored. Barry ordered the crew ashore to continue the fight and to burn Raleigh. A large party, including Barry, made it to shore. One boat was ordered back to Raleigh to take off the remainder of the crew and destroy her. But the British again fired on the ship, and a midshipman struck the Continental colors. All three ships had been damaged, Unicorn particularly so. Of the Americans ashore, a few were captured on the island but the remainder, including Barry, made it back to Boston on October 7. The British re-floated the ship and she was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Raleigh. (Paraphrased from historycentral.com)


Length at gun deck 131 feet 5 inches; Beam 34 feet 5 inches; Depth of hold 11 feet; Crew 180

Armament: 32 x 12 pdrs

Broadside weight 192 Imperial pounds

As HMS Raleigh: 26 x 12 pdrs and 10 x 6 pdrs with a Broadside weight of 175 Imperial pounds

[Bligh]

Even more info. Thanks Vol, and I have also just ordered DBs suggestion of "Silverstone's The Sailing Navy" so I should be pretty well set up when that arrives.

Rob.

[Diamondback]

The nightmare for the various American navies in SGN is that even combined together you have a veritable dog's-breakfast where rarely were any two alike... until about the 1820s the five Humphreys/Doughty superfrigates and five sloops-of-war (Peacock, Wasp, Frolic, Erie, Ontario, not counting burned-unfinished Argus) were the closest things to any "standard design;" especially with how many ships were bought former-merchants.

Didn't help that some band of POS pyromaniacs torched our National Archives in '14... :p

Pro Tip, old friend: ALWAYS check the publisher-direct price first. :) If you don't like what you see there, THEN it's time for Amazon or working the used-book circuit.