Naval Engagement in Tripoli Port
posted by Cornelius Quick | 12:01 AM
Fading History
"Stat rosa pristina nomine; nomina nuda tenemus."
-De contemptu mundi by Bernard of Morlay
(Yesterday's rose endures in its name; we hold empty names.)
- New Book by Richard Zacks
- Treasure Recovered from the Whydah
- A Cape Cod Tale: "Black" Sam Bellamy & the Whydah
- The Ship's Bell of the Whydah
- Captain Kidd Articles of Agreement
- Sarah Kidd's Petition
- Primary Sources
Movie Club
4 Comments:
Is this a bunch of little guys ganging up on the one big guy?
It looks like it! Actually, a lot of the little ships in the foreground have American flags. The arab ships are in the background closer to the fort & port. I think the large ship is actually the USS Constitution (now anchored in Charlestown, MA), though I may be wrong...
If the painting is meant to be historically accurate then it is the Consitution.
This is from the Website of the USS Constitution.
http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/
1803-1805: President Thomas Jefferson sends the CONSTITUTION to the Mediterranean Sea as flagship of the third Mediterranean squadron. The mission is to attempt to force the Barbary pirates from their renewed policies of aggression against U.S. merchant shipping. With Commodore Edward Preble initially in command, the CONSTITUTION and other ships of the squadron mount five attacks against Tripoli.
1805: June 3 - A peace treaty with Tripoli is completed on board the CONSTITUTION in the captain's cabin; this is followed by a similar treaty with Tunis signed on August 14th.
It was actually according to the site, the first real battle that it had. It had only been actively comissioned for 7 years and spent a little time in the west indies forcing privateers to surrender, which by accounts gave up without a fight.
This picture is definitely worth a thousand words. I never knew the extent of the history directly connected to the old ship that we drove by so many times and thoguht, "cool".
Now when I drive by it I will think, "wicked cool".
Really, I've been on the new facsimile of the Constitution and took my class on several tall ships when they were in port in Pearl Harbor. I was more filled with awe and wonderment than the children were, and I had to have my Columbian student translate the Spanish historian's narrative on the use of the different types of ships in colonizing and "pacifying" the Americas.
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