ANOTHER U.S. NAVAL VICTORY OVER MUSLIM NAVIES

Commodore John Rodgers, who was a Captain at the time of this battle.

With Veteran’s Day approaching here’s another neglected U.S. military action against Muslim forces.

June 21st, 1803 – I’m skipping ahead to this battle since it featured the USS Enterprise in action again and for pop culture reasons that seemed to really goose the reaction to the previous Enterprise victory. We’re still in the First Barbary War.

Off the coast of what is now Libya the USS Enterprise was maintaining our blockade on the east, the USS Adams on the west and the USS John Adams in the center. The Muslims sent out a polacre plus nine gunboats to do battle. Hundreds of Muslim infantry and cavalry lined the shore, ready to open fire on the American vessels if the battle brought them within range.

With the Adams held back the Enterprise and the John Adams assumed position to bombard the Muslim polacre and the gunboats. The Americans outmaneuvered the Muslims so thoroughly on the seas that their ships were not able to prevent the U.S. vessels from also bombarding the Muslim forces along the shoreline.

The Muslims hadn’t counted on that and suffered untold numbers of casualties as the U.S. rained cannonfire on the shore troops while staying outside the range of the rifles and small guns those forces were armed with.  

At length the Muslim polacre exploded from the steady bombardment it was receiving. Captain John Rodgers, in charge of the three U.S. ships, recounted how enormous the explosion was and how high flew the smoke, fire, masts, yards, sails, rigging and parts of the hull.

The battered gunboats now fled, finalizing the American victory. The listless Commodore Richard V Morris, in overall charge of the U.S. Mediterranean Fleet, failed to follow up on the victory and mere days later the blockade was allowed to lapse.

Luckily for the Americans, Commodore Morris was soon recalled stateside and by September the more energetic Commodore Edward Preble arrived to take overall command of the many U.S. ships in the region. 

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