Combat· Second Barbary War
Action off Cape de Gat
The decisive blow of the Second Barbary War.
Cruising off the Spanish coast near Cape de Gat, Decatur's squadron caught the Algerian flagship Mashuda, a 44-gun frigate under the renowned admiral Reis Hammida. The Americans overhauled and overwhelmed her in a running fight of well under half an hour, the squadron's Marines firing from the tops as the ships closed. Hammida, the most feared of the Barbary corsairs, was killed in the action, along with many of his crew, and some 400 Algerians were taken prisoner when the frigate struck. The American flagship Guerriere lost four killed and ten wounded, several of them from one of her own great guns bursting during the engagement; the sources don't break out which were Marines. The capture of the Mashuda shattered Algerian naval resistance and gave Decatur the leverage to impose his terms at Algiers two weeks later.
Podcast episodes on Second Barbary War
Record no. 257