Combat· First Barbary War
Attack on Tripolitan war vessels at Old Tripoli
A week after burning the wheat convoy, the Americans turned on the warships that had escorted it.
On 28 May 1803 they attacked the Tripolitan vessels, which had anchored at the entrance of Old Tripoli harbor behind a screen of rocks. The position was too well protected, and the attack failed. The action cost the Marines a man: Private Derrick C. Winder of the New York died on 8 June from wounds he received in this attack. Small and unsuccessful as it was, the engagement was part of the blockade-and-raid strategy that gradually ground down Tripolitan naval strength in the period before Commodore Preble's heavier bombardment campaign of 1804 brought the war to its climax.
Podcast episodes on First Barbary War
Record no. 195