Combat· First Barbary War
Loss of the Intrepid
On the night of September 4, 1804, the fire ship Intrepid blew up in the harbor of Tripoli minutes after entering it.
Commodore Edward Preble sent her to destroy the enemy's shipping. Captain Richard Somers of the Nautilus commanded, with Lieutenants Henry Wadsworth and Joseph Israel. She carried about one hundred barrels of powder and one hundred and fifty fixed shells. Ten seamen from the Constitution and the Nautilus manned two boats meant to bring the party out. The Argus, Vixen and Nautilus escorted her to the rocks. She exploded before gaining her station. At sunrise no trace of the ketch or her boats remained; one enemy gunboat was missing and three were badly damaged. Preble concluded that an enemy boat had boarded her and that Somers and his party chose death over captivity. In Tripoli, Surgeon Jonathan Cowdery recorded ten dead found near the explosion and on September 6 buried more, three apparently officers. The Constitution's log lists the thirteen men lost as three officers and ten seamen.
Podcast episodes on First Barbary War
Record no. 904