Combat· First Barbary War
Philadelphia captures Moroccan Mirboka
On 26 August 1803 the frigate USS Philadelphia, under Captain William Bainbridge, captured the Moroccan cruiser Mirboka in the Mediterranean.
The seizure exposed an uncomfortable fact: Morocco had been covertly aiding Tripoli, and the capture set off a diplomatic crisis that threatened to widen the war to a second Barbary state. The Marines aboard the Philadelphia supported the boarding. In the end the capture of the Mirboka and the Meshouda, combined with the appearance of an American squadron before Tangier, chastened the Moroccan government into a reasonable mood, and the crisis was settled without serious fighting when Moroccan officials disavowed the corsair's actions. It was a reminder that the Mediterranean problem was never just Tripoli: as McClellan put it, the Barbary states were like a family of uncouth children, where what one demanded, all must have.
Podcast episodes on First Barbary War
Record no. 197