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wanted the navy to be as small as possible, but a new war restrained him. Just as Jefferson came into office, Tripoli declared war on the United States. He was forced to use what was left of the fleet to fight the pirate state. Nonetheless, Jefferson made sure the navy remained small.
    The war with Tripoli, which lasted for four long years, proved to be a seminal event in the life of David Porter. In the early stages he performed remarkably well, as he had in the past, serving in a variety of ships under different commanders. In 1801, now twenty-one, he was first lieutenant aboard the 12-gun armed schooner Enterprise (the Experiment ’s sister ship). Lieutenant Andrew Sterrett was the Enterprise ’s skipper.
    Sterrett and Porter had served together under Truxtun on the Constellation . Sterrett was well known in the navy for an extraordinary incidentthat had happened on that ship. During the Constellation ’s battle with L’Insurgente, amid heavy fighting, seaman Neale Harvey became terrified and abandoned his cannon. The twenty-one-year-old Sterrett flew into a rage and ran his sword through him. Harvey was one of only two men killed aboard the Constellation during the fight.
    Captain Truxtun did not reprimand Sterrett, nor did the navy. The young lieutenant’s execution of a man under his command during combat was let stand. Sterrett suffered no punishment, not even to his career, which proceeded apace. His action never became a precedent, but it was never condemned either.
    When Sterrett arrived in the Mediterranean with Porter, he was looking for a fight, and on August 1, 1801, he found one. The Enterprise was off Malta when she fell in with the 14-gun Tripoli , a polacre-rigged warship under Rais Mahomet Rous, commander of the Tripolitan navy. As soon as Sterrett recognized the flag, he closed to within pistol shot and blasted away, commencing a savage battle that lasted for three hours. The Tripolitans tried three times to board the Enterprise , but each time Sterrett, Porter, and their men beat them off. The Tripoli ’s deck became an ugly sight; mangled bodies were strewn everywhere. With no hope remaining, Rous finally gave up and struck his colors. Porter led a boarding party to take the surrender, and he was appalled at the slaughter on the Tripoli ’s decks. The Enterprise had no dead and no wounded. It was a complete rout.
    The following year, Porter was assigned to the 36-gun Chesapeake , and then transferred in April 1803 to the 36-gun frigate New York as her second lieutenant. The New York was Commodore Richard Morris’s flagship. Morris was commander of the Mediterranean fleet at the time, tasked by President Jefferson with protecting American commerce and defeating Tripoli. Porter was not pleased with the transfer; he had little respect for Morris, who appeared to have no appetite for fighting. Porter’s unhappiness was relieved somewhat by his association with the New York ’s first lieutenant, Isaac Chauncey, with whom he formed a close relationship. The two lieutenants had the same low opinion of Morris. During the first week of June 1803 Porter did get into some action, leading a night raid against Tripolitan vessels. His party was beaten off, however, and he was wounded. Midshipman John Downes participated in the raid, impressing Porter with his daring and courage.
    By the summer of 1803, Morris’s poor performance, combined with his unwillingness to communicate with Washington, had so frustrated Jefferson that he replaced him with Commodore Edward Preble. The president expected his new commander to end the war before his reelection campaign in 1804. Preble had fallen ill in Batavia (later Jakarta, Indonesia), and he had not fully recovered. In spite of his fragile health, he was far more aggressive than his lackluster predecessor. Even so, the economy-minded Jefferson—in spite of his looming reelection contest—still did not give Preble enough