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situation required. Like Truxtun, he seldom resorted to physical punishment, as Bainbridge and Preble often did. Porter believed in leading by the force of his personality, rather than by terror, and he encouraged other officers to do the same. The result was a diverse crew that functioned as a cohesive unit ready for combat. As the Philadelphia plowed toward Tripoli, Porter was confident that she would make an important contribution to ending the war.

CHAPTER
    3
    D ISASTER IN T RIPOLI

    D AVID P ORTER WAS ANXIOUS TO DISTINGUISH HIMSELF IN Tripoli, and Bainbridge was as well. But Bainbridge’s desire was far stronger than his first lieutenant’s. Unlike Porter, whose career had been marked by continuous success, Bainbridge’s, at least in his own estimation, had been a failure. His first disappointment had come on November 20, 1798, at the start of the Quasi-War. Then a lieutenant, Bainbridge, captain of the armed schooner Retaliation , was sailing off Guadeloupe with the sloop of war Montezuma (Commodore Alexander Murray) and the 18-gun brig Norfolk (Captain Thomas Williams). Suddenly, several sail were spotted. Two in the west appeared to be French. The Montezuma and Norfolk went after them, while Bainbridge in the Retaliation approached two in the east, who appeared to be friendly British cruisers. As Bainbridge got closer, however, he discovered that he’d made a dreadful mistake. The strangers were not British, but powerful French warships—the 40-gun frigate L’Insurgente and the 44-gun Volontier. L’Insurgente immediately sent up the French flag and opened fire, while the Volontier pulled alongside the Retaliation and ordered Bainbridge to haul down his colors. He had no choice but to comply. The French took the Retaliation , with Bainbridge and his crew aboard, toBasse-Terre, the capital of Guadeloupe, and put them in prison for a time before exchanging them.
    Bainbridge was understandably chagrined at being forced to surrender the Retaliation without a fight, but he was soon absolved of any blame and promoted to master commandant. Nonetheless, his failure to elude the French frigates or to fight them, rankled, and he yearned for a chance to wipe away the embarrassment by winning an important victory. He was given the opportunity when he was sent back into the fight against France as skipper of the Norfolk. He had some success with her—enough to get him promoted to captain on May 2, 1800—but it wasn’t nearly enough for him; he wanted far more.
    That was not to be, however. Immediately after receiving his promotion to captain, he was assigned the miserable duty of carrying tribute to the Dey of Algiers in accordance with a treaty signed with the pirate state in 1796. Bainbridge sailed to Algeria in the 24-gun George Washington— the first American warship to sail past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean. Instead of simply delivering the tribute, Bainbridge sailed into the harbor at Algiers and put the George Washington within reach of the port’s guns. It was a tactical error that gave the dey an opportunity to force Bainbridge into carrying gifts to the dey’s master, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople. The sultan was unhappy with the dey for making an untimely peace with France, and the dey was anxious to appease him. He compelled Bainbridge to fly the Algerian flag at the George Washington ’s main while he sailed to Constantinople. It was a humiliation for Bainbridge and for his country, one that disturbed him far more than having to surrender the Retaliation . Fortunately for Bainbridge, Jefferson did not share his chagrin, and, believing that, given the circumstances, Bainbridge had acted wisely, the president did not even consider reprimanding him. In fact, he praised Bainbridge for his good judgment.
    Soon after, Bainbridge became involved in the war with Tripoli as skipper of the Essex . He had a great desire to achieve the sort of