Stephen Decatur: All-American Pirate

[Salty Dog]

Stephen Decatur doesn't really fall into the stereotypical image of a pirate, in that he was actually a respected U.S. Navy officer. Decatur was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the navy, which sounds like a bullshit line of expository dialogue from an unbelievably stupid Hollywood film trailer. But in this case, it happens to be true. He was also the first American celebrated as a national military hero who didn't play a role in the American Revolution -- hell, they even put his face on $20 notes.

So how did he get to be so famous? Why, by pulling off some of the most epic (and bloody) sea raids of all time.

For example, when the USS Philadelphia was captured by Tripolitan pirates in 1803, the 25-year-old Decatur gathered a group of men, disguised them as Maltese sailors and infiltrated the enemy harbor armed only with swords and pikes. Did they recover the ship? Nope -- they overtook the entire crew without losing a single man and set it on fire just so the pirates couldn't use it. Admiral Horatio Nelson, the same man who had his arm removed so that he could get back to battle, called the raid "the most bold and daring act of the age."

[Salty Dog]

But wait, there's more. Later, as Decatur was returning from seizing another ship with a crew twice as large as his, he learned that his brother had been shot while fighting the pirates. Even though the whole crew was exhausted from the latest raid, Decatur turned around and chased the enemy ship, which he and 10 other men proceeded to board.

Disregarding everyone else, Decatur, a Liam Neeson-like machine of vengeance, went straight after the man who shot his brother and killed him. The rest of the crew eventually surrendered, leaving Decatur with 27 prisoners and 33 dead pirates in a single day.

Again: he was 25.

[corsair91]

Stephen Decatur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur

Decatur in the War of 1812 was captured commanding
USS President, last of the original six US frigates
(Sister ship of USS Constitution) by Royal Navy ships including
HMS Endymion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_six_frigates_of_the_United_States_Navy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_President_(1800)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endymion_(1797)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_USS_President

The Royal Navy took USS President into service as HMS President
until she was broken up in 1818.

President's design was copied and used to build the next HMS President in 1829.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_President_(1829)

(The Last constructed "Sister" ship of USS Constitution only this time by the British)

The new British President was built using her American predecessor's exact lines for reference, as a reminder to the United States of the capture of their flagship – a fact driven home by President being assigned as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station in the western Atlantic Ocean


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_President_(shore_establishment)

HMS President is a "stone frigate", or shore establishment of the Royal Naval Reserve, based on the northern bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge in Wapping and is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

There had been a drill ship moored in London since 1 April 1862. This was the 58-gun frigate HMS President, berthed at the West India Docks and training ship of the local Royal Naval Reserve. They were joined in 1872 by the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers. This ship was named Old President on 25 March 1903, and was sold for scrapping on 7 July 1903.

The HMS President name was deliberately retained for the shore establishment.

Nobody does rubbing it in as well or for as long as the Royal Navy,
this time on the USN.

[corsair91]

The current HMS President (1918)

HMS President (1918) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_President_(1918)


HMS President (1918) (formerly HMS Saxifrage) is a retired Flower-class Q-ship that was launched in 1918. She was renamed HMS President in 1922 and moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship


She had the suffix "(1918)" added to her name in order to distinguish her from HMS President, the Royal Naval Reserve base in St Katharine Docks.


She is one of the last three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War.

She is also the sole representative of the first type of purpose built anti-submarine vessels, and is the ancestor of World War II convoy escort sloops, which evolved into modern anti-submarine frigates.


HMS President was built as an Anchusa-type Flower-class sloop. These were built between 1916 and 1918 as submarine hunters disguised to look like merchant ships, while carrying concealed 4-inch and 12-pounder naval guns. U-boats would dive at the sight of a naval warship, and the success of the Q-ships, or 'mystery ships' - converted merchantmen with hidden guns - led to the building of these specialised naval vessels for the same purpose. It was intended that a U-boat captain, unwilling to expend a precious torpedo on a small coastal merchantman, would surface to sink it by gunfire. As the submarine closed for the kill, the Q-ship would reveal her hidden guns and counterattack while the U-boat was at its most vulnerable on the surface. By the time the "warship-Qs" were constructed, the Germans were well aware of this tactic, and with the introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare these sloops became active rather than passive submarine chasers.