In the summer of 1803, six American warships sliced through the Atlantic, crewed by fewer than 2,000 barely trained men – farm boys, fishermen, and dockhands.
The newly formed U.S. was broke, its Navy skeletal, its trade raided by Barbary pirates from North Africa, bleeding off an estimated 20% of American maritime commerce.
Their orders: Reach Tripoli and challenge a rogue regime that extorted even the greatest empires. Few expected them to return.
For generations, European powers had bought peace with gold – but as Barbary raids on American merchants escalated, President Thomas Jefferson faced a choice: Submit, or fight with a navy that barely existed.
When the Americans arrived, the enemy was waiting – light, fast and ruthless. They were outnumbered, but not outmatched.
The Americans trapped them in port, daring the pirates to come out and fight.
However, just as momentum was building, disaster struck. The Philadelphia, one of the strongest of the American warships, ran aground off Tripoli and was seized with all 307 aboard. The captured ship was refloated, turned against its own fleet, and now flew the flag of the enemy – one of America’s greatest warships, lost in a single day.
Refusing to let the ship be used against them, they launched one of the boldest raids in naval history: Under the cover of night, disguised as Maltese sailors, they floated into harbor on a captured pirate vessel, boarded the Philadelphia, and turned her into a floating inferno.
The raid ignited American morale, but the war dragged on – until one man dared to rewrite the story.
Enter William Eaton – former U.S. consul to Tunis, burning with vengeance, armed with a wild plan. Eaton’s target? Derna, a coastal city lightly defended and exposed to the desert. Eaton would cross the sands and strike it from behind. The goal was to show that the U.S. could do what no European power dared: Land troops in North Africa, raise an army and defeat the pirates on their own soil.
In March 1805, William Eaton assembled a ragtag force of eight U.S. Marines, 40 Greek and Italian mercenaries, about 100 Arab cavalry and scattered Bedouin fighters.
Fewer than 500 men, fractured by language, loyalty and purpose, marched forward. They crossed hundreds of miles of desert where water vanished, men hallucinated and camels collapsed in blinding sandstorms. Sun scorched by day, the cold bit at night. Food ran short, tempers flared, tribal help deserted, and the campaign nearly collapsed over broken promises.
The road to Derna was carved through hell.
After seven weeks, they arrived at the gates ready for war. Eaton was attacked as U.S. warships unleashed cannon fire from offshore. The fighting was brutal – gunfire ripped through tents, smoke choked the hillside and Eaton was shot through the wrist but pressed on with his arm in a sling.
After fierce close combat, Derna fell, and for the first time in history, the Stars and Stripes flew triumphantly on foreign soil. It was this moment that inspired the famous line still sung today in the Marine Corps Hymn: “to the shores of Tripoli.”
The victory stunned the Barbary world. Eaton marched across a wasteland and took a city no one thought could fall. The pirates’ resolve broke, and they signed a peace agreement within weeks, and the American prisoners from the Philadelphia walked free. What began as a desperate gamble became one of the boldest military feats in the early history of the U.S.
The message was clear: The U.S. would not just send ships; it would send men, cross deserts, storm walls and bleed on foreign ground to defend its people and principles.
This October 13th marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy, born in uncertainty and defined by resolve.
From the shores of Tripoli to every ocean since, the U.S. Navy, along with the U.S. Marine Corps and the entire American military, has stood as a shield for freedom and a symbol of courage. To all who have served and continue to serve: Thank You.
Today, we face new adversaries. One nation with a fleet much larger than our own. Once again, we may be outnumbered, but we will never be outmatched.
Like Eaton before us, we’ll rise to meet the challenge. May God bless the USA!
• Toby Moore is a Shaw Local News Network columnist, star of the Emmy-nominated film “A Separate Peace,” and CEO of CubeStream Inc. He can be reached at feedback@shawmedia.com.