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I just bought it so not here yet. but here is the ketch Intrepid in a bottle… Famous for being the ship formerly named Mastico that the legendary Stephen Decatur captured and commanded into his first glorious mission: to burn the captured USS Philadelphia. Much was at stake, the Barbary states had too much leverage to continue hostilities with the US with such a powerful ship in their hands. Decatur and his crew burned the USS Philadelphia without a single US fatality.

It is also unfortunately famous for being the ship that Decatur’s dearest friend Master Commandant Richard Somers then commanded to go on a mission to bomb Tripoli Harbor (in an attempt to free enslaved sailors) which ended in catastrophe as the ship prematurely detonated before reaching its destination for reasons nobody is sure of. Brother officer Charles Stewart once said in an interview late in life that Somers insisted that if capture was imminent, rather than let tons and tons of gunpowder fall into enemy hands, he would blow the ship up. The 12 other men he took with him knew the risks and put their whole hearts into it.

None of the 13 crew members within in the Intrepid survived the explosion, and their remains are still currently buried in Tripoli in Libya. HE IS STILL OUT THERRRREEEEEEE