Two Recent Articles About Capt. Richard Somers USN
N.J. family finds hope for the return of a U.S. hero buried in Libya
May 19, 2011|By Edward Colimore, Inquirer Staff Writer
Eight U.S. sailors are buried beneath Green Square in Tripoli, where the followers of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi often gather in support of their embattled leader.
Nearby are the graves of five more, in the shade of olive trees in a tiny walled cemetery that overlooks the harbor.
More than 200 years ago, Navy Master Commandant Richard Somers and a dozen volunteer crewmen sailed an explosives-laden Intrepid toward an anchored pirate fleet in the harbor. The ship blew up before completing its mission, killing all aboard. Somers - a former University of Pennsylvania student - and his crew were recovered and buried.
But never forgotten.
Since the 1804 deaths, generations of the Somers family have worked to have the remains of the 13 Navy members bought back to the United States.
They've been joined by state and federal legislators and officials who have tried to gain Libya's permission for the repatriation - with no luck. Now, with Gadhafi's future in doubt, some believe changes in the country might finally bring them success.
That feeling may be strongest in Somers Point, where Somers was born. The Atlantic County town was named after the naval hero's great-grandfather and residents there hold a Richard Somers Day celebration every September. Efforts are under way to raise funds to build a monument, where Somers can someday be laid to rest. "If a new [Libyan] regime comes in, we'd have a better chance of success," said Dean Somers, 66, a Galloway Township resident and distant relative of Richard Somers' who has worked to bring the hero home. "I think the unrest offers some hope."
Dean Somers and other supporters were encouraged last month by the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives calling on the defense secretary to "take whatever steps may be necessary" to return Somers and his comrades. The effort follows two 2004 New Jersey Assembly resolutions that sought the same outcome.
"We're willing to wait," said Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser, who joined Dean Somers and others during a recent trip to Washington to encourage congressional action. "We've waited more than 206 years. What's a couple more?
"Let's get everybody together in the U.S. government so we can go to the Libyans to negotiate to bring these heroes home." The daring attempt by Somers and his crew - like early Navy SEALs on a secret mission - captured the imagination of Americans. Six Navy ships have been successively named the Somers.
Remains of ‘first Navy Seals’ lie in Tripoli
TRIPOLI - In an unmarked grave in a corner of Tripoli’s Green Square, where supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi stage daily rallies to denounce NATO and the West, lie the remains of eight American sailors who died here more than 200 years ago.
Five others in their crew are buried under an olive tree in a small, white-walled Protestant cemetery overlooking the harbor about a mile away. The men were killed in what’s known as the First Barbary War, a war that effectively led to the creation of the U.S. Navy.
Dispatched to the region by Thomas Jefferson to end piracy against American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, the sailors set out to destroy Tripoli’s naval fleet in a daring covert mission. The mission failed, but some say it qualified them as the earliest precursors of today’s Navy Seals. For generations, the sailors’ families have been fighting to have their remains repatriated. And now, as the U.S. and its allies pummel Gaddafi’s compound, their efforts are gaining force. On Thursday in Washington, the House approved a defense bill that would require the Pentagon to return them to the United States and give them a military funeral. “There is a military ethos that we never leave anyone behind,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “Irrespective of whether it was one day, 10 years or 100 years ago, we should bring our sailors home.”
Two centuries ago, Tripoli’s ruler, Pasha Yusuf Karamanli, made his living by piracy, exacting tributes from countries like Britain and France in return for not attacking their ships. The United States toyed with appeasement and diplomacy at first, but then Karamanli’s demands grew too great for a new nation desperately short of cash and war broke out. A half-hearted and largely ineffective naval blockade of Tripoli followed, before naval commanders tried to turn up the heat. In September 1804, 13 sailors from the USS Intrepid set out on a ketch packed with explosives. Their mission: sail up to Tripoli’s harbor fortress and blow it up. But their boat was spotted before it reached its destination. It was attacked from the shore and exploded and the sailors, led by Capt. Richard Somers, all perished. Their bodies were washed up on the shore and fed by Tripoli’s ruler to a pack of wild dogs, before being dumped unceremoniously in mass graves.
The war was immortalized in the Marines’ Hymn, which promises to fight the nation’s battles “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.” And, for decades, Somers' descendants and others have been pushing to have the remains of the 13 sailors returned to the United States. The family of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has also joined the cause. Longfellow’s uncle, Lt. Henry Wadsworth, after whom he was named, also fell in the battle. Rogers chanced on the story on a visit to Tripoli in 2004 and has championed their cause, demanding their remains be reburied in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. With Libya’s permission and the help of the U.S. Embassy, the run-down cemetery where five of the men lie was restored in recent years. The grave in Green Square was also located, and buttons thought to be from Somers' officer’s coat were found. Ironically, the only key to the cemetery is believed to have been kept at the embassy, which was evacuated in February, and then burned and ransacked by a pro-Gaddafi mob.
In a twist with eerie parallels to today, the First Barbary War finally began to swing the United States’ way after Gen. William Eaton sponsored rebels who invaded from the east and overran the city of Derna. But Jefferson had dispatched the naval force without a clear mandate to defeat Karamanli and, just as victory seemed possible, his commanders chose to negotiate with the pirate master instead. A peace deal was signed and the U.S. secretly paid the pasha $60,000 as ransom for the release of more than 300 U.S. sailors who had been captured earlier. Tripoli’s ruler emerged stronger than ever, while the people of Derna who had supported the rebellion were abandoned.
Piracy committed by the Barbary States of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers continued to flourish for another decade, until the Second Barbary War, when the United States - and then Britain and the Netherlands - returned to finish the job more decisively and end Mediterranean piracy for good.
The sailors’ families will next press their case in the Senate. Dean Somers - a descendent of Richard Somers and a resident of Somers Point, N.J., named for the Intrepid’s commander - said in a statement that he’s encouraged. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re more and more hopeful every day.”
http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com
This is an eBook I found on Google Books about the early American Navy written for boys but still very readable the Author is Molly Elliot Seawell. While It is a YP book for some reason I found her characters more sympathetic then the above two authors. More story and less history perhaps, there is a trade off though you wish for a little more description.
ED REVIEW: With the publication in 1890 of the prize winning Little Jarvis, Seawell began a series of very popular books for boys, primarily sea stories. Mitchell observes that these "dwell on honor, not action; heroism is demonstrated by dutiful self-sacrifice instead of valiant aggression" Typical of the period in which they are written, these books are not condescending in tone or diction. In fact we might surmise that the sophistication of young readers a hundred years ago was very much greater than that of youth today. Influenced by her seafaring uncle, Joseph Seawell, these books were commercially successful. Moreover, Twelve Naval Captains (1897) is said in Seawell's biographical entries to have been used as a text at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
The author shows a fine appreciation of the character and achievement of these brave naval captains. The "brilliant, picturesque figure of Stephen Decatur" is strongly portrayed; and "the dashing and splendid quality" of his achievements which "leave a blaze upon the page of history" are told with great dramatic force. The story of the destruction of the Philadelphia frigate in the harbor of Tripoli is given in a most romantic and thrilling way. The "gentle character and quiet undaunted courage" of Richard Somers are brought out in vivid contrast to the generous, impetuous, Decatur. The fine friendship between these two men is a noteworthy incident in American history and is sympathetically drawn by the author. Her account, of the intrepid young Somers's rash attempt to destroy the ships in the Tripoli Harbor and the consequent loss of the brave young naval captain and his courageous crew of thirteen in the "Intrepid" is given with rare dramatic emphasis and appreciation of the great tragedy.
http://books.google.com/books?id=v8UpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=Decatur+and+Somers,+by+M.+Elliott+Seawell.&source=bl&ots=Id0cgrRDgP&sig=GoTz9kPCYlwCcvuFtNfQI_MKRgE&hl=en&ei=R4EkS4CCPcaBnQe8vonsCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
May 19, 2011|By Edward Colimore, Inquirer Staff Writer
Eight U.S. sailors are buried beneath Green Square in Tripoli, where the followers of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi often gather in support of their embattled leader.
Nearby are the graves of five more, in the shade of olive trees in a tiny walled cemetery that overlooks the harbor.
More than 200 years ago, Navy Master Commandant Richard Somers and a dozen volunteer crewmen sailed an explosives-laden Intrepid toward an anchored pirate fleet in the harbor. The ship blew up before completing its mission, killing all aboard. Somers - a former University of Pennsylvania student - and his crew were recovered and buried.
But never forgotten.
Since the 1804 deaths, generations of the Somers family have worked to have the remains of the 13 Navy members bought back to the United States.
They've been joined by state and federal legislators and officials who have tried to gain Libya's permission for the repatriation - with no luck. Now, with Gadhafi's future in doubt, some believe changes in the country might finally bring them success.
That feeling may be strongest in Somers Point, where Somers was born. The Atlantic County town was named after the naval hero's great-grandfather and residents there hold a Richard Somers Day celebration every September. Efforts are under way to raise funds to build a monument, where Somers can someday be laid to rest. "If a new [Libyan] regime comes in, we'd have a better chance of success," said Dean Somers, 66, a Galloway Township resident and distant relative of Richard Somers' who has worked to bring the hero home. "I think the unrest offers some hope."
Dean Somers and other supporters were encouraged last month by the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives calling on the defense secretary to "take whatever steps may be necessary" to return Somers and his comrades. The effort follows two 2004 New Jersey Assembly resolutions that sought the same outcome.
"We're willing to wait," said Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser, who joined Dean Somers and others during a recent trip to Washington to encourage congressional action. "We've waited more than 206 years. What's a couple more?
"Let's get everybody together in the U.S. government so we can go to the Libyans to negotiate to bring these heroes home." The daring attempt by Somers and his crew - like early Navy SEALs on a secret mission - captured the imagination of Americans. Six Navy ships have been successively named the Somers.
Remains of ‘first Navy Seals’ lie in Tripoli
TRIPOLI - In an unmarked grave in a corner of Tripoli’s Green Square, where supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi stage daily rallies to denounce NATO and the West, lie the remains of eight American sailors who died here more than 200 years ago.
Five others in their crew are buried under an olive tree in a small, white-walled Protestant cemetery overlooking the harbor about a mile away. The men were killed in what’s known as the First Barbary War, a war that effectively led to the creation of the U.S. Navy.
Dispatched to the region by Thomas Jefferson to end piracy against American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, the sailors set out to destroy Tripoli’s naval fleet in a daring covert mission. The mission failed, but some say it qualified them as the earliest precursors of today’s Navy Seals. For generations, the sailors’ families have been fighting to have their remains repatriated. And now, as the U.S. and its allies pummel Gaddafi’s compound, their efforts are gaining force. On Thursday in Washington, the House approved a defense bill that would require the Pentagon to return them to the United States and give them a military funeral. “There is a military ethos that we never leave anyone behind,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “Irrespective of whether it was one day, 10 years or 100 years ago, we should bring our sailors home.”
Two centuries ago, Tripoli’s ruler, Pasha Yusuf Karamanli, made his living by piracy, exacting tributes from countries like Britain and France in return for not attacking their ships. The United States toyed with appeasement and diplomacy at first, but then Karamanli’s demands grew too great for a new nation desperately short of cash and war broke out. A half-hearted and largely ineffective naval blockade of Tripoli followed, before naval commanders tried to turn up the heat. In September 1804, 13 sailors from the USS Intrepid set out on a ketch packed with explosives. Their mission: sail up to Tripoli’s harbor fortress and blow it up. But their boat was spotted before it reached its destination. It was attacked from the shore and exploded and the sailors, led by Capt. Richard Somers, all perished. Their bodies were washed up on the shore and fed by Tripoli’s ruler to a pack of wild dogs, before being dumped unceremoniously in mass graves.
The war was immortalized in the Marines’ Hymn, which promises to fight the nation’s battles “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.” And, for decades, Somers' descendants and others have been pushing to have the remains of the 13 sailors returned to the United States. The family of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has also joined the cause. Longfellow’s uncle, Lt. Henry Wadsworth, after whom he was named, also fell in the battle. Rogers chanced on the story on a visit to Tripoli in 2004 and has championed their cause, demanding their remains be reburied in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. With Libya’s permission and the help of the U.S. Embassy, the run-down cemetery where five of the men lie was restored in recent years. The grave in Green Square was also located, and buttons thought to be from Somers' officer’s coat were found. Ironically, the only key to the cemetery is believed to have been kept at the embassy, which was evacuated in February, and then burned and ransacked by a pro-Gaddafi mob.
In a twist with eerie parallels to today, the First Barbary War finally began to swing the United States’ way after Gen. William Eaton sponsored rebels who invaded from the east and overran the city of Derna. But Jefferson had dispatched the naval force without a clear mandate to defeat Karamanli and, just as victory seemed possible, his commanders chose to negotiate with the pirate master instead. A peace deal was signed and the U.S. secretly paid the pasha $60,000 as ransom for the release of more than 300 U.S. sailors who had been captured earlier. Tripoli’s ruler emerged stronger than ever, while the people of Derna who had supported the rebellion were abandoned.
Piracy committed by the Barbary States of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers continued to flourish for another decade, until the Second Barbary War, when the United States - and then Britain and the Netherlands - returned to finish the job more decisively and end Mediterranean piracy for good.
The sailors’ families will next press their case in the Senate. Dean Somers - a descendent of Richard Somers and a resident of Somers Point, N.J., named for the Intrepid’s commander - said in a statement that he’s encouraged. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re more and more hopeful every day.”
http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com
This is an eBook I found on Google Books about the early American Navy written for boys but still very readable the Author is Molly Elliot Seawell. While It is a YP book for some reason I found her characters more sympathetic then the above two authors. More story and less history perhaps, there is a trade off though you wish for a little more description.
ED REVIEW: With the publication in 1890 of the prize winning Little Jarvis, Seawell began a series of very popular books for boys, primarily sea stories. Mitchell observes that these "dwell on honor, not action; heroism is demonstrated by dutiful self-sacrifice instead of valiant aggression" Typical of the period in which they are written, these books are not condescending in tone or diction. In fact we might surmise that the sophistication of young readers a hundred years ago was very much greater than that of youth today. Influenced by her seafaring uncle, Joseph Seawell, these books were commercially successful. Moreover, Twelve Naval Captains (1897) is said in Seawell's biographical entries to have been used as a text at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
The author shows a fine appreciation of the character and achievement of these brave naval captains. The "brilliant, picturesque figure of Stephen Decatur" is strongly portrayed; and "the dashing and splendid quality" of his achievements which "leave a blaze upon the page of history" are told with great dramatic force. The story of the destruction of the Philadelphia frigate in the harbor of Tripoli is given in a most romantic and thrilling way. The "gentle character and quiet undaunted courage" of Richard Somers are brought out in vivid contrast to the generous, impetuous, Decatur. The fine friendship between these two men is a noteworthy incident in American history and is sympathetically drawn by the author. Her account, of the intrepid young Somers's rash attempt to destroy the ships in the Tripoli Harbor and the consequent loss of the brave young naval captain and his courageous crew of thirteen in the "Intrepid" is given with rare dramatic emphasis and appreciation of the great tragedy.
http://books.google.com/books?id=v8UpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=Decatur+and+Somers,+by+M.+Elliott+Seawell.&source=bl&ots=Id0cgrRDgP&sig=GoTz9kPCYlwCcvuFtNfQI_MKRgE&hl=en&ei=R4EkS4CCPcaBnQe8vonsCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false