| American Minute with Bill Federer‘Don’t Give Up the Ship!’ – Captain James Lawrence |
When Jefferson became President, the Muslim Pasha of Tripoli demanded $225,000 in tribute or else he would attack American ships.When Jefferson refused and the Pasha declared war.Jefferson stated in his First Annual Message, December 8, 1801:
“Tripoli…of the Barbary States…permitted itself to (announce) war on our failure to comply… The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean… We are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace has been preserved through a perilous season.”
Jefferson had previously met with Tripoli’s ambassador in 1786 and asked what America had done to offend Muslims. Jefferson recorded his response: “The ambassador answered us that it was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”
Jefferson arranged for John Paul Jones to fight for Catherine the Great of Russia against the Muslim Ottoman navy in a battle for the Crimea in 1788. The night before the battle, Jones had a Cossack sailor silently row to the middle of the Turkish fleet, then in giant letters he chalked on the side of a ship “TO BE BURNED. PAUL JONES.”
That ship was among the ones Jones destroyed during the next day’s battle.
When the U.S.S. Philadelphia was captured by Tripoli in 1803, Jefferson sent in the Navy and the Marines, led by Commander Edward Preble, General William Eaton, Lieut. Stephen Decatur, and Lieut. Presley O’Bannon.
In 1804, Captain James Lawrence was sent to fight the Muslim Barbary pirates. These victories are remembered in the Marine hymn “…to the shores of Tripoli.”
Get the book, Miracles in American History-32 Amazing Stories of Answered Prayer Later, during the War of 1812, Captain James Lawrence commanded the U.S.S. Hornet and captured the privateer Dolphin and the H.M.S. Peacock.
President James Madison wrote May 25, 1813: “The brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence…in the Hornet sloop of war… The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals…to the sacred obligation of transmitting…to future generations that…which is held…by the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.”
On JUNE 1, 1813, 31-year-old Captain James Lawrence sailed his 38-gun frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake out of Boston’s Harbor. His ship was suddenly attacked by the British ship Shannon. For over an hour, the 38-gun Chesapeake fired away, hitting the Shannon 158 times, but the Shannon hit the Chesapeake 362 times, killing nearly every American officer.
As Captain James Lawrence lay dying on the deck the Chesapeake, his last words were “Don’t Give Up The Ship!”
Get the book, America’s God and Counry Encyclopedia of Quotations Theodore Roosevelt wrote in Hero Tales from American History, 1895: “Lawrence, dying with the words on his lips, ‘Don’t give up the ship’ and Perry…with the same words blazoned on his banner…won glory in desperate conflicts and left a reputation hardly dimmed.”
Captain Oliver Hazard Perry was so inspired by this display of courage that he named his flagship on Lake Erie U.S.S. Lawrence. For God’s Glory Alone Ministries thanks Bill Federer & www.AmericanMinute.com
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