USS John Adams (1799) - First Barbary War

First Barbary War

Peace with France freed the Navy for operations against Barbary corsairs who had been preying on American shipping in the Mediterranean. A small squadron under Commodore Richard Dale, sent out in 1801 for operations against Tripoli, was followed in 1802 by a much stronger force under Commodore Richard Valentine Morris. On 22 October John Adams, under the command of Captain John Rodgers, sailed from Hampton Roads to join Commodore Morris. After escorting vessels from Gibraltar to Málaga and Minorca, she finally caught up with Commodore Morris at Malta on 5 January 1803. She then operated with the squadron until 3 May when she received orders to cruise independently off Tripoli. Upon arriving off Tripoli, John Adams, still under the command of Rodgers, boldly attacked the forts and the gunboats anchored under their protection. Several days later she captured 28-gun Tripolitan cruiser Meshuda. After the USS New York, and USS Enterprise joined her, John Adams engaged a flotilla of enemy gunboats off Tripoli on 22 May sending them scurrying back into the harbor to safety. Five days later—with the added support of USS Adams, a sister frigate also named for President John Adams—the squadron again bested a group of pirate gunboats.

One of the most important victories of the war came on 21 June when John Adams and Enterprise captured a 22-gun vessel belonging to Tripoli, thus weakening that state sufficiently to allow the squadron to turn its attention to Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, which were threatening U.S. commerce in the Western Mediterranean. Throughout the summer and early fall John Adams operated in that quarter before returning home with New York.

Meanwhile, Commodore Edward Preble, who had led a powerful fleet to the Mediterranean, vigorously pressed the fight. In August and September 1804 he made a series of major attacks on Tripoli. As the second of these blows was being delivered 7 August, John Adams, now under Captain Isaac Chauncey, arrived on the scene deeply laden with stores. Her boats participated in a reconnaissance patrol on the night of 18 August, and 6 days later she slipped in close to the city for an intensive 4-hour bombardment. Two nights later during a similar attack, an enemy shot sank one of John Adam's boats, killing three men and wounding a fourth, as the American Squadron severely punished Tripoli with over 700 well-directed rounds which took effect within the city. After a fifth attack had been successfully completed 3 September, bad weather interrupted operations and John Adams sailed to Syracuse with other ships of the squadron.

Three months later she sailed for New York with Commodore Preble, arriving 26 February 1805. After a third Mediterranean cruise from May to November, she was laid up in ordinary. In service she had been considered a poor sailer; between 1807-09 her forecastle and quarterdeck were removed and she was re-rated as (depending on the source) either a corvette or a sloop-of-war.