[Illustration:  COMMODORE PREBLE.]

The consent of the commodore having been obtained, Lieutenant Decatur selected for the expedition a ketch (the Intrepid) which he had captured a few weeks before from the enemy, and manned her with seventy volunteers, chiefly from his own crew.  He sailed from Syracuse on the 3d of February, 1804, accompanied by the United States brig Syren, Lieutenant Stewart, who was to aid with his boats, and to receive the crew of the ketch, in case it should be found expedient to use her as a fire ship.

After fifteen days of very tempestuous weather, they arrived at the harbor of Tripoli, a little before sunset.  It had been arranged between Lieutenants Decatur and Stewart, that the ketch should enter the harbor about ten o’clock that night, attended by the boats of the Syren.  On arriving off the harbor, the Syren, in consequence of a change of wind, had been thrown six or eight miles without the Intrepid.  The wind at this time was fair, but fast declining, and Lieutenant Decatur apprehended that, should he wait for the Syren’s boats to come up, it might be fatal to the enterprise, as they could not remain longer on the coast, their provisions being nearly exhausted.  For these reasons he determined to venture into the harbor alone, which he did about eight o’clock.

An idea may be formed of the extreme hazard of the enterprise from the situation of the frigate.  She was moored within half gunshot of the bashaw’s castle, and of the principal battery.  Two of the enemy’s cruisers lay within two cables’ length, on the starboard quarter, and their gunboats within half gunshot, on the starboard bow.  All the guns of the frigate were mounted and loaded.  Such were the immediate perils that our hero ventured to encounter with a single ketch, beside the other dangers that abound in a strongly fortified harbor.

Although from the entrance to the place where the frigate lay, was only three miles, yet, in consequence of the lightness of the wind, they did not get within hail of her until eleven o’clock.  When they had approached within two hundred yards, they were hailed and ordered to anchor, or they would be fired into.  Lieutenant Decatur ordered a Maltese pilot, who was on board the ketch, to answer that they had lost their anchors in a gale of wind on the coast, and, therefore, could not comply with their request.  By this time it had become perfectly calm, and they were about fifty yards from the frigate.  Lieutenant Decatur ordered a small boat that was alongside of the ketch, to take a rope and make it fast to the frigate’s fore-chains.  This being done, they began to warp the ketch alongside.  It was not until this moment that the enemy suspected the character of their visitor, and great confusion immediately ensued.  This enabled our adventurers to get alongside of the frigate, when Decatur immediately sprang aboard, followed by Mr. Charles Morris, midshipman.  These two were nearly a minute on deck, before their companions