The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 Paperback – June 1, 2006

Richard Zacks' excellent history, The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805, was published in 2005. It tells the timeless and yet timely tale of America's first major covert operation which was led by the now almost forgotten William Eaton. He was an ex-captain in the US army and former consul to Tunis who was dispatched by President Jefferson to north Africa on a mission to liberate the crew of the USS Philadelphia.The Barbary pirates of north Africa (see earlier post, The Shores of Tripoli, Jefferson in London and the Birth of the US Navy, 4/20/12) had been terrorizing, kidnapping and enslaving westerners for centuries. An old a Barbary maxim statures: "Whoever acts like a sheep, the wolf will eat." Most Western nations had simply opted to pay tribute to the wolf rather than confront the pirates. After the American revolution, the USA no longer had the protection of the Royal Navy on the high seas. In 1803 the entire American fleet consisted of six ships. The Philadelphia, launched in 1799, was a 36-gun American frigate commanded by Captain William Bainbridge (the same Bainbridge after which Bainbridge island in my adopted home state of Washington is named). The US did not want to be mistaken for a sheep and, therefore, dispatched the Philadelphia to the Mediterranean. Bainbridge had orders to confront the Barbary pirates, instead he managed on October 31, 1803 to run his ship aground in Tripoli harbor. The crew of 307 officers and sailors was captured and held hostage by Yussef Karmaanli, the Bashaw of Tripoli. Yussef has the distinction of being the first foreign ruler to ever declare war on the United States.William Eaton was a flinty New Englander who had served in the continental army during the American Revolution, attended Dartmouth college after the war and served as the American consul in Tunis. Jefferson and his secretary of state, James Madison, opted to dispatch William Eaton to try to effect the release of the American hostages. Yussef Karmaanli had a brother Hamet who was his political rival for the throne of Tripoli. The Jefferson administration hoped Eaton would stir up a civil war that would topple Yussef and liberate the American sailors. It was therefore, the libertarian Jefferson who first implemented an American policy of using a covert force to effect a "regime change" in a foreign country.William Eaton had some choice words in support of aggressive American action against the pirates of the Barbary coast. He said, "If the Congress do not consent that the government shall send a force into the Mediterranean to check the insolence of those scoundrels and to render the United States respectable, I hope they will resolve at their next session to wrest the quiver of arrows from the left talon of the (American) Eagle...and substitute a fiddle bow or a cigar in lieu."Eaton was given the vague title of "Navy Agent of the United States for the Several Barbary Regencies". With long delays in orders due to the communications realities of the time, Eaton had been granted great latitude to get the job done.In spite of a lack of personnel, money and resources Eaton managed to link up with Hamet and lead a rag tag band of US marines (ten in all), Greeks soldiers and native mercenaries on a 500-mile overland desert journey from Alexandria to Derne in Tripoli. Eaton, greatly outnumbered, led these and US naval forces in the battle of Derne on April 27, 1805 and triumphing over the Bashaw's forces capturing the fortifications of Derne in what is now Libya. His faithful Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon of the US marines raised the American flag over a foreign fort for the first time in history. The Marine hymn owes its reference to the "shores of Tripoli" due to this battle. With the capture of Derne and a US naval blockade of Tripoli, victory seemed to be within the grasp of the American forces.Jefferson, however, had been secretly proceeding down a double-tracked strategy, having also appointed Tobias Lear, formerly George Washington's private secretary, as US consul general to the Barbary Regencies with the task of negotiating a quick peace with Bashaw Yussef. Lear was a Harvard graduate who had embezzled from his boss, Washington and most likely destroyed some of his Washington's private correspondence, particularly with Jefferson. This naturally endeared Lear to Jefferson. Lear succeeded in making peace with Yussef by promising to abandon Derne, give up the naval blockade of Barbary ports and pay the sum of $60,000 for the release of the Philadelphia crew.Christopher Kelly is the author of America Invades: How We've Invaded or been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth and Italy Invades

The title of this book is deceptive. The secret mission was to rescue the captured American sailors of the USS Philadelphia as well as to place the exiled ruler Hamet on the throne of Tripoli. While these adventures are described in detail, Thomas Jefferson is placed before them and he is really not the focus of this piece. The point of this novel appears to be to correct an injustice due to William Eaton and Jefferson is portrayed almost universally in a negative light. I think it is more accurate to say this book is a biography celebrating Eaton for setting "a national tone of defiance and daring." In addition it shows how even a founding father could make mistakes. To quote the book, "Eaton's mission marked the first tentative steps by a deeply idealistic government trying to wrestle with ugly problems overseas." Jefferson wanted deniability and it has been common ever since for covert agents to be thrown under the bus. While the author certainly is correct that Jefferson made mistakes and allowed his own prejudices to bias him, I think he is overly harsh towards Jefferson's initial decisions. First off, Eaton had a poor track record in northern Africa and was not exceptionally gifted at negotiation. He was very much a "my way or the highway" kind of guy. It is natural to be skeptical of such a man. Second, Hamet was an unknown. As Eaton discovered time and time again, Hamet had neither devout followers nor the resources to conduct a campaign. While the stories of Eaton's mishaps are entertaining to read from Hamet thinking of taking the money and running before the group even left Egypt to devious camel drivers demanding more pay in the middle of a desert, it does little to convince me that Eaton's mission was a good idea. Jefferson's opposition to fully supporting the mission and instead merely allocating sufficient resources to see its potential is the correct choice. While it's true that Eaton's conviction is surely the only reason the mission got anywhere, it is important to note that he would have almost certainly failed entirely without the help of the British consul in Egypt. Eaton is also a bundle of contradictions. Eaton was extremely opposed to ransoming the sailors and piracy in general. Yet, as the author points out, he was perfectly happy to expect repayment for the United States from the tribute of other nations: "The United States, fighting to stop paying tribute to the Barbary pirates, would receive the blood money of the European nations." It is easy to see why Jefferson would be uncomfortable with this. Furthermore one of the financial thorns in Eaton's side was a ransom he paid for an Italian girl Anna in Tunis. I find it hard to understand why he would be willing to pay for her (which essentially freed her whole family), expect the United States government to reimburse him, and yet be unwilling to do the same for his own countrymen. This parallel is not drawn by the author to my knowledge. Derne, the city which Eaton was forced to abandon to slaughter, was clearly a mistake by the United States. While this can be partially blamed on communication methods of the time, it really falls on the diplomat Tobias Lear. While I would like to say something nice about this man to counter his negative image, I can find no evidence to do so. He appears to have been given his position merely by favoritism rather than talent; the novel presents "allegations" (I say this in quotes because while unproven they appear to be true) that he destroyed damning documents about Thomas Jefferson from George Washington's personal collection. He botched the negotiations in every way and from a position of strength seems to have given in to every demand made of him. Given his own history of stealing and financial circumstances, I can't help but wonder if these payments were part of a larger scheme of him skimming off the top. The one man's opinion of Lear that I wish was included is not that of Jefferson or Eaton, but the Secretary of State James Madison. While Madison may not have broken from Jefferson in public, he would have had little reason to pamper Lear. The opinion is never stated, but the epilogue hints at the truth since under Madison's presidency Lear was not assigned anything as grand as his former position, but instead the post of chief accountant in the War department. While I may disagree with the author on several points, I think this book is an extremely interesting read. I also really appreciate that there is sufficient information to draw your own conclusions that may contradict the author. I do not recommend this book if you are looking for a happy ending; it ends on several particularly bleak notes.