Earlier this week, sharpshooters on the fantail of the U.S. Navy destroyer Bainbridge picked off three pirates with single bullets to the head, freeing a hostage merchant marine captain. Two days later, the Bainbridge sailed to the aid of another American merchant ship attacked by pirates.
William Bainbridge, the naval officer for whom the ship is named, would be pleased. Bainbridge played an important role cleaning out a similar nest of corsairs who plagued shipping off African coastlines two centuries ago.
Born in Princeton, N.J., in 1774, Commodore Bainbridge joined the Navy in 1798. It was a time when Congress and President John Adams wrestled over how to deal not only with the combined threats of England and France, the military superpowers of the time, but also with bands of pirates who preyed on the rapidly expanding shipping of a youthful nation without much of a sea force.
After service against French forces in the West Indies during what was called the "Quasi-War," the Navy in 1800 handed Bainbridge the command of a converted merchant ship, the George Washington. He was told to deliver tribute -- a bribe, in effect -- to the dey of Algiers in return for safe passage. This was essentially piracy on a state scale. These days, the Somali pirates take a ship and ask for ransom. Back then, we just paid rulers in advance to safeguard our merchant fleets from the Barbary pirates who operated off the coast of North Africa.
