Stephen Decatur and the Second Barbary War-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

On Friday I wrote about the USS Saranac which accompanied Stephen Decatur to the Mediterranean Sea in what became known as the Second Barbary War.  Again, I have not been able to find out much about this ship, but decided to at least find out something about the war it fought in back then.

Once the War of 1812 was over, it became necessary for the U.S. Navy to again turn its attention to the Mediterranean Sea where the Barbary pirates were once again harassing and capturing American merchant ships and holding them for ransom.

On February 23, 1815, President James Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war against them and it became so on March 2.

Two squadrons were assembled, one under Decautur at New York and the other at Boston under William Bainbridge.  Decatur's fleet of ten ships (one of which was the USS Saranac) was ready first and left for Algiers on May 20, 1815.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812's USS Saranac

From War of 1812: A Complete Chronology.

While researching for the USS Saranac which went hunting for the Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah at the end of the Civil War, I came across a USS Saranac in the War of 1812.  I, however, was unable to find out much about it.

It was a brigantine laid down in 1814 and named after a river in New York that flowed into Lake Champlain, although it did not serve on the Great Lakes.  It was not completed in time to fight in the war and launched in 1815.  On June 20, 1815, it sailed from New York as part of Commodore Stephen Decatur's squadron, one of two squadrons sent to the Mediterranean Sea to deal with the Barbary Pirates in Algiers.

It was decommissioned in 1818.

--Brock-Perry