1. Commodore William Bainbridge was a United States Navy officer.
26 Facts About William Bainbridge
1. 2.
William Bainbridge was born in Princeton, New Jersey, eldest son of Dr Absalom Bainbridge and Mary Taylor.
3.
William Bainbridge was raised by his maternal grandfather, John Taylor, Esq.
4.
William Bainbridge was trained as a seaman in ships in the Delaware River, then considered the best 'school' for seamanship because of the great skill required to navigate that river.
5.
William Bainbridge served aboard the small merchant ship Cantor in 1792.
6.
In 1796 after returning from Brazil, William Bainbridge served aboard the merchant ship Hope, a small vessel of 140 tons with four nine-pound guns.
7.
William Bainbridge was ordered to patrol the waters in the West Indies along with Captain Williams of USS Norfolk, both of whom were under the command of Murray, who was in command of the frigate USS Montezuma.
8.
William Bainbridge surrendered Retaliation without resistance to two French frigates, Volontier, with 44 guns and l'Insurgente bearing 40 guns, after he mistook them for British warships and approached them without identifying them.
9.
In 1800 during the months before the First Barbary War broke out, William Bainbridge, who was now Capt.
10.
William Bainbridge commanded USS Essex on her second cruise, receiving command from Capt.
11.
On May 21,1803, William Bainbridge was placed in command of USS Philadelphia, tasked with enforcing a blockade of Tripoli, Libya.
12.
William Bainbridge ran the ship aground on an uncharted reef on October 21,1803.
13.
William Bainbridge made the situation worse by putting on all sail before sounding around the boat to determine the actual situation, resulting in driving the ship hard onto the bank.
14.
All efforts to refloat her under five hours of cannon fire from Tripolitan gunboats, inaccurate fire that with no shots coming near the powerful frigate, and William Bainbridge decided to surrender.
15.
William Bainbridge Eaton established a group of about 20 Christian and perhaps 100 Muslim mercenaries to begin the takeover of Tripoli starting with Derna.
16.
William Bainbridge managed to trek with the small detachment of Marines led by Presley O'Bannon and his mercenary force over 500 miles.
17.
Satisfied with the results William Bainbridge returned to Boston and took command of the navy yard at Charlestown.
18.
On 15 September, shortly after the War of 1812 broke out between the United Kingdom and the United States, William Bainbridge was appointed to command the 44-gun frigate USS Constitution, succeeding Captain Isaac Hull.
19.
Under William Bainbridge, she was sent to cruise in the South Atlantic.
20.
William Bainbridge had a crew of 300 men under Captain Henry Lambert and was on her way to the East Indies, carrying the newly appointed Lieutenant-General Hislop of Bombay and his staff along with dispatches to St Helena, Cape of Good Hope and every British port in the Indian and China Seas.
21.
William Bainbridge had an inexperienced crew with only a very few trained seamen, and her men had only had one day's gunnery drill.
22.
In 1820, William Bainbridge served as second for Stephen Decatur in a duel with James Barron that cost Decatur his life.
23.
Decatur's wife, along with many historians, believe that William Bainbridge had actually harbored a long-standing resentment of the younger but more famous Decatur and arranged the duel in a way that made the wounding or killing of one or more duelists very likely.
24.
William Bainbridge died in Philadelphia in July 1833 and was buried there at the Christ Church Burial Ground.
25.
William Bainbridge left some money that was invested in Pennsylvania State bonds, which were sold and invested in other projects.
26.
William Bainbridge was the namesake for Fort William Bainbridge, built during the Creek War near Tuskegee, Alabama.