Secrets of Old Protestant Cemetery - Tripoli, Libya

Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery

The official Libyan history book Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery by Abdu Hakim Amer Al-Tawil, (Tripoli: Libya; Libyan Center for Historical Studies, 2008), refers specifically to Richard Somers and the Intrepid crew.

The book apparently maintains that the graves of the three officers of the Intrepid became the foundation for the historic cemetery.

British officials at their embassy in Tripoli in the 1940s had informed Mustapha Burchis that they built the walls in 1830, and they were constructed around five pre-existing graves – (see Naval Proceedings – M. Burches, 1950).

There is a conflict here, in the fact that there were three officers and not five, but substantiation that the British built the cemetery walls was apparently confirmed by the primary editor of “Secrets,” Abdu Hakim Amer Al-Tawil, who had, in March 2001, posted, on a genealogical website, a request for information on former British diplomat Hanmer Warrington. The posting read:

[http://genforum.genealogy.com/warrington/messages/188.html]
Annunziata Warrington, 1800's, Libya
HADBA, TRIPOLI, LIBYA March,31,2001

“From the text of the establishment plate of the ‘Old Protestant Cemetery’ in Tripoli-Libya (September 1830), one can easily understand that one of its establishers is the Agent and consul general of U.k. in Tripoli-Libya: ‘Mr. Hanmer Warrington’, whom the grave of his wife, a young daughter and at least 2 of his sons were among the graves of this cemetery, one of them is ‘Hanmer George", father of "Annunziata.’”

“Since I am the new discoverer of this cemetery, busy these days in writing a book considered to be the first ever comprehensive study wrote about this cemetery, and since the writing of the gravestone of ‘Annunziata's’ father was damaged to the limit that it is no more readable, the only information available about him is that he married the Maltese woman ‘Palmyra’, had a daughter from her named ‘ANNUNZIATA’, borned and lived in Libya until 1903, then she died in the fifties of the 20th century with unknown date and place of death. You will be very appreciated if you can send me - to my P. O. Box not e - mail- all information you have about this daughter, including -of course- her portrait.”

This seems to confirm that the cemetery walls were built by the British around some pre-existing graves, possibly those of the Intrepid officers, and seems firmly grounded in fact, however I received a note from Hanseatic Hoelun of Sweden, who wrote: “Abdu Hakim Al-Tawil's book (Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli, Libya) mentions that the Old Protestant Cemetery was established by the Swedish-Norwegian consul, Adolf Hahr (my Great-great-great grandfather) Has anyone checked with the Government of Sweden, which maintains excellent archives?”

[Records at Ancestry.com reflect that Adolf Hahr (1793 - 1861) Born in Signildsberg Manor, Håtuna Uppsala Cnty, Sweden on 26 May 1793 to Anders Hahr and Anna Maria Rahling. Adolf married Charlotta Christina von Scheele and had 6 children. He passed away on 9 Oct 1861 in Hölö Parsonage, Södermanlands, Sweden. http://records.ancestry.com/Adolf_Hahr_records.ashx?pid=674391]

While visiting the museum and archives at the Old Castle Fort, Captain Gregory Miller received a copy of “Secrets” from then Director of Antiquities Dr. Giuma Anag.

Miller reported, “Despite the very positive tone of my negotiations with Dr. Giuma in August 2009, US relations with Libya seemed to noticeably chill after Scotland's release of the Lockerbie Pan Am bomber...While Dr. Giuma and his staff fully embraced the concept of a cooperative cemetery restoration project…Dr. Giuma's successor as Minister of Archaelogy and Antiquities (name unknown) retained the copy of my engineering assessment report and took immediate action on it. Ironically, the cemetery walls and the entry doors were fully restored in 2010--completely funded by the Qaddafi! Subsequently, a Libyan archaeological team was undertaking a meticulous restoration of each of the grave sites until a protest was filed by the AMEMB DCM and the restoration project was halted in the summer of 2010.”

“As for LT Somers, I do not believe Dr. Giuma or his staff knew anything about the purported grave site. He was very supportive of any and all historic preservation projects and shared with me his long term pipedreams of excavating whatever might be left of the Philadelphia and the Intrepid. These would have been very ambitious undertakings as 400 yds of what used to be Tripoli Bay has been reclaimed. Currently, the wrecks of both vessels are likely under a 4-lane coastal roadway.”

“In our second meeting, upon my queries about LT Somers, Dr. Giuma directly polled his staff as to the known existence of any Barbary War gravesites in the vicinity of the Red Castle. One of his senior staff members, offered that he had heard that some very old bones had been exhumed during an excavation project by the Italians in the 1930's but they had been subsequently paved over. Dr. Giuma directed Dr. Turjman to try to locate the site. Dr. Turjamn and I spent the next afternoon surveying the perimeter of the castle but did not focus our efforts on Green Square. Most of the areas adjacent to the Red Castle had, indeed, been paved over but much of this was cobblestone paving. We found no markers or indications of any burial sites.”

Miller offered his copy of the “Secrets” book to the Navy to translate from Arabic to English, but they declined. This fact led to mistaken belief that the Navy and DOD were not interested in the research presented by the book but when the Sec. of Defense visited he met those involved in the research and writing of the book.

After the Navy declined to review and translate “Secrets,” Miller lent his copy of the book to Chipp Reid, whose book The Intrepid will be soon be published. Reid took the book to the U.S. Navy Academy in Annapolis, and had some professors translate the portions of the book that are related to the Intrepid. Reid said a large portion of the book (70 pages) is dedicated to the Intrepid and the war and battles with the Americans at the turn of the 18th century.

As part of an article posted at the Intrepidproject.org, entitled, “We know exactly where they are,” Reid summarized some of what he learned from the translations of the book provided to him.

According to Reid, “The Libyan history is the definitive narrative of the Old Protestant Cemetery. It documents every person - male and female - buried in the cemetery, including a brief biography of each person. The history lists the name and disposition of each of the 75 people buried in the cemetery from 1830, when it was built, to 1890, when use of the cemetery ceased because there was no longer any space. It also specifies which bodies (or remains) are still in the cemetery and which bodies (or remains) various governments or families removed over time.”

[3 Abdu Hakim AlYTawil, Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery (Tripoli, Libya: Libyan Center for Historical Studies, 2008), pp. 71-76. (Tranlsation by Prof. of Arabic Studies Hezi Brosh, United States Naval Academy) 4 Ibid., pp. 80-81.]

Reid: “Attempts to cast doubt over the accuracy of the Libyan history are spurious at best. The Libyan historians went to great lengths to source everything in the cemetery history, including American historians, when they wrote about the crew of the Intrepid and the Philadelphia.”

According to the Intrepidproject account, “The Old Protestant Cemetery remained a dusty, near-forgotten spot some two miles from the medina or old town of Tripoli until the 1920s when Italian road engineers came across the mass grave of the enlisted men of the Intrepid. According to Italian maps and accounts contained in ‘Secrets,’ the engineers found the bodies close to the water while they worked on constructing a landfill for the future Al-Fatah Highway. With help from the Libyans, who knew the general location of the Intrepid enlisted men's mass grave, the Italians exhumed the remains they found, identified them as American using bits of uniform and buttons, and interred the remains in a pair of empty Cemetery coffins.” 5 [5 Ibid., pp. 122-136]

As reported by Reid, “...During a road construction project, Italian workers unearthed the beach grave of the enlisted men. With the help of Libyan authorities, the Italians identified the remains as that of the Intrepid crew and put the remains in two, possibly three, empty stone coffins in the Old Protestant Cemetery next to the graves of the American officers.”

The problem here is the three “graves of the American officers” are three stone crypts, while the American officers were buried in graves dug into the ground by the party of American prisoners from the Philadelphia. If they were buried in graves, how did they end up in the above-ground stone crypts?

That the Italian army road crew uncovered the remains of some of the men of the Intrepid and reburied them in crypts at the Old Protestant Cemetery was, for some time, a contentious point that some refused to believe. This was so despite the fact that historian Frank Kemp had corresponded with an Italian soldier who participated in the relocation of the remains, Dr. G\iuma Anag referred to the discovery of the remains and their relocation at the cemetery to the first American officials to return to Tripoli during the Gadhafi regime, as well as the reference to the Italians by Admiral Roughead in his determination that the cemetery is to be the final resting place for those men.

So now it should be firmly established that at least some of the remains of the Intrepid men were “unearthed” from the “beach grave” and relocated to Old Protestant Cemetery from that location, and that location – what Reid calls “the beach grave” of the enlisted men, is the Original Grave Site, while the Old Protestant Cemetery is where these men were relocated.

According to Reid, and apparently “Secrets,” the Old Protestant Cemetery was constructed around the original graves of the Intrepid officers. It should be easy enough to determine if the remains of the Intrepid officers are indeed in three of the crypts at Old Protestant Cemetery by simply opening them and photographing and examining what is there. This effort would include a search for possible clues (such as buttons or rings) and the taking of DNA samples that can be compared to the DNA samples obtained from the families of the officers (Somers, Wadsworth, Israel). This should lead to the positive identification of at least three of the remains, if the remains of the officers are in the cemetery.

It is the location of the “beach grave,” the original grave of the enlisted men that will be more difficult to find. But that location hasn’t moved in two centuries and is confined to an area within one square mile South and East of the old castle fort, somewhere between the fort and the cemetery. That location can be narrowed further through the examination and analysis of the maps, charts, aerial and satellite photos and reports produced by the Americans, Libyans, Italians, British, Sweeds and others.

According to Reid: “Bainbridge's account makes it very clear that American prisoners buried the three officers apart from the enlisted men. Cowdery describes the burial in his ‘American Captives in Tripoli’ (Boston: Belcher & Armstrong, 1806) as ‘By permission, I took our boatswain and a gang of men and buried these bodies, a little east of the wall of the town.’ Bainbridge's description is far more complete. ‘The ten seamen were buried on the beach, outside the town and near the walls: while the three officers were interred in the same grave, on the plain beyond, or a cable's length southward and eastward of the castle.”1 1 James Fenimore Cooper, Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1846), Vol. 1, p. 112.

Reid: "’Secrets’ also makes great use of archival and modern-day maps, showing the city of Tripoli as it was in 1804, 1830, 1890, 1911, 1920, 1950 and the present day. In each case, the history uses these maps to detail changes to the topography of the city - mostly from landfill projects that allowed the construction of two multi-lane highways. The maps also show the increasingly precarious nature of the location of the cemetery. It currently sits on a small sandstone outcrop next to the Al-Fatah Highway and is increasingly in danger of collapsing onto the road and into the Mediterranean.”

“At the same time, the Libyans embarked on their own two year project to fully document all of the dead in the Old Protestant Cemetery. In so doing, the Libyans identified what they believe is a sixth grave containing Intrepid crew remains.”

“According to ‘Secrets,’ nearly a third of the international deceased originally buried in the cemetery have since been repatriated to their home countries.6[6 Ibid., pp. 331-336.]

Reid: “Currently, the Old Protestant Cemetery contains the remains of the 13 Americans from the Intrepid, several Danes, French, Swedish, Russian, Swiss, English, and Canadian deceased. In all, according to "Secrets," the cemetery currently the holds the remains of 58 people from the international community. As such, it would be impossible to make the Old Protestant Cemetery solely an American cemetery. Anders Jorle, acting chief media officer of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, confirmed the presence of Swedish remains in the cemetery, although he was unaware of how many Swedes are interred there or how long they have been there.” 7 [7 Interview with Anders Jorle, November 21, 2011.]

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the evidence, there is only one conclusion - most if not all of the Intrepid crew of is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery...roughly 1500 meters from the Red Castle on the shoreline of the port of Tripoli. Every available source confirms this. The strongest confirmation of the officers' graves being the foundation of the OPC is not Libyan, but the foremost US naval historian of his time, Gardner W. Allen. In his "Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1905), Allen conducts an in-depth look at the reports of both Turkish and American sources and rightfully concluded that, "The bodies were buried south of the town, the three supposed officers by themselves."8[8 Gardner W. Allen, Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905), pp. 209-210.]

“Since every source points to the Old Protestant Cemetery and no source again says this location there can only be one, unmistakable conclusion: the crew of the first USS Intrepid remains buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery, a graveyard that is crumbling, contains international remains and is wholly unsuitable as any sort of lasting monument to their heroism. There is only one recourse: we must recover and return the remains of Master Commandant Richard Somers and his men and give them a proper military burial in the United States.”

We know Exactly where they’re buried
http://www.intrepidproject.org/Final_Burial_Place_of_Crew_of_First_USS_Intrepid.html

"All reliable sources point to Tripoli's Old Protestant Cemetery - and none say otherwise."Although mystery continues to surround the exact circumstances of how and why the first USS Intrepid exploded and sank September 4, 1804 in Tripoli, Libya, there is no mystery as to where the 13 men who sailed into glory that night now lay. Every available source - American, Libyan, Italian, Swedish and Danish - points to one place, the Old Protestant Cemetery, as the final resting place of Master Commandant Richard Somers and his men. Just as important: there is no evidence that Somers and his men are buried in any other place.

[BK Notes: I have a copy of the "Secrets of Old Protestant Cemetery" on the way and will post parts and review it as soon as I get the relevant parts translated.]

Key Date Chronology 1778-2012

The Old Castle Fort at Tripoli Harbor

Key Date Chronology

1778 September – Richard Somers born in Somers Point, NJ.
1778 October 15 - Battle of Chestnut Neck included Col. Richard Somers, father of Master Commandant Richard Somers.
1783 March. Algierian Barbary coast pirates seize two American merchant ships.
1784 October 11 Morocco pirate corsair seize American brig Betsey.
1785 June Henry Wadsworth born in Falmouth, Mass., now Portland, Maine, next door neighbor to Captain Edward Preble.
1785 Feb Algerian pirates seize two U.S. vessels, demand tribute; Pres. Jefferson deploys gunboats to the Mediterranean. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
1785 US opens diplomatic relations with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
1789 April 30 George Washington sworn in as President.
1793 December 16 President Washington notifies Congress that Barbary pirates were again seizing ships, consults with John Barry and Philadelphia shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys about building a fleet of warships.
1793 15 year old Richard Somers, first mate on family schooner in West Indies, takes command upon the death of the captain and returns ship safely home.
1794 Navy Act of 1794.
1794 March 19 John Barry requests command of the proposed fleet.
1794 March 27 an act of Congress orders building six new frigates.
1794 June 14 Washington orders John Barry “to form and train a class of midshipmen who would then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy.” Barry commissioned first Captain, United States Navy.
1794 Richard Somers attends private Philadelphia Free Academy with schoolmates Charles Stewart, Steven Decatur, Jr., Richard Rush, and James Caldwell.
1794 September Captain John Barry supervises the construction of USS United States.
1794 October 22 Richard Somers, Sr. dies.
1795 December 21 US treaty with Morocco, Algiers “automatically under the clause in the Navy bill,” halts work on the six frigates.
1796 Jan. Sec of War McHenry reports that all six frigates could still be completed.
1796 April Congress approves the completion of three ships at Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, the United States, the Constitution and the Constellation.
1796 September 19 Estimate for outfitting the frigate United States with 305 officers and men, fifty-four marines, for one month $7, 285.
1796 Gheretti/Mastico, a French built Ketch launched (later to become USS Intrepid).
1797 February 3 Richard’s mother Sophia dies.
1797 February 22 Washington, on his birthday, issues Commission No. 1 in the American Navy to John Barry, backdated to 1794. .
1797 March 4 John Adams becomes president.
1797 June 7 Treaty of Tripoli Approved by Senate.
1797 June 10 Treaty of Tripoli Signed by President Adams
1797 June 17 Notice of Treaty of Tripoli published in Pennsylvania Gazette.
1797 June 23 President Adams message to Congress re: Algiers/Barbary States.
1797 July 10 the USS United States is launched, John Barry Captain.
1797 350 applications for 59 commissions in new U.S. Navy.
1798 January 26 US counsel Richard O’Brian arrives in Algiers.
1798 March 9 Charles Stewart commissioned Lieutenant.
1798 April 30 Congress establishes Department of Navy, directed by secretary of cabinet rank, Maryland merchant Benjamin Stoddert.
1798 April 30 Midshipman warrants issued to Richard Somers and Steven Decatur.
1798 May 7 President John Adams appears in Philadelphia at rally.
1798 May 8 Richard Somers takes oath of allegiance.
1798 May James R. Caldwell appointed Midshipman.
1798 May 30 Richard Somers returns to Egg Harbor to get his affairs in order.
1798 June 8 Sloop Delaware (20 guns) under Commodore Stephen Decatur, Sr., takes a French prize, Le Croyable off Egg Harbor.
1798 July 7 USS Untied States gets underway under Capt. John Barry with Decatur, Jr., Charles Stewart and Somers as Midshipmen, head for the West Indies.
1798 Nov 4 Congress agreed to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli.
1799 January 20 Richard Somers commissioned Lieutenant.
1799 June 2 Richard Somers writes will.
1799 June 22 Richard’s brother Constant dies in Russia in boating accident.
1799 Schooner Nautilus built as merchant vessel on Maryland’s East Shore.
1800 Nov. James Caldwell promoted to lieutenant, serves on USS United States.
1801 Somers appointed first lieutenant Boston (28 gun) 250 man sloop sent to the Mediterranean.
1801 James Caldwell assigned to the USS Constellation.
1801 Treaty of Tripoli violated by Yousuf Karamanli, pasha of Tripoli.
1801 January 21 Boston off Tripoli. Somers gets first view of Tripoli Harbor.
1801 May 14, After learning that Pres. Jefferson refused to pay a renewed tribute of $225,000 the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the US by cutting down the US flagstaff in front of the US Consulate.
1801 May 22 Captain Richard Dale takes command of Med. Squadron.
1801 June – US Consul William Eaton contacts Hamad Karamanli, deposed pasha of Tripoli, and older brother of Yousuf and encourages him to return to Tripoli.
1801 July USS Enterprise under Lt. Andrew Sterrett defeats pirate ship Tripoli.
1802 Congress orders the construction of four schooners, the Siren, the Argus, Nautilus and Vixen with Somers given command of the Nautilus.
1802 February 6 Congress recognizes Tripoli has declared war against USA.
1803 April 11 Richard Somers launches schooner Goard Blossom at Mays Landing.
1803 May 13 Richard Somers ordered to oversee the refurbishing of schooner Nautilus.

1803 May 21 Captain Edward Preble given command of the Mediterranean squadron, with flagship frigate USS Constitution (44 guns).


1803 June 24 Somers’s schooner Nautilus ordered to join the Mediterranean squadron under command of Captain Edward Preble.
1803 September 13 Commodore John Barry dies.
1803 September 14 Somers and Nautilus reach Gibraltar.
1803 Preble obtains understanding in Tangier from the emperor of Morocco.
1803 Oct 31 frigate USS Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge in command, runs aground off Tripoli, surrenders with full compliment of crew, 300 men.
1803 Nov 7 the Argus, with Stephen Decatur, joins Nautilus and Constitution.
1803 Dec 23, Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the schooner Enterprise, captures a Barbary pirate ketch, which is entered into the US Navy logs as the USS Intrepid.
1804 February 16 Decatur leads mission aboard Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor and successfully scuttles the captured frigate USS Philadelphia.
1804 June 2 USS Constitution, Enterprise, and Intrepid, a floating hospital, anchor off Syracuse. Siren, Agrus, Vixen and Scourage (also a pirate prize) blockade Tripoli.
1804 July Mediterranean squadron heads for Tripoli, lead by Preble’s flagship, the Constitution, four brigs, the Argus, Siran, Vixen and Scourge, two schooners, Nautilus (Somers) and Enterprise (Decatur) and eight gunboats (156 guns in all).
1804 July 25 Battle of Tripoli begins.

1804 August 3 Somers and Decatur lead flotillas of gunboats against Tripoli fleet, win decisively, though Decatur’s younger brother James Decatur is killed; Caldwell distinguishes himself in boat action; three enemy gunboats captured.

1804 August 7 Attack made against Tripoli fleet; Caldwell killed in Gunboat #9.
1804 Sept 3 Attack made against Tripoli fleet.

1804 Sept 4 Intrepid explodes in Tripoli harbor killing Somers, Wadsworth and ten volunteer sailors, whose remains wash ashore and are recovered.

1804 Sept 5 Intrepid crew buried in two nearby graves, by Dr. Cowdery and other American prisoners, “one cable’s length” (720 feet) from the walls of the old castle fort.
1805 Lt. David Porter takes up collection for Tripoli Monument, which includes the names of all the officers killed in the first Barbary War.
1807 Feb Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born and named after Lt. Henry Wadsworth
1812 British take Washington. The Tripoli monument is damaged, repaired and relocated to the grounds of the US Capitol.
1830 Wife of British Counsel to Tripoli dies and is buried near existing graves, believed to be American sailors, and a wall is built around the cemetery.
1842 Alleged mutiny aboard USS Somers II, a training vessel, results in hanging of Midshipmen, and the end of training officers at sea.

1845 US Naval Academy established by Navy Secretary George Bancroft and the Tripoli Monument is relocated there.

1850 James F. Cooper writes biography of Richard Somers and suggests that someday the captain of an American cruiser should return with his remains so that he can be reburied in his native land among his friends and loved ones.
1905 President Theodore Roosevelt orders the repatriation of the remains of Captain John Paul Jones from a Paris crypt and reburied in the chapel at the Naval Academy.
1911 Italians begin occupation of Libya. Take over port and create the Plaza/Square.
1930 Italian Army road work crew uncovers the remains of five men from the original grave site and they are reburied at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1938 President Franklin Roosevelt orders a search for the location of the graves of the men of the Intrepid in Tripoli. Mustafa Burchis, a Libyan working for the Italians at the port of Tripoli investigates and learns some of the men of the Intrepid are buried at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1940 World War II. Burgis’ report is lost at the American Embassy in Rome.
1948–49 Muastafa Burchis informs the new US Consul Orray Taft, Jr. of his research and the members of the State Dept, US Navy, British embassy and local Libyans hold memorial ceremony and place historic markers at the Old Protestant Cemetery in 1949.
1950-1956 Two reports are published in the US Naval Proceedings journal.
1955 USMC study determines that no Marines are among the Intrepid victims.
1950-1969 The Officer Wife’s Club of Wheelus Air Force base maintain the cemetery.
1977 Two women from New Jersey discover the displaced graves at the cemetery, overgrown with weeds, and write about it in American Legion Magazine.
1980 Rep. William Hughes (D. 2NJ) introduces legislation in Congress to reserve graves for the 13 men of the Intrepid at Arlington in anticipation of their repatriation.
1988 Pres. Ronald Reagan orders the US military to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for terrorist attacks. Two US Navy pilots are shot down, and the remains of one recovered.
2002 Members of the Somers family and Somers Point, N.J. civic leaders petition US government and the Gadhafi Charities Foundation for repatriation. US State Dept. says there is no diplomatic relations with Libya.
2004 Gadhafi renounces terrorism, gives up Weapons of Mass Destruction and the US reestablishes formal diplomatic relations with Libya.
2004 Libyans excavate the original grave site and discover “bones and buttons.”
2004 US Dept. of State opens liaison office in Tripoli.
2004 Libyan guards tell US regional security officer Dan Mehan about American graves at cemetery, overgrown with weeds and in disrepair.
2006 March LTC Robert “Kyle” Carnahan arrives in Tripoli as defense attaché and meets with Dr. Giuma Anag, director of Antiquities.
2006 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2007 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2008 “Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery” book is published in Arabic in Libya.
2009 Gadhaif celebrates the 40th anniversary of coup with a parade at Green Square.
2009 Sept 5 Sec of State Condi Rice visits Gadhafi on the 105th anniversary of the burial of the men of the Intrepid.
2010 March Chief of Naval Operations Adml. Gary Roughead determines that the Old Protestant Cemetery is to be the final resting place for those men of the USS Intrepid, but does not mention the original unmarked mass grave site outside the old castle walls.
2011- February 17 Revolution in Libya begins, which Gadhafi violent suppresses.
2011 March UN & NATO prevents Gadhafi’s military from attacking Benghazi.

2011 April 15 Delegation from Somers Point meets with Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R. NJ), Mike Rogers (R. Mich) and the American Legion in Washington DC.

2011 April Rep. Rogers introduces House Resolution 1497 to repatriate the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli, co-sponsored by LoBiondo.

2011 May 26 Rep. Rogers attaches the Rogers/LoBiondo repatriation resolution to the 2012 Defense Authorization Act (DAA) as an amendment, which passes the House.

2011 August Green Square is liberated and renamed Martyrs Square.
2011 Nov. Sen. Dean Heller (R. Nev.) introduces complimentary Senate bill.
2011 Dec. Sen. John McCain (R. Arizona), ranking Republican on the Sen. Armed Services Com. (SASC) removes Repatriation Amendment before DAA is approved.
2011 Dec. 6 SASC and HASC Conference irons out differences in the DAA and ten US Senators sign letter requesting the Repatriation Amendment be reinserted in the DAA.

2011 Dec. 17 Sec. Defense Leon Panetta visits Tripoli and Intrepid graves at Old Protestant Cemetery.

2011 Dec. 31 President Signs Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision requiring the Navy to evaluate the feasibility of repatriating the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli and report back with recommendations in September 2012.
2012 Feb. 4 Intrepid Project meets at Somers Point Historical Society to consider options.

The Story Thus Far - Greg Sykora's Radio Interview

Greg Sykora in Washington.

Sykora, a Somers Point businessman and member of the Planning Board, did a WIBG Radio interview in which he told the story of Richard Somers and the Somers rings and describes the most recent legislative efforts to repatriate the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Libya.

Greg Sykora – Radio Interview with Dan Kline – WIBG January 2012 The basic components of the story of the Intrepid and what happened in Tripoli and the most recent efforts to repatriate the remains of Richard Somers and the men of the Intrepid.


Richard Somers is a true American hero, was born during the revolution, was one of the first midshipmen to enlist in the U.S. Navy and he died fighting pirates in Tripoli where he remains buried today.

I like to tell the story in the framework of the rings, which symbolize who Richard Somers was and the friends ship and “band of brothers” bond he developed with the other officers he served with.

The Two Rings

Actually there’re two ring stories- one at the beginning and one at the end. The first one is the George Washington Ring. George Washington, the commander of the Revolutionary Army and first president, gave out four rings, and one of these rings was given to Richard Somers when he enlisted in the Navy. It’s now at the Attwater-Kent Museum in Philadelphia, and it has a lock of George Washington’s hair within the ring. It’s one of the famous George Washington rings, one of which was given to Richard Somers.

The second ring story goes back to the night they sailed the Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor.

You have to understand that they just didn’t go over there and go right into Tripoli Harbor. Now these guys were great sailors, they sailed their whole lives, that’s what they did.

They set up a blockade and were taking these pirate ships out as they came out of Tripoli Harbor. What they wanted to do was take the armaments off the captured ships and place them on a captured ship they re-commissioned the Intrepid. The ship we see in the pictures, the ketch Intrepid, was actually a captured pirate ship. It became a fireship.

One of these ships that blockaded Tripoli harbor and chased the pirates was the frigate, Philadelphia, the largest ship we had, which had run aground while chasing some pirates into Tripoli Harbor. It started out as a major catastrophe with the 300 officers and men along with 40 cannon captured by the enemy.

Some of the story of Richard Somers comes from the captured sailors from the Philadelphia. They were watching all of this happen from the old castle fort that’s still there, where these POWs from the Philadelphia were being held captive,.

The Philadelphia, the ship that ran aground and was captured by the pirates was recaptured and sunk by Stephen Decatur while it was in Tripoli Harbor. One of their missions was to destroy the Philadelphia and they were able to do that, using the Intrepid disguised as a pirate ship to sneak into the harbor at night. It was a covert operation, a precursor to the Navy SEALS kind of thing. They could make a movie about this.

Then they refitted the ship, the 64 foot ketch Intrepid, loaded with armaments that had been captured and essentially they made it into a fire-ship – a floating bomb. It could do nothing but sail and explode, that’s all it could do. The idea was to take this floating bomb, sail it into the harbor, light a fuse on fire, escape in row boats, blow up the whole thing, and take out all the ships in the harbor. It was a good idea and it could have worked.

Before they left there was a meeting on Stephen Decatur’s ship. Decatur was to wait for them, grab them escaping in the row boats, and get away in Decatur’s ship.

The night before they were ready to go, there was a meeting in Stephen Decatur’s quarters with Richard Somers and Charles Stewart, another officer who attended school in Philadelphia with Decatur and Richard Somers, and all three had enlisted in the Navy together on the first day the Navy was commissioned.

They took a ring and cut the ring into three pieces, and said that this was our bond, our friendship. This is the famous three pieces of the ring.

Then Richard Somers told the crew that this was probably going to be a suicide mission, and anybody who didn’t want to go, he will completely understand. The twelve guys said we’re doing this. This is our country and we’re doing it.

They tried to do this on Sept. 1st, 1804, but it was cloudy and there was no wind. So they go in a second time and get a little further, and realize they can’t do it again, and come back out. The third time they made the dash to go in, but it was believed that because they had tried twice before, the Libyans were ready for them. That was one of the problems.

They sailed the Intrepid in and as the story goes, the ship was boarded, and instead of letting them have all the armaments, it would have really turned the tide on everything that was going on, Richard Somers lit the thing on fire and blew up him and everybody else.

From that point the bodies washed ashore, and as told by the POWs from the Philadelphia and the Muslims at the time, since these were infidels, they threw them in the street and dogs were mauling them. Some were in pieces .Some were in full bodies, and then the POWs from the Philadelphia dug the graves and put them in the graves.

Actually, there were really four graves, three graves for the three officers, and then the other mass grave was for the other men.

That’s a brief history. It’s a little disheartening that the local school system doesn’t teach this. How can they not teach such a tremendous American historical story? This should be part of the curriculum of every history class in the nation, but let’s just limit it to South Jersey and Somers Point – it all started here in our little neck of the woods.

But the story doesn’t end there. In fact in many ways, what we are talking about, it may be just beginning.

Now there’s the repatriation effort with the families trying to get those bodies back.

You have to go into hostile territory to do that, and there’s a million different reasons why it didn’t happen, there were many different efforts along the way, and I’d like to think that we’ve taken it further than any other effort. And it seems like we almost got them home except for John McCain.

I got involved in this effort to get these men home some 20 years ago. Actually it had a lot to do with the Route 52 bridge project between Somers Point and Ocean City, NJ. Twenty years ago they started coming around and talking about it, you know the DOT doesn’t move quickly, it takes them 20 years to plan for a ten year project. And one of the discussions was what we were going to do with this Somers Mansion, which is the home of Richard Somers’ grandfather.

I was on the planning board, and the Historical Society got involved. That’s when I met Sally Hastings, now the President of the Historical Society. And it was intriguing to me that we have all this stories, this rich history right here under our nose, a hidden nugget that nobody realizes is even right here.

As time went on I got more and more involved in the effort. There was another guy Seth Grossman, one of the original guys who got involved in creating Richard Somers Day, which is kind of a new thing, going on for about ten years now.

But rather than just Richard Somers, the repatriation effort is for the entire crew of the Intrepid. At one time it was all about Richard Somers, but then we took a different tactic.

There is a gentleman named Chipp Reid who has written a book called The Intrepid 13, and as he was getting into the story and writing this factual and historical book, he recognized the fact that it wasn’t really as much about Richard Somers as it was about the Intrepid and these men. They came from Maine, Massachusetts, Annapolis, Maryland, Philadelphia, the thirteen colonies. They were a smattering of men from all over that were on that boat. And as a strategic measure to bring them back, we decided to involve these other men, their families and these other states.

And I will give a lot of credit to our mayor, Jack Glasser of Somers Point, who wrote many, many letters to the mayors and council people in other towns and got them involved. Some got involved and some didn’t. But it made our hand stronger when we went down to Washington to lobby for these things that it wasn’t just about this little four square mile town in Atlantic County, New Jersey. It was about the 13 men of the Intrepid and their participation in this historical event.

What will happen? We got prices on this. It will cost about $85,000 – and as far as the Navy goes, it is not a big appropriation for them. That would pay for them to go get the bodies, bring them back and rebury them. They would take all the buttons and bones and whatever is left and separate them, put them into containers and they would be sent to Hawaii where the Navy has a forensic laboratory, and after an autopsy and DNA testing, they will be placed into 13 graves. It will take about 18 months for everything, from the time they go over there, to the time they are put into the ground and given a patriotic burial with full military honors.

We have our American heroes, the fore-runners to the modern navy, the first American Marines and SEALS and the genesis of it all right here.

But it’s a national story, and one that anybody from coast to coast can be completely proud of. The kind of story this nation was built on.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo had picked up on this as well. He was involved from the very beginning and as our Congressman, he ran with the ball. He tried to do many things in a short amount of time He dug his feet in, but was blocked at every angle, and personally I want to thank Frank for all his efforts.

It was about two years ago when Frank got another Congressman involved, Mike Rogers from Michigan, a veteran and the powerful head of the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers actually went over to Libya and visited these graves while he was there. So what they did was they put together a bill, the repatriation bill, which had to get the support of a majority of the 400 plus members of the House of Representatives.

They recognized that the bill standing alone would not go anywhere, so it was the genius of Mike Rogers to make it an amendment to the budget of the DOD – the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. And this past year, in 201,1 we went down there and lobbied, and the amendment, sponsored by Rogers and LoBiondo, passed the House of Representatives.

And here we are, got it through the House. This was great. We finally did it, and now all we had to do was get it past the 100 guys in the Senate.

We had three sponsors in the Senate, but they were all Republican and we didn’t want to make this a partisan issue, so the group, which consisted of our lobbyist Mike Caputo, our historian Chipp Reid, Sally Hastings, Walter Gregory was involved, the Mayor was involved, the American Legion was involved, members of the Somers family, Americans for Freedom were involved, as well as members of the Wadsworth family, William Wadsworth, who is a Maine state legislator. We went down as a group and lobbied the Democrats. We got all the committees involved and went after the Democrats to get them involved. (The above people serve on a committee but not all went to Washington.)

I’ve been down to Washington before on other issues, but this was different. We had meetings with a number of Senators, mostly with their staff, who really do all of the work. Most of the Congressional staff are in their twenties and thirties, except for McCain’s staff, who are in their fifties and sixties. Imagine that. Everyone was endearing, glad to see that we took our time to come out, that the families were there, and we had our facts and showed them what we had, and they were all glad to help push this thing along, except McCain’s office.

We go to McCain’s office and they had a staffer there by the name of Walsh, and he wouldn’t let any of us into the room except for the families – the two families, Somers and Wadsworth, four people, and he basically accosted them. He said, “What are you really here for? You want money for a monument? What is this really about? You can’t be serious about bringing these family members home – you didn’t even know them.” It was really ignorant, a bad situation. This is a staff member in McCain’s office.

So at the very end, we don’t have any sponsors on the Democratic side, but had a lot of positive response except for McCain’s office. The next day, we had about twenty people, got a lot of attention at a staff meeting, and there was this guy raising his hand and asking these questions about McCain, why isn’t he for it? We said we didn’t know, and he got up and left the room. We finished the meeting but we didn’t know who he was.

When somebody is sponsoring something in the Capitol, everybody gets on their Blackberries immediately, and it kind of goes through organic communication.

It turns out that guy was a John Kerry staffer, and he went back to Kerry and when Kerry found out that McCain was against it, Kerry wanted to be for it. So Kerry was the first Democrat to sponsor the bill in the Senate. And he’s a big guy, and before long these others – Lautenberg, Menendez jumped on board and we have green lights all over.

We thought all we had to do was go home and watch it happen on C-SPAN, but what we watched was John McCain being the ranking officer of the Dept. of Defense bill that was going through with our amendment attached to it.

People think it is the Libyans who was stopping this from happing, but it wasn’t the Libyans, it was John McCain.

The Libyans were always cooperative. We had an international lobbyist who had a relationship with Gadhafi and they loved the idea. You have to understand that there’s only 13 Americans in this cemetery in Tripoli. It’s an international cemetery, not an American cemetery, and its not American ground. It’s on hostile ground. It’s off the beaten path. It’s near the water’s edge and its falling down. It looks like it might wash away someday.

Mike Caputo our lobbyist made the relationship with the Libyans and they were so excited about it they commissioned a book to be written about every single one of the people buried there in that cemetery. The book is two and half inches thick. It’s huge, and of course it is written in Arabic, and the author historian Chipp Reid who wrote the Intrepid book, he had the sections devoted to Richard Somers and the crew of the Intrepid translated. They clearly identify that the bodies are there and our history is in their books.

They figured that this would be a way to make a good relationship with us, but then the international situation deteroiated, and all of a sudden things were cut off and that stopped that effort completely. But it didn’t stop the fact that the book was written or some of the other things that had gotten started.

The excuse we got at that time actually came from the State Department that we need to have a relationship with Libya and that cemetery would be a perfect shrine. Our position was – keep the shrine, that’s great, who knows what’s under there, we just want the bodies. It doesn’t matter, we just want the bodies.

So the Libyans, for whatever reasons, have always wanted to work with us. People think it was them – the Libyans, who were preventing this from happening, and McCain and the Navy would probably like people to think that.

McCain happens to be a ranking official on the Senate Armed Services Committee and that ranking official gets to set the agenda for the bills. So the bill is coming forth and there are all these amendments on it, including the repatriation amendment. And as you read the amendments on the Dept. of Defense Appropriations bill, which is where the Navy gets its money, McCain is going through them one by one and they put all these amendments on there, and when they get to the Richard Somers Repatriation amendment, and they skip over it, they pull it, and it doesn’t make it as an attachment to the bill.

So now that amendment isn’t an amendment any more, it is Section 598, is the number of what this piece of legislation that was peeled off, but it can’t just go away, it goes into what they call a conference committee, and they talk about it and they discuss about what it is and why and how they can deal with it. Now keep in mind there are a couple of hundred amendments that are associated in a bill of that magnitude and it is set aside and it becomes a section – Section 598 of that bill.

Basically what happens now is that it is in this conference meeting, which I have to say was their way of trying to squash this thing. Well, our Congressman Frank LoBiondo muscled his way in on that conference and he led the charge to get them to look into it a lot deeper than what they wanted to.

Now interestingly enough, the money they are spending to look into it is greater than the complete repatriation effort, but that’s beside the point. In the end of the day, the win for us was that Section 598 gives the Navy 279 days, which puts us at October 1st, 2012, to give a complete report on what their position is on this effort.

Interestingly enough, it’s kind of confusing, but at the same time this was going on, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, you may have seen the article about it in the Press of Atlantic City, he went over there to inspect the graves himself.

Now the interesting part of it is, before he went over there, on the way over there, American soldiers went in and renovated the Protestant Cemetery, the cemetery that was falling down. It was no place for anyone to live or for our heroes to be buried, and they went in and renovated it, patched all the walls and cleaned it up.

We were wondering who it was. We found out through the Veterans for Freedom that it was the American soldiers who were told to go in and clean the place up. We don’t know who told them, but when Panetta was walking through the supposedly decrepit cemetery, the walls weren’t even dry from being patched.

So that was pretty disheartening for us who are trying to paint a picture of the cemetery as it really was. So now they are saying we don’t have to go over there and get these men because the cemetery is fixed up. But it’s more about the fact that it is not United States ground, not a place for any American, let alone a sailor who has dedicated their life to our country, heroes from the genesis of our Navy.

We are also trying to raise money for a monument for Richard Somers in Somers Point, and we have a completely volunteer Monument Committee that’s designing a monument and raising the funds for it. So we’re working on that angle.

The next thing is to contact McCain, find out what’s inside his head. He’s not taking our calls in DC. I don’t want to say cover-up. I won’t say those things. I just want to say, answer the question. Why don’t you want to do what needs to be done?

We are also trying to do our own study on it and that might happen. But that’s where we stand right now.

When we are finally successful, and we eventually will be, when the remains of Somers and his men are finally brought home, it will be a great day for Somers Point, for Atlantic County, for the State of New Jersey, for American Veterans, even for the United States Navy and the entire nation.

Learn more about this effort and sign the petition by visiting:
http://www.intrepidproject.org/home.php

Volunteer to help or donate to the Monument Fund at:
http://www.somerspointhistory.org/

[Special thanks to Sally Hastings for recording this radio program and editing this transcript]

The Somers/Washington Ring - Stolen

SOMERS’ WASHINGTON RING STOLEN AND RECOVERED
– By William Kelly - billkelly3@gmail.com

The Somers Washington ring is one of the most legendary relics of the nation’s family jewels. It contains a lock of George Washington’s hair and was given to Richard Somers, one of the first young officers of the United States Navy.

While Somers was killed in the September 4, 1804 explosion of the USS Intrepid in Tripoli Harbor, and his remains are still buried there today, his ring never made it to its proper heirs, was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical Society, discarded to near obscurity, stolen by a janitor, sold to a private collector and eventually recovered by the FBI.

Today the ring remains locked away in a closet at the Attwater-Kent Museum in Philadelphia while some members of the Somers family seek its return to the family so it can be publicly displayed at a local museum in Richard Somers’ hometown of Somers Point, NJ,

Featured in a History Channel TV show about the special FBI art theft unit that recovered it, the Somers ring, is currently stored in a secure vault alongside other rare artifacts at the museum near Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was last put on display among other Washington affiliated items and may be put on public display once again with the anticipated repatriation of the remains of its original owner, Master Commandant Richard Somers, USN.

Born during the American Revolution in Somers Point, New Jersey, Richard was the son of a privateer who the British branded a "pirate" for capturing their merchant ships and advertising the sale of their contents. As the son of a Quaker plantation owner from Somers Point, NJ, Richard was trained and educated to be a gentleman at the Philadelphia Free Academy.

This school could be considered the naval academy of its day, as its principal instructor was John Barry, a schoolmaster who had the first book copyrighted in the United States and associated with his namesake, Captain John Barry, the first commissioned Captain in the U.S. Navy.

Three of Barry’s Philadelphia Free Academy students - Richard Somers, Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart became the first Midshipman in the new Navy and assigned to Captain John Barry aboard the U.S.S. United States, built at the South Philadelphia Navy Yard.

It was in 1798, when the paths of George Washington and Richard Somers crossed and Washington had the opportunity to give Somers the ring. Washington, who had served as the first President until a year before, visited the recently launched frigate United States, and reportedly had dinner aboard the ship with Captain Barry.

At 7 P.M. on evening November 9, 1798, when the United States was anchored at Chester, Pennsylvania, Captain John Barry and the ship’s designer and builder Joshua Humphries came aboard. Shortly thereafter, General George Washington arrived at Chester, where the horse troops of the Philadelphia cavalry received him. Washington stayed in Chester overnight, possibly aboard the United States, which gave him a 15-gun salute upon his departure the next morning.

It was customary for the Captain to entertain guests in his cabin for dinner, and include his top officers and Midshipmen, which would have included Somers, Decatur and Stewart, and a unique occasion for Somers to have obtained the ring from Washington.

After tours in the West Indies and Mediterranean, primarily chasing pirates, Midshipmen Somers and Decatur were promoted to Lieutenants and given command of their own ships. Congress approved the construction of a number of frigates and four schooners, but the young officers couldn’t wait to build new boats and Somers oversaw the refurbishing of an old, discarded Delaware river fishing schooner rechristened the USS Nautilus.

Decatur got the USS Enterprise, while Stewart was in command of the Syren and they set off across the North Atlantic to fight the Barbary Pirates.

Enroute Decatur encountered and boarded a suspicious merchant vessel, and discovered the sword of an officer from the USS Philadelphia, a frigate sent to blockade Tripoli harbor that ran aground and was captured. Decatur took the ship as a prize, made the pirates prisoners and rechristened the captured ship the USS Intrepid, putting it in good service fighting the pirates.

Just before emarking on his last mission aboard the Intrepid, Somers huddled with his Philadelphia school mates Stewart and Decatur, took a ring off his finger, cut it into three parts and gave the others each a piece.

This was not the ring Washington had given him. The ring with Washington’s hair was left back in Philadelphia with his sister Sarah. The dark blue and white enamel ring contains thirteen pearls surround a glass locket, and is said to contain a genuine relic - a piece of George Washington’s hair. Washington reportedly gave the ring to Somers around the time he was granted a warrant as a midshipman, in April 1798.

Before he left to fight the Barbary pirates, Somers had the ring and gave the ring to his sister Sarah Keen for safe keeping. Sarah’s husband William Kean was an attorney who became the executor of Somers’ estate, which included most of Somers Point, New Jersey at the time, also included the ring.

William Keen had also handled the distribution of prize money from a pirate ship Somers had captured.

When Somers never returned from Tripoli, his sister Sarah inherited the ring, and when she died, the ring was passed on to her niece, Sarah Sophia Leaming, of Upper Township, New Jersey.

Somers’ sister Sarah was buried in a grave next to the old New York Avenue schoolhouse, and left money for a monument to be built to ensure the community didn’t forget her brother, whose remains are still buried on the Tripoli harbor beach.

Sarah Sophia Leaming, the daughter of Richard’s nephew Constant Somers, had married William Leaming, and their son Jonathan Leaming makes mention of the ring.

The affidavit of Jonathan Leaming (December 25, 1891), the son of Constant Somers’ daughter Sarah and William Leaming, attested that, "…Among the personal effects of Sarah Keen was a peculiar, antique finger ring, which was always called Washington’s ring. It is a flat, gold ring, with a square setting of dark blue enamel. On the outside edge of this dark blue enamel square is a small stripe of white enamel, and in the center of said square is a round box and glass containing hair surrounded by thirteen pearls. On each side of said square, on the shanks of the ring are alternate gold and light blue enamel stripes, within which field of stripes on each side, is small circle of dark blue enamel. The hair contained in this ring is said to be that of George Washington."

"This deponent avers that he has frequently heard to said Sarah Keen declare that this ring was presented to her brother Lieutenant Richard Somers, by George Washington, the first president of the United States, and that the hair within the setting was that of George Washington, and that her brother had left the ring in her care when he embarked for Tripoli…"

In 1926, Edmund Leaming, the grandson of Sarah Sophia Leaming, then Vice Chancellor of New Jersey, loaned the ring to the Museum at the State House at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. A Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper report in January 1932 notes that the Somers ring was only one of four known rings with locks of Washington’s hair, and that Leaming intended to donate the ring to the Cape May County Historical Society, but he died before he could arrange for that to happen.

The ring was put on display in Philadelphia until the National Park Service took over operations of the museum in the 1950’s. The ring was then said to have been bequeathed to the Pennsylvania Historical Society in 1958 by the remaining Leaming family of Morrestown, and was put into storage.

While there are no listings for anyone named Leaming in the Morrestown phone directory today, there are plenty of Leamings in Cape May County. On Route 9 in Upper Township today there is a large estate called the Leaming Plantation, which dates to the earliest settlers, whaling families from New England.

With the large, Quaker Somers family owning most of the land north of the Egg Harbor river, and the Leamings south of it, it was natural for the Somers and Leaming families to have some inter-relationships, and the Somers – Leaming connection goes back to the earliest days people lived there.

Susan Leaming today, is a distant but clear relative of the Somers-Leaming family of yester-year, and original owners of the Somers’ Washington Ring.

While the ring was kept among the extensive collection of artifacts of the Pennsylvania Historical Society (PHS), a nighttime janitor, Earnest Medford, made some spare money by pilfering some of the closeted items, mainly antique swords and guns, but also other items, including the Somers ring. He sold them for cash to George Csizmazia, an electric company superintendent and local connoisseur of historic weapons. Csizmazia didn’t do collect them for profit, and resell them, but rather kept them for himself. He stocked his suburban apartment with millions of dollars in museum quality artifacts that he got from Medford the janitor for only about $8,000.

The Somers ring, a one-of-a-kind item, is priceless, and could not have been sold on the open market without being immediately recognized by collectors. While he didn’t try to sell his stolen collection, he was proud of it, and after Csizmazia showed off some of his prized swords at an antique show, he became a marked man.

When the museum staff began to itemize their collection and realized some things were missing, they called the FBI Art Theft unit, which is based in Philadelphia, to investigate. Since Csizmazia had showed off some of his prized swords at an antique show, the FBI questioned him and he immediately confessed. He then told the FBI about Medford, the janitor, and both were convicted in court and received four year prison terms. When Csizmazi took the FBI agents back to his apartment, they found a virtual National Treasure of looted antiques and artifacts, including Somers’ Washington Ring.

Now as the remains of Somers are being considered for repatriated home, his ring should be returned to the Somers family and put on public display once again.

Lt. Caldwell, Midshipman Dorsey & the Tripoli MIAs

Master Commandant Richard Somers - Commander of the ketch Intrepid on its last mission.

It says, inscribed in Latin on the Tripoli Monument at Annapolis, "Here lies the remains of" before the names of the officers who died in the course of the first war against the Barbary Pirates, including Richard Somers, Henry Wadsworth, Joseph Israel, James Decatur and James Caldwell, among others. This clearly indicates that the officers who had the Tripoli Monument built certainly intended their remains to be retrieved from their Tripoli graves.

While Somers, Wadsworth and Israel were killed in the September 4, 1804 explosion of the Intrepid in Tripoli harbor, the others also died in the course of the Battle of Tripoli and are buried somewhere along its shores.

One of the goals of the mission of the Intrepid was to free the 300 man crew of the frigate USS Philadelphia, which ran aground while chasing a pirate corsair into Tripoli Harbor. Captain Bainbridge surrendered his ship without a fight, which would later lead to his court marshal and acquittal, while his first officer, Lt. David Porter would, once freed, take up the collection to have the Tripoli Monument constructed.

Lt. Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers' childhood schoolmate, took the Intrepid into Tripoli harbor one night disguised as a trader that had run the American blockade, and recaptured and sunk the Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor.

Throughout August 1804, Captain Preble, the commander of the American Squadron, supervised a number of attacks against the pirates at Tripoli, engaging the entire American fleet on at least four occasions, having the larger ships fire cannon broadsides against the castle batteries, while the smaller ships escorted gunboats with cannon mounted on their bows into the enemy fleet, at pistol range and often engaged in sword duels and hand to hand fighting.

Preble assigned Richard Somers to oversee one flank while Stephen Decatur oversaw another, and both achieved success in the fighting during every attack.

Lt. Caldwell, who knew Somers and Decatur as Philadelphia school boys, was given command of a captured enemy gunboat that was outfitted with cannon and ten men. Not long into the first battle,
Caldwell's Gunboat #9 received a direct hit from a hot cannonball fired from the castle ramparts. The fireball hit the gunboat's gunpowder and ammo cache, which resulted in a tremendous explosion that completely destroyed the boat and killed everyone aboard. The bodies of Lt. Caldwell and Midshipman Dorsey, their officer's uniforms clearly seen by the American prisoners being mauled by wild dogs.

In one fight, Stephen Decatur's younger brother, Lt. James Decatur, captured an enemy gunboat, but the pirate captain, after surrendering, killed young Decatur after his guard was down. In the midst of the battle, when Stephen Decatur realized what happened to his brother, disengaged from his own fight, after capturing an enemy boat, cut it lose and went after the pirate captain who had killed his brother. Finding him, while they were engaged in a furious fight, Reuben James took a sword meant for Decatur and saved his life. Decatur killed the enemy captain, but was reprimanded by Preble for losing the pirate ship he had captured.

Some say it was the captured Captain Bainbridge who secreted a note to Preble, suggesting that the Intrepid be outfitted as a fireship and sent back into the harbor to sink the anchored pirate fleet.

Somers and Wadsworth volunteered for that mission and Lt. Israel, who outfitted the Intrepid with its explosives, insisted on joining the mission, which resulted in them all being killed, along with ten other men.

As with Caldwell, Dorsey and the men of Gunboat #9, their bodies washed ashore and were mauled by the wild dogs before they were given over to an American burial party led by the chief surgeon of the Philadelphia Dr. Cowdery, who identified the three officers, primarily by their uniforms.

Lieutenant James R. Caldwell, USN, (1778-1804)

James R. Caldwell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 1 November 1778. He was appointed a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy in May 1798 and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant at the beginning of November 1800. During the undeclared war with France he served in the frigate United States, schooner Experiment and armed ship Ganges. From late 1801 into 1803 Lieutenant Caldwell was an officer of the frigate Constellation during the initial phase of the war with Tripoli. In mid-1803 he returned to the Mediterranean in the brig Siren to participate in further operations against that piratical North African state. Caldwell distinguished himself in a boat action on 7 July 1804 and also took part in an attack on 3 August that resulted in the capture of three vessels that were taken into the Navy as gunboats. One of these, Gunboat Number 9, was under Caldwell's command when the U.S. squadron again bombarded Tripoli on 7 August 1804. While hotly engaged with an enemy battery, a hot shot penetrated her magazine and Gunboat Number 9 blew up. Lieutenant Caldwell and eleven others were killed or mortally wounded in the explosion.

The U.S. Navy has named two ships in honor of James R. Caldwell, including: USS Caldwell (Destroyer # 69, later DD-69) of 1917-1936; and USS Caldwell (DD-605) of 1942-1966.

The USS Bainbridge, which is on counter-pirate duty off Africa, is named after the Captain of the Philadelphia.

The USS Reuban James was named after the man who saved the life of Lt. Stephen Decatur.

There were six US navy ships named after Richard Somers.

The uniform coat of Lt. Henry Wadsworth, who died in the explosion of the Philadelphia.

Lt. James Caldwell and Midshipman Dorsey and the other ten men of Gunboat #9 were possibly buried by locals on the harbor shore or in the slave cemetery.

Somers, Wadsworth and Decatur, recognized primarily by their uniforms, were buried by Dr. Cowdery in a mass grave near another mass grave that contained the remains of the ten seamen.

When their remains are unearthed, or uncovered in the crypts, it is possible that the three officers can be recognized by their uniforms. If the cloth no longer exists, it is possible that their buttons will be found and provide the clue that will help identify the remains of the officers apart from the others.

So besides the three officers and ten men of the Intrepid, the remains of Lt. Caldwell and Midshipmen Dorsey and the other nine men of Gunboat #9 also remain Missing In Action in Tripoli.

In addition, five men from the Philadelphia decided to defect and convert to the Muslim faith, but when a treaty was established, and Bainbridge and the men of the Philadelphia freed, they were asked if they wanted to go home and all but one of them did. Instead they were either enslaved or executed, and probably buried in the Slave cemetery.

Once freed, Lt. David Porter took up a collection from other officers in Preble's Squadron and commissioned the construction of the Tripoli Monument in the name of the officers who died.

Nearly two hundred years later, in 1988, a Navy plane was shot down after bombing Tripoli during Operation El Dorado Canyon, but the body of only one of the two pilots was discovered, and over the following Christmas, repatriated via the Vatican.

The other officer remains MIA, and is believed to have been found by locals and buried somewhere near Tripoli.

So in total, there are three officers and ten men of the Intrepid, whose remains were recovered and buried, and there was Lt. James Caldwell, Midshipman Dorsey and the other ten men of Gunboat #9.

Then there were the five men of the Philadelphia who deserted and were probably executed.

That's thirteen, twelve and five, who along with the pilot from El Dorado Canyon makes it 31 US Navy men who are Missing In Action in Tripoli.

Heroes of America's First Foreign War In Libyan Cemetery

Sec. Defense Panetta visits the Old Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli (Dec. 2011, where the remains of Intrepid heroes rest.

Heroes Of America’s First Foreign War In Libyan Cemetery

Posted on 23 January 2012
By Richard Sisk
http://www.thewarreportonline.com/2012/01/23/heroes-of-americas-first-foreign-war-in-libyan-cemetery-2/

The War Report

They were arguably the first SEALs.

More than two centuries ago, they rode a “floating volcano” fire ship in a valiant try at blowing up the pirate fleet to save the honor of the new nation, free POWs and stop the payoffs that the Founding Fathers were making to slavers and hostage takers.

The 13 sailors, including the uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, were on a special ops night mission for the fledgling Navy of the young United States of America. All were killed when their sail-powered bomb named the Intrepid, crammed to the gunnels with powder kegs, exploded before reaching its targets in the harbor of Tripoli on Sept. 4, 1804.

Through countless changes of regime in Libya ever since, the remains of the sailors have rested in what has become known as the Old Protestant Cemetery of Tripoli. Now there’s a dustup between descendants of the sailors, who want the remains repatriated, and the Navy, which argues against disturbing the graves.

Last month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on the first visit to Libya by a Pentagon chief, backed up the Navy after a brief tour of the cemetery on a bluff overlooking the sea to “pay my respects to the heroes from the United States’ first overseas war.”

““These brave sailors from the Intrepid, who died in the service of their country, have our nation’s enduring respect and gratitude. Having sailed into harm’s way to secure our nation’s interests, they volunteered for a dangerous mission and paid the ultimate price.”

Panetta made the case for leaving the remains in Libya:.” It is a sign of the great friendship between the American and Libyan people that, in spite of the differences that have marked our governments’ relations over the years, the Libyan people have maintained this cemetery with the respect and honor that it deserves, designating it a protected historic property.“

The descendants had been pressing for a Congressional resolution calling for repatriation but their efforts were sidetracked last month by an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act directing the Navy and the Pentagon to study the issue and report back within 270 days.

The study commission move was seen as a traditional Washington way of sweeping the issue under the rug in Somers Point, N.J., which is named for a relative of the leader of the Intrepid raid, Richard Somers.

“It’s hard to think of any unbiased study coming from this,” said Sally Hastings, head of the Intrepid Project and chairwoman of the Somers Point Historical Society. “Yes, we were disappointed.”

Master Commandant Richard Somers, Lt. Henry Wadsworth, the uncle of Longfellow, and the 11 other sailors fell in the First Barbary War that was fought in the administration of President Thomas Jefferson to win freedom of the seas and respect for the U.S. as a nation. It was also very much about the money.

Since the 1780s, the corsairs sent out by the assorted pashas, deys, beys and bashaws of the Barbary States of Morocco, Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli had been preying on the merchant ships of the U.S. They captured the ships, enslaved the crews, held them for ransom and exacted tribute for future safe passage.

Jefferson, as ambassador to France and later secretary of State, had argued for ignoring the problem. His position was that the future of the U.S. lay to the West in continental America, and not in getting mired in the intrigues of the Old World, but he was overruled by Presidents George Washington and John Adams.

They made annual payoffs to the pirate states. One payment to Algiers was estimated at $1 million, a colossal sum at the time. Washington and Adams saw no other choice. There was no Navy. The Continental navy of the Revolution was disbanded after the war.

Congress increasingly bridled at the payments and took up the cry “Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute. In 1798, the Department of the Navy was formed and Congress authorized the building of six frigates to take on the Barbary States. In what was to become typical of Congress in such matters, the pork for the building of the six ships was parceled out to six states.

In 1804, Jefferson, now a hawk, sent the frigates under the command of Commodore Edward Preble to blockade and bombard the port of Tripoli.

It didn’t begin well. The USS Philadelphia ran aground in the harbor while in pursuit of an enemy ship and the crew was captured. The pirates set up the Philadelphia as a stationary gun battery.
Preble came up with a made-for-Hollywood plan that relied on the daring of the swashbuckling Lt. Stephen Decatur, and would ultimately give the infant Navy the esteem it craved. With 80 volunteers, Decatur took a captured Turkish ketch, re-named the Intrepid, and sailed into the harbor flying British colors with his crew dressed as Arab seamen. Their goal was to destroy the Philadelphia.

The surprise attack worked. The Interpid pulled alongside the Philadelphia, Decatur shouted “Board” and his crew went hand-over-hand to the main deck where they killed the defenders.
In one last bit of daring, Decatur sent his crew back aboard the Intrepid while he set fire to the Philadelphia. The guns of the frigate overheated and began discharging in the fires as Decatur waited for the Intrepid to sail slowly past again. He leapt into the rigging of the Intrepid to escape.

Word of Decatur’s exploits quickly spread and British Lord Horatio Nelson called it “the most bold and daring act of the age.” But the pirate fleet was still in the harbor and Preble came up with another plan of attack that again relied on the Intrepid.

Somers, Wadsworth and their crew packed the ketch with explosives and again sailed into the harbor intending to light fuses next to the enemy ships but the Interpid blew up before reaching the targets, either from fire from the enemy or a premature explosion.

The bodies of the Intrepid sailors were dragged through the streets of Tripoli and captured Americans were later forced to recover and bury them.

The conflict with the Barbary States would not be settled until 1805, when Marine Lt. Presley O’Bannon and William Eaton, the U.S. consul to Tunis, led about 500 Greek and Arab mercenaries on a 500-mile march across the desert to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna, leading to a treaty to end the war. Their feats have been immortalized in the Marine hymn “…to the shores of Tripoli.”

The oldest military monument in the U.S., the Tripoli Monument, was commissioned to honor the heroes of from the age of sail. The monument was at the Washington Navy Yard until 1831 when it was moved to the west lawn of the Capitol. In 1860, the monument was moved again to its current site at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Its site is near Preble Hall, named for the commander of the men who gave their lives in America’s first foreign conflict.

(Photo: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Tripoli cemetery where Intrepid heroes rest. Defense Department photo.)

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Stephanie Gaskell is the founder and editor of The War Report. Gaskell is a New York City-based journalist who has spent the past 15 years working as a reporter for several major news outlets, including the Associated Press, the New York Postand the New York Daily News, where she also wrote and edited the War Zone blog. She has reported from the World Trade Center attacks in lower Manhattan, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. She’s also written extensively about veterans and military families. You can reach her at stephanie@thewarreportonline.com.

Richard Sisk is the Washington, D.C.-based reporter for The War Report. He comes to The War Report after 40 years of local, national, and international reporting and editing at the New York Daily News and United Press International. His foreign assignments have ranged from Vietnam and the Mideast to Bosnia and Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Central America and the Caribbean. He has covered five presidential campaigns. Sisk served in Vietnam as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion, Fourth Marines, in 1967-68. You can reach him at rich@thewarreportonline.com.

The INTREPID Graves at Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli Libya

1949 Ceremony honoring the men of the INTREPID buried at Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli


The INTREPID Graves at Tripoli’s Old Protestant Cemetery

By William E. Kelly, Jr. (billkelly3@gmail.com)

How did the Navy discover the INTREPID graves? – A 100 year old Jewish fortune teller told them.

“...Signor Andrea told me of the many stories he had heard told by the elders among the Jewish Community still living in the Old City. These stories told of the bodies that were buried on the east shore of the harbor…One of these old men was Hawoto Hatuma, almost one hundred years old at the time. He remembered his father telling him of great explosions in Tripoli Harbor in the year 1804, and great fires that kept the city excited for days. Those were of ships that burned in the harbor and resulted in many,...Americans sailors being killed. Those sailors were buried where they were found on the eastern shore of Tripoli...The stated purpose of the visits was to have my fortune told. Over cups of tea and smokes my fortune was told time and time again. A great friendship developed between us, and stories were exchanged ‘till the Intrepid story came up, and here my interest was at its greatest. Most of the people had heard stories from their fathers and grandfathers of the bodies of the American sailors that were buried on the eastern shores of the harbor, exactly where the English cemetery is located.”
– Mustapha Burchis

One reason the Navy does not want to repatriate the remains of the INTREPID sailors from Tripoli is because they’re not sure the graves at the Old Protestant Cemetery are actually those of the men of the INTREPID, and they don’t really want to know the truth.

When it comes to repatriation of these men from Tripoli, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Renee Richardson of the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office said, “The remains uncovered during construction by the Italian road crew in the 1930’s were not readily or properly identified as being Americans or from INTREPID. There is no evidence (except the political expediency of post WWII Relations) to suggest that the remains were not merely those of other unfortunate wretches who died in Tripoli.” [1]

“The only anecdotally evidence we have,” Richardson wrote, “is from 1949, when it was in the best interest of the government of Tripoli to cement relations with the U.S., and suddenly those five unmarked graves are alleged to contain the remains of American sailors from INTREPID.” [2]

Although the definitive evidence could be easily ascertained by opening the crypts, identifying their contents, and repatriate them if they are determined to be the men of the INTREPID, Richardson espouses the military’s position that it is best not to know, just pretend they are, and leave them where they lie.

Instead of just opening the crypts and seeing what’s in them, which we will eventually get around doing, let’s look at the historical records and extant “anecdotal evidence,” that makes it appear that the marked graves at the Old Protestant Cemetery are those of the men of the INTREPID.

The idea that these five marked graves are those of men of the INTREPID stems from the research of a Libyan, Mustafa Burchis, a Tripoli Harbor master who took up the 1938 request of President Franklyn D. Roosevelt to see if the graves of the men of the INTREPID could be located. [3]

In the April 1950 edition of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Lieutenant (J.G.) Arthur P. Miller, Jr. USNR wrote an article “TRIPOLI GRAVES DISCOVERED,” and again in September, 1956 the same journal published a second article “Lost But Not Forgotten - Resting Place of Heroes of the Barbary Wars,” by Arthur M. Johnson and Mustapha Burchis.

Johnson, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, edited the translated account of Mustapha Burchis, who is described as coming “from an old Moslem family which fought Italian colonization in Libya and kept on fighting. At the age of 12, he was taken prisoner during one of the many battles with the Italians, and was sent from Derna to Tripoli and put to work. He grew up amongst sailors of all nationalities – without any formal education, although he learned to read and write Italian and Arabic. Since 1914 he has worked at the port of Triopli and was eventually promoted to the post of harbor master and ‘marshal’ or head of all the Libyans employed by the Tripoli Port Authorities of the Italian Armed Forces.”

In the first article Lt. Miller got some of his facts wrong (ie. referring to “William” rather than Richard Somers), so in the second article Johnson relied primarily on the first hand account of Burchis himself, as translated by Shafic Ibrahim, a Lebanese teacher of English. First the Miller account.

In his USNI Proceedings article [4] Miller had relates that:

“The investigation actually got its start in 1938 when, in response to an inquiry from the American embassy in Rome concerning the fate of the men of the Intrepid. Mr. Burchis undertook a meticulous examination of old Jewish records, private Arab collections of letters, papers, and diaries, and interviewed innumerable descendants of residents of Tripoli at the time of the disaster.”

“The harbor master set down in detail the results of his investigations and wrote a complete report of the matter which was then transmitted to the American embassy in Rome. Unfortunately, however, this report was among American state papers which were burned by embassy officials in 1941 upon the outbreak of war. The investigation was revived last year when Mr. Burchis retraced his findings from his original notes. Together with Mr. Taft, he was able once more to piece together the story of the five graves.”

“The Intrepid had exploded in a pass located about half way down the length of the present north breakwater and all the pertinent stories he [Mr. Burchis] has heard say that five bodies had drifted up on the beach in front of a cliff,” Consul Taft relates in a report to the State Department concerning his research. ‘From this beach they were unceremoniously dragged to the cliff and interred in rough pattern. I questioned Mr. Burchis at length as to his belief in the reliability of his information and could find no flaw in his pattern of investigation,’ Mr. Taft adds.”

“Mr. Taft and Mr. Burchis, together with the American vice consul, went to the cemetery, named the old Protestant Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town an directly above the cliff where Mr. Burchis said the bodies had been dragged. Mr. Burchis then without hesitation picked out five graves located in the northeast corner.”

“Subsequent to the burial of the bodies in 1804, Mr. Burchis explained, it became necessary to establish the old Protestant Cemetery for the burial of foreigners. Since five Americans were already known to be interred there, a wall was erected around the plot and the whole cemetery was dedicated in a ceremony which was attended by the then present diplomatic and consular officials, including those of the United States.”

“Upon this identification of the five bodies as being those of five men from the Intrepid, Mr. Taft sent a telegram to Vice Admiral Forest P. Sherman, USN, commanding the U.S. Mediterranean Fleet, stating that he had substantial evidence that the graves of five American sailors lost on the Intrepid in 1804 had been discovered, Admiral Sherman immediately arranged for a visit to Tripoli of Rear Admiral R. H. Cruzen, Commander, Cruiser Division Two, and the Spokane.”

“The five unknown sailors who had died so valiantly fighting for their country were given final honors in a colorful ceremony attended by many high diplomats, military, and government officials. A band of Scottish Camerons played martial music as the detachment from the Spokane as well as a unit of the British Army stationed at Tripoli marched the half a mile from the town to the grave site.”

“In short addresses, Rear Admiral Cruzen spoke on the early history of the Navy and of ts exploits during the Barbary Wars, Captain W. J. Marshall, USN, commanding officer of the Spokane, narrated the Intrepid mission, and Consul Taft told of the research done to identify the graves and unveiled the memorial plaque to the five heroes. Lieutenant E. J. Sheridan, USN, chaplain of the Spokane, read a short prayer, and an honor guard of Marines fired several volleys over the new graves and played taps.”

“Interestingly enough, Joseph Karamanli, the present mayor of Tripoli and direct descendant of the Joseph Karamanli, who was Bashaw of Tripoli at the time of the Barbary Wars, attended the ceremony with approximately 50 other guests.” [4]

A few years after Miller’s article the USNI Proceedings published the more detailed account by Arthur M. Johnson that includes the first hand report by Mustapha Burchis.

In that article Johnson wrote: “According to one report, the bodies of the three officers were buried in the same grave ‘about a cable’s length to the southward and eastward of the Castle.’ The ten seamen were said to have been laid to rest ‘on the beach,’ but the beach and the location of the graves were soon lost to memory. The question of their whereabouts did not arise as a subject for on-the-spot investigation until 1938. In March of 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested the Navy to take ‘any reasonable means available’ to locate (and) identify the graves of the Intrepid's crew.’”

“The assistance of the State Department was requested in this matter,” Johnson wrote, “and the Embassy in Rome in August, 1938, provided the Department with two reports on it. However, no further action seems to have been taken by the American government at that time. How the graves were discovered by a Tripolitan drawn into this search by accident, and how they finally came to be officially recognized by the United States Government, is the subject of the following narrative. Because of its simple eloquence, it is presented substantially as the author, Mustapha Burcis, wrote it.”

The account of MUSTAPHA BURCHIS [5]:

“I first heard in May, 1938, of the five graves of the American sailors who died in the explosion of the Intrepid. At the time, Italy ruled my country and I was a ‘marshal’ working with the Tripoli Port Authorities. The rank of ‘marshal’ was equivalent to Sergeant Majro and it was the highest rank a Libyan could get in the Italian Armed Forces. As head of all Libyans employed at the Port, I had a great deal of influence and the Italians often used my services in collecting and finding information.”

“One day Colonel Carlo Pumo, Port Commander, called me to his office. Port Captain Mario Battaglieri was also there. The Colonel showed me the message from the American Embassy in Rome, requesting any available information that might lead to the discovery of the whereabouts of the graves of the American sailors killed in the explosion of the Intrepid in 1804. Even if no information were available, the Embassy agreed to pay for any search made.”

“That day I went home with big dreams and great ideas. I thought of myself as the discoverer of a hidden secret, a secret of heroic death. I dreamed that the American Government would take me to America, and I would be a great man. America was a dream to me, a dream of wealth and freedom, and now I had my big chance of having it come true.”

“Besides the fact that those sailors were killed in 1804, I knew nothing on the subject. Thus my first logical step was to read about its history in order that my steps might be guided in finding the secret that had been hidden for almost one hundred and fifty years.”

“The Italian authorities in Tripoli had many libraries which I visited day after day after work, to read the history of the Barbary Pirates. Having saturated myself with the history, I turned my attention to the problem of getting information about the dead sailors. This took me to the following possible sources. The first was Suleiman Bey Karamanli, who gave me permission to use his private collection of books, publications and manuscripts. This collection yielded no information to me because a large number of the publications were in Turkish, which language I do not know. I was forced to get translators who could help me.”

“The Castle Library was of great interest but yielded no new information. However my constant trips to the Castle aroused the interest of an old guard who in his quiet manner daily inquired about my health and my studies, and in a longer conversation he accidentally mentioned municipality records and the Moslem Property Department records, saying that if I wanted any information of my missing relatives I could find something in those places, but not here.”

“Following the old man’s wisdom, I carried my search to those two places. At the municipality I met another Karamanli who was the head and mayor of the Moslem community in Libya. He gave me all the assistance I needed, but there were no records that went back as far as 1804. At the offices of the Moslem Property Department I met the Director, Ilmail Kamal, a Libyan historian well informed of Libyan history and events, but he knew nothing of the fate of the American sailors.”

“Next, I visited the ‘Judge of Judges,’ President of the Moslem Courts, Mohammed Burkhis, an old, learned man and one who gave the impression of never having lost his touch with the old customs and habits of the Bedouins. The stories he knew and had heard of about the naval battles between Americans and Tripoli Pirates were numerous, and he told me of the many ships that sank in Tripoli harbor and the many dead that were always found on the eastern shores of the city. The story about the eastern shore later turned out to be a fact, but at that point it had no significance to me. The Judge however, indicated in his conversation that the Christian churches in Tripoli might know something of the fate of the Christian sailors.” [5]

After failing to obtain any useful information from Monsignore Facchinetti, or the British Consulate, Burchis talked to the editor of the Arabic newspaper Sheik Mohammed Al-Misurati – who had read in an Egyptian publication that the American sailors killed during the Karamanli Wars “were buried on the eastern shore of Tripoli,” and noted that, “the Sheik then added this logical conclusion, ‘and maybe that is why the English cemetery started there.’”

The “English cemetery” is what became known as the “Old Protestant Cemetery,” where the INTREPID graves are located.

MUSTAPHA BURCHIS (continued):

“Back in Tripoli I got an afternoon off and [visited] Signor Andrea Farrugia at the Maritime Agent’s Office. Signor Andrea told me of the many stories he had heard told by the elders among the Jewish Community still living in the Old City. These stories told of the bodies that were buried on the east shore of the harbor.”

“These constant references to the eastern shore convinced me that I should follow this line of research. Life in the old city and the ancient traditions made approach to the people difficult. A direct approach would get me nowhere, so I started getting friendly with people, spending afternoons sipping tea and smoking and exchanging stories.”

“One of these old men was Hawoto Hatuma, almost one hundred years old at the time. He remembered his father telling him of great explosions in Tripoli Harbor in the year 1804, and great fires that kept the city excited for days. Those were of ships that burned in the harbor and resulted in many, many Americans sailors being killed. Those sailors were buried where they were found on the eastern shore of Tripoli. Hatuma then took me to the house of the aged…. Shaloum Akub,,…took me around and saw to it that I became a friend of the elder Jewish Community.”

“The stated purpose of the visits was to have my fortune told. Over cups of tea and smokes my fortune was told time and time again. A great friendship developed between us, and stories were exchanged till the Intrepid story came up, and here my interest was at its greatest. Most of the people had heard stories from their fathers and grandfathers of the bodies of the American sailors that were buried on the eastern shores of the harbor exactly where the English cemetery is located.”

A Maltese seaman of about eighty-five remembered his father and cousin telling the same stories, and said that there were five bodies buried where the Protestant cemetery is now. This was further confirmed by “akka,” which means in literal translation, ‘bedbug.’ Bakka was an astrologer and fortune teller. He was fairly sure that the British or Protestant cemetery was started because of the five unknown graves.”

“The next day after work, I decided to make another visit to the British Consulate. During the morning Mohammed Zenturi, Port Pilot, was asking me whether I had learned anything in my quest, and we talked about the Intrepid. During the conversation I learned that currents in the port area are directed often to the eastern shore. Since the present seawalls did not exist at the time of the Barbary Wars that could explain exactly how the bodies of the sailors could be washed to that location. In my mind, I became positive that the five unknown graves in the now Protestant cemetery were the graves I was looking for.”

“Thus I returned to the British Consulate. My first question was when and how did the British cemetery start. It turned out that, in 1830, the wife of the British Consul in Tripoli, Mrs. Warrington, died and that spot was chosen for burial. Why was that particular place chosen? After all, at the time it was a deserted, lonely place. The answer was, because there were already five graves there believed to be of Christians buried in the beginning of the century. I was extremely excited by then and said to the British Consul, ‘These five graves are the ones I am looking for. They are the five American sailors killed in the Intrepid explosion.’” [5]


Burchis then wrote a report that was forwarded to the American Embassy in Rome and lost in the turmoil of World War II. After the war Burchis approached the new American consul to Libya, Mr. Taft, who agreed with Burchis’ analysis and proclaimed the five graves at the Old Protestant Cemetery as being those of the men of the INTREPID.

Still not explained by Burchis and Taft, or Miller and Johnson, is how the men of the INTREPID, originally buried in the ground in two mass graves, one for the officers and one for the enlisted men, graves “one cable’s length” (200 yards) from the castle walls, ended up in five above ground crypts within the grounds of a walled cemetery over a mile away?

Although Burchis worked for the Italians, he fails to mention the fact that less than a decade before he began his quest, in 1930, an Italian army road work crew reportedly unearth the remains of five men who were identified as being Americans from the INTREPID and they were reburied in the cemetery.

We know this from three sources, including American historian Franklin Kemp, author of the book” Nest of Rebel Pirates,” who reportedly corresponded with an Italian army sergeant who told him of the excavation and relocation of these remains. [6]

That report coincides with the reference in Admiral Roughead’s determination that, “We do know these remains were buried by crewmember of the USS PHILADELPHIA; and the remains recovered during the 1930 road construction in the vicinity of the original burial were reburied in Tripoli’s Protestant Cemetery in four or five grave sites. No information on the quantity, condition, or identity of the remains was recorded during the reburial of these remains. Headstones erected over the grave sites however contain inscriptions referring to ‘American Sailor Intrepid.’ The fifth headstone was damaged and cannot be made out clearly but is believed to be part of the 1930 remains reburial.” [7.]

Besides the reports from Kemp and Roughead, we now have the confirmation from the Libyans, as Abdul Hakim Tawil conducted an extensive study of the cemetery graves and determined the cemetery walls were constructed by the British in 1830 around the already existing graves believed to be American sailors from the turn of the previous century. The wife and child of British consul Mr. Hanmer Warrington were the first buried there, and thus it was at first known as the English cemetery. [8]

Tawil’s authorative study “Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery” was published in Libya in 2008 and obtained by Chipp Reid, who had the relevant parts translated and reported [in the Final Burial Place of First USS INTREPID Crew – A Source Study, Intrepidproject.org] as saying, “The Old Protestant Cemetery remained a dusty, near-forgotten spot some two miles from the medina or old town of Tripoli until the 1920s when Italian road engineers came across the mass grave of the enlisted men of the Intrepid. According to Italian maps and accounts contained in ‘Secrets,’ the engineers found the bodies close to the water while they worked on constructing a landfill for the future Al-Fatah Highway. With help from the Libyans, who knew the general location of the Intrepid enlisted men's mass grave, the Italians exhumed the remains they found, identified them as American using bits of uniform and buttons, and interred the remains in a pair of empty Cemetery coffins.” [9]

So there are at least two separate grave sites of the men of the USS INTREPID, the original mass graves site south and east of the walls of the old castle fort, now under what is known as Martyrs Square, which the Italian road crew partially excavated, and those five or six crypts in the corner of the Old Protestant Cemetery, about a mile away.

And even though Mustapha Burchis’ local sources were hearsay, and didn’t mention the Italians relocating some of the remains, it appears that he was correct, and that the graves at Old Protestant Cemetery do indeed contain the remains of American sailors, most likely those of the crew of the INTREPID.

The cemetery crypts are clearly marked, and the original grave site should be located, and instead of conducting a nine month long academic study of the situation, the DOD and the Navy should just open the cemetery crypts, determine whether they were placed there in 1804 or 1930, see what’s in them, have a forensic study of the remains, take DNA samples to see if they can be positively identified.

If they are the remains of the American sailors from the INTREPID, as the research indicates and the historical markers claim, then they should be returned home and properly buried with full military honors.

1) Email from Renee Richardson to William E. Kelly, Jr. (September 7, 2008) http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com/2008/09/questions-on-repatriation-of-intrepid.html

2) Email from Renee Richardson to Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser, SPHS President Sally Hastings and Walter Gregory (June 22, 2011) http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com/2011/12/response-to-navy-objections.html

3) Re: Roosevelt’s request. Chris Dickon, author of Foreign Burial of American War Dead (MacFarland, 2011, p. 135)

4) Miller, Lieutenant (J.G.) Arthur P., Jr., USNR U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, TRIPOLI GRAVES DISCOVERED Proceedings, April, 1950, pp. 373-377.

5) Burchis, Mustapha, and Johnson, Arthur M., Lost But Not Forgotten – Final Resting Place of Heroes of the Barbary Wars (Proceedings, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Sept. 1956, 969-973).Translation of Mr. Burchis’ narrative from the Arabic by Shafic Ibrahim.
http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com/2011/10/lost-but-not-forgotten-americans.html

6) 2004 Email from Dick Henkels to William E. Kelly, Jr. regarding Frank Kemp and Raymond Steelman. “During my last visit to Somers Point…I met Ray Steelman, who told me…there was a man named Frank Kemp who wrote an unpublished history of Somers Point. He claimed to have a letter from an Italian Sergeant who moved the body of Richard Somers in Libya.…”

7) Letter from Adml. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations to William E. Kelly, Jr. (March 11, 2010) For complete letter see: http://remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com/2010/03/letter-from-chief-chief-of-naval.html

8) Re: Abdul Hakim Tawil’s request for information regarding Hanmer Warrington (March 31, 2001) http://genforum.genealogy.com/warrington/messages/188.html

9) Intrepidproject.org, Final Burial Place of First USS Intrepid Crew, A Source Stud, November 28, 2011, citing Abdu Hakim AlY Tawil, Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery (Tripoli, Libya: Libyan Center for Historical Studies, 2008), pp. 71-76. (pp. 122-136). (Translation by Prof. Hezi Brosh, United States Naval Academy).
http://www.intrepidproject.org/Final_Burial_Place_of_Crew_of_First_USS_Intrepid.html