Bainbridge, William

Bainbridge, William,1774–1833, American naval officer, b. Princeton, N.J. An experienced sea captain, he joined (1798) the navy when war with France threatened. His ship, theRetaliation,was captured by two French frigates, and he and his crew were imprisoned on Guadeloupe. Released, he returned to America and in 1800, as commander of theGeorge Washington,he carried U.S. tribute money to the dey of Algiers (seeTripolitan War). The dey forced him to proceed under the Ottoman flag to Constantinople—an insult that contributed to the American decision to declare war against theBarbary States. In 1803, assigned to the troubled Mediterranean area, Bainbridge's ship, thePhiladelphia,ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli and was captured. He was freed at the end of the Tripolitan War. In the war of 1812, as commander of theConstitution,班布里奇占领了英国人frigateJavaoff the Brazilian coast in Dec., 1812. In 1815, a commodore, he went out in theIndependenceto aid Stephen Decatur in the operations against Algiers, but he arrived after the fighting was over.

See his biography written in 1816 by H. A. S. Dearborn (ed. by J. Barnes, 1931).

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