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Repatriation of Richard Somers
By William E. Kelly, Jr.
Arab terrorists hijacked American ships, their cargo sold at auction and their crews enslaved, the Navy’s U.S.S. Philadelphia, sent to the scene, ran aground, it’s 300 officers and crew held hostage by a zealous Libyan despot. Sound familiar? That’s the was it was back in 1803 when the recently commissioned U.S. Navy Lieutenant Richard Somers sailed towards Libya with orders to blockade Tripoli harbor, engage the Barbary pirates in action and attain the release of the prisoners of the Philadelphia being held in the dungeons of the Bashaw’s castle. Some mission.
Sailing across the Atlantic ocean was the easy part, as Somers was a fine sailor, who learned to command the winds as a youngster on Great Egg Bay in Somers Point, New Jersey, where he was born in 1778 during the American Revolution. His father, Richard Somers, was an American privateer who captured British shipping, helped supply Washington’s army and participated in the Battle of Chestnut Neck.
His grandfather, John Somers, founded Somers Plantation in the late 17th century, today known as Somers Point, New Jersey, a unique bayside community know for it’s small town charm, fishing, boating and maritime history. [See: www.somerspoint.org]
As the son of a wealthy landowner, Richard Somers, Jr. was sent to a private boarding school to be trained as a gentleman in the arts and sciences, where he became fast friends with another young student, Stephen Decatur, Jr., the son of an Admiral from Philadelphia who spent time in Cape May, New Jersey and was probably a naval associate of Richard Somers’ father. Shortly after graduating, both Richard Somers and Stephen Decatur enlisted in the U.S. Navy and were named two of the first four Midshipman assigned to the U.S.S. United States, under command of John Barry, the Irish born “father” of the U.S. Navy.
After sailing on the United States, both Somers and Decatur were promoted to Lieutenants, given command of their own ships and assigned to the Mediterranian fleet under the command of Edward Preble, Captain of the U.S.S. Constitution. Preble had previously sent the frigate U.S.S. Philadelphia, his biggest battleship, to blockade Tripoli harbor, but the ship had run aground and all 300 officers and men were held captive by the Libyans.
THE INTREPID
Enroute to Libya, Decatur, aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, came across and boarded an Arab trading ship, a ketch, on which they found the sword of an officer from the captured Philadelphia. Once exposed the pirates were taken prisoner and the ketch declared a prize of war and delivered to Captain Preble.
Rechristened the U.S.S. Intrepid, the lateen-rigged ship participated in a number of successful engagements against the enemy [See: Battle of Tripoli], before Lt. Decatur took command and in a daring nighttime raid, scuttled the Philadelphia without any casualties.
Then, on September 4, 1804, under the command of Lt. Somers, the Intrepid was outfitted as a fireship and filled with munitions and combustibles. With a crew of two additional officers (Lts. Henry Wadsworth and Joseph Israel) and ten men from the Enterprise, volunteers all, set sail towards the enemy fleet at rest in the harbor. The plan was for them to light a fuse and escape in a rowboat while the Intrepid sailed into the docked fleet and set it afire. But something went terribly wrong and the ship exploded in Tripoli harbor, possibly destroyed by Somers himself who said he would blow up the ship rather than be captured by the enemy.
The next morning, thirteen bodies were recovered, with the ship’s surgeon from the Philadelphia identifying three of them as officers. All were buried in a well marked grave just south of and near Tripoli harbor.
That’s where they have remained for the past 200 years, despite repeated requests and attempts to repatriate them home. The last time an American military detachment left Tripoli, they held a memorial flag lowering ceremony before leaving, and more recently, visitors reported for a North New Jersey veterans magazine that the graves were overgrown with weeds but otherwise not desecrated.
Since Somers and the crew of the Intrepid perished, there have been a number of ships in the U.S. navy named after Somers, with the U.S.S. Intrepid, a World War II era aircraft carrier, now a floating museum in New York harbor [See: U.S.S.Intrepid ]. These ships and their gallant crews established many admirable traditions that are still upheld by the U.S. military.
Once such military tradition, essentially now a policy, is that none of our combatants are left behind. Like the Spartans of ancient Greece, who came home with their shield on were carried home on it, our soldiers are brought home, dead or alive, some many years or decades after the battle is over. There are military units whose mission is to retrieve the remains of American soldiers killed in China, Vietnam or anywhere, and bring them home for proper burial at a veterans cemetery.
Unlike those who died and are buried at Flanders Field and Normandy, and are buried on hallowed ground, sacred allied soil in graves maintained by the U.S. government, Somers and the crew of the Intrepid are buried in Tripoli, enemies then and officially considered by the U.S. government today to be a terrorist nation.
The idea of reburial and repatriation of the remains of our heroes is not new or unique, as John Paul “Don’t give up the ship!” Jones, died in Paris and was buried in an unmarked grave that was eventually paved over as a street. [See: John Paul Jones ]. When an American diplomat to France researched and learned the location of Jones’ grave, it was arranged for his remains to be returned to the Untied States and reburied at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, with full military honors. Jones is now buried at Annapolis near the Tripoli monument [See: Photo], which honors those who died there, and the Somers monument [See: Photo], where graduating midshipmen gather to determine who among them will make admiral first.
Richard Somers’ great friend, Stephen Decatur, Jr., went on to help defeat the Barbary Pirates, returning a hero with presidential ambitions [See: Stephen Decatur, Jr.], but was killed in a duel of honor. Decatur’s death led to the Navy formally banning such duels as a means of resolving such disputes of honor, and the eventual establishment of a military court [See: Origins of JAG].
While Decatur was buried in his hometown of Philadelphia, near Independence Hall, his widow died years later and was buried in Washington D.C. When a university wanted to expand and build over her grave, she was removed and reunited with her husband in death, two hundred years later.
For Richard Somers, the return home will be nearly 200 years to the day of his death – September 4, 1804 – September 4, 2004, a date that Somers Point City Council has officially declared “Richard Somers Day.”
When Rep. Frank LoBiondo (Rep. 2nd. N.J.) informed the State Department that the citizens of Somers Point still want the remains of their native son returned, he was told that the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Libya. The United States however, is negotiating with the Libyans for payments to the families of the victims of Pan Am 103, and has agreed to lift UN economic sanctions against Libya.
Congress will also soon address the issue of removing the United States economic sanctions against Libya, once terrorism is officially renounced and the payments to the families of the victims have been made.
U.S. diplomats and Congress however, should not begin negotiating economic treaties or begin bargaining for money and oil until the issue of the repatriation of Lt. Richard Somers and the crew of the Intrepid is resolved. One of the benefits of the repatriation of Somers and company is the knowledge we gain in the appreciation of our history, what it was like then and how it relates to us today.
William E. Kelly, Jr.
Billykelly1@aol.com | (609) 513-6274
William Kelly is the author of the book “300 Years at the Point – A History of Somers Point, N.J.”
By William E. Kelly, Jr.
Arab terrorists hijacked American ships, their cargo sold at auction and their crews enslaved, the Navy’s U.S.S. Philadelphia, sent to the scene, ran aground, it’s 300 officers and crew held hostage by a zealous Libyan despot. Sound familiar? That’s the was it was back in 1803 when the recently commissioned U.S. Navy Lieutenant Richard Somers sailed towards Libya with orders to blockade Tripoli harbor, engage the Barbary pirates in action and attain the release of the prisoners of the Philadelphia being held in the dungeons of the Bashaw’s castle. Some mission.
Sailing across the Atlantic ocean was the easy part, as Somers was a fine sailor, who learned to command the winds as a youngster on Great Egg Bay in Somers Point, New Jersey, where he was born in 1778 during the American Revolution. His father, Richard Somers, was an American privateer who captured British shipping, helped supply Washington’s army and participated in the Battle of Chestnut Neck.
His grandfather, John Somers, founded Somers Plantation in the late 17th century, today known as Somers Point, New Jersey, a unique bayside community know for it’s small town charm, fishing, boating and maritime history. [See: www.somerspoint.org]
As the son of a wealthy landowner, Richard Somers, Jr. was sent to a private boarding school to be trained as a gentleman in the arts and sciences, where he became fast friends with another young student, Stephen Decatur, Jr., the son of an Admiral from Philadelphia who spent time in Cape May, New Jersey and was probably a naval associate of Richard Somers’ father. Shortly after graduating, both Richard Somers and Stephen Decatur enlisted in the U.S. Navy and were named two of the first four Midshipman assigned to the U.S.S. United States, under command of John Barry, the Irish born “father” of the U.S. Navy.
After sailing on the United States, both Somers and Decatur were promoted to Lieutenants, given command of their own ships and assigned to the Mediterranian fleet under the command of Edward Preble, Captain of the U.S.S. Constitution. Preble had previously sent the frigate U.S.S. Philadelphia, his biggest battleship, to blockade Tripoli harbor, but the ship had run aground and all 300 officers and men were held captive by the Libyans.
THE INTREPID
Enroute to Libya, Decatur, aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, came across and boarded an Arab trading ship, a ketch, on which they found the sword of an officer from the captured Philadelphia. Once exposed the pirates were taken prisoner and the ketch declared a prize of war and delivered to Captain Preble.
Rechristened the U.S.S. Intrepid, the lateen-rigged ship participated in a number of successful engagements against the enemy [See: Battle of Tripoli], before Lt. Decatur took command and in a daring nighttime raid, scuttled the Philadelphia without any casualties.
Then, on September 4, 1804, under the command of Lt. Somers, the Intrepid was outfitted as a fireship and filled with munitions and combustibles. With a crew of two additional officers (Lts. Henry Wadsworth and Joseph Israel) and ten men from the Enterprise, volunteers all, set sail towards the enemy fleet at rest in the harbor. The plan was for them to light a fuse and escape in a rowboat while the Intrepid sailed into the docked fleet and set it afire. But something went terribly wrong and the ship exploded in Tripoli harbor, possibly destroyed by Somers himself who said he would blow up the ship rather than be captured by the enemy.
The next morning, thirteen bodies were recovered, with the ship’s surgeon from the Philadelphia identifying three of them as officers. All were buried in a well marked grave just south of and near Tripoli harbor.
That’s where they have remained for the past 200 years, despite repeated requests and attempts to repatriate them home. The last time an American military detachment left Tripoli, they held a memorial flag lowering ceremony before leaving, and more recently, visitors reported for a North New Jersey veterans magazine that the graves were overgrown with weeds but otherwise not desecrated.
Since Somers and the crew of the Intrepid perished, there have been a number of ships in the U.S. navy named after Somers, with the U.S.S. Intrepid, a World War II era aircraft carrier, now a floating museum in New York harbor [See: U.S.S.Intrepid ]. These ships and their gallant crews established many admirable traditions that are still upheld by the U.S. military.
Once such military tradition, essentially now a policy, is that none of our combatants are left behind. Like the Spartans of ancient Greece, who came home with their shield on were carried home on it, our soldiers are brought home, dead or alive, some many years or decades after the battle is over. There are military units whose mission is to retrieve the remains of American soldiers killed in China, Vietnam or anywhere, and bring them home for proper burial at a veterans cemetery.
Unlike those who died and are buried at Flanders Field and Normandy, and are buried on hallowed ground, sacred allied soil in graves maintained by the U.S. government, Somers and the crew of the Intrepid are buried in Tripoli, enemies then and officially considered by the U.S. government today to be a terrorist nation.
The idea of reburial and repatriation of the remains of our heroes is not new or unique, as John Paul “Don’t give up the ship!” Jones, died in Paris and was buried in an unmarked grave that was eventually paved over as a street. [See: John Paul Jones ]. When an American diplomat to France researched and learned the location of Jones’ grave, it was arranged for his remains to be returned to the Untied States and reburied at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, with full military honors. Jones is now buried at Annapolis near the Tripoli monument [See: Photo], which honors those who died there, and the Somers monument [See: Photo], where graduating midshipmen gather to determine who among them will make admiral first.
Richard Somers’ great friend, Stephen Decatur, Jr., went on to help defeat the Barbary Pirates, returning a hero with presidential ambitions [See: Stephen Decatur, Jr.], but was killed in a duel of honor. Decatur’s death led to the Navy formally banning such duels as a means of resolving such disputes of honor, and the eventual establishment of a military court [See: Origins of JAG].
While Decatur was buried in his hometown of Philadelphia, near Independence Hall, his widow died years later and was buried in Washington D.C. When a university wanted to expand and build over her grave, she was removed and reunited with her husband in death, two hundred years later.
For Richard Somers, the return home will be nearly 200 years to the day of his death – September 4, 1804 – September 4, 2004, a date that Somers Point City Council has officially declared “Richard Somers Day.”
When Rep. Frank LoBiondo (Rep. 2nd. N.J.) informed the State Department that the citizens of Somers Point still want the remains of their native son returned, he was told that the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Libya. The United States however, is negotiating with the Libyans for payments to the families of the victims of Pan Am 103, and has agreed to lift UN economic sanctions against Libya.
Congress will also soon address the issue of removing the United States economic sanctions against Libya, once terrorism is officially renounced and the payments to the families of the victims have been made.
U.S. diplomats and Congress however, should not begin negotiating economic treaties or begin bargaining for money and oil until the issue of the repatriation of Lt. Richard Somers and the crew of the Intrepid is resolved. One of the benefits of the repatriation of Somers and company is the knowledge we gain in the appreciation of our history, what it was like then and how it relates to us today.
William E. Kelly, Jr.
Billykelly1@aol.com | (609) 513-6274
William Kelly is the author of the book “300 Years at the Point – A History of Somers Point, N.J.”
