2-329-804 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Captain Bainbridge and the Dey of Algiers, 1800 (c1880). William Bainbridge was the commander of the George Washington, sent to carry the tribute that the United States paid to the Dey of Algiers so that American merchant ships would not be attacked by him in the Mediterranean. Upon his arrival, Bainbridge anchored in Algiers harbour under the guns of the port's fort. The Dey demanded that the George Washington transport his ambassador to Constantinople or be bombarded. Bainbridge was forced to comply in order to save his ship and crew from destruction. When Thomas Jefferson became President of the United states the following year he refused to continue the policy of bribing the pirates of the North African coast to safeguard American shipping and launched a naval campaign against them (First Barbary War). A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume II, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880.