These
Tripolitan batteries mounted one hundred and fifteen guns. Three years
later, Captain Ichabod Sheffield, of the schooner Mary Ann, furnished in
person an example of the superiority of the Yankee over the Turk. Consul
Lear had just given forty-eight thousand dollars to the Dey of Algiers,
in full payment of tribute "up to date." Nevertheless, the Mary Ann, of
and from New York to Leghorn, was seized in the Straits of Gibraltar by
an Algerine corsair. A prize-crew of nine Turks was sent on board; the
captain, two men, and a boy left in her to do the work; she was ordered
to Algiers; and the pirate sailed away. Having no instructions from
Washington, Sheffield and his men determined to strike a blow for
liberty, and fixed upon their plan. Algiers was in sight, when Sheffield
hurled the "grains" overboard, and cried that he had struck a fish. Four
Turks, who were on deck, ran to the side to look over. Instantly the
Americans threw three of them into the sea. The others, hearing the
noise, hurried upon deck. In a hand-to-hand fight which followed two
more were killed with handspikes, and the remaining four were
overpowered and sent adrift in a small boat.
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