US Navy Lt. Stephen Decatur’s ship was piloted by four Sicilians to enter Tripoli and blow up the USS Philadelphia, which had been taken by Libyans in the first Barbary Coast War. When you hear the words in the Marine Corps Hymn : “To the Shores of Tripoli,” walk on Decatur Street in New Orleans, or visit any city in America named “Decatur.” Do you wonder the history of those words or the reason for the naming of the street Decatur?
When the First Barbary Coast War started in 1804, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was its own country compromised of both the Island of Siciliy and the lower half of the Italian Peninsula. The Pirates of the Barbary Coast Countries of Northern Africa, (Lybia, Morroco, Algeria, and Tunsia), had been taking slaves and stealing ships form Europeans Countries for centuries.
