Pirate's Lackey to Hero: William Bainbridge and National Identity

For some Americans during the early American Republic, William Bainbridge represented the worst type of villain. In the Quasi-War with France, he earned the dubious distinction of being the first American officer to surrender a ship without firing a shot. In 1800, Captain William Bainbridge, then commanding the George Washington, was charged by the U.S. government with displaying the “most Warlike appearance to make the best impression of our discipline & power” in Algiers. Instead, the Dey, or leader of Algiers, compelled Bainbridge to cart his emissaries to Istanbul

Bainbridge rightly feared his character was “blotched” beyond repair, particularly after sailor John Rea accused him of un-American, villainous behavior while on that voyage to Istanbul. Sailor Rea self-published a 24 page diatribe against Bainbridge in 1802, accusing the captain of many things, including being “unfit for “navy command in a negro-quarter.”  When Bainbridge wedged the Philadelphia on a Tripolitan reef, allowing Tripoli to take the ship, he knew he had dealt a “death blow to [his] future Prospects.”

Yet the thrice-failed Bainbrige is remembered and celebrated as an American naval hero, crowned with laurel leaves after his victory over the Java in the War of 1812. This paper traces Bainbridge’s career from pirate’s “voluntary slave” to hero, considering how his failures at a critical point in the early American republic were transformed to serve national storytelling and identity.