Rafael Osona's Annual Auction Catalog 2019 2015 | Page 130

Commodore Edward Preble
Born August 15, 1761 Falmouth, Maine Died August 25, 1807 Portland, Maine
Edward Preble began his naval career in 1779 during the American Revolution with his
appointment to the Massachusetts State Navy. He served as an officer aboard the 26 gun
ship Protector and the Winthrop during the war. Following his Revolutionary War service,
he embarked on fifteen years of merchant service before being commissioned as a First
Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in April 1798. Preble was given command of the 14 gun USS
Pickering in January 1799 during the Quasi-War with France. On June 7th of that year he
was commissioned as a Captain and took command of the USS Essex in December. He
commanded the Essex in the Pacific providing protection for American vessels engaged in
the East Indies trade.
In 1803, Preble rose to the rank of Commodore and was given command of the third
Squadron of the U.S. Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet. With the USS Constitution as his
flagship, he sailed for the Barbary Coast in 1803 during the Tripolitan or First Barbary
War. Preble and his fleet established a blockade off the coast of Tripoli. On February 16,
1804, Preble masterminded the raid by Stephen Decatur to burn the USS Philadelphia
in Tripoli harbor to prevent the captured warship from being used against the U.S. Navy
fleet. Aboard the USS Intrepid, a captured Tripolitan ketch, Decatur slipped into the
Tripoli harbor under the cover of darkness and successfully burned the USS Philadelphia
without a shot being fire