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Commodore Edward Preble (August 15, 1761 –
August 25, 1807):
Born at Falmouth, Maine, Edward Preble was the fourth child and third son of
General Jedidiah Preble, an officer of the Revolution. His great-grandfather
was Abraham Preble, having settled in Scituate, Massachusetts, about 1636.
His mother, Mehitable (Bangs) Roberts, was the second wife of General Preble.
Edward was educated at Dummer Academy, Newbury, Massachusetts. He married
Mary Deering on 17 March 1801, and they had one son.
At the age of sixteen Preble ran away to sea on a privateer of Newburyport, and
in 1779 was appointed a midshipman on the frigate Protector of the
Massachusetts navy. This ship fought two actions with the British ships
Admiral Duff and Thames. In 1781 she was captured and Preble was confined for
a time on the prison-ship Jersey. In 1782 he was a lieutenant under Captain
George Little on the Massachusetts cruiser Winthrop, which succeeded in
taking five prizes. After the Revolution he spent fifteen years in the
merchant service and visited many parts of the world, being once captured by
pirates.
Upon the opening of hostilities with France in 1798, he was appointed a
lieutenant in the navy and was given command of the brig Pickering in the
squadron of Commodore John Barry in the West Indies. He received a commission
as captain on 15 May 1799 and was ordered to the new frigate Essex. The
frigate Congress and the Essex set sail with a convoy of merchantment for the
East Indies in January 1800, but six days out the Congress was dismasted in a
gale and the Essex proceeded alone. She was the first American warship to
show the flag beyond the Cape of Good Hope. After cruising for two months
about the Straits of Sunda, rendering important service in protecting
American trade from French privateers, the Essex sailed for home with a
convoy of fourteen vessels, arriving at New York in November.
The naval war with France was scarcely brought to a close before the war with
Tripoli began and in 1803 Preble was put in command of the third squadron to
be sent to the Mediterranean. His flagship was the Constitution and the
squadron included six other vessels: the frigate Philadelphia, the brigs
Siren and (Argus), and the schooners Vixen, Nautilus, and Enterprise. Each
vessel sailed when ready and the Consitution was the fourth to get away on 14
August 1803, arriving at Gibraltar on 12 September. After working on a
difficulty with Morocco in November, Preble sailed east for the rendezvous
with the squadron. Before reaching Syracuse, however, he learned of the
capture of the Philadelphia by the Tripolitans and the captivity of Captain
William Bainbridge with more than 300 members of the crew. The Philadelphia,
lying in the harbor of Tripoli, was later destroyed by a prize ketch called
the Intrepid, commanded by Stephen Deactur. Meanwhile, the blockade of Tripoli
had been proclaimed by the commodore and was maintained, as well as
circumstances permitted, by the squadron. At the same time, the squadron was
also employed in cruising and in preparing for an attack upon the town.
Preble borrowed two mortar-boats and six gunboats from the king of the Two
Sicilies. Aside from these auxiliaries the squadron comprised the six
American vessels and two prizes taken into the service, the Intrepid and the
brig Scourge. The squadron carried forty-two heavy guns, one on each gunboat
and the others on the Constitution, all the other vessels' guns being too
light for assaulting the enemy's batteries.
The commodore had under his command 1060 officers and men. Tripoli was
defended by strong forts and batteries, many gunboats, several larger
vessels, and 25,000 men. After much delay because of bad weather, the first
assault on Tripoli was made on 3 August 1804. Most of the fighting was done
by the gunboats, which closed with the enemy's gunboats and necessitated many
desperate hand-to-hand contests. The squadron bombarded the town, inflicting
considerable but not vital damage. The Americans were victorious at sea,
three of the enemy's gunboats being captured and three sunk. Four subsequent
attacks were made, two of them at night, with great loss to the enemy, but
Tripoli was not captured. On the night of 4 September, the Intrepid, with
15,000 pounds of powder on board and commanded by Richard Somers, was sent
into the harbor to be exploded in the midst of the Tripolitan fleet, but for
some reason never explained, the explosion was pre-mature and all hands
perished. Preble's total loss during the summer, including the crew of the
Intrepid, was thirty killed and twenty-four wounded.
Soon after this a larger and more powerful squadron appeared under the
command of Commodore Samuel Barron and Preble was superseded. Very little was
accomplished by Barron's squadron and the next year peace was reached with
Tripoli on terms far from satisfactory. After his return home Preble was
employed in building gunboats for the navy. His health, which had long been
declining, turned for the worse and he died at Portland at the early age of
forty-six on 25 August 1807.
Ships named for Commodore Edward Preble:
The first Preble, sometimes called Commodore Preble, a sloop purchased on
Lake Champlain in 1813, was commissioned 6 August 1813, Lt. Charles Budd in
command.
The second Preble, a sloop-of-war built by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard,
was launched 13 June 1839 and commissioned the following year, Comdr. Samuel
L. Breese in command.
The third Preble (Torpedo boat destroyer 12) was laid down by the Union Iron
Works, San Francisco, Calif., 21 April 1899; launched 2 March 1901; sponsored
by Miss Ethel Preble; and commissioned 14 December 1903, Lt. T. C. Fenton in
command.
The fourth Preble (DD 345) was laid down by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine,
12 April 1919; launched 8 March 1920; sponsored by Miss Sallie MacIntosh
Tucker; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard 19 March 1920, Comdr. H. A.
Baldridge in command.
The fifth Preble (DLG 15) was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath,
Maine, 16 December 1957; launched 23 May 1959; sponsored by Mrs. Ralph E.
Wilson; and commissioned in the Boston Naval Shipyard 9 May 1960, Comdr.
Edward G. Fitz-Patrick in command.
The sixth Preble (DDG 88) was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula,
Mississippi, 22 June 2000; launched 1 June 2001; sponsored by Connie Rae
Clark; and commissioned at the Commonwealth Pier/World Trade Center in
Boston, Massachusetts on 9 November 2002, Commander Timothy Batzler in
command.
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