Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

That no step yet should have been taken to carry this measure into
vigorous execution, and that it should be asked, nearly six weeks after it
had been resolved to comply with the Dey’s request, and an actual
stipulation of our agent or agents there, by what department it is to be
carried into effect, is, on account of the delay which has been
occasioned, extremely unpleasant. 113
In January 1797 the Secretary of State informed Congress that “the frigate is
now building in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is expected to be finished in
the spring.” 114 It was delivered as the Crescent in January 1798. 115 About the
frigate’s later condition O’Brien wrote in March 1800 that it was decaying: “it
[dry rot] is visible to me but I am in the hopes that this year she will be taken
by the Portuguese, if so it will be rendering the United States a service and
saving much difficulties.” 116 Needless to say that once more the Americans had
abused the Dey.
Furthermore, the liberation of the prisoners was obtained by a hideous
machination between Barlow and Bacri, a machination “worthy of the best
tradition of Yankee traders.” 117 The operation consisted of paying the Dey with
his own money; it occurred in July 1786 after a new French consul was
dispatched by the Directoire to Algiers. Against a handful of presents, the latter
obtained a loan of $200,000 from the Regency’s treasury which he deposited in
the banking house of Bacri. Soon after, Barlow struck a deal with Bacri to use
113 WGW, 13:240-42, To James McHenry, Secretary of War, 13 July, 1796. More documents showing
the construction, armament, and delivery of the frigate can be found in Charles W. Upham, The Life of
Timothy Pickering, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1873), pp. 270-77.
114 ASP/FA, 1:554, Report of the Secretary of State, January 6, 1797.
115 For more about the frigate deal see Glenn Tucker, Dawn Like Thunder: The Barbary Wars and the
Birth of the U.S. Navy (Indianapolis/ New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1963), pp. 100-03;
Parker, Uncle Sam in Barbary, pp. 112, 256.
116 NDBW, 1:351, O’Brien to Secretary of State, March 17, 1800.
117 Cantor, “Barlow’s Mission,” p. 181.
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