Stephen Decatur was an American naval officer. He served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War, and in the post-War United States Naval forces, himself reaching the rank of Commodore.
Background
Stephen Decatur was born in June 1752 in Newport County, Rhode Island. He was the son of a French seaman of the same name, who according to family tradition was a lieutenant in the French navy. Of a seafaring family originally Dutch (de Kater) but settled for a century in La Rochelle, France, the father came to Newport, Rhode Island, about 1750 and was married there in Trinity Church, September 26, 1751, to Priscilla Hill. According to the records of this church their son Stephen was baptized June 7, 1752. The family soon moved to Philadelphia, where the father died in straitened circumstances.
Career
Decatur followed his father's calling and in 1774 was master of the sloop Peggy. During the Revolution he engaged in privateering, commanding in succession, 1779-1781, the galley Retaliation, sloop Comet, brig Fair American, and ships Royal Louis and Rising Sun. All these were Pennsylvania vessels.
In 1781, before his cruise to Teneriffe in the last-named vessel, he was for some months imprisoned in New York. Later, with the Philadelphia merchants Gurney & Smith, he was commander and part owner of the ships Pennsylvania and Ariel, taking his son Stephen, aged eight, on one voyage to Bordeaux. Commissioned captain in the United States navy, May 11, 1798, at the outbreak of hostilities with France, he put to sea in the Delaware, and in July captured the French privateer Le Croyable, renamed Retaliation, the first prize of the war and of the new American navy.
In Delaware, with two smaller vessels, he was senior officer during the winter of 1798-1799 off northern Cuba. In May 1800, he arrived on the Guadeloupe station in the new frigate Philadelphia, and was senior officer of the squadron there until August. The Philadelphia captured five prizes, returning home in March 1801.
Honorably discharged at the close of hostilities, and after some further connection with Gurney & Smith in Philadelphia, Decatur purchased an estate, "Millsdale, " near Frankford, Pennsylvania, where he established a gunpowder works. He died at Millsdale, and, with his wife, who died four years later, lies buried in St. Peter's churchyard, Philadelphia.
Achievements
Stephen Decatur went down in history as a distinguished naval officer who participated in the Revolutionary War and later in the Quasi-War.
He was responsible for the 1800 commissioning of the 28-gun sailing frigate "USS Philadelphia, " which a few years later his son gained international fame for his part in daring night time raid to burn the vessel to keep it out of the hands of Tripolitan pirates during the Barbary Wars. Decatur also commanded the vessel during the "Quasi-War" with France, capturing five French ships with it before he was relieved of it's command by his own request.
Views
Quotations:
At a dinner in Philadelphia in honor of his son Stephen after the Tripolitan War, Decatur with mingled pride and grief responded to a toast with the following words: "Our children are the property of their country. "
Personality
Decatur's portrait, an apparently excellent likeness of this later period by St. Memin, pictures a frank, open-faced seaman, rougher and heavier of feature than his famous son.
Connections
On December 20, 1774, Decatur married Ann Pine at the home of Captain Moore, her guardian, the daughter of John and Nancy Pine.
Four children lived to maturity: Ann, who married Lieutenant James McKnight of the Marine Corps; Stephen; James, killed before Tripoli; and John Pine, who retired after three years' naval service in 1810.
