Moorish Dagger is Battle Trophy

Richmond Family Has Blade Ancestor Faced in War in Tripoli

By Henry T. Louthan

Virginia's roster of heroic sons, voluminous and unending as it is, would forever by incomplete did it not include the name of Midshipman John D. Henley and an account of his hand-to-hand battle with the captain of a Tripolitan gunboat during the battle of Tripoli on August 3, 1804. With Acting Lieutenant John Trippe of Maryland, the 19-year-old Virginian with only nine men captured a Moorish vessel manned by four times their small number.

When the Moorish countries of Northern Africa were the legalized pirates of the Mediterranean it was Thomas Jefferson who decided that America should no longer pay tribute to them. In the late summer of 1804 he sent Commodore Edward Preble and Captain Stephen Decatur with the Constitution, three brigs, three schooners, two bombs and six gunboats, manned by only 1,060 men to attack Tripoli.

That Moorish city, at that time, was well walled, protected by judiciously constructed batteries mounting 115 pieces of heavy cannon, and defended by 25,000 Arabs and Turks. Besides, the harbor was encircled by 19 Moorish gunboats, two gallies, two schooners of eight guns each and a brig carrying 10 guns, forming a strong line of defense at secured moorings and extending more than two miles in length.

When the attack upon Tripoli started, young Trippe and Henley were in command of the United States gunboat No. 6, called the Vixen.

Lieutenant Trippe, then only 19 years of age, ran alongside one of the enemy's large boats and boarded her with Midshipman Henley and nine men. His own vessel fell off before more men could go to the aid of their officers. Thus the two were left with a handful of fighters to conquer or perish against a force that outnumbered them better than three to one.

Hand-to-Hand With Pike and Pistol

The Marylander and Virginian with their nine companions began a hand-to-hand fight with pistol, sabre and pike. In the struggle the Moors had 14 of their 36 men killed and 22 were made prisoners by the heroic Americans.

The commander of the Moorish vessel, however, was a young Turk in his early twenties. He was a fine athletic type and his height exceeded six feet, according to the records of the day. When Trippe and Henley saw this young giant in the thick of the battle they made for him. It was learned afterwards that before the battle started the swarthy foe had vowed upon the Koran to conquer or die, so he fought with a religious fervor wielding a Moorish dagger 14 inches in length.

The young Turk waged battle most gallantly and with a determination that deserved a better fate. Lieutenant Trippe was much smaller than his adversary but he made up for his lack of stature by being unusually active. He and Henley admired the captain's tenacity and courage and made frequent overtures for a surrender but they only made the foe fight the harder. With his heavy dagger he wounded Trippe 11 times and often endangered Henley's life. Despite the fact that he dripped gore from many woods, too, he refused to yield and at last the chivalry of his Dixie foes could not continue. The American officers were reluctantly compelled to inflict a mortal wound in self-defense.

Just before the Turk died, Midshipman Henley, thinking him already dead, stepped across his body. In the throes of death, the Turk resented this indignity by an "infidel" and seized Henley by the ankle. He gave it a violent twist and then expired.

Lieutenant Trippe, during the rest of his life, it is recorded, frequently expressed his regret at having to kill the brave Turkish adversary. While strangely enough, none of Trippe's men had been killed in the terrific fighting, he himself had received severe wounds and his boatswain's mate and two marines had been wounded.

Dagger Is Trophy In Henley Family

Lieutenant Trippe declined to keep any momento of the fierce engagement and the captain's Moorish blade went to Henley. He presented the dagger to Commodore Harrison H. Cocke, a native of Surry County, Va., for 42 years a member of the United States Navy and later a member of the Confederate States Navy. When Commodore Cocke died he bequeathed the blade to his grandson, the late Leonard Henley Jr., and for the last several decades the curiously wrought Moorish weapon has hung in its silver mounted scabbard on the library walls of a Henley home in Williamsburg.

Lieutenant John Trippe was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1785, and at the time of his appointment as a midshipman to the United States Navy, April 5, 1799, he appears to have resided at Easton, Md. Later he resided at Cambridge in the same State. He made his first voyage in the United States under Captain John Barry, and later served on the Experiment.

On May 21, 1801, he was ordered to the President, the flagship of Commodore Richard Dale, on which he served in the Mediterranean during the first part of the war with Tripoli, returning to the United States in April, 1802. On May 3, 1803, he was ordered as acting lieutenant to the Vixen, on which he sailed August 3, 1803, and joined Commodore Preble's blockading squadron before Tripoli on September 14, 1803. On August 3, 1804, it was that he and Henley captured the Moorish gunboat. Trippe was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Navy on January 9, 1807, and held this rank at the time of his death on July 9, 1810, being at that time only 25 years of age. His family, no doubt, still have representatives in Maryland.

Henley Won to Rank of Captain

John D. Henley was born in Virginia, and as he was appointed from this State as a midshipman in the United States Navy, on October 14, 1799, he was probably the same age as Trippe. If this conclusion is correct, these two young naval officers were only 19 years of age, when they were in command of the Vixen, on August 3, 1804, and had their sanguinary fight with the captain of the Tripolitan gunboat.

Young Henley became a lieutenant on January 31, 1807. On July 24, 1813, during the War of 1812, he was made a commander, and on March 5, 1817, he attained the rank of captain. He died May 23, 1835, at Havana on board the Vandalia. Captain Henley has relatives living today in Williamsburg and in Richmond.