Hull, spars, and rigging, were now enveloped in flames. As
the metal of her guns became heated, they were discharged in succession
from both sides, serving as a brilliant salvo in honor of the victor,
and not harmless for the Tripolitans, as her starboard battery was fired
directly into the town.
The town itself, the castles, the minarets of the mosques, and the
shipping in the harbor, were all brought into distinct view by the
splendor of the conflagration. It served also to reveal to the enemy the
cause of their disaster, in the little Intrepid, as she slowly withdrew
from the harbor. The shot of the shipping and castles fell thickly
around her, throwing up columns of spray, which the brilliant light
converted into a new ornament of the scene. Only one shot took effect,
and that passed through her top-gallant sail. Three hearty American
cheers were now given in mingled triumph and derision. Soon after, the
boats of the Siren joined company, and assisted in towing the Intrepid
out of the harbor. The cables of the Philadelphia having burned off, she
drifted on the rocks near the westward entrance of the harbor; and then
the whole spectacle, so full of moral sublimity, considering the means
by which it had been effected, and of material grandeur, had its
appropriate termination in the final catastrophe of her explosion.
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