was now much too small for service, and Bainbridge and his crew were hostages the United States must redeem. It fell to the lot of Commodore Preble to take charge of the American ships in the Mediterranean, and he began to discuss terms of peace with Tripoli through an agent of the Pasha at Malta. By these terms the frigate _Philadelphia_ was to be exchanged for a schooner, and the Moorish prisoners in Preble's hands, sixty in number, were to be exchanged for as many of the American prisoners in Tripoli, and the rest of the American captives were to be ransomed at five hundred dollars a man. Before these terms were agreed upon, however, a more daring plan occurred to the American commodore, and on February 3, 1804, he entrusted a delicate task to Stephen Decatur, who commanded the schooner _Enterprise_. Decatur picked a volunteer crew, put them on board the ships _Siren_ and _Intrepid_, and sailed for Tripoli. They reached that port on February 7th, and to avoid suspicion the _Intrepid_ drew away from the other ship and anchored after dark about a mile west of the town. A small boat with a pilot and midshipman was sent in to reconnoiter the harbor. They reported that the sea was breaking across the western entrance, and as the weather was threatening advised Decatur not to try to enter that night. The two American ships therefore stood offshore, and were driven far to the east by a gale. The weather was so bad that it was not until February 16th that they returned to Tripoli. This time the _Intrepid_ sailed slowly toward the town, while the _Siren_, disguised as a merchantman, kept some distance in the rear. The frigate _Philadelphia_, now the Pasha's prize ship, lay at anchor in the harbor, and the _Intrepid_ slowly drifted toward her in the light of the new moon. No one on ship or shore realized the real purpose of the slowly-moving _Intrepid_. Had the men at the forts on shore or the watchman at the Pasha's castle suspected her purpose they could have blown her from the water with their heavy guns.