It is worth recalling here that Capt. Edward Preble, who was now in command of the _Constitution_, had, as a boy of fourteen years, been driven from his home at Portland (Falmouth), Maine, when that town was destroyed by the infamous Mowat at the beginning of the war of the Revolution. [Illustration: Stephen Decatur. _From an engraving by Osborn of the portrait by White._] At Syracuse the project of destroying the _Philadelphia_ by means of a small vessel well manned was mentioned to Decatur. He eagerly asked to be allowed to undertake the work with his schooner, the _Enterprise_, but the matter was not at once decided on. Later Lieut. Charles Stewart, who commanded the brig _Siren_, asked for the place, but Preble had decided meantime that Decatur should do it and that the captured ketch _Mastico_ should be employed because she was of a rig that could more easily enter the harbor of Tripoli without attracting attention. Accordingly, the ketch was taken into the service as a tender and a picked crew of sixty-two volunteers put on board, with a faithful Malta man for pilot. In addition to these, there were a dozen young officers from the _Enterprise_ and from the flagship _Constitution_, among whom were two midshipmen of whom the world was to hear later on--James Lawrence and Thomas Macdonough. Macdonough was then but twenty years old, while Lawrence was but sixteen. Decatur himself was only twenty-four. Having everything in readiness, the _Mastico_ sailed on February 9, 1804, for Tripoli, with the brig _Siren_ in company to lie in wait off the harbor and pick up the crew of the _Mastico_ should they be obliged to take to the small boats at any time. Running across to Tripoli, the expedition arrived by night, but a furious gale defeated the hope of success and all but swamped the _Mastico_. For six days she rolled to the waves, her crew in distress for lack of food and of any sleeping accommodations whatever, and because of the vermin the slaves had left behind. But on the 16th of February the weather moderated to a breeze that would just serve their purpose, and they stood in for the harbor, overhauling their combustibles on the way and finding everything dry and fit. When night drew on, the men were divided into five crews, of which three were to fire as many different parts of the ship, one was to hold her upper deck, and one to remain in and guard the ketch. Meantime seven more volunteers had been taken from the _Siren_. When night had fully come the little ketch parted from the brig, and at 9 o’clock was sailing into the harbor by the channel in which the _Philadelphia_ had been lost.