Pirates & Privateers: the History of Maritime Piracy - Barbary Corsairs
Until the United States won its independence from Britain, the country was covered under the British treaties with the Barbary rulers. After 1783, however, America no longer had that safety net. They either had to pay like everyone else, cease trading in the Mediterranean, or run the risk of falling prey to corsairs. Americans, particularly Thomas Jefferson, came up with an alternative—build a navy and fight! By the time Jefferson became President, the United States had paid two million dollars in tribute—money the treasury didn’t really have. To Jefferson how to deal with the Barbary States became a matter of honor and justice, for if Americans didn’t or wouldn’t defend their economy and themselves, then how would any other nation take the new country seriously?
Unwilling to pay the outrageous demands of Yusuf Karamanli, the bashaw of Tripoli, Jefferson declared war on Tripoli. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Yusuf had already declared war on the United States. The opening salvos of the war commenced on August 1, 1801. Lieutenant Andrew Sterett, in command of the twelve-gun schooner Enterprise, and Rais Mahomet Rous, in charge of the fourteen-gun Tripoli, led their men in a sea battle that lasted three hours. The Americans won, and after Sterett boarded the Tripoli, he wrote, “The carnage on board was dreadful, she having thirty men killed and thirty wounded…. Her sails, masts and rigging were cut to pieces with eighteen shot between wind and water.”(Wheelan, page xxi) The Enterprise sustained no major damage, and none of her crew was wounded. Mahomet Rous returned to Tripoli, where Yusuf ordered him to ride backward on a donkey through the streets. Then he received five hundred lashes on his feet and backside with a stick one inch thick.
AS FOR WHAT I’VE FOUND ABOUT THE LAW AND PIRACY— seems it falls under International Maritime Law and punishment is not defined. Seems what is is not specifically outlined for the International Community is reserved for the member nations to decide. Needless to say, our Constituion specifically addresses Piracy and gives Congress the responsibility to determine the fate of pirates.