Thomas Buttersworth (British, 1768-1842)
Burning of the USS Philadelphia
oil on canvas
signed T. Buttersworth, lower left
22 x 33 1/2 inches.

Exhibition History:
10th Anniversary Spoleto Exhibition, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina, 1986.

Previously captured by Tripolitans, the USS Philadelphia, a thirty-six-gun frigate built in 1799, was notoriously set ablaze in an American-led raid. England's Lord Nelson purportedly called this scorched-earth tactic "the most bold and daring act of the age."

On February 16, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) entered the Bay of Tripoli with a band of volunteer raiders aboard the ketch Intrepid. The Intrepid spuriously flew British colors as a merchant vessel, and the crew pretended that they had lost their anchors in a storm. Granted permission to anchor in the harbor, Decatur and his party boarded the Philadelphia under the cover of the night and set fire to the vessel, lest the Tripolitans repurpose her for piracy.

Framed: 28 x 39 3/4 inches.
In fine and stable condition. Light craquelure and faint stretcher marks visible throughout painted surface. Associated flake near crescent moon, with two surface abrasions present, one below moon and one just above it near the upper edge of the canvas. Impact crackle visible at center within fire. Frame abrasions visible to the upper right corner. Canvas has been relined, and the glue from the relining process obfuscates examination under UV light; possible area of inpainting detected to lower right corner.