Contents
Title Page
Copyright
ONE - WASHINGTON, D . C .
TWO - OFF THE COAST OF SOMALIA FOUR MONTHS LATER
THREE
FOUR - BAHIRET EL BIBANE, TUNISIA
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN - OVER THE SAHARA DESERT
EIGHT
NINE - CORINTHIA BAB AFRICA HOTEL, TRIPOLI, LIBYA
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
EPILOGUE
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DIRK PITT ® ADVENTURES BY CLIVE CUSSLER
Trojan Odyssey
Valhalla Rising
Atlantis Found
Flood Tide
Shock Wave
Sahara
Dragon
Treasure
Deep Six
Pacific Vortex
Night Probe
Vixen 03
Raise the Titanic !
Iceberg
The Mediterranean Caper
Inca Gold
Cyclops
WITH DIRK CUSSLER
Arctic Drift
Treasure of Khan
Black Wind
KURT AUSTIN ADVENTURES BY CLIVE CUSSLER
WITH PAUL KEMPRECOS
The Navigator
Polar Shift
Lost City
White Death
Fire Ice
Blue Gold
Serpent
OREGON FILES ADVENTURES BY CLIVE CUSSLER
WITH JACK DU BRUL
Plague Ship
Skeleton Coast
Dark Watch
WITH CRAIG DIRGO
Sacred Stone
Golden Buddha
OTHER FICTION BY CLIVE CUSSLER
The Chase
NONFICTION BY CLIVE CUSSLER AND CRAIG DIRGO
The Sea Hunters The Sea Hunters II
Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed
“. . . that it is founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it is written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it is their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle are sure to go to Paradise.”
—Thomas Jefferson’s testimony to the Continental Congress explaining the justification given to him by the Barbary ambassador to England, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja , concerning their preying on Christian ships, 1786
“We ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight them forever.”
—John Adams on the Barbary pirates , 1787
THE BAY OF TRIPOLI FEBRUARY 1803
NO SOONER Had THE SQUADRON SIGHTED THE FORTIFIED walls of the Barbary capital than a storm struck suddenly, forcing the ketch Intrepid and the larger brig Siren back out into the Mediterranean. Through his spyglass, Lieutenant Henry Lafayette, the Siren’s First Officer, had just by chance spotted the towering masts of the USS Philadelphia, the reason the two American warships had ventured so close to the pirates’ lair.
Six months earlier, the forty-four-gun Philadelphia had chased a Barbary corsair too close to Tripoli’s notoriously treacherous harbor and grounded in the shallow shoals. At the time, the frigate’s captain, William Baimbridge, had done all he could to save his ship, including heaving her cannons over the side, but she was hard aground, and high tide was hours away. Under threat of a dozen enemy gunboats, Baimbridge had no choice but to strike the colors and surrender the massive warship to the Bashaw of Tripoli. Letters from the Dutch Consul residing in the city reported that Baimbridge and his senior officers were being treated well, but the fate of the Philadelphia’s crew, like that of most others who fell to the Barbary pirates, was slavery.