We’ve all been following the plight of the Maersk Alabama’s skipper, held hostage by Somali pirates in one of the vessel’s lifeboats. The navy dispatched the USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) to the scene to deal with the situation. Besides being Bath-built (no small source of pride for a third-generation BIW worker like me), the ship is named for Captain William Bainbridge, a storied figure in our navy’s history who fought Muslim pirates in two wars.
Those who know our history understand that our first war as a nation was fought against the Muslim pirate states of the Mediterranean ‘Barbary Coast’ that captured our ships and sold our crews into slavery – slavery, by the way, that’s still being practiced by Muslims to this day. We paid the Barbary states ‘tribute’ (a nicer name for protection money) until it was cheaper to build a navy than pay the mob.
A lesson for today, perhaps.
As a bit of refreshment, here’s a good video produced by a proud DDG-96 ‘plankowner’.
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