1810 Hand-Colored Engraving titled, "Blowing Up of the Fire Ship Intrepid Commanded by Capt. Somers in the Harbour of Tripoli on the Night of the 4th Sepr. 1804.", Published in The Port Folio, Philadelphia, December 1810, Depicting the Self-Destruction of the American Fireship Intrepid, Very Fine.
This vivid Hand-colored engraving measures 11.5 x 15 inches (by sight) professionally matted and fully framed to 20 x 23 inches in an ornate patriotic style gold with stars. It depicts a violent explosion lighting the night sky over Tripoli harbor, with an American frigate flying the stars and stripes at right, small boats and a Tripolitan gunboat amid the water, and the fortified city visible along the shore at left. Printed on heavy wove period paper having some prior folds, matted and framed to allow all the printed text to be fully readable. Labels beneath the image identify Bashaw's Castle and Fort, the Harbour of Tripoli, the fireship blowing up, Tripoline gun-boats, and the American squadron. The engraving is titled: “BLOWING UP OF THE FIRE SHIP INTREPID COMMANDED BY CAPT. SOMERS IN THE HARBOUR OF TRIPOLI ON THE NIGHT OF THE 4TH SEPR. 1804.”, with a caption below reading:

“Before the Intrepid had gained her Destined situation she was suddenly boarded by [Tripolines], when the Gallant Somers and Heroes of his Party, Lieuts. Wadsworth and Israel and 10 Men, observed themselves surrounded by 5 Gun-boats, and no prospect of Escape, determined at once to prefer Death and the Destruction of the Enemy, to Captivity & a torturing Slavery, put a Match to train leading directly to the Magazine, which at once blew the whole into the Air."

This engraved print was published anonymously, without an identified artist or engraver, in “The Port Folio” a prominent Philadelphia literary magazine, in December 1810.
This colorful engraved print illustrates one of the most dramatic and tragic episodes of the First Barbary War: on the night of September 4, 1804, Master Commandant Richard Somers led a crew of twelve aboard the Intrepid, a captured ketch packed with several tons of gunpowder, intending to sail her into Tripoli harbor as a fireship, set her fuses among the anchored enemy fleet, and escape by small boat.

When the vessel was detected and boarded by Tripolitan gunboats before reaching her position, Somers and his crew chose to detonate the magazine rather than be taken prisoner, an explosion that killed everyone aboard, including Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, along with an unknown number of the boarding Tripolitans.

This print is recorded in the standard references on American naval prints, including E. Newbold Smith's "American Naval Broadsides" and Irving Olds's "Bits and Pieces."