You now see, my beloved wife, the cause of my distress—my situation in prison is entirely supportable—I have found here kind and generous friends, such as I hope the virtuous will meet in all situations; but if my professional character be blotched—if an attempt be made to taint my honour—if I am censured, if it does not kill me, it would at least deprive me of the power of looking any of my race in the face, always excepting, however, my young, kind and sympathizing wife. If the world desert me, I am sure to find a welcome in her arms—in her affection, to receive the support and condolence which none others can give.
I cannot tell why I am so oppressed with apprehension—I am sure I acted according to my best judgement—my officers tell me, that my conduct was faultless—that no one indeed could have done better but this I attribute, (perhaps in my weakness) to a generous wish on their part to sustain me in my affliction.
I hope soon to hear that your health is good, and although grieved at my misfortune, are yet surrounded by dear and condoling friends, who will in some measure assuage your affliction. Perhaps, too, you will be able to tell me, that I have done injustice to my countrymen—that so far from censuring, they sympathize, and some even applaud me. God grant that this may be the case—and why should it not? The Americans are generous as they are brave. I must stop, my dear wife, for I see I am disclosing my weakness—these are the mere reveries which daily pass through my heated brain.
I beg that you will not suppose our imprisonment is attended with suffering—on the contrary, it is, as I have already assured you, quite a supportable state.
Your ever faithful and affectionate husband,
William Bainbridge
While Bainbridge tried to ward off the dark thoughts, one of the crewmen found his own situation unbearable and tried to commit suicide. Charles Rhilander, a merchant seaman from Boston, had survived shipwreck off Portugal only to be duped into boarding the Philadelphia with the promise of a free trip home. He had refused to enlist and swore to abandon ship at the next port; now instead he was a slave. He tried to slash his own throat but was so drunk, according to William Ray, that he inflicted “a mere scratch.”
Map (circa 1802) of Tripoli harbor. No reef is marked in the lower left corner near the numeral 20 (fathoms deep) where the Philadelphia beached.
The crewmen continued their routine of hard work (building walls), little food (black bread and oil), and sleeping on the floor. Everyone knew that ransom might take months or years, but they also knew that there existed a simple way for the men to become free immediately, and that was to convert to Islam. Less than three weeks into captivity, John Wilson, a quartermaster born in Sweden, decided to turn Turk, as did Thomas Prince, a seventeen-year-old from Rhode Island. Three more Americans would soon follow them.
The officials of Tripoli, who encouraged and allowed the religious conversion, took the matter seriously. Since the Koran forbids Moslems from enslaving Moslems, a conversion meant freedom from slavery. As Ray put it, “Thomas Prince was metamorphosed from a Christian to a Turk.” His choice of the word metamorphosed was quite apt. Not only did the ritual involve words of faith and promises to perform new rituals, but also a change of clothes and that inevitable loss of foreskin. While circumcision is not mentioned in the Koran (as it is in the Old Testament, Genesis 17:11), the rite became sanctified by Moslem theologians as far back as the seventh and eighth centuries.
A traveler to Morocco around this time was allowed to watch a public circumcision, and his account reveals some aspects of what the five “turn-Turk” sailors must have experienced. Wrote Ali Bey,
The boy was then brought forward, and immediately seized by the strong-armed man who . . . lifted up the gown of the child, and presented him to the operator. At this moment the music (flutes and drums) began to sound with its loudest noise; and the children, who were seated behind the ministers, started suddenly up and shouted with great vociferation to attract the attention of the victim, and by the motions of their fingers, directed his eyes to the roof of the chapel. Stunned with all the noise, the child lifted up its head; and that very moment the officiating priest laid hold of the prepuce, and pulling it with force, clipped it off with one motion of his scissors. Another immediately threw a little astringent powder on the wound, and a third covered it with lint, which he tied on by a bandage; and the child was carried away.
In the nineteenth century, a French anthropologist noted that Moslem circumcision in North Africa usually involved the removal of far more outer skin than among the Jews. (The Bedouin performed the circumcision rite at puberty and called it es-selkh, or “the flaying.”)