Friday, February 18, 2011

Old Tripoli Map



Old Map of Tripoli Harbor, with old city, Red Castle Fort and the clearly detailed wrecks of the USS Philadelphia nad USS Intrepid, sinking in flames.

Green Square is the area east of the Old Red Castle Fort.

Old Protestant's Cemetery, the site of the re-burrial of five of the men of the Intrepid, is one mile east of Green Square on the south side of the Coastal Road in a clearly marked, cement walled area.

The original Green Square graves of Somers, Wordsworth, Israel and five other men, remain where they were originally burried by Dr. Cowderly, the chief surgeon of the captured 300 man crew of the USS Philadlphia. Lt. Stephen Decatur had scuttled the Philadelphia in a dairing nighttime raid aboard the Intrepid, and Somers' mission was to destroy the enemy pirate fleet in the harbor, when it exploded, killing all hands. When their bodies washed ashore, Dr. Cowderly and a detachment of prisoners from the Philadelphia burried the three officers and ten men in their current resting spot, less than 500 yards east of the Old Red Castle Fort in Green Square.

Green Square is to Libya, what Tanneman Square is to China, Patzdam Platz is to Berlin, Tahrir Square is to Egypt, Pearl Square is to Bahrain and Boston Commons is to the still unfinished American Revolution.

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