Reuben James
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:About Template:Infobox military person Reuben James (Template:Circa 1776 – December 3, 1838) was an American sailor who served as a boatswain's mate in the United States Navy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He is best known for purportedly saving the life of his commanding officer, Stephen Decatur, during the First Barbary War in 1804, though most historians agree he was wrongly credited for the actions of shipmate Daniel Frazier.
BiographyEdit
James was born in Delaware around 1776. By 1799, he was serving in the United States Navy aboard the frigate Template:USS during the Quasi-War with France, participating in the victories over L'Insurgente and La Vengeance. During the First Barbary War, James was serving aboard the USS Enterprise when the frigate USS Philadelphia was captured by Barbary pirates after running aground near Tripoli, Libya.<ref name="dict">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="wheelan">Template:Cite book</ref>
During the naval blockade of Tripoli, the most intense engagement was the gunboat battle of August 3, 1804. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur boarded a Tripolitan gunboat that he believed was crewed by the men who had feigned surrender before mortally wounding his brother.<ref name="wheelan" /> While a wounded Decatur was locked in combat with the Tripolitan commander, another enemy sailor swung his sword at him. The Tripolitan's blow was intercepted and absorbed by a sailor in Decatur's party who had sacrificed himself, suffering a head wound as a result. Many traditional accounts credit James with saving Decatur's life, while modern scholarship credits Quartermaster Daniel Frazier.Template:Efn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="lewis">Template:Cite magazine</ref> As late as 1865, Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, a friend of Decatur's, said that "...Reuben James, a sailor, thrust out his arm and had it cleaved off by the blade of the weapon intended for his commander." Yet James was one of the few Americans to survive the battle uninjured, while Dr. Lewis Heermann, the surgeon aboard the Enterprise, described Frazier's injuries as "two incised wounds on the head, one of them severe; one bad wound across the wrist, and seven slightly about his hands." W. M. P. Dunne, writing for the U.S. Naval Institute's Naval History magazine, calls James taking the blow meant for Decatur "a myth."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 1937, Lieutenant Commander R. C. Bartman wrote that both James and Frazier "each might be worthy of recognition without detracting from the other."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Both men have had U.S. Navy ships named for them.
After the Barbary War, James continued his naval career, serving under Decatur during the War of 1812 aboard the Template:USS, participating in its capture of the Template:HMS. James later served aboard the Template:USS, and was taken prisoner when that vessel was captured by the British in January 1815. Later that year, he saw action in the Second Barbary War, sailing with Decatur in the fleet that captured the Algerian flagship Mashouda. Declining health forced his retirement in 1836, and an old musket ball wound necessitated the amputation of a leg.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> James died on December 12, 1838 at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.<ref name="dict" />
HonorsEdit
Three United States Navy ships have been named the USS Reuben James:
- Template:USS (1919–1941), a Template:Sclass
- Template:USS, (1942–1971), a Template:Sclass
- Template:USS, (1983–2017), an Template:Sclass
James Island in Washington state is also named for James.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In literatureEdit
An 1895 poem by James Jeffrey Roche, "Reuben James," chronicles the sailor's exploits in Tripoli. Similarly, in Reuben James: A Hero of the Forecastle, a 1906 novel by Cyrus Townsend Brady, James is again portrayed as Decatur's savior.<ref name="lewis" />