Stephen Decatur, Sr.
Commodore, U.S. Navy

Stephen Decatur, Sr. was born in June 1752 in Newport, RI.

Decatur was a merchant captain before the Revolution. He married Ann Pine; in addition to their famous son, Stephen Jr.; they had two children, James Decatur and Ann Decatur McKnight.

He was an American naval Captain in the Revolutionary War and later in the Quasi-War. During the American Revolution, he commanded the Royal Louis, the Comet, the Retaliation, the Rising Sun, and the Fair American.

He commanded the ship USS Delaware and sailed in the first American Navy fleet to cross the Atlantic along with his son, Stephen Decatur, Jr.

In 1800, Decatur commissioned USS Philadelphia, the very vessel that his son later burned several months after it ran aground and was captured near Tripoli harbor in 1803.

Death and Burial

Stephen Decatur, Sr. died on 11 November 1808 inPhiladelphia, PA. He is buried at Saint Peter's Episcopal Churchyard in Philadelphia next to his famous son.