Talk:Stephen Decatur

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I thought he was a Marine Officer ?

Of course not, no navy would let a Marine captain a ship! I suppose maybe some in the USMC consider him an "honorary Marine" for his unusual willingness to get in there hand-to-hand... Stan 00:55, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

he's my great-great uncle

Stephen Decatur is legended to have shot at the Jersey Devil. Put a whole through the beast, which was unaffected.

I had never heard the legend, but after some checking, I do find corroboration for the legend. That is fascinating! Auror 16:31, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Revision: I removed the link to "John Carden", as the linked page for him wasn't the right John Carden.

Suggestion: In the communities list, there should also be Decatatur Island in WA State in the San Juan Islands.

This article states that he is the youngest Captain in the history of the U.S. Navy, but it doesn't specify what ship and at what age he attained his captaincy. Request a referenced clarification is made as soon as possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.42.144.161 (talk) 06:09, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

How his name sounds in English?

Hi, I'm Russian so I don't know the true pronounciation of his name. Is it like French or like English? --Maxrossomachin (talk) 17:23, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

NPOV?

This written in an incredibly non-encyclopedic way. Just from the first few paragraphs alone "Before marrying the beautiful and intelligent Wheeler he had already made vows to serve his country faithfully and honorably and felt to not do so would make him unworthy of her hand" and "In every theater of operation Decatur's service in the nation's young Navy was characterized with heroism and exceptional performance where he emerged as a national hero who ultimately came to be identified as the father of the post revolutionary American Navy". Needs to be completely re-written to remove all of the hyperbole. If I knew how to insert the NPOV box thingy, I would do so Robinr22 (talk) 08:12, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Have reworded. Two authors, Waldo and Mackenzie, both make mention of her beauty and intelligence in the context that she was pursued by other notable individuals, including the Brother of Napoleon, thus portraying the type of woman Decatur chose to marry, however my original wording perhaps needed toning down on that one note. Gwillhickers (talk) 20:06, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

It's less whether the assertions are sourced, but really whether the tone itself is appropriate. For example, I could easily find a reputable source stating that Bill Gates is the most generous entreprenuer in history, all Africa is grateful to him for wise and magnanmous contributions to medical research and he is the world's most amazing businessman. But if I put that in his article it would be reverted and rightly so, because the language would give an unbalanced impression of him and wouldn't be neutral, not to mention that it would add very little to the article. This article, while very comprehensive, well written and well sourced comes across as a hagiography. Even Mother Teresa gets some criticsm...

Though, on looking at it further large parts of the article seems to have been lifted from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/naval/p/sdecatur.htm albeit closely paraphrased in places. For example, from this page "the Intrepid, disguised as a Maltese merchant ship and flying British colors, casually entered Tripoli harbor. Claiming that they had lost their anchors in a storm, Decatur asked permission to tie up alongside the captured frigate...When the two ships were close enough, Decatur stormed aboard Philadelphia with sixty men. Fighting with swords and pikes, they took control of the ship without losing a single man and began preparations to set it on fire." vs from the about.com page "Intrepid, disguised as a Maltese merchant ship and flying British colors, entered Tripoli harbor. Claiming that they had lost their anchors in a storm, Decatur asked permission to tie up alongside the captured frigate. As the two ships touched, Decatur stormed aboard Philadelphia with sixty men. Fighting with swords and pikes, they took control of the ship and began preparations to burn it". This would seem to be in breach of Wikipedia:Copyrights, especially as the original page is not sourced in any of the links. So now I would say that the article should not only be written to remove the POV but also to remove the copyright violations. Robinr22 (talk) 09:46, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

I share your concerns. With enough time I will be overhauling the page appropriately. elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (be free) 16:12, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

First my apologies for not responding sooner and for the edit with the copyright issue on the Stephen Decatur page. Some times I will edit in a general statement closely worded from a given source, reorganize/word it and then build on it, using more reliable sources. It looks in this case that I never got around to this passage in that regard. I would be happy to make any corrective edits immediately but as you must know the page is tagged and can't be edited at this time. I am wondering if this was necessary, as almost anyone could have made a corrective edit. I often make similar corrections (usually for lack of citations) in my travels. When I first came to the Stephen Decatur page in May the article was tagged for lack of citations and was lacking them throughout the page. As for the article's tone and such, it does paint Decatur in sort of a biased way, but not such where any meaning or history has been altered. Again, my apologies. I would be more than happy to edit/correct any issues the page has. I am also hoping that the editor who said 'he' (alone?) will "overhaul" the page will do so without deleting information and approach the page in a constructive manner. I am quite familiar with this subject and have several hard texts for sources and know of and am familiar with many others and will be more than happy to take on any issues and work with others who would also like to bring the page up to WP standards. Regards, Gwillhickers (talk) 22:05, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Rewrite

I have corrected an edit with copyright issues and placed the 'rewrite' in the appropriate sub page here. If there are other items that might need attention please bring it to the attention of any contributing editors here. Thank you. Gwillhickers (talk) 10:40, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Progress: -- The longer passages with similarities in text are being corrected on the 'rewrite' sub page. The common short phrases that appear in the source, I am hoping, pose no copyright issues in their use here. My apologies once again. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 01:45, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

His Mother's Name?

His mother is stated to have been Priscilla Pine. In the Wiki piece on his father, Stephen Decatur, Sr., she is named as Ann Pine. ?? Irish Melkite (talk) 13:31, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Was the duel unfair?

I understand that both the commodores fired after the word "two" rather than waiting for the "three". That would render the behaviour of those "alleged" gentlemen less than honest. Stephen Decatur was well-known for his bravery and sense of honour and I really doubt he can resort to such a fellonery. Are we supposed to believe his adversary, who was 11 year older than him, had the ability to woundly hit him? In any case, according to the duel rules, the duel-assistants had to fire on the cheat sniper. Why did'nt they do that?