Battle of Tripoli ( 1825 ) The Battle of Tripoli was a battle between the navies of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Ottoman Vilayet of Tripoli on 26 September 1825 during the Sardinian - Tripolitanian war of the same year . In order to resist Tripolitanian demands for increased tribute , the Sardinian king sent a squadron to force Tripoli to a favorable peace treaty . The Tripolitanians refused to change their demands and as a result the Sardinian squadron assaulted the city of Tripoli , sinking several vessels and landing a force to attack the city . Suffering heavy naval losses the Tripolitanian government quickly agreed to a favorable peace treaty with Sardinia , thus ending the war on favorable terms for the Sardinians . Background . In August 1825 , the ruler of Tripoli , Yusuf Karamanli , had become enraged when the new Sardinian consul arrived without bringing tribute with him , as had previously been the custom . When learning that Sardinia ' s King Charles Felix refused to give in and pay the request sum , the Tripolitanians expelled his consul and declared war on the Sardinian government on 7 August . Karamanli then began sending his corsairs out cruising against Sardinian merchant ships . To bring the Tripolitanians to terms , Charles Felix ordered a naval squadron to Tripoli under Francesco Sivori in his flagship , the frigate " Commercio " , along with Captain Luigi Sefra ' s frigate " Cristina " , Giuseppe Zicavo ' s corvette " Tritone " , and Maurizio Antonio Villarey ' s brig " Neriede " . Sivori left and after being delayed due to poor weather at Tunis , arrived at Tripoli on 25 September . Once his squadron arrived in Tripoli , Silvori sent the " Tritone " into the harbor under a flag of truce in order to begin negotiations with Karamanli ' s government . With assurances from the resident British consul that they would be safe , Silvori went ashore on the 26th and met the Tripolitanian envoy , General Haggi Mohammed . Although negotiations at first seemed to be going well , the next day Karamanli sent a note with suggested terms that essentially abrogated the peace treaty that British Admiral Edward Pellew had negotiated on Sardinia ' s behalf after the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816 . Seeing that Karamanli had no intention of offering acceptable terms , Sivori decided his best course of action would be to attack Tripoli . Before returning to his squadron Sivori managed to get the British consul to take under his protection what Sardinians remained in Tripoli . Salvori ' s force had a significant advantage over the Tripolitanian fleet , which only had a 12 - gun brig and a pair of 6 - gun schooner s defending the harbor . Despite the disadvantage in naval power , Karamanli had significant forces ashore and several forts and shore batteries defending the harbor . Upon returning to his vessel , Salvori gave Karamanli a four - hour ultimatum that he would bombard the city unless better peace terms were offered by the Tripolitanians . Battle . The four hours passed with no reply , and Salvori began formulating his plan of attack against Tripoli . Though the Sardinian commander had initially wished to use his squadron ' s frigates in the assault on the city , the seas were too rough to ensure their safety close to shore , so he instead made plans to attack Tripoli using several boats from his squadron ' s vessels . Sivori placed 260 men in ten boats separated into three divisions under the command of " Commercio " ' s Lieutenant Giorgio Mamelli . One division would attack the Tripolitanian brig , another the schooners , and the third group of boats would assault the city ' s dockyard and customs house to ensure no reinforcements could enter the harbor . When the boats first started for the port , the Tripolitanians began firing upon them with their shore batteries . The shelling lasted until 11 : 00 PM and delayed the assault until 1 : 00 AM when the " Nerid " began escorting the boats in closer to shore . Though at first the second Sardinian attack was unnoticed by the Tripolitanians , a sentry sighted the approaching force at 2 : 30 AM . Despite resistance from the Tripolitanian fleet and forces ashore , Mamelli pushed his force onward through grapeshot and musket fire . He soon reached the Tripolitanian brig and had his force board her , killing its officers and captain as well as a large portion of its crew . A second section of boats assaulted the schooners , taking them by boarding . At the same time , the third section of Sardinian boats managed to force their way ashore despite heavy opposition , capturing the dockyard and routing its Tripolitanian defenders . At 3 : 30 AM Mamelli fired off two rockets to signal a retreat , and burned the Tripolitanian ships his force had captured . Aftermath . By the end of the action the Tripolitanians had lost their three largest vessels and suffered heavy casualties , while the Sardinians only had two dead and five wounded . Later in the day while Sivori was making preparations for another attack on the city , a Dutch brig sailed out of port saluting him and signaling that it wished to communicate with him . Upon contacting the squadron , the brig ' s captain sent Sivori the congratulatory remarks of the British consul at Tripoli . The Sardinian commander sent the Dutch vessel back into port with a message to Karamanli that if he did not commence negotiations , further military action would be taken against the city . Rather than suffer continued action from the Sardinians , Karamanli acceded to the Sardinian requests and sent an envoy out to the Sardinian squadron . Upon negotiating with the Tripolitanian envoy , Sivori was able to get an agreement restoring the diplomatic situation to as it had been prior to the events that had sparked the hostilities . In order to ensure that Karamanli would abide by the terms of the treaty , the Sardinians included a provision that if the treaty were not ratified within four hours of its signing , Sardinian hostilities against Tripoli would recommence . Karamanli promptly acceded to the treaty upon receiving it and had the Sardinian consulate ' s national colors raised and saluted by his forces . The next day Sivori upon invitation arrived at Karamanli ' s palace , where he and his force were greeted with great respect and honor by the monarch . Though a stipulation was included in the peace treaty that required Sardinia to pay Tripoli 7000 gold francs , it was canceled and as a result the long practice of Sardinian tributary payments to the Tripolitanians finally ended .