Grace Kaplan, age 15, of Carson City, Nev., for her question:

WHAT DID STEPHEN DECATUR DO?

Stephen Decatur was one of the most daring officers in the United States Navy during its early years. He is remembered for his famous toast: "Our country, may she always be right; but our country, right or wrong."

Decatur made his first long voyage at the age of 8, when he went to France on a ship commanded by his father, a merchant captain.

He became a midshipman in 1799 and was given the command of the Enterprise during the war with Tripoli. He captured an enemy vessel that was renamed the Intrepid. In this ship, Decatur led a carefully picked crew into Tripoli Harbor in 1804 and set fire to the frigate Philadelphia, a ship once commanded by his father, which the Tripoli pirates had captured. Not one of Decatur's men was killed and only one was wounded.

The English Admiral Horatio Nelson called Decatur's exploit "the most bold and daring act of the age." Because of it, Decatur won a sword from Congress and a captaincy when he was only 25 years old.