He became one of the six original commodores of the permanent United States Navy, and commanded a blockade of Tripoli in 1801 during the First Barbary War of Thomas Jefferson's presidency.

En route to Jamaica, the British vessel upon which Dale traveled was captured by the American Captain John Barry on his ship USS Lexington.

[5] He continued on with Lexington after Barry was replaced as captain by William Hallock, who promoted Dale to Master's Mate.

Select officers from Lexington were taken onto Pearl as prisoners, Dale included, although a sudden gale permitted the rest of the America crew to escape.

Lexington joined a squadron that caused some destruction on the coast of Ireland, which compelled the British to chase and, eventually, capture the brig and its crew.

Their conditions improved only after sympathetic British civilians collected enough money to supply them with the bare necessities for sustenance.

Still, the American sailors were unprepared to wait out the remainder of the war in prison, and dug a tunnel under the wall through which they attempted to make their escape.

Dale and a colleague were re-captured as they attempted to board a ship from London to Dunkirk, and were returned to Mill Prison.

In L'Orient, Dale signed on as Master's Mate with John Paul Jones on USS Bonhomme Richard, which was a French East Indiaman that had been converted to a warship.

Through the capture or destruction of many vessels, he contributed to the disruption of British trade, and made many residents impatient for the war to end.

When rumors that Bonhomme Richard was sinking reached him from below decks, and that the crew was prepared to surrender, Dale went to ascertain the damage.

His decision proved astute, since Congress ultimately gave the ship to the French government in payment of a debt, rather than to Jones to captain.

He signed on as the first officer on the American privateer USS Queen of France, a large merchant ship for which the Continental Congress approved a letter of marque.

The first ten years of their marriage often found Dale at sea as the captain of different vessels, either commanding merchant ships or in the newly established United States Navy.

In 1794, President George Washington established the United States Navy through order of Congress, ostensibly to protect American merchant vessels from the threat of privateers from the Barbary Nations, who took advantage of the new country's lack of a strong military presence in the Mediterranean Sea.

Dale accepted the appointment and traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, for his first assignment: to supervise construction on the frigate USS Chesapeake.

Due to the signing of a peace treaty with Algiers, one of the Barbary nations, which created some stability in the Mediterranean, construction on the frigate was halted.

During the First Barbary War with North Africa Commodore Dale sailed in the flagship USS President with Captain James Barron and a fleet of four other ships.

[7] In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson assigned them to blockade the city of Tripoli, where government-sanctioned pirates seized European and American merchant ships and enslaved their crews.

The United States government reluctantly paid tribute to the leaders of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers for a number of years to ensure the protection of American interests.

Dale maintained the blockade until a lack of provisions and rampant illness among the crews of his ships compelled him to return to his base in Virginia.

Back in 1785, George Washington signed a certificate that admitted Dale into the Society of the Cincinnati, which honored officer veterans of the Revolutionary War.

Dale remained an active member for the rest of his life, and became involved in the effort to construct a monument dedicated to George Washington in Philadelphia, which ultimately never materialized.

He also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese, a Trustee of the Episcopate Fund, and participated in various conventions dedicated to the perpetuation of the Episcopalian message.

Originally laid to rest in the Christ Church Burial Ground, and followed by Dorethea with her death four years later, they were both reinterred in the Laurel Hill Cemetery[8] in 1888.

His final mission, in the capacity of Commodore of the United States Navy, found him serving at the head of a small fleet of ships.