CRUISE OF THE ESSEX.
1811-1814.
Child though Farragut was when he obtained his nominal admission to the
navy, he had but a short time to wait before entering upon its stern
realities--realities far harsher in that day than now. The difficulties
that had existed between the United States and Great Britain, ever since
the outbreak of war between the latter and France in 1793, were now fast
drifting both nations to the collision of 1812. The Non-intercourse Act
of March, 1809, forbidding American merchant ships to enter any port of
France or Great Britain, as a retaliation for the outrages inflicted by
both upon American commerce, had expired by its own limitations in May,
1810, when commerce with the two countries resumed its natural course;
but Congress had then passed a proviso to the effect that if either
power should, before March 3, 1811, recall its offensive measures, the
former act should, within three months of such revocation, revive
against the one that maintained its edicts. Napoleon had contrived to
satisfy the United States Government that his celebrated Berlin and
Milan decrees had been recalled on the 1st of November; and,
consequently, non-intercourse with Great Britain was again proclaimed
in February, 1811. The immediate result was that two British frigates
took their station off New York, where they overhauled all merchant
ships, capturing those bound to ports of the French Empire, and
impressing any members of the crews considered to be British subjects.
The United States then fitted out a squadron, to be commanded by
Commodore John Rodgers; whose orders, dated May 6, 1811, were to cruise
off the coast and to protect American commerce from unlawful
interference by British and French cruisers. Ten days later occurred the
collision between the commodore's ship, the President, and the British
corvette Little Belt. Of Rodgers's squadron the frigate Essex, expected
shortly to arrive from Europe, was to be one; and Commander Porter, who
did not obtain his promotion to the grade of captain until the following
year, was ordered to commission her. He took his ward with him, and the
two joined the ship at Norfolk, Virginia, in August, 1811, when the
young midshipman had just passed his tenth birthday. Long years
afterward Mrs. Farragut was told by Commodore Bolton, one of the
lieutenants of the Essex, that he remembered to have found the little
boy overcome with sleep upon his watch, leaning against a gun-carriage,
and had covered him with his pea-jacket to protect him from the night
air. An amusing incident, however, which occurred during these first
months of his naval career showed that the spirit of battle was already
stirring. Porter, probably with a view to keep the lad more immediately
under his own eye, had made him midshipman of his gig, as the captain's
special boat is called. On one occasion he was sent in to the wharf, to
wait for the captain and bring him to the ship when he came. A crowd of
dock-loungers gradually collected, and the youngster who stood erect in
the boat, doubtless looking pleasedly conscious of his new uniform and
importance, became the object of audible comment upon his personal
appearance. The boat's crew sat silent but chafing, the bowman holding
on with his boat-hook, until one loafer proceeded from witticism to
practical joking by sprinkling the midshipman with an old water-pot.
Quick as look the bowman caught his boot-hook in the culprit's pocket
and dragged him into the boat, while the rest of the crew, by this time
spoiling for a fight, seized their stretchers, jumped ashore, and began
laying on right and left. Farragut, so far from restraining, went with
them, waving his dirk and cheering them on. The victorious seamen fought
their way up to Market Square, where the police interfered, arresting
all parties, and the little officer was formally bound over to keep the
peace.
The Hartford, upon which Farragut first hoisted his admiral's flag, has
obtained a particular interest from its close association with the whole
of his course of victory; and the Essex, a ship of very different type,
would attract attention as the one that cradled his career, and
witnessed the part of it which is only second in excitement to his
exploits as a commander-in-chief, had she no special claims of her own
to notice. But the Essex, both in her origin and through her subsequent
history, especially when under Porter's command, was a marked ship. She
was an offspring of the quarrel between the United States and the French
Republic, which arose out of the extravagant demands made by the latter
upon the compliance of her former ally, in consequence of the service
which it was claimed had been rendered during the Revolutionary War.
Ignoring the weakness of the American Republic, and the dependence of a
large section of the country upon commerce, the French Government had
expected that it should resist, even by force, the seizure by British
cruisers of French property in American vessels, and thus bring on
hostilities with Great Britain; and that, although the United States
Government admitted the practice of capturing enemy's property in
neutral ships, however objectionable in theory, to be part of the
traditional and recognized law of nations. Going on from step to step,
in the vain endeavor by some means to injure the maritime predominance
of Great Britain, which defied the efforts both of their navy and of
their privateers, the French Legislature in January, 1798, decreed that
any neutral vessel which should be found to have on board, not merely
British property, but property, to whomsoever belonging, which was grown
or manufactured in England or her colonies, should be a lawful prize to
French cruisers. This extravagant claim, which not only seized goods
that had been heretofore and by all others accounted free, but also,
contrary to precedent, confiscated the vessel as well as the cargo,
broke down the patience of the United States, where the Government was
then still in the hands of the Federalists, whose sympathies were rather
British than French. Nearly a year before, President Adams had called a
special meeting of Congress and recommended an increase of the navy, to
the numerical weakness of which was due the recklessness with which both
Great Britain and France inflicted insult and injury upon our seamen
and upon our commerce. That the United States of that day, so inferior
in wealth and numbers to both belligerents, should dream of entering the
lists with either singly, was perhaps hopeless; but through the
indifference of Congress the navy of a people, then second only to the
English as maritime carriers, was left so utterly impotent that it
counted for naught, even as an additional embarrassment to those with
which the contending powers were already weighted. When, therefore, in
retaliation for the seizures made under the French decree of January,
1798, Congress, without declaring war, directed the capture of French
armed vessels, wherever found on the high seas, it became necessary to
begin building a navy which to some slight degree might carry out the
order. An act, intended to hasten the increase of the navy, was passed
in June, 1798, authorizing the President to accept such vessels as might
be built by the citizens for the national service, and to issue
six-per-cent stock to indemnify the subscribers.
Under this law the Essex was built in Salem, Massachusetts, by a
subscription raised among the citizens. As the project grew, and the
amount likely to be obtained became manifest, the purpose to which it
should be devoted was determined to be the building of a frigate of
thirty-two guns; one of the well-recognized, but smaller, classes under
which the vessels called frigates were subdivided. Except the work of
the naval architect proper, the model and the superintendence, which
were undertaken by a gentleman from Portsmouth, everything in the
building and equipment was portioned out among Salem men, and was
supplied from the resources of the town or of the surrounding country.
During the winter of 1798 to 1799 the sleds of all the farmers in the
neighborhood were employed bringing in the timber for the frames and
planking of the new ship. The rigging was manufactured by the three
ropewalks then in the place, each undertaking one mast; and the sails
were of cloth so carefully selected and so admirably cut that it was
noticed the frigate never again sailed so well as with this first suit.
When the rope cables, which alone were then used by ships instead of the
chains of the present day, were completed, the workmen took them upon
their shoulders and marched with them in procession to the vessel,
headed by a drum and fife. The building of the Essex was thus an effort
of city pride and local patriotism; and the launch, which took place on
the 30th of September, 1799, became an occasion of general rejoicing and
holiday, witnessed by thousands of spectators and greeted by salutes
from the battery and shipping. The new frigate measured 850 tons, and
cost, independent of guns and stores, somewhat over $75,000. Her battery
in her early history was composed of twenty-six long twelve-pounders on
the main deck, with sixteen thirty-two-pound carronades and two chase
guns on the deck above. At a later day, and during the cruise under
Porter, this was changed to forty thirty-two-pound carronades and six
long twelves. This battery, though throwing a heavier weight, was of
shorter range than the former; and therefore, though advantageous to a
ship able to choose her position, was a fatal source of weakness to a
slow or crippled vessel, as was painfully apparent in the action where
the Essex was lost.
Notwithstanding the zeal and emulation aroused by the appeal to Salem
municipal pride, and notwithstanding the comparative rapidity with
which ships could then be built, the Essex in her day illustrated the
folly of deferring preparation until hostilities are at hand. The first
French prize was taken in June, 1798, but it was not till December 22d
of the following year that the Essex sailed out of Salem harbor,
commanded then by Edward Preble, one of the most distinguished officers
of the early American navy. Newport was her first port of arrival. From
there she sailed again on the 6th of January, 1800, in company with the
frigate Congress, both being bound for Batavia, whence they were to
convoy home a fleet of merchant ships; for in the predatory warfare
encouraged by the French Directory, the protection of our commerce from
its cruisers was a duty even more important than the retaliatory action
against the latter, to which the _quasi_ war of 1798 was confined. When
six days out, the Congress was dismasted. The Essex went on alone, and
was thus the first ship-of-war to carry the flag of the United States
around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. A dozen years later
the bold resolution of Porter to take her alone and unsupported into the
Pacific, during the cruise upon which young Farragut was now embarking,
secured for this little frigate the singular distinction of being the
first United States ship-of-war to double Cape Horn as well as that of
Good Hope. In the intervening period the Essex had been usefully, but
not conspicuously, employed in the Mediterranean in the operations
against Tripoli and in protecting trade. In 1811, however, she was again
an actor in an event of solemn significance. Upon her return to the
United States, where Porter was waiting to take command, she bore as a
passenger William Pinkney, the late Minister to Great Britain; who,
after years of struggle, on his part both resolute and dignified, to
obtain the just demands of the United States, had now formally broken
off the diplomatic relations between the two powers and taken an
unfriendly leave of the British Government.
Being just returned from a foreign cruise, the Essex needed a certain
amount of refitting before again going to sea under her new commander;
but in October, 1811, she sailed for a short cruise on the coast, in
furtherance of the Government's orders to Commodore Rodgers to protect
American commerce from improper interference. Orders of such a character
were likely at any moment to result in a collision, especially in the
hands of a gallant, hasty officer scarcely out of his first youth; for
Porter was at this time but thirty-one, and for years had felt, with the
keen resentment of a military man, the passive submission to insult
shown by Jefferson's government. No meeting, however, occurred; nor were
the months that elapsed before the outbreak of war marked by any event
of special interest except a narrow escape from shipwreck on Christmas
eve, when the Essex nearly dragged on shore in a furious northeast gale
under the cliffs at Newport. Farragut has left on record in his journal,
with the proper pride of a midshipman in his ship, that the Essex was
the smartest vessel in the squadron, and highly complimented as such by
Commodore Rodgers. In acknowledgment of the skill and activity of his
seamen, Porter divided the ship's company into three watches, instead of
the usual two--an arrangement only possible when the smaller number in a
watch is compensated by their greater individual efficiency. This
arrangement continued throughout the cruise, until the ship was captured
in 1814.
On the 18th of June, 1812, war was at last declared against Great
Britain. The Essex had again been cruising during the spring months; but
the serious character of the new duties before her made a thorough refit
necessary, and she was not able to sail with the squadron under
Commodore Rodgers, which put to sea from New York on the 21st of June.
On the 3d of July, however, she got away, Porter having the day before
received his promotion to post-captain, then the highest grade in the
United States Navy. The ship cruised off the coast, making several
prizes of vessels much inferior to herself in force, and on the 7th of
September anchored within the capes of the Delaware. Much to Porter's
surprise and annoyance, although ready to sail at once if furnished with
provisions, none reached him. The ship was therefore taken up the
Delaware and anchored off Chester, where she was prepared for a long and
distant cruise directed against British commerce, the suggestion of
which Porter believed came first from himself. By this a squadron
consisting of the Constitution, Essex, and Hornet sloop-of-war, under
the command of Commodore Bainbridge in the first-named frigate, were to
proceed across the Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands, thence to the
South Atlantic in the neighborhood of Brazil, and finally to the
Pacific, to destroy the British whale-fishery there. The plan was well
conceived, and particularly was stamped with the essential mark of all
successful commerce-destroying, the evasion of the enemy's cruisers;
for, though the American cruisers were primed to fight, yet an action,
even if successful, tended to cripple their powers of pursuit. A rapid
transit through the Atlantic, with an ultimate destination to the then
little-frequented Pacific, was admirably calculated to conceal for a
long time the purposes of this commerce-destroying squadron. As it
happened, both the Constitution and Hornet met and captured enemy's
cruisers off the coast of Brazil, and then returned to the United
States. Farragut thus lost the opportunity of sharing in any of the
victories of 1812, to be a partaker in one of the most glorious of
defeats.
The Constitution and Hornet being in Boston, and the Essex in the
Delaware, it became necessary to appoint for the three a distant place
of meeting, out of the usual cruising grounds of the enemy, in order
that the ships, whose first object was to escape crippling, could pass
rapidly through the belt of British cruisers then girding the coast of
the United States. The brilliant record made by United States ships in
their single combats with the enemy during this war should not be
allowed to blind our people to the fact that, from their numerical
inferiority, they were practically prisoners in their own ports; and,
like other prisoners, had to break jail to gain freedom to act. The
distant and little frequented Cape Verde group, off the African coast,
was therefore designated as the first rendezvous for Bainbridge's
squadron, and the lonely island of Fernando Noronha, off the coast of
Brazil, close under the equator, as the second. Both of these places
were then possessions of Portugal, the ally of Great Britain though
neutral as to the United States. With these orders the Constitution and
Hornet sailed from Boston on the 26th of October, 1812, and the Essex
two days later from the capes of the Delaware. Their course in the
passage was to be so directed as to cross at the most favorable points
the routes of British commerce.
On the 27th of November the Essex, after an uneventful voyage, anchored
at Porto Praya, in the Cape Verdes, where she remained five days.
Receiving no news of Bainbridge, Porter sailed again for Fernando
Noronha. On the 11th of December a British packet, the Nocton, was
captured, and from her was taken $55,000 in specie--an acquisition which
contributed much to facilitate the distant cruise contemplated by
Porter. Four days later the Essex was off Fernando Noronha, and sent a
boat ashore, which returned with a letter addressed ostensibly to Sir
James Yeo, of the British frigate Southampton; but between the lines,
written in sympathetic ink, Porter found a message from Bainbridge,
directing him to cruise off Rio and wait for the Constitution. On the
29th of December he was in the prescribed station, and cruised in the
neighborhood for some days, although he knew a British ship-of-the-line,
the Montagu, was lying in Rio; but only one British prize was taken, the
merchant vessels of that nation usually waiting in port until they could
sail under convoy of a ship-of-war. Attempting to get to windward in a
heavy sea, the Essex was much racked and injured some of her spars, and
her captain therefore decided to bear away for refit to St.
Catherine's--a port five hundred miles south of Rio Janeiro, which had
been named in his instructions as a contingent rendezvous. On the 20th
of January, 1813, the Essex anchored there, and began the work of
refitting and filling with water and fresh provisions. A few days after
her arrival a small Portuguese vessel came in, bringing an account of
the capture by the Montagu of an American corvette, which Porter
supposed to be the Hornet, as well as a rumor of the action between the
Constitution and the Java, and a report that re-enforcements were
reaching the British naval force on the station. The history of past
wars convinced Porter that the neutrality of the Portuguese port in
which he was lying would not be respected by the enemy. In a very few
days his presence there must become known; any junction with his
consorts was rendered most unlikely by the news just received, and he
determined at once to undertake alone the mission for which the three
ships had been dispatched. With admirable promptitude, both of decision
and action, the Essex sailed the same night for the Pacific.
From the time of leaving the United States the crew of the ship had been
restricted to that close and economical allowance of provisions and
water which was necessary to a vessel whose home ports were blocked by
enemy's cruisers, and which in every quarter of the globe might expect
to meet the fleets and influence of a powerful foe. The passage round
Cape Horn, always stormy, was both a long and severe strain to a vessel
bound from east to west, and dependent wholly upon sail; for the winds
prevail from the westward. The utmost prudence was required in
portioning out both food and water, and of bread there remained, on
leaving St. Catherine's, only enough for three months at half
allowance--that is, at half a pound per day. The boy Farragut thus found
himself, at the outset of his career, exposed to one of the severest
tests of his arduous calling--a long and stormy passage, made in the
teeth of violent gales, and with a crew reduced to the scantiest
possible allowance of food, under conditions when the system most
demands support. In his journal he speaks, as Porter does in his, of the
severe suffering and dreadful weather experienced. For twenty-one days
the Essex struggled with the furious blasts, the heavy seas, and the
bitter weather, which have made the passage round Cape Horn proverbial
for hardship among seamen. On the 3d of March, he writes, a sea was
shipped which burst in, on one side of the ship and from one end to the
other, all the ports through which the guns are fired, and which, for
such a passage, are closed and securely fastened. One boat on the
weather side was driven in on deck, and that on the opposite carried
overboard; but with great difficulty the latter was saved. Large
quantities of water rushed below, leading those there to imagine that
the ship was sinking. "This was the only instance in which I ever saw a
real good seaman paralyzed by fear at the dangers of the sea. Several of
the sailors were seen on their knees at prayer; but most were found
ready to do their duty. They were called on deck, and came promptly, led
by William Kingsbury, the boatswain's mate. Long shall I remember the
cheering sound of his stentorian voice, which resembled the roaring of a
lion rather than that of a human being, when he told them: 'D--n their
eyes, to put their best foot forward, as there was one side of the ship
left yet.'"
Cape Horn, however, was at last passed and enough ground gained to the
westward to allow the Essex again to head north. On the 11th of March
she was off the city of Valparaiso, in Chile. As far as Porter then
knew, Chile was still a province of Spain, and Spain was the ally of
Great Britain; whose armies for four years past had been engaged in war
in the Peninsula, to shake from it the grip of Napoleon. There had been
trouble also between Spain and the United States about the Floridas. The
first lieutenant of the Essex was therefore first sent ashore to see
what reception would be given, and returned with the satisfactory
intelligence that Chile was in revolution against the mother country,
and was ready heartily to welcome a ship-of-war belonging to the
American Republic. He also brought the news that the Viceroy of Spain in
Peru had fitted out privateers against Chilian commerce; and that these,
on the plea of being allies of Great Britain, had begun to capture
American whalers. It seemed, therefore, that the Essex had arrived as
opportunely for the protection of United States interests as for the
injury of British commerce.
Several days were lost in these preliminaries, so that it was not till
the 15th that the anchor was dropped in Valparaiso. Despite the cordial
reception given, Porter was in haste to reach his scene of action in the
North and sailed again on the 22d. Four days later he met a Peruvian
privateer, the Nereyda, the captain of which was deceived by the Essex
hoisting British colors. Coming on board the frigate, he stated freely
that the Spaniards considered themselves the allies of Great Britain,
that he was himself cruising for American whalers, and had on board at
the moment the crews of two of these which he had taken. Having
extracted all the information he wanted, Porter undeceived the
privateersman, took possession of the ship, threw overboard her guns
and ammunition, and then released her, with a letter to the Viceroy;
which, backed by the presence of the Essex, was calculated to insure
peaceable treatment to American vessels.
There were at this time on the coast of Peru and in the neighboring
waters twenty-three American whalers, worth, with their cargoes, two and
a half million dollars, and mostly unarmed, having left home in a time
of peace. Of English ships there were twenty; but, their country having
been long at war, these were generally armed, and in many cases provided
with letters of marque authorizing them to act as privateers and capture
vessels hostile to their Crown. In this state of things, so unpromising
for American interests, the arrival of the Essex entirely turned the
scales, besides stopping the Spanish depredations which had but just
begun.
On the 27th of March, off the harbor of Callao, the port of Lima, Porter
recaptured the Barclay, one of the American ships seized by the Nereyda;
but, although the frigate again disguised her nationality by hoisting
British colors, there was among the several vessels in the harbor only
one that showed the same flag. With the Barclay in company, the Essex
now stood away for the Galapagos Islands. These are a group situated
just south of the equator and some five hundred miles from the South
American coast. Uninhabited then, as for the most part they still are,
they were in 1813 a favorite rendezvous for British whalers, who had
established upon one of the islands (Charles) a means of communication
by a box nailed to a tree, which was called the post-office. They abound
in turtle, some of which weigh several hundred pounds, and form a very
valuable as well as acceptable change of diet to seamen long confined to
salt food. On the 17th of April the Essex came in sight of Chatham
Island, one of the largest, and remained cruising in the neighborhood of
the group till the beginning of June, when want of water compelled her
to go to Tumbez, a port on the continent just abreast of the Galapagos.
In this period seven British whalers were taken; so that on the 24th of
June there were anchored in Tumbez Bay, including the frigate and the
Barclay, nine vessels under Porter's command. Of these, he commissioned
one--the fastest and best, somewhat less than half the size of the Essex
herself--as a United States cruiser, under his command. She was named
the Essex Junior, carried twenty guns, of which half were long
six-pounders and half eighteen-pounder carronades, and was manned by
sixty of the Essex's crew under her first lieutenant.
The first service of the Essex Junior was to convoy to Valparaiso the
Barclay and four of the British prizes. The occasion was one of great
importance and interest to Farragut; for, though but a boy of twelve, he
was selected to command the party of seamen detailed to manage the
Barclay during this long passage. The captain of the Barclay went with
his ship, but in great discontent that the command of the seamen was
given not to himself, but to such a lad from the ship-of-war. Being a
violent-tempered old man, he attempted by bluster to overawe the boy
into surrendering his authority. "When the day arrived for our
separation from the squadron," writes Farragut in his journal, "the
captain was furious, and very plainly intimated to me that I would
'find myself off New Zealand in the morning,' to which I most decidedly
demurred. We were lying still, while the other ships were fast
disappearing from view, the commodore going north and the Essex Junior,
with her convoy, steering to the south for Valparaiso. I considered that
my day of trial had arrived (for I was a little afraid of the old
fellow, as every one else was). But the time had come for me at least to
play the man; so I mustered up courage and informed the captain that I
desired the maintopsail filled away, in order that we might close up
with the Essex Junior. He replied that he would shoot any man who dared
to touch a rope without his orders; he 'would go his own course, and had
no idea of trusting himself with a d--d nutshell'; and then he went
below for his pistols. I called my right-hand man of the crew and told
him my situation. I also informed him that I wanted the maintopsail
filled. He answered with a clear 'Ay, ay, sir!' in a manner which was
not to be misunderstood, and my confidence was perfectly restored. From
that moment I became master of the vessel, and immediately gave all
necessary orders for making sail, notifying the captain not to come on
deck with his pistols unless he wished to go overboard, for I would
really have had very little trouble in having such an order obeyed. I
made my report to Captain Downes (of the Essex Junior), on rejoining
him; and the captain also told his story, in which he endeavored to
pursuade Downes that he only tried to frighten me. I replied by
requesting Captain Downes to ask him how he succeeded; and to show him
that I did not fear him, I offered to go back and proceed with him to
Valparaiso. He was informed that I was in command, he being simply my
adviser in navigating the vessel in case of separation. So, this being
settled and understood, I returned to the Barclay, and everything went
on amicably up to our arrival in Valparaiso."
It was on the 30th of June that the little squadron sailed from Tumbez,
standing to the westward till they should reach the trade-winds; and on
the 4th of July that the Essex Junior separated, with the prizes, and
Farragut had his scene with the captain of the Barclay. As the winds on
the west coast of South America blow throughout the year from the
southward, the passage of sailing vessels in that direction is always
long; but for the same reason the return is quickly made. When,
therefore, the Essex Junior rejoined the Essex at the Galapagos, on the
30th of September, she brought comparatively recent news, and that of a
very important character. Letters from the American consul in Buenos
Ayres informed Porter that on the 5th of July the British frigate
Phoebe, of thirty-six guns, a vessel in every way of superior force to
the Essex, had sailed from Rio Janeiro for the Pacific, accompanied by
two sloops-of-war, the Cherub and Raccoon, of twenty-four guns each.
This little squadron was charged with the double mission of checking the
ravages of the Essex and of destroying the fur trade of American
citizens at the mouth of the Columbia River. From the date of their
leaving Rio these ships were not improbably now on the coast; and
allowing for time to refit after the stormy passage round the Horn, they
might be expected soon to seek Porter at the Galapagos, the headquarters
of the British whalers.
The Essex Junior brought back the prize-crews and prize-masters who had
navigated the captured ships to Valparaiso, and with the others Farragut
now rejoined the frigate. During their absence Porter had taken four
more valuable vessels. According to his information, there remained but
one uncaptured of the British whalers which centered around the islands.
The Essex had taken eleven; and among these, six carried letters of
marque from their Government, authorizing them to seize for their own
profit vessels of a nation at war with Great Britain. These powers would
doubtless have been exercised at the expense of the unprepared American
whalers but for the opportune appearance of the Essex, which had also
released the vessels of her country from the ports to which, at the time
of her arrival, they had been driven by Peruvian privateers. Porter's
work in this region was therefore finished. He had entirely broken up an
important branch of British commerce, inflicting damage estimated at
nearly three million dollars; but the coming of an enemy's force
considerably superior to his own, an event wholly beyond his control,
reversed all the conditions and imposed upon him some new line of
action. For this he was already prepared, and he took his decision with
the promptitude characteristic of the man. The commander of the British
squadron, Captain Hillyar, was personally well known to him, being an
old acquaintance in the Mediterranean; and he doubtless realized from
observation, as well as from his past record, that his enemy was not a
man to throw away, through any carelessness or false feeling of
chivalry, a single advantage conferred by his superior force. On the
other hand, Porter himself was not one quietly to submit to superiority
without an effort to regain the control which the chances of naval war
might yet throw into his hands. He was determined to fight, if any fair
chance offered; but to do so it was necessary to put his ship in the
highest state of efficiency, which could only be done by leaving the
spot where he was known to be, and, throwing the enemy off his scent,
repairing to one where the necessary work could be performed in
security. Two days after the arrival of the Essex Junior all the vessels
sailed from the Galapagos Islands for the Marquesas. On the 25th of
October they anchored at one of this group, called Nukahiva Island.
During the six weeks the Essex lay at this anchorage her crew bore a
part in several expeditions on shore, designed to protect the natives in
the neighborhood against hostile tribes in other parts of the island. In
this land fighting Farragut and his younger messmates were not allowed
to share; but were, on the contrary, compelled to attend a school
established on board of one of the prizes, with the ship's chaplain for
school-master. They were, however, permitted out of school hours and
after the day's work, which for the ship's company ended at 4 P. M., to
ramble freely in the island among the natives; considerable liberty
being allowed to all hands, who, during their year's absence from the
United States, had had little opportunity to visit any inhabited places.
Farragut here learned to swim, and the aptitude of the natives to the
water seems to have impressed him more than their other peculiarities
which have since then been so liberally described in books of travel.
"It appears as natural," he wrote, "for these islanders to swim as to
eat. I have often seen mothers take their little children, apparently
not more than two years old, down to the sea on their backs, walk
deliberately into deep water, and leave them to paddle for themselves.
To my astonishment, the little creatures could swim like young ducks."
On the 9th of December, 1813, the Essex and Essex Junior sailed for
Valparaiso with one of the prizes, leaving the others at the Marquesas.
Nothing of interest occurred during the passage, but the crew were daily
exercised at all the arms carried by the ship--with the cannon, the
muskets, and the single-sticks. The latter are for training in the use
of the broadsword or cutlass, the play with which would be too dangerous
for ordinary drills. Porter had a strong disposition to resort to
boarding and hand-to-hand fighting, believing that the very surprise of
an attack by the weaker party would go far to compensate for the
inequality of numbers. On more than one occasion already, in the
presence of superior force, he had contemplated resorting to this
desperate game; and to a ship the character of whose battery
necessitated a close approach to the enemy, the power to throw on board,
at a moment's notice, a body of thoroughly drilled and equipped
swordsmen was unquestionably of the first importance. "I have never
since been in a ship," said Farragut at a later day, "where the crew of
the old Essex was represented, but that I found them to be the best
swordsmen on board. They had been so thoroughly trained as boarders that
every man was prepared for such an emergency, with his cutlass as sharp
as a razor, a dirk made from a file by the ship's armorer, and a
pistol." With a ship well refitted and with a crew thus perfectly
drilled, Porter had done all that in him lay in the way of preparation
for victory. If he did not win, he would at least deserve to do so. For
Farragut it is interesting to notice that, in his tender youth and most
impressible years, he had before him, both in his captain and in his
ship, most admirable models. The former daring to recklessness, yet
leaving nothing to chance; fearless of responsibility, but ever
sagacious in its exercise; a rigid disciplinarian, who yet tempered
rigor by a profound knowledge of and sympathy with the peculiarities of
the men who were under him. The latter--the ship--became, as ships under
strong captains tend to become, the embodiment of the commander's
spirit. Thoroughly prepared and armed at all points, she was now
advancing at the close of her career to an audacious encounter with a
greatly superior force. Whether the enterprise was justifiable or not,
at least nothing that care could do to insure success was left to chance
or to favor. Porter might perhaps have quitted the Pacific in December,
1813, and, reaching the United States coast in the winter, have escaped
the blockade which at that season was necessarily relaxed. By doing so
he might have saved his ship; but the United States Navy would have lost
one of the most brilliant pages in its history, and its future admiral
one of the most glorious episodes in his own great career.
On the 12th of January, 1814, the Essex arrived off the coast of Chile,
making the land well to the southward--that is, to windward--of
Valparaiso. From this point of arrival she ran slowly to the northward,
looking into the old town of Concepción, between two and three hundred
miles from Valparaiso. In the latter port she anchored on the 3d of
February. The ordinary salutes and civilities with the authorities
having been exchanged, every effort was made to get the ship ready for
sea, the Essex Junior being employed cruising off the port so as to give
timely notice of the approach of an enemy; a precaution necessary at all
times, even in a neutral port, but especially so at a period when
neutral rights were being openly disregarded in every direction by both
the great belligerents, France and Great Britain. Moreover, Captain
Hillyar, though a brave and experienced officer, a favorite with Nelson,
whose esteem could not be won without high professional merit, was
reputed to have shown scanty scruples about neutral rights on a previous
occasion, when the disregard of them procured an advantage to the
enterprise he had in hand. Being sent with several armed boats to attack
two Spanish corvettes lying in the port of Barcelona, in the year 1800,
he had pulled alongside a neutral vessel, a Swede, which was standing
into the harbor; and after examining her papers in the due exercise of
his right as a belligerent, his boats hooked on to her, thus using a
neutral to tow them into the enemy's port, so that his men reached their
scene of exertion unfatigued by the oar, and for a great part of the way
protected by such respect as the Spanish batteries might show to a
neutral coerced into aiding a hostile undertaking. "Having approached
within about three quarters of a mile of the nearest battery," says the
British naval historian James, "and being reminded by two shots which
passed over the galliot that it was time to retire from the shelter of a
neutral vessel, Captain Hillyar pulled away." Both the Spanish and
Swedish Governments complained of this act, and their complaints
delayed the promotion which Hillyar's gallantry would otherwise have
won. Whatever the strict propriety of his conduct in this case, it was
sufficiently doubtful to excite a just suspicion that Hillyar would not
be deterred, by over-delicacy about the neutrality of the port, from
seizing any advantage offered him by the unwariness of his enemy; and so
the event proved.
On the 7th of February a dance was given on board the Essex, which
lasted till midnight. In order that her officers might share in the
entertainment, the Essex Junior was allowed to anchor, though in a
position to have a clear view of the sea; but, when the guests began to
depart, her commander went on board and got under way to resume his
station outside. Before the decorations of the ball-room had been taken
down, a signal was made from her that two enemy's ships were in sight. A
whole watch--one third of the Essex's crew--were then on shore, but were
quickly recalled by a gun. The ship was at once cleared for action, and
the men at their quarters, with all the rapidity to be expected from the
careful drilling they had had during their long commission. Porter
himself had gone to the lookout ship to reconnoitre the enemy. Upon his
return he found the frigate all ready for battle, it being then just an
hour and a half since the alarm was given. The Essex Junior was then
anchored in a position to support the Essex should occasion arise.
The strangers were the Phoebe and the Cherub. The third British ship,
the Raccoon, had gone north to the Columbia. As has before been said,
Captain Hillyar was an old friend of Porter's. The two men had been
thrown together in the Mediterranean, and the American had been a
frequent visitor in the other's house at Gibraltar. On one occasion
Hillyar's family had made a passage from Malta to Gibraltar in an
American ship-of-war; for in those troubled times would-be voyagers had
to avail themselves of such opportunities as offered, and the courtesy
of a large armed ship was among the most favorable. It was natural,
therefore, that, as the Phoebe stood into the harbor, Captain Hillyar
should bring his ship, the wind allowing it, close to the Essex and hail
the latter with a polite inquiry after Captain Porter's health; but it
was going rather too far, under all the circumstances, not to be content
with passing slowly under the Essex's stern, than which no more
favorable position could be found for an exchange of civil words.
Instead of so doing, the helm of the Phoebe was put down and the ship
luffed up into the wind between the Essex and the Essex Junior, the
latter lying now near the senior ship and on her starboard beam. Whether
Hillyar counted upon his own seamanship to extricate his ship from the
awkward position in which he had placed her, or whether, as the
Americans believed, he intended to attack if circumstances favored, he
soon saw that he had exposed himself to extreme peril. As the Phoebe
lost her way she naturally fell off from the wind, her bows being swept
round toward the Essex, while her stern was presented to the Essex
Junior. Both her enemies had their guns trained on her; she could use
none of hers. At the same time, in the act of falling off, she
approached the Essex; and her jib-boom, projecting far beyond her bows,
swept over the forecastle of the latter. Porter, who had been watching
the whole proceeding with great distrust, had summoned his boarders as
soon as the Phoebe luffed. The Essex at the moment was in a state of
as absolute preparation as is a musket at full cock trained on the mark,
and with the marksman's eye ranging over the sights; every man at his
post, every gun trained, matches burning, and boarders standing by. The
position was one of extreme tension. The American captain had in his
hand a chance such as in his most sanguine dreams he could scarcely have
hoped. His guns, feeble at a distance, could tell with the greatest
effect at such short range; and even if his enemy dropped an anchor, in
the great depths of Valparaiso Bay he would not fetch up till far past
the Essex. Until then he was for the moment helpless. Porter hailed that
if the ships touched he should at once attack. Hillyar kept his presence
of mind admirably at this critical juncture, replying in an indifferent
manner that he had no intention of allowing the Phoebe to fall on
board the Essex--an assurance that was well enough, and, coupled with
his nonchalant manner, served the purpose of keeping Porter in doubt as
to whether a breach of neutrality had been intended. But the British
frigate was unquestionably in a position where a seaman should not have
placed her unless he meant mischief. It is good luck, not good
management, when a ship in the Phoebe's position does not foul one in
that of the Essex. While this was passing, Farragut was witness to a
circumstance which shows by what a feather's weight scales are sometimes
turned. Of all the watch that had been on shore when the enemy appeared,
he says, one only, a mere boy, returned under the influence of liquor.
"When the Phoebe was close alongside, and all hands at quarters, the
powder-boys stationed with slow matches ready to discharge the guns, the
boarders, cutlass in hand, standing by to board in the smoke, as was our
custom at close quarters, the intoxicated youth saw, or imagined that he
saw, through the port, some one on the Phoebe grinning at him. 'My
fine fellow, I'll stop your making faces,' he exclaimed, and was just
about to fire his gun, when Lieutenant McKnight saw the movement and
with a blow sprawled him on the deck. Had that gun been fired, I am
convinced that the Phoebe would have been ours." She probably would,
for the Essex could have got in three broadsides of her twenty
thirty-two-pounder carronades before the enemy could effectively reply,
a beginning which would have reversed the odds between the two ships.
Farragut fully shared the belief of all his shipmates that an attack was
intended, in consequence of the information given to Captain Hillyar, as
he was entering, by the boat of an English merchant ship in the port,
that half the crew of the Essex was on shore. As the Phoebe luffed
through between the two Americans a turn of her helm would have landed
her on the bows of the Essex, if the latter had been caught at
disadvantage. Instead of this, she was found fully prepared. The Essex
Junior was also on the spot, while the Cherub, having drifted half a
mile to leeward, could not have taken any part till the action was
decided. Under these conditions, although their force was inferior, the
advantage was with the Americans, whose ships were anchored and cleared,
while the Phoebe still had her canvas spread and the anchoring to do,
which is a troublesome operation in water so deep as that of Valparaiso
Bay. If men's motives can be judged by their acts, Captain Hillyar
afforded Porter full justification for opening fire. He extricated
himself from a false position with consummate coolness; but his
adversary, when taken later at disadvantage, had reason to regret the
generosity with which he allowed him the benefit of the doubt as to his
intentions to respect the neutrality of the port. As it was, when the
two ships were almost touching, the Englishman threw his sails to the
mast, and, backing clear of the Essex, anchored finally some distance
astern.
The two British ships remained in port for a few days, during which
their captains called upon Captain Porter on shore, where he was then
living in the house of a gentleman named Blanco; and an amicable
intercourse also grew up between the officers and crews of the two
parties. Hillyar, however, told Porter frankly that he should not throw
away the advantage given by his superior force, for the event of a naval
action was ever uncertain, liable to be decided by the accidental loss
of an important spar or rope; whereas, by keeping his two ships
together, he thought he could effectually blockade the Essex and prevent
her renewing her depredations upon British commerce until the arrival of
other ships of war which were on their way. From this wary attitude
Porter in vain tried to force his antagonist by varied provocations;
but, although the exchange of official insults, verging closely at times
upon personal imputations, caused bitterness to take the place of the
first friendly courtesies, Hillyar was too old an officer, and his
reputation for courage too well known, to allow his hand to be thus
forced.
After filling with provisions and refitting, the British ships left the
anchorage and cruised off the approach to it, thus preventing the
retreat of the Essex to the ocean, unless she could succeed in passing
and then outsailing them. Valparaiso Bay is not an enclosed harbor, but
simply a recess in the coast, which, running generally north and south,
here turns abruptly to the eastward for two or three miles and then
trends north again, leaving thus a concave beach facing the north. Along
this beach lies the city of Valparaiso, stretching back and up on the
hillsides, which rise to a height of twelve or fifteen hundred feet
behind it. The prevailing winds along this coast being from the
southward throughout the year, this formation gives an anchorage
sheltered from them; but during the winter months of the southern
hemisphere, from May to October, there are occasional northerly gales
which endanger shipping, more from the heavy sea that rolls in than from
the violence of the wind. In ordinary weather, at the season when the
Essex was thus blockaded, the harbor is quiet through the night until
the forenoon, when the southerly wind prevailing outside works its way
in to the anchorage and blows freshly till after sundown. At times it
descends in furious gusts down the ravines which cleave the hillsides,
covering the city with clouds of dust and whirling sand and pebbles
painfully in the faces of those who walk the streets.
On the 28th of March, 1814, such a blast descended upon the Essex, whose
captain had by that time come to despair of forcing Hillyar to single
combat. As the frigate straightened out her cables under the force of
the wind, one of them broke, and the anchor of the other lost its hold
upon the bottom. The Essex began to drift to sea, and it was apparent
would by this accident be carried out of reach of the port. Porter
therefore ordered the cable cut and made sail on the ship, intending now
to escape. The British ships kept habitually close to the western point
of the bay; so that in case of such an attempt by their enemy he would
have to pass to leeward of them, giving them a fair wind to follow. As
Porter stood out, however, he thought possible, by keeping close to the
wind, to pass to windward, which, with the superior sailing qualities of
the Essex, would force the Phoebe to separate from the Cherub, unless
Hillyar supinely acquiesced in his escape--an inadmissible supposition.
If successful, he might yet have the single action he desired, and under
conditions which would enable him to choose his distance and so profit
by the qualities of his carronades. The Essex therefore hugged the wind;
but as she was thus passing the western point of the bay, under a press
of sail, a violent squall came down from the highland above, bearing the
vessel over on her side and carrying away the maintopmast, which fell
into the sea, drowning several of the crew. The loss of so important a
part of her sail power made escape to sea impossible, and the Essex
tried to regain the port. The wind, however, was adverse to the attempt
in her crippled condition, so that she was only able to reach the east
side of the bay, where she anchored about three miles from the city, but
within pistol-shot of the shore, before the enemy could overtake her. As
the conventional neutral line extends three miles from the beach, the
Essex was here clearly under the protection of Chilian neutrality.
Hillyar himself, in his official report of the action, says she was "so
near the shore as to preclude the possibility of passing ahead of her
without risk to His Majesty's ships." He seems, however, to have
satisfied his conscience by drawing a line between the neutrality of the
port and the neutrality of the country. The Essex was, he implies,
outside the former. "Not succeeding in gaining the limits of the part,
she bore up and anchored near the shore, a few miles to leeward of
it."[A] At all events, having his adversary at such serious
disadvantage, he did not propose to imitate the weakness Porter had
shown toward himself six weeks before.
The crucial feature in the approaching action was that the Essex was
armed almost entirely with carronades, and her principal enemy with long
guns. The carronade, now a wholly obsolete arm, was a short cannon, made
extremely light in proportion to the weight of the ball thrown by it.
The comparative lightness of metal in each piece allowed a greater
number to be carried, but at the same time so weakened the gun as to
compel the use of a small charge of powder, in consequence of which the
ball moved slowly and had but short range. In compensation, within its
range, it broke up the hull of an enemy's ship more completely than the
smaller but swifter ball from a long gun of the same weight; for the
same reason that a stone thrown by hand demolishes a pane of glass,
while a pistol-bullet makes a small, clean hole. It was this smashing
effect at close quarters which gave the carronade favor in the eyes of
one generation of seamen; but by 1812 it was generally recognized that,
unless a vessel was able to choose her own position, the short range of
carronades might leave her helpless, and, even when she had the greater
speed, an enemy with long guns might cripple her as she approached.
Porter had begged to change his carronades for long guns when he joined
the Essex. The request was refused, and the ship in this action had
forty thirty-two-pounder carronades and six long twelve-pounders. The
Phoebe had twenty-six long eighteen-pounders, one long twelve, and one
long nine, besides eight carronades. The Essex being crippled and at
anchor, Captain Hillyar, faithful, and most properly, to his principle
of surrendering no advantage, chose his position beyond effective
carronade range. The battle was therefore fought between the six long
twelves of the Essex and the broadside of the Phoebe, consisting of
thirteen long eighteens, one twelve, and one nine. Taking no account of
the Cherub, the disparity of force is sufficiently obvious.
[Footnote A: Marshall's Naval Biography, article Hillyar,
vol. iv, p. 861.]
Although, from the assurances Hillyar had made to him in conversation,
Porter had hoped that the neutrality of the port might be regarded, the
manner in which the enemy's vessels approached his new anchorage gave
serious reason to fear an attack. The ship was again got ready for
action, and a spring put on the cable to enable the guns to be turned on
the enemy in any position he might take. The desperateness of the
situation was, however, manifest to all. "I well remember," wrote
Farragut at a later day, "the feelings of awe produced in me by the
approach of the hostile ships; even to my young mind it was perceptible
in the faces of those around me, as clearly as possible, that our case
was hopeless. It was equally apparent that all were ready to die at
their guns rather than surrender; and such I believe to have been the
determination of the crew, almost to a man." A crippled ship, armed with
carronades, was indeed in a hopeless plight. At six minutes before four
in the afternoon the attack began. The Essex riding to an anchor with a
southerly wind, the Cherub took position on her starboard bow, or
southwest from her; the Phoebe north, under her stern. Both British
ships began fighting under sail, not being yet ready to anchor. The
spring on the Essex's cable being shot away, she was unable to turn her
broadside as was wished; but the Americans ran out of the stern-ports
three of their long guns, which were so well served as to cut away some
of the most important of the Phoebe's ropes and sails, and Hillyar for
a moment feared his ship would be drifted out of action. The Cherub also
was forced to leave her first position and join the Phoebe. The
latter's damages being repaired, she regained her ground and anchored;
both she and her consort placing themselves on the starboard quarter of
the Essex, a position on which the American guns, neither from the stern
nor the broadside, could be brought to bear unless by the springs on the
cables. These, unfortunately, were three times shot away as soon as they
had been placed. The first lieutenant of the Phoebe, a frank and
gallant young Englishman, whose manly bearing had greatly attracted the
officers of the Essex, is said to have remarked to his captain that it
was no better than murder to go on killing men from such a position of
safety, and to have urged him to close and make a more equal fight of
it. Hillyar, so the story goes, replied that his reputation was
established, and that as his orders were peremptory to capture the
Essex, he was determined to take no risks. He might have added--probably
did--that it was open to the Americans to save their lives by
surrendering. The same view of the situation now impelled Porter,
finding himself unable to give blow for blow, to try and close with his
wary enemy. Only one light sail was left to him in condition for
setting--the flying-jib. With it, the cable having been cut, the head of
the Essex was turned toward the enemy; and, fanned along by the other
sails hanging loose from the yards, she slowly approached her foes till
her carronades at last could reach. The wary Englishman then slipped his
cable and stood away till again out of range, when he resumed the
action, choosing always his own position, which he was well able to do
from the comparatively manageable condition of his ship. Finding it
impossible to get into action, Porter next attempted to run the Essex
aground, where the crew could escape and the vessel be destroyed. She
was headed for the beach and approached within musket-shot of it, when a
flaw of wind from the land cruelly turned her away.
The engagement had lasted nearly two hours when this disappointment was
encountered. As a last resort, Porter now ordered a hawser to be made
fast to an anchor which was still left. This was let go in the hope
that, the Essex being held by it where she was, the enemy might drift
out of action and be unable to return when the wind fell with the
approaching sunset. The hawser, however, parted, and with it the last
hope of escape. Great numbers of the crew had already been killed and
wounded by the relentless pounding the ship had received from her
enemies, for whom, toward the end, the affair became little more than
safe target practice, with a smooth sea. As yet no voice had been raised
in favor of submission; but now entreaty was made to Porter to spare the
lives of the remnant that was left, by ceasing a resistance which had
become not only hopeless but passive, and which, however prolonged,
could end only in the surrender of the ship. The latter had already been
on fire several times, and was now alarmingly so, the flames rushing up
the hatchways and being reported to be near the magazine. Porter then
gave permission for such of the crew as wished, to swim ashore; the
colors being still flying, they were not yet prisoners of war. He next
called his officers together to inform him as to the condition of the
ship in the different parts where they served, but one only of the
lieutenants was able to answer the summons. After consultation with him,
satisfied that nothing more remained to be done, the order was given at
twenty minutes past six to lower the flag of the Essex, after an action
which had lasted two hours and a half. She had gone into battle with two
hundred and fifty-five men. Of these, fifty-eight were killed, sixty-six
wounded, and thirty-one missing. The last item is unusually large for a
naval action, and was probably due to the attempt to escape to shore by
swimming.
Farragut lacked still three months of being thirteen years old when he
passed through this tremendous ordeal of slaughter, the most prolonged
and the bloodiest of his distinguished career. At his tender years and
in his subordinate position there could be, of course, no demand upon
the professional ability or the moral courage which grapples with
responsibility, of which he gave such high proof in his later life. In
the Essex fight his was but to do and dare, perhaps it may rather be
said to do and bear; for no heavier strain can be laid upon the physical
courage than is required by passive endurance of a deadly attack without
the power of reply. In the celebrated charge of the Six Hundred at
Balaklava the magnificent display of courage was at least aided by the
opportunity allowed for vehement action; the extreme nervous tension
excited by such deadly danger found an outlet in the mad impetus of the
forward rush. Farragut has himself recorded a singular instance in the
Essex fight, which illustrates the sufficiently well-known fact that in
the excitement of approaching action the sense of danger is subdued,
even in a man who has not the strong nerves that endure the passive
expectation of death. "On one occasion Midshipman Isaacs came up to the
captain and reported that a quarter-gunner named Roach had deserted his
post. The only reply of the captain, addressed to me, was: 'Do your
duty, sir!' I seized a pistol and went in pursuit of the fellow, but did
not find him. It appeared subsequently that when the ship was reported
to be on fire he had contrived to get into the only boat that could be
kept afloat, and escaped, with six others, to the shore. The most
remarkable part of this affair was that Roach had always been a leading
man in the ship, and on the occasion previously mentioned, when the
Phoebe seemed about to run into us in the harbor of Valparaiso and the
boarders were called away, I distinctly remember this man standing in an
exposed position on the cat-head, with sleeves rolled up and cutlass in
hand, ready to board, his countenance expressing eagerness for the
fight; which goes to prove that personal courage is a very peculiar
virtue."
Of his own courage the boy, in this his first action, gave the most
marked proof. He was constantly under the captain's eye, and conducted
himself so entirely to the satisfaction of that gallant officer as to be
mentioned particularly in the dispatches. "Midshipmen Isaacs, Farragut,
and Ogden exerted themselves in the performance of their respective
duties, and gave an earnest of their value to the service." "They are
too young," Porter added, "to recommend for promotion"--a phrase which
Farragut thought had an ill-effect on his career, but which certainly
implied that his conduct merited a reward that his years did not
justify. During the action he was employed in the most multifarious
ways, realizing the saying that whatever is nobody else's business is a
midshipman's business; or, to use his own quaint expression, "I was like
'Paddy in the catharpins'--a man on occasions. I performed the duties of
captain's aid, quarter-gunner, powder-boy, and, in fact, did everything
that was required of me. I shall never forget the horrid impression made
upon me at the sight of the first man I had ever seen killed. He was a
boatswain's mate and was fearfully mutilated. It staggered and sickened
me at first; but they soon began to fall around me so fast that it all
appeared like a dream and produced no effect upon my nerves. I can
remember well, while I was standing near the captain just abaft of the
mainmast, a shot came through the waterways and glanced upward, killing
four men who were standing by the side of the gun, taking the last one
in the head and scattering his brains over both of us. But this awful
sight did not affect me half as much as the death of the first poor
fellow. I neither thought of nor noticed anything but the working of the
guns.... When my services were not required for other purposes, I
generally assisted in working a gun; would run and bring powder from the
boys and send them back for more, until the captain wanted me to carry a
message; and this continued to employ me during the action."
Although included in the report of the slightly wounded, Farragut
received no serious injury, but he was not without the narrow escapes
which must have been undergone by all the survivors of so desperate an
action. One has just been related; and he has himself recorded two other
incidents which came near making an end of him. "An old quartermaster
named Francis Bland was standing at the wheel when I saw a shot coming
over the fore yard in such a direction that I thought it would strike
him or me; so I told him to jump, at the same time pulling him toward
me. At that instant the shot took off his right leg, and I afterward
found that my coat-tail had been carried away. I helped the old fellow
below, and inquired for him after the action, but he had died before he
could be attended to." At another time "some gun-primers were wanted and
I was sent after them. In going below, while I was on the ward-room
ladder, the captain of the gun directly opposite the hatchway was struck
full in the face by an eighteen-pound shot and fell back on me; we
tumbled down the hatch together. I struck on my head, and, fortunately,
he fell on my hips. I say fortunately, for, as he was a man of at least
two hundred pounds' weight, I would have been crushed to death if he
had fallen directly across my body. I lay for some moments stunned by
the blow, but soon recovered consciousness enough to rush on deck. The
captain, seeing me covered with blood, asked if I were wounded, to which
I replied: 'I believe not, sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the
primers?' This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran below and
carried the primers on deck. When I came up the second time I saw the
captain fall, and in my turn ran up and asked if he were wounded. He
answered me almost in the same words: 'I believe not, my son; but I felt
a blow on the top of my head.' He must have been knocked down by the
wind of a passing shot, as his hat was somewhat damaged." The bruises
from this fall down the hatch were the only injuries Farragut received.
When the surrender was determined, Farragut, at the captain's order,
dropped the signal book overboard, watching it as it sank in the water
till out of sight; and then in company with another midshipman amused
himself throwing overboard the pistols and other small arms, to keep
them out of the enemy's hands. The following morning he went on board
the Phoebe, where the mortification of defeat drew tears from his
eyes; a state of dejection from which he was roused by seeing a pet pig
belonging to the Essex in the custody of one of the Phoebe's
midshipmen. Farragut at once set up a claim to the porker as being
private property, and as such to be respected by all civilized nations.
The claim was resisted by the new owner; but his messmates, always ready
for a lark, insisted that so doubtful a question must be decided by
trial of battle. A ring being formed, Farragut, after a short contest,
succeeded in thrashing his opponent and regaining the pig, and with it a
certain amount of complacency in that one Briton at least had felt the
pangs of defeat. His grief mastered him again soon afterward, when asked
by Captain Hillyar to breakfast with himself and Captain Porter.
Hillyar, seeing his discomfiture, spoke to him with great kindness,
saying: "Never mind, my little fellow, it will be your turn next
perhaps"; to which, says Farragut, "I replied I hoped so, and left the
cabin to hide my emotion."
After the action Porter and Hillyar entered into an arrangement by which
the Essex Junior was disarmed and allowed to proceed to the United
States as a cartel, under the charge of Lieutenant Downes, who had
commanded her while a United States cruiser. All the survivors of the
Essex except two, whose wounds did not permit, embarked in her and
sailed from Valparaiso on the 27th of April for the United States,
arriving on the 7th of July in New York. On the 5th, off the coast of
Long Island, she was stopped by a British ship-of-war, whose captain
questioned the right of Hillyar to give her the passports she carried,
and indicated an intention of detaining her. Porter construed this
violation of the stipulation between himself and his captor as releasing
him from his obligations, and escaped to shore with a boat's crew. After
a detention of nearly twenty-four hours the vessel was allowed to
proceed; but was again overhauled by another British frigate as she
approached Sandy Hook. There could be no serious question of detaining a
ship that had been given a safeguard, under such circumstances and with
such deliberation, by so experienced an officer as Hillyar. But it is
instructive to Americans, who are accustomed to see in the war of 1812
only a brilliant series of naval victories, to note that within a few
hours' sail of their principal port British cruisers were lying in
perfect security, stopping whom they would.
The Essex, upon which Farragut made his maiden cruise, and whose
interesting career ended in so sad a catastrophe, remained, of course,
in the hands of the victors. The little frigate was patched up and taken
to England, where she was bought into the British Navy, and was borne on
its register until 1837, when she was sold. After that all trace of her
history is lost.
The Essex Junior, being a prize to the Essex and allowed to pass under
Hillyar's safeguard, was sold in New York for the benefit of the
captors.
NOTE.--The spelling Chile (instead of Chili) used in this chapter
is that adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names,
appointed by President Harrison, September 4, 1890, to settle a
uniform usage for the Executive Departments of the Government.