by Hughes, Ben;
Moving his fleet to Veracruz, Porter’s limited success continued, but in February 1828 his most effective ship, the 22-gun brig Guerrero, was captured by the Lealtad, a Spanish 64. The Guerrero’s captain, Porter’s nephew, David H., was ‘cut in two’ by a cannonball after striking his colours. Later that year Porter’s pay began to dry up as the Mexican government fell into bankruptcy; in June Porter’s favourite son, twelve-year-old Thomas, died of yellow fever; in October, after being bitten by a tarantula, Porter’s health went into decline; and at the end of the year news arrived of his wife’s alleged infidelities. 1829 saw political upheaval in Mexico and in 1830 the incoming government deemed a Blue Water navy a luxury beyond its means. Out of a job, Porter returned home.
The following year, thanks to the influence of his friend, President Jackson, Porter was appointed charge d’affaires to the Ottoman Empire, a post upgraded to minister resident in 1839. Aside from two brief visits home, Porter spent the rest of his life in Constantinople. Enjoying a luxurious lifestyle and the personal friendship of Sultan Mahmud II, the Bostonian mellowed and found a certain inner peace, although the years were also marked by continuing financial problems. His attempts to claim his back pay from the Mexican government met with disappointment: he was forced to sell his Washington mansion and his debt began to spiral out of control. Meanwhile, Porter’s family grew increasingly distant and his relationship with his wife, Evelina, deteriorated into one of mutual suspicion and hatred. By 1832 Porter’s health was also in decline. A long illness followed and he died on 3 March 1843 of ‘perdicarium and pleura’. USS Truxtun was sent to take his remains back to the US. Porter was afforded a lavish funeral by the navy and had a monument erected in his honour.24
James Hillyar’s post-war career was considerably more serene. After being paid off in August 1815, he returned to Tor House, the family home built within sight of the Royal Navy yards at Hamoaze, before moving to the Continent. Two more children were born to Hillyar and his wife Mary, but his frequent applications for active service went unanswered until 1830 when he was given command of the 74-gun HMS Revenge. After commissioning his ship at Plymouth in November, Hillyar joined a squadron engaged in monitoring the French siege of Antwerp before being appointed to command the First Rate HMS Caledonia, which cruised off the River Tagus in Portugal in 1832. Arriving back at Plymouth the following year, after recovering from a ‘severe bout of pneumonia’, Hillyar was paid off once more. It would prove his last active employment.
In 1834 Hillyar was named Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. Soon afterwards, he was honoured with an English knighthood and on 4 July 1840 was advanced to Knight Commandership of the Order of the Bath. In his latter years, Hillyar divided his time between his wife and six children and the Naval and Military Bible Society. By the late 1830s he had become an active committee member and gave a key address in 1837 in which he recalled his time in the Pacific with the Phoebe. In the same year, due to the Royal Navy’s practice of maintaining all former officers of post rank on the promotion ladder, Hillyar was appointed Rear-Admiral of the Blue. The following June he was advanced to the White Flag, a post he held until his death at Tor House on 10 July 1843. Although Hillyar’s funeral was private, in keeping with ‘his unobtrusive character[,] … many of his brother naval officers, several of the neighbouring gentlemen, with a large number of the inhabitants of Torpoint … assembled at the church, to pay a last tribute … All the shops … were closed … [and] the pall was supported by four Warrant Officers, who had served with the deceased … when … he [had] captured the Essex.’25
Two of Porter’s subordinates on the Essex went on to enjoy notable naval careers. In 1815 John Downes took part in the Second Barbary War as the commander of the 18-gun brig sloop USS Epervier. As the North African states had once again taken to attacking US merchantmen in the Mediterranean, on the conclusion of the conflict with Britain, Congress ordered two naval squadrons to sail to the region. Downes played an active role in the conflict, being involved in the capture of two Algerian vessels, before Commodore Stephen Decatur brought the war to a negotiated close with the US guaranteed full shipping rights. Downes was promoted to captain in 1817 and the following year took command of USS Macedonian. Setting out on a three-year cruise of the Pacific, a region still troubled by the wars of South American Independence, Downes took advantage of his position to act as a banker to South American privateers, taking at least $2.6 million in specie on board the Macedonian over the period, some of which he syphoned off for his own personal use.
From 1828 to 1829 Downes served as Commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron and from 1832 to 1834 commanded the Pacific Squadron. The latter role saw him court controversy once more. In response to an attack on a US merchantman off Sumatra, Downes was ordered to ‘inflict chastisement’ on the pirates that infested the coast. In command of USS Potomac, he attacked several native fortresses and destroyed the town of Kuala Batee. The Potomac then circumnavigated the globe, only the second US warship to do so, calling in at the Hawaiian Islands and Valparaiso before returning to Boston in May 1834. Downes was severely criticised for his actions in Sumatra, but avoided official censure due to the support of President Jackson. Nevertheless, the Potomac cruise was to prove his last active service afloat. From 1837 to 1842 and 1859 to 1852 Downes commanded the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston. He died in 1854 at the age of 68.26
Downes’ career was eclipsed by that of David Glasgow Farragut. In 1815 he also served in the Second Barbary War and in 1822, after being promoted to lieutenant, joined the West Indies squadron operating in the Caribbean. Two years later Farragut was given his first command: the three-gun schooner USS Ferret was part of the Mosquito Fleet, its mission to chase privateers and pirates into the inshore creeks where they sought refuge. Once Porter arrived to take command of the station, Farragut was transferred to USS Greyhound. Later, he saw two stints of service on the Brazil station and briefly took part in the US-Mexican War of 1846 to 1848, before being assigned to set up the navy’s first Pacific base on Mare Island, twenty-five miles northeast of San Francisco, in 1854. After five years, Farragut returned to the east coast to take command of USS Brooklyn, a state-of-the-art steam-powered sloop of war.
It was the American Civil War which saw Farragut rise to prominence. Although a long-term resident of Norfolk, Virginia, Farragut opposed secession and offered his services to the Union on the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. The following year he was appointed commander of the Gulf Blockading Squadron, operating off the mouth of the Mississippi. In April, after running past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, he took New Orleans and was promoted to rear-admiral as a result, the first time such a high rank had existed in the US Navy. On 5 August 1864, Farragut won a second decisive victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Despite the waters being heavily mined, Farragut steamed in at full speed, overran Forts Morgan and Gaines and defeated the Confederate squadron under Admiral Franklin Buchanan. After the war Farragut was made a full admiral. He remained on active duty for life and commanded the European Squadron from 1867 to 1868 from his flagship, the steam frigate USS Franklin. Farragut died of a heart attack in 1870 at the age of 69.27
Allen Francis Gardiner of the Phoebe also enjoyed a colourful post-war career. Transferred out of the Essex after she was decommissioned, Gardiner’s acting promotion to lieutenant was confirmed by the Admiralty in December 1814. The following year he served on the Sixth Rate HMS Ganymede, then employed cruising the Channel. Like many of his former comrades, Gardiner spent several years on half pay, before being assigned to the 60-gun HMS Leander in 1819. Having narrowly avoided shipwreck off Madeira, the Leander sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to Trincomalee. The following year Gardiner transferred into HMS Dauntless and sailed to Madras, Penang, Malacca, Singapore, Manilla and Macao. After being refitted, the Dauntless proceeded to Port Jackson, New South Wales and on to Chile and Peru, before returning to China via the Marquesas and Tahiti. Invalided out of the ship for poor heal
th, Gardiner returned to Portsmouth in October 1822. During his travels on the Dauntless, he had made the acquaintance of several Protestant missionaries in Asia and had ‘steadily set his face towards the service of God’.
In July 1823, Gardiner married Julia Susanna Reade. He was called back to service the following year as second lieutenant on HMS Jupiter, a 60-gun Third Rate serving on the Halifax station. 1825 saw Gardiner receive his first independent command, the 12-gun HMS Clinker. The following year, the Clinker was paid off at Portsmouth and Gardiner was promoted to the rank of commander. Although he made several more applications for employment, the Clinker proved to be his last ship. The next nine years saw Gardiner’s wife’s health decline and she died in 1834 along with one of the couple’s five children. Afterwards, Gardiner turned to missionary work. Travelling to Africa, he founded the Zulu country’s first missionary station at Port Natal, but his efforts were ultimately frustrated by the outbreak of war between the Zulus and the Boers. In 1836 Gardiner married for a second time. His new wife, Elizabeth Lydia and her children, accompanied Gardiner to Chile two years later where he preached to the still-independent Mapuche Indians to the south of the Biobio River. In 1844 Gardiner joined the Patagonian Missionary Society and spent the next six years travelling and preaching in Tierra del Fuego, northern Chile and Bolivia.
In 1850, having received a donation of £1,000, Gardiner set out for Tierra del Fuego to establish a mission with six other volunteers. They were dropped off at Picton Island on 5 December with two small boats and six months’ supplies. The natives proved hostile, the country barren and conditions appalling. Heavy snow fall, treacherous currents and storms confined the men to a short area of coastline and with further supplies detained at the Falklands for want of a suitable ship, by May 1851 they were beginning to starve. The lack of provisions was exacerbated by frequent thefts committed by Indians, sickness took hold and, despite several successes at fishing, hunting and trapping game, the men’s health rapidly declined. On 29 June John Braddock was the first to die. The next casualties were recorded on 23 and 26 August. On 6 September, Gardiner, believed to be the last survivor, wrote his final words: ‘I neither hunger nor thirst, though five days without food! Marvellous loving kindness to me a sinner! – Your affectionate brother in Christ, Allen F. Gardiner.’28
Gardiner’s former crewmate, Samuel Thornton Junior, also served on the East India Station. From 1814 until 1819 he was a midshipman on HMS Cornwallis, 74, Iphigenia, 42 and Minden, 74, before joining HMS Conway, 26, as an acting lieutenant for six months. In 1821, Thornton was transferred to the Liffey, a 50-gun ship commanded by Commodore Charles Grant on which he saw action in the First Anglo-Burmese War. Thornton distinguished himself on 11 May 1824 at the capture of Rangoon, being the first to hoist a British flag on a captured enemy fort and in 1825, having transferred to the Alligator, 28, was present at the taking of Donoobew and commanded the ship’s cutter during the boat operations against Maha Bandoola. The following year Thornton was promoted to captain and given command of the Slaney of 20 guns. Although he would remain on the navy list and would eventually reach the rank of rear-admiral, the Slaney was Thornton’s final official posting.
In 1830 Hillyar allowed Thornton to join him on HMS Revenge as a volunteer for a five-month cruise, after which he settled down to an early retirement. In 1833 Thornton published a history of the East India Company and was married to Emily Elizabeth Rice seven years later. The couple had five children, one of whom, Percy Melville Thornton, went on to write a rambling family memoir which recorded a little of his father’s later years, much of which was spent with former comrades reliving the glory of his active service days. ‘One of my earliest recollections’, Percy Thornton wrote, ‘is that of Gunner Gilbert Lawson of the victorious Phoebe coming to 12 Upper Gloucester Place’ for the annual reunion his father held on 28 March. ‘I do not think my father saw him after 1848, as he (Gunner Lawson) died two years later and at his death, left his old friend and messmate [i.e. Samuel Thornton] … a copy of Captain David Porter’s “Cruise in the Essex” … which concluded with an account of the conflict with the Phoebe. Mr Lawson also left his two South Sea war clubs.’ Thornton was unimpressed by Porter’s memoir. He died in 1859 at the age of sixty-two.29
Less is known of the post-war careers of the rank and file of the Essex and Phoebe. A handful of the former can be traced via their pension records. William Kingsbury claimed his $10 per month at the Navy Office in Washington until 1823; John Lazaro received $5 per month in New York until 1825; while John Hughes, probably the last surviving crewmember, was still collecting $8 per month on his ninety-third birthday on 15 October 1882. Only one Phoebe was admitted to the Royal Hospital in Greenwich. John Crooney, who had served on the frigate at Trafalgar as well as at Valparaiso Bay, was sixty-five when he became an in-pensioner in 1838. He was also amongst the twelve ex-crewmembers to receive their General Service Medal for the action against the Essex, issued by the Admiralty in 1848. Sailing Master John Miller and Charles Rawdon, a Third-Class Boy in 1814, both received a second bar for their service at the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816; Josh Manning, Patrick Condon and the ‘Methodist parson’, William Morgan, received three bars: one for the Battle of Tamatave and one for the capture of the island of Java, both in 1811, as well as the third for the action of 1814; while Stephen Laura was awarded five. The former captain of the foretop was given one for each of the single-ship actions he had taken part in: against the Néréide in 1797, the Africaine in 1801 and the Essex in 1814; and two for the Battles of Trafalgar and Tamatave.30
Outside of the archives, little physical evidence of those that fought the Battle of Valparaiso remains. Hillyar rests beneath a simple headstone in a churchyard at Anthony, Cornwall and there is a memorial to Captain David Porter in Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia. Erected in a dappled glade, an obelisk mounted on a plinth bears an inscription eulogising the Bostonian’s colourful career. Perhaps the most moving tribute is to be found in the Cementario de Disidentes in Valparaiso. Founded in 1825, the cemetery sits atop one of the less visited of the port’s iconic hills and commands spectacular views of the bay where the battle was fought in 1814. Inside the whitewashed walls, far from the hustle and bustle of the students and tourists who frequent Chile’s second most populous conurbation, an American memorial records the names of the fifty-eight crewmembers of the Essex who lost their lives. Two gold plaques recall visits in 1991 and 2012 by the crew of the USS Underwood and the Daughters of 1812 respectively. Elsewhere lie the remains of William Ingram. In the 190 years that have elapsed since his body was transferred to the cemetery from the fort where he was originally buried, his grave has received few visitors. Lost amongst hundreds of other weather-beaten headstones whose inscriptions have long since been rendered illegible, it is now all but impossible to find.
Notes
Introduction
1. General histories on the growth of the Royal Navy include N. A. M. Rodger’s A Naval History of Britain, 2 volumes, London: Penguin, 2004 & 2006, and Ben Wilson, Empire of the Deep: the Rise and Fall of the British Navy, London: Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2013. For more detail on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries see Brian Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, London: Conway Maritime Press, 2012; N. A. M. Rodger’s The Wooden World: Anatomy of the Georgian Navy, London: Fontana, 1998; and Bernard Ireland, Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail, London: Harper Collins, 2000.
2. In the mid-seventeenth century an ox which cost £5 in Virginia could be sold for £25 in Barbados.
3. On the triangular trade see Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates, London: Penguin, 2007; Matthew Parker, The Sugar Barons, New York: Walker, 2011; and Simon Schama, Rough Crossings, London: BBC Books, 2005.
4. See Tim McGrath, Give me a Fast Ship: The Revolution at Sea, New York: New American Library, 2014, and Wilson, Empire of the Deep.
5. Andrew Lambert, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812, London: Faber & Faber, 2012, p. 19.
&nbs
p; 6. See Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World, New York: Hill & Wang, 2007, and David Long, Nothing Too Daring, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1970, pp. 22–32.
7. Andrew Lambert, The Challenge, pp. 14, 26.
8. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 290–302; Andrew Lambert, The Challenge, pp. 7–9.
9. Toll, Six Frigates, p. 305.
10. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 324–8; Andrew Lambert, The Challenge, pp. 41–3.
11. Andrew Lambert, The Challenge, pp. 2–6.
12. Toll, Six Frigates, p. 355.
13. Ibid, p. 332.
14. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 337–54; Andrew Lambert, The Challenge, p. 79.
15. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 359–60.
Chapter 1
1. David Porter, Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean, by Captain David Porter in the United States Frigate Essex, in the Years 1812, 1813 and 1814, 2 volumes, New York, 1822, Vol. 1, p. 57 ; George E. Darlington, Recollections of the Old Borough of Chester from 1834 to 1850, Delaware County Historical Society, 1917; Toll, Six Frigates, p. 97.
2. Niles’ Weekly Register, Baltimore, 6 August 1814; Donal O’Sullivan, The USS Essex in Ireland: A Dún Laoghaire Connection with a Forgotten War, http://dlharbour.ie/owp-content/uploads/2013/04/The-Convict-Hulk-Essex.pdf.