In Pursuit of the Essex

by Hughes, Ben;

  3. Long, Nothing Too Daring, pp. 3–7.

  4. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 112–20; Long, Nothing Too Daring, p. 8.

  5. The History of the War, Between the United States and Great Britain, Which Commenced in June, 1812 and Closed in Feb. 1815, Containing the Correspondence …, Hartford: William S. Marsh, 1815, p. 208; Loyal Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, First Admiral of the United States Navy, Embodying his Journal and Letters, Memphis: General Books LLC, 2012, p. 7; Porter to Hamilton, Chester, 2 October 1812, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. 2, Washington D.C.: Naval Historical Centre, 2011, pp. 505–6.

  6. Porter to Bainbridge, Valparaiso, 23 March 1813, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, pp. 688–9; Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 1–3.

  7. Porter to Hamilton, Chester, 2 October 1812, The Naval War of 1812, pp. 505–6; Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 3.

  8. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 3; for background of Feltus see The Naval War of 1812, p. 688.

  9. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 14. Although drunkenness was rife throughout both the British and US navies of the period, it appears that the Essex was a particularly alcoholic ship. The sources make numerous references to Porter’s drinking, Lieutenant Wilson was eventually dismissed for alcoholism and even the eleven-year-old Midshipman Farragut indulged. Perhaps the only teetotaller on board was Midshipman Henry Warren Ogden, a young man from a deeply religious New Jersey family whose abstinence Farragut refers to in his memoirs.

  10. Porter to Bainbridge, 8 September 1812, at the mouth of the Delaware, Naval War of 1812, pp. 468–9; Long, Nothing Too Daring, pp. 38–9; Bruce Linder, Tidewater’s Navy: An Illustrated History, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2005, p. 53.

  11. Royal Navy sailing report on the Essex, Ralph Delaware Paine, The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem, Massachusetts, Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books Inc., 2007, pp. 196–217; on the Essex’s armament see William James, The Naval History of Great Britain: From the Declaration of War by France, in February 1793, to the Succession of George IV, in January 1820, London: Harding, Lepard and Co., 1826, Vol. 6, p. 123; Porter to Hamilton, Chester, PA, 12 October 1812, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, Vol. 3, pp. 528.

  12. John G. Cowell to Paul Hamilton, 24 September 1812, quoted in Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the US Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991, pp. 314–15.

  13. See The Naval War of 1812, Vol. 1, p. 170.

  14. For a list of those who sailed on the Essex see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 4–12; on Sweeny see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 48; on Witter see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 193; on White see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 138, 199; on Belcher see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 197–8; on Glasseau or Glasser, see Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, quoted in The Naval War of 1812, Vol. 3, p. 757; on Almy see The Old Dartmouth Historical Sketches, Numbers 1 to 15, Cornell University, 1903, p. 134; on Ruff see Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 14; on Holmes see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 14 and 22 and Henry P. Johnston (ed.), The Record of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service of the War of the Revolution 1775-1783, Salem: Higginson Book Company, 1995, p. 599.

  15. Surgeon Edward Cutbush to Hamilton, New Castle, 16 November 1812, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, Vol. 7, pp. 590–2; Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 3.

  16. Feltus, Journal, entries for 24 and 25 October 1812; David Porter, Constantinople and its Environs in a Series of Letters, Exhibiting the Actual State of the Manners, Customs and Habits of the Turks …, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835, p. 10.

  17. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 2–3.

  18. Ibid, p. 3.

  19. Ibid, p. 13.

  20. Ibid; Feltus, Journal, entries for 4 and 5 November 1812; for games played see Robert Hay, Landsman Hay, Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2010, p. 75.

  21. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 13–14; Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 369–70.

  22. Feltus, Journal, see entries for 10 and 11 November 1812; for a discussion of gun drill see Roy and Lesley Atkins, Jack Tar: The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Seamen in Nelson’s Navy, London: Abacus, 2008, pp. 271–3; also see Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 172–8.

  23. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 14.

  24. Ibid, pp. 14–15.

  25. Ibid, p. 15; Feltus, Journal, entry for 23 November 1812. On Kingsbury see War of 1812 Pension Files, US Navy, Surnames K, at http://www.fold3.com/image/314284970/.

  26. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 15; Feltus, Journal, entries for 24, 25 and 26 November 1812.

  Chapter 2

  1. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 16; Feltus, Journal, entry for 27 November 1812; for a near-contemporary description of Porto Praya see John Purdy, Memoir, Descriptive and Explanatory, to Accompany the Charts of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, London: R. H. Laurie, 1853.

  2. Charles W. Moore, The Freemasons’ Monthly Magazine, Boston: Hugh H. Tuttle, 1854, Vol. XIII, pp. 348–9; M. Bancroft, J. Wiley and G., C. and H. Carvill, The American Monthly Magazine, New York: New York Public Library, 1836, Vol. II, pp. 73–5.

  3. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 20–1; Feltus, Journal, entry for 27 and 28 November 1812.

  4. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 21.

  5. Long, Nothing Too Daring, pp. 3–4.

  6. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 38. Porter is coy about the punishment he dished out to the drunkards. Although no official records survive, twelve lashes was customary for such an offence. During a previous command (USS Enterprize), Porter had ordered fifteen of his crew of 113 (or 13.3 per cent) to be flogged between 21 August 1805 and 17 November 1806. Five were punished twice, one was flogged three times, the average number of lashes given was twelve and the maximum twenty-four. In his memoir, Porter failed to detail the punishments he applied during the cruise from the Delware. Nevertheless, flogging was common in the US Navy and all commanding officers employed it. While Thomas Truxtun only used the lash as a last resort, William Bainbridge was notorious. In the Mediterranean in 1800 he hit a sailor so violently with his sword that the man’s skull was fractured and he was sent into violent convulsions. Porter’s use of physical punishment fell somewhere in between.

  7. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 18; Feltus, Journal, see entry for 29 November.

  8. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 19–20.

  9. Ibid, p. 20; for the identities of Porter’s servants see ibid, pp. 234–5.

  10. Ibid, pp. 24–5 and 27–8; Porter to Hamilton, Essex at Sea, July 2 1813, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, pp. 696–7; on Adams see McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, pp. 197–8.

  11. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 22–6.

  12. Ibid, pp. 25–8; Feltus, Journal, entries for 5, 6 and 7 December 1812.

  13. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 28.

  14. Toll, Six Frigates, pp. 190–8 and 261–2; William Ray, Horrors of Slavery or the American Tars in Tripoli, Troy, 1808, p. 105.

  15. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 32; Feltus, Journal, entry for 12 December 1812; see also entry for prisoner John Williams (roll no.14573), ADM 103/466; and Finch to Hamilton, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, p. 684.

  16. Feltus, Journal, entries for 12 and 13 December 1812; Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 34–6; on the movements of the British ships under Hall Dixon’s command see Gerald S. Graham (ed.), The Navy and South America, 1807-1823, Correspondence of the Commanders-in-Chief on the South American Station, London: Navy Records Society, 1962, pp. 76–121.

  17. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 35–7.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid, p. 39.

  20. Ibid, pp. 41–3; Feltus, Journal, entries for 25, 26 and 27 December 1812.

  21. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 43–4; Feltus, Journal, entry for 29 December 1812; on John Bagnell (prisoner roll no.1202) see ADM 103/466; on Charles T. Clarke and the fate of the Elizabeth, see The Naval War of 1812, p. 690 and Effie Gwynn Bowie, Across the Years in Prince George’s County, Clearfield Compa
ny, 2010.

  22. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 44–6; Feltus, Journal, entries for 30 December 1812 and 1, 2 and 3 January 1813.

  23. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 46–8; Feltus, Journal, entries for 4 to 12 January 1813.

  24. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 48–9 and 238; Feltus, Journal, entry for 12 January 1813.

  25. Although banned in the Royal Navy by Admiralty order in 1806, Running the Gauntlet was used in the US service at the time. On Porter’s methods of punishment see McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, Table 10, pp. 480–1; J. Shillibeer, A Narrative of the Briton’s Voyage to Pitcairn’s Island, Including an Interesting Sketch of the Present State of the Brazils and of Spanish South America, London: Law and Whittaker, 1817, pp. 72–3: ‘American Capture Retaken’, The Literary Panorama and National Register, New Series, Volume the Second, 1817; a report on the court case of John Swayne in The Bury and Norwich Post, 27 December 1815.

  26. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 41–58 and the appendix entitled Explanation of the Sketch of the Islands of St. Catherines and Alvardo, found after p. 243.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 49–54; Feltus, Journal, entries for 20, 21 and 22 January 1813. On the Essex’s boats see Portia Takakjian, Anatomy of the Ship: The 32-Gun Frigate Essex, London: Conway Maritime Press, 1990.

  29. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 55.

  30. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 55–9; Porter to Hamilton, Essex at Sea, 2 July 1813, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812, pp. 696–7; James Hughes to Secretary Crowninshield, 18 February 1815, reproduced in The Naval War of 1812 and the accompanying footnotes, pp. 771–2; Feltus, Journal, entry for 25 January 1813.

  31. See The Naval War of 1812, p. 683; George C. Daughan, The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the USS. Essex during the War of 1812, New York: Basic Books, 2013, pp. 83–5.

  32. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 57.

  Chapter 3

  1. On Hillyar see Colburn’s United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, 1843, Part III, pp. 271–85; also Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815: Blue Lights & Psalm Singers, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008, pp. 185–6 and 240; on Scargill see the ship’s muster and pay rolls – ADM 37/4380, ADM 35/3677 and ADM 36/16809; for attire of sailors and officers in the Royal Navy see Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 104–8, 134 and 203–4.

  2. Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, Barnsley: Seaforth, 2008, p. 147; James, The Naval History of Great Britain, p. 470.

  3. For the crew of the Phoebe see the ship’s log and muster and pay rolls – ADM 1/1947, ADM 37/4380, ADM 35/3677 and ADM 36/16809. Also note the Hillyar’s official dispatches following the Battle of Tamatave, reproduced in The London Gazette, Issue 16540, 12 November 1811; and see National Archives, Trafalgar Ancestors Online http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/default.asp.

  4. On Ingram see Owemoigne Baptisms 1752 to 1812 - http://www.opcdorset.org/OwermoigneFiles/OwermoignBaps1752-1812.htm and Owermoigne Wills http://www.opcdorset.org/OwermoigneFiles/OwermoigneWills.htm; also see Thornton to Thornton, Valparaiso Bay 12 April 1814, reproduced in Allen Gardiner, Hunting the Essex: A Journal of the Voyage of HMS Phoebe 1813-1814 by Midshipman Allen Gardiner, John S. Rieske (ed.), Barnsley: Seaforth, 2013, pp. 130–5; on Jago see Cornwall Council Archives, X807, documents 2 to 4; on Gardiner see John Marsh, A Memoir of Allen F. Gardiner, Commander R.N., London: James Nisbet & Co., 1857; on Samuel Thornton Junior see Percy Melville Thornton, Some Things we have remembered: Samuel Thornton, admiral, 1797-1859, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1912. On captains’ habits of recruiting like-minded officers see Michael Lewis, A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1960, p. 72.

  5. Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, p. 240; ADM 37/4380; see also archive catalogue notes for Morgan’s medal http://www.dnw.co.uk/

  6. On Miller see Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe at Portsmouth, 5 December 1814, ADM1/1950; on Laura (or Laurie) see ADM 36/16809, ADM 37/4380 and Kenneth Douglas-Morris, The Naval General Service Medal Roll, 1793-1840, Andrews UK Ltd., 2012, p. 112.

  7. Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 28 December 1812, reproduced in The London Gazette; and Hillyar to Croker, 28 December 1812, ADM 1/1947.

  8. Ommanney & Druce (Prize Agents) to Croker, reproduced in The London Gazette, issue 16703, page 337; Hillyar to Croker, 8 January 1813, Plymouth, ADM 1/1947; Hillyar to Croker, ADM 52/4236; Midshipman Robert Gordon to his mother, quoted here http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?afRedir=true&lotRef=221ac52304&scp=c&ri=308

  9. Colburn’s United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, 1843, Part III, pp. 271–85.

  10. Phoebe’s Log, ADM 51/2675; Paul Chamberlain, Hell Upon Water: Prisoners of War in Britain, 1793-1815, Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2008, pp. 58–9.

  11. Phoebe’s Log, ADM 51/2675; on a ship’s routine in home port see Adkins, Lesley and Roy, Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy, New York: Little, Brown Book Group, 2009, pp. 153–93, and William Robinson, Jack Nastyface: Memoirs of an English Seaman, London: Chatham Publishing, 2002, pp. 87 and 96.

  12. ADM 51/2675; Hillyar to Croker, 12 February 1813, ADM 1/1947; ADM 37/4380; on the colour scheme of Trafalgar ships see Basil Hall (ed.), The Letter of Private Wheeler, 1809-1828, Gloucestershire: Windrush Press, 1999, p. 46.

  13. ADM 51/2675; on Pomfrey see Hillyar to Croker, Plymouth, 14 January 1813, ADM 1/1947 and An Alphabetical List of the Pursers, Gunners, Boatswains and Carpenters of His Majesty’s Fleet, with the Dates of their First Warrants, London: S. Brooke, 1813, p. 185; on Brady see Hillyar to Croker, 19 January 1813, ADM 1/1948; on schoolmasters’ pay, conditions and duties see Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 104 and 326–7.

  14. ADM 51/2675; on victualing at Plymouth see Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 236 and 241–4; ADM 37/4380; on Surflen see An Alphabetical List of the Pursers, Gunners, Boatswains and Carpenters …, p. 62; The Courier, London, 12 February 1812; and The Morning Post, London, 2 May 1814.

  15. ADM 36/16809; ADM 37/4380; on a seaman’s entry on board ship see Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, p. 129; for Jackson’s donation to his mother see ADM 27/18.

  16. On the Phoebe’s band see Thornton to Thornton, Valparaiso Bay 12 April 1814, reproduced in Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 130–5; and Hillyar to Croker, off Valparaiso, 28 February 1814, ADM 1/22.

  17. ADM 51/2675; Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 230–4; on the Isaac Todd see Keith H. Lloyd, ‘Voyage of the Isaac Todd’, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Winter 2008.

  18. ADM 52/4236; on Hillyar’s orders, see his coded journal, contained in Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1948.

  19. Lloyd, ‘Voyage of the Isaac Todd’; on the ‘Old China Trade’ see Eric J. Dolin, When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs and Money in the Age of Sail, New York: Liveright, 2012.

  20. ADM 52/4236; Adkins, Jack Tar, pp. 209–11.

  21. Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 34.

  22. Marsh, A Memoir of Allen F. Gardiner, pp. 5–6.

  23. ADM 52/4236; On Smith see ADM 37/4380 and The London Gazette, 12 November 1811, Issue 16540, p. 2185.

  24. ADM 52/4236; Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 172–8.

  25. See (online) Dictionary of Canadian Biography http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?BioId=36672 and http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4580; see McDonald, Autobiographical Notes reproduced in L. R. Mason, Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, Recits de Voyages, Lettres et Rapports Inedits Relatifs au Nord-Ouest Canadien, Quebec: de L’Imprimierie Generale, 1890, pp. 43–8.

  26. ADM 52/4236; Lavery, Nelson’s Navy, pp. 139–40 and 326–7; National Archives, Trafalgar Ancestors Online http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/default.asp.

  27. ADM 52/4236; Hillyar to Croker, Spithead, 13 March 1813 and Hillyar to Croker, Spithead, 16 March 1813, both in ADM 1/1947; On Barnes see Dictionary of Canadian
Biography http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?BioId=36672;

  28. Naval Chronicle 29, 1813, p. 242; The Times, London, 20 March 1813. Both quoted in Stephen Budiansky, Perilous Fight: America’s Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815, New York: Vintage Books, 2011, pp. 187–8.

  29. ADM 52/4236; ADM 37/4380.

  30. ADM 52/4236.

  31. ADM 52/4236; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 34; Captain Salt to Croker, 30 March 1813, HMS Unicorn at Sea, reproduced in The European Magazine and London Review, Vol. 63, Philological Society of London, 1813, p. 529.

  32. ADM 52/4236; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 34–5.

  33. ADM 52/4236.

  34. Burrow to Jago, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 17 October 1814, Cornwall Council Archives, X807, document 4.

  35. ADM 52/4236.

  36. ADM 52/4236; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 35–6; for contemporary descriptions of Tenerife see John Payne, Universal Geography, Formed into a New and Entire System, Describing Asia, Africa, Europe and America …, Dublin: Z Jackson, 1794, p. 679; and John Purdy, Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory, to Accompany the New Chart of the Atlantic Ocean …, London: Whittle and Holmes Laurie, 1812, pp. 112–13.

  Chapter 4

  1. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 61; Feltus, Journal, entry for 25 January 1813.

  2. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 62–3.

  3. Ibid, pp. 63–4.

  4. Ibid, p. 65; Feltus, Journal, entries for 4 to 10 February 1813.

  5. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 66; on Tameoy (Tamaha) see ibid, p. 118; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 11; and the footnotes on p. 748 of The Naval War of 1812. On Cowell see H. Niles (ed.), Niles’ Weekly Register – Supplement to Vol. VII, from September 1814 to March 1815, Baltimore, 1815, p.29.

  6. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 66–9; Feltus, Journal, entries for 13 and 14 February 1813.

  7. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 69–71; Feltus, Journal, entry for 14 February 1813.

  8. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 70–1; Feltus, Journal, entry for 15 February 1813.