In Pursuit of the Essex

by Hughes, Ben;

  5. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 204; Bury and Norwich Post, 27 December 1815; ADM 103/466. On Worth also see http://www.angelfire.com/ks/hagenswain/oswain8.html. On Swayne also see Bury and Norwich Post, 27 December 1815.

  6. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 204–5.

  7. Ibid, p. 205; Bury and Norwich Post, 27 December 1815.

  8. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 201 and 207.

  9. Ibid, pp. 208–11.

  10. Ibid, pp. 211–14.

  11. Ibid, pp. 213–15.

  12. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 215–24.

  13. Ibid, pp. 221–2; Niles (ed.), Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 7, September 1814 to March 1815, p. 23; Shillibeer, A Narrative of the Briton’s Voyage, p. 31. Such contests were common among the young officers of the United States Navy. At least thirty-six were killed in eighty-two duels between 1798 and 1848, half of the fatalities occurring before 1815. Congress passed a law forbidding the practice amongst civilians in 1806, but it was not banned in the US Navy until almost sixty years later. The ‘honour code’ was held in high esteem by the naval establishment, many of whom had partaken of ‘grass before breakfast’ themselves and, as the majority of encounters took place overseas, government influence was slight. The causes of duelling were often out of all proportion with the results. One gentleman lying to or raising his hands against another was sufficient and when alcohol was combined with high spirits and testosterone, challenges could be sparked by ‘insults’ of comic triviality. On one occasion an officer was said to have fought another for entering the ship’s wardroom wearing a hat; another demanded satisfaction when a shipmate spilled some water on a letter he was writing; a third resulted from an argument as to whether a bottle was green or black. Although Porter held duels to be a ‘disgrace … [to] human nature’, he had been raised to see them as part of the service’s culture and had acted as a second to Marine Captain James McKnight, the father of one of his lieutenants on his current cruise, in Italy in 1802. In the light of such precedents, it is unsurprising that the Bostonian not only failed to punish Gamble for Cowan’s death, but also omitted to name him as the culprit in his memoirs. For more on duelling in the US Navy see McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, pp. 403–6.

  14. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 225–34.

  15. Collier, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, pp. 98–9.

  16. Chandler, Inter-American Acquaintances, pp. 133–4; Rosario Orrego de Uribe (ed.), Revista de Valparaiso, Periódico Quincenal, Numero 1, Valparaiso: Tornero y Letelier, 1873, pp. 163–4.

  17. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 239–41; Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 1–2; Feltus, Journal, entries for 13 August 1813 to 10 September 1813. On the Emily see Moisés Hasson Camhi, Viaje y Migración de los Blest en los Albores de la Independencia, available online at http://www.irlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/6-Viaje-y-Migraci%C3%B3n-de-los-Blest-en-los-Albores-de-la-Independencia.pdf; El Monitor Araucano, Tomo 2, No. 24, 1 March 1814 and Tomo 1, No. 36, 29 June 1813.

  18. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 234–9. On the Sir Andrew Hammond see Clayton, Ships Employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery, p. 219; James Jay Mapes, The Working Farmer, Devoted to Agriculture, Vol. 3, New York: Longett, 1852, p. 133, and http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/owners.pdf.

  19. Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 234–9.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid, pp. 236–41.

  22. Ibid, pp. 239–41; Feltus, Journal, entries for 30 September 1813 to 3 October 1813; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p.10.

  Chapter 9

  1. ADM 52/4237; HMS Cherub’s Log, ADM 53/291; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 57–8.

  2. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 58–9; Hillyar to Croker, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  3. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 59–66; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  4. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 59–60.

  5. Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 61–6.

  6. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 66; Shillibeer, A Narrative of the Briton’s Voyage, p. 26; Burrow to Jago, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 17 October 1813, Cornwall Council Archives, X807, document 4.

  7. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; ADM 37/4380. On Thornton and Lawson also see Percy Melville Thornton, Some Things We Have Remembered: Samuel Thornton, Admiral, 1797-1859, Percy Melville Thornton, 1841-1911, London: Longmans & Green, 1912, pp. 16–23, 30 and 32.

  8. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950. On Turner and Cummings see ADM 37/4380 and ADM 103/466.

  9. Burrow to Jago, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 12 October 1813, Cornwall Council Archives, X807, document 2; ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 67–8.

  10. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 67–8.

  11. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Hillyar to Croker, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 68–9; P. Brady sketches, ADM 344/2366.

  12. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 69–70.

  13. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291.

  Chapter 10

  1. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 1–5; Feltus, Journal, entries from 5 September 1813 to 24 September 1813.

  2. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 4.

  3. Milton Diamond, ‘Sexual Behaviour in Pre Contact Hawai’i: A Sexological Ethnography’, Revista Española del Pacifico 16 (2004), pp. 37–58.

  4. Long, Nothing Too Daring, pp. 109–10.

  5. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 5–8; Feltus, Journal, entries from 24 to 26 September 1813; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 10.

  6. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 9–11.

  7. Ibid, pp. 11–14; Feltus, Journal, entries from 24 to 26 September 1813.

  8. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 15–17; Feltus, Journal, entries from 25 to 26 September 1813; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 10.

  9. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 17–18. On Maury see The Naval War of 1812, footnotes, p. 769. Also see James Edmonds Saunders, Early Settlers of Alabama, New Orleans: L. Graham & Son, 1899, Part 1, pp. 316–18.

  10. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 17–18. On MacDonald see Porter, Journal, Vol. 1, p. 11 and Vol. 2, p. 235.

  11. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 19.

  12. Ibid, pp. 20–1; Feltus, Journal, entry 26 September 1813.

  13. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 21–2 and 59–60.

  14. Ibid, pp. 23–5.

  15. Ibid, p. 26; Feltus, Journal, entries for 26 and 27 September 1813.

  16. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 26–7; Feltus, Journal, entry for 27 September 1813. On the construction of the Taeeh village see Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 38–40.

  17. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 28–9; Feltus, Journal, entry 28 September 1813.

  18. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 32–8; Feltus, Journal, entry 29 September 1813; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 10.

  19. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 41–5. Porter was right to remain sceptical as the Marquesans were indeed practitioners of ritual cannibalism, a fact attested by Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, who spent four months living on Nuka Hiva in 1842. By the time of Porter’s visit, the islanders had learnt to hide the practice from visitors, but it continued for several generations. The anthropologist A. P. Rice later described the procedure in detail. ‘It was considered a great triumph among the Marquesans to eat the body of a dead man’, he wrote in a 1910 edition of the American Antiquarian. ‘[They] threw them on the ground and leaped on their chests so that their ribs were broken and pierced their lungs … Rough poles were thrust up through the natural orifices of their bodies and slowly
turned in their intestines. Finally, when the hour had come for them to be prepared for the feast, they were spitted on long poles that entered between their legs and emerged from their mouths.’

  20. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 55–6; Feltus, Journal, entry 30 September 1813.

  21. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 65–7; Feltus, Journal, entries for November 1813.

  22. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 20 and 50.

  23. Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 10. On Adams and the role of the schoolmaster in the US Navy see McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, pp. 194–9.

  24. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 63; Feltus, Journal, entry for 3 November 1813.

  25. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 74–5. See also Porter to Hillyar, USS Essex at Valparaiso, 10 February 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  26. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 76–8.

  27. Ibid, pp. 68–72; Feltus, Journal, entry for 3 November 1813.

  28. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 76; Feltus, Journal, entries for 14, 15 and 16 November 1813; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p.10. On the Albatross also see William Dane Phelps, Fore and Aft or Leaves from the Life of an Old Sailor, Nichols & Hall, 1871, pp. 237–40.

  29. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 76; Shillibeer, A Narrative of the Briton’s Voyage, pp. 71–2. Porter’s cruelty was not without precedent. In the summer of 1806, six years before the current hostilities had broken out, the Bostonian had come close to causing an international incident while watering in the harbour of Valletta as commander of USS Enterprize. When a drunken British sailor had been ‘very insolent’ to an American officer, Porter had him taken aboard the Enterprize and given twelve lashes. The local Royal Navy commander demanded an explanation and when no suitable reply was forthcoming, the British Governor, Sir Alexander Ball, informed Porter that the Enterprize would not be permitted to leave port until the incident had been resolved. Porter refused to back down. Ignoring Ball’s threats that the shore forts would fire on him, he upped anchor and ‘proceeded to sea without molestation’.

  30. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 78–81.

  31. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 81; Feltus, Journal, entry for 25 November 1813. On Clapp see J. Neilson Barry, ‘What Became of Benjamin Clapp?’, Washington Historical Quarterly, XXI, 1 (January 1930), pp. 13–17.

  32. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 87–93; Feltus, Journal, entries for 27 and 28 November 1813.

  33. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 93–105; Feltus, Journal, entries from 29 November to 1 December 1813.

  34. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 105–6; Feltus, Journal, entries for 1 to 4 December 1813.

  35. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 106–17; Feltus, Journal, entries for December 1813.

  36. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 139–40 and 178. On Coffin see The Naval War of 1812, footnotes, pp. 773–4.

  37. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 162; Long, Nothing Too Daring, pp. 142–3.

  38. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 137–8. On the Essex’s cargo of sandalwood see HMS Cherub’s Log Book, entry for 10 and 11 February 1814, ADM 53/291.

  39. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 138–9; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, pp. 10–11.

  40. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 140; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 11; Feltus, Journal, entry for 13 December 1813.

  Chapter 11

  1. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 70.

  2. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 71–2. On the Hunter, Hector and Boriska see Strangford to Dixon, Rio de Janeiro, 3 July 1813, reproduced in Graham (ed.), The Navy and South America, pp. 101–2; Hillyar to Absacal, HMS Phoebe in Callao Bay, 9 December 1813, ADM 1/1948 ; Abascal to Hillyar, Lima, 10 December 1813, ADM 1/1948; Hillyar to Abascal, HMS Phoebe in Callao Bay, 10 December 1813, ADM 1/22; Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe in Callao Bay, 23 December 1813, ADM 1/22; Vivero to Hillyar, Lima, 17 December 1813, ADM 1/1948; letter written by William Glichrist, Buenos Ayres, 8 May 1813, reproduced in Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 5, 1814, p. 29; Hillyar Coded Journal, Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 22 October 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  3. Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 71–3; Amasa Delano, A Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres …, Boston: E. G. House, 1817, pp. 486–8.

  4. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 70–1.

  5. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; ADM 51/2206; ADM 35/3411; ADM 35/3677; ADM 37/4381; ADM 103/466.

  6. ADM 52/4237; ADM 35/3411; ADM 37/4381. On Tucker’s beef jerky see Jeffries (ed.), The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volumes 192–3, July to December 1852, pp. 529–30.

  7. Hillyar to Absacal, HMS Phoebe in Callao Bay, 9 December 1813, ADM 1/1948; Abascal to Hillyar, Lima, 10 December 1813, ADM 1/1948.

  8. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 79–80.

  9. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Vivero to Hillyar, Lima, 17 December 1813, ADM 1/1948.

  10. Collier, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, pp. 98–100. On the prisoners taken from La Perla see ADM 52/4237, entry for 11 January 1814; and El Monitor Araucano, Tomo II, no.19, Valparaiso, 11 February 1814.

  11. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 73–4.

  12. Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 74–83; Samuel Haigh, Sketches of Buenos Ayres, Chile and Peru, London: Effingham Wilson, 1831, pp. 404–6: Delano, A Narrative of Voyages, pp. 490–3.

  13. ADM 52/4237; ADM 35/3411; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 83. On the Indispensable see Elliot Snow, Adventures at Sea in the Great Age of Sail, Five First Hand Narratives, Dover Publications, 2011, p. 73.

  14. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 92; Hillyar to Croker, Lima, 8 January 1814, ADM 1/1948; Brady Sketches, ADM 344/2303. On Staines see ADM 36/16809 and ADM 37/4380.

  15. ADM 52/4237; ADM 35/3411; ADM 35/3677; ADM 103/466; Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 24 January 1814, ADM 1/1950; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 94–6 and 99–100; Hillyar to Croker, 13 November 1814, HMS Phoebe at Plymouth Sound, ADM 1/1950. On Crompton see Boletín de la Academia Chilena de la Historia no.115, Santiago: 2006, pp. 218–19, and Patricia H. Marks, Deconstructing Legitimacy: Viceroys, Merchants and the Military in Late Colonial Peru, Penn State Press, 2007, p. 276, On Royal Navy captains carrying specie see Lewis, A Social History of the Navy, pp. 333–40.

  16. ADM 52/4237; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 100–1. On Ingram see Thornton to Thornton, Late United States Frigate Essex, Valparaiso Bay, 12 April 1814, reproduced in Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 130–5; Thornton, Some Things We Have Remembered, p. 37; Ingram Will, PROB 11/1567.

  Chapter 12

  1. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 140–1; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 11.

  2. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 141–2; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 11.

  3. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 142 and 161; The Naval War of 1812, p. 708; Log of the Comet, LUB 38/10.

  4. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 143. On the Good Friends see Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 30 March 1814, ADM 1/1950; Thornton to Thornton (op. cit.), pp. 130–2. On the Emily and George O’Brien see Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, 28 February 1814; and website of Museo Marítimo Nacional http://www.museonaval.cl/es/biografias-de-personajes/251-obrien-jorge.html.

  5. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 143–6; Rippy, Joel R. Poinsett, pp. 49–50.

  6. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 144.

  7. ADM 52/4237; HMS Cherub Log, ADM 51/2206.

  8. Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe at Sea, 24 January 1814, ADM 1/1949.

  9. ADM 52/4237; ADM 51/2206; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 101. On Hedges see ADM 37/4380; and The London Gazette, 12 November 1811, Issue 16540, p. 2185. On Belcher see HMS Cherub Pay Roll, ADM 35/3411.

  10. ADM 52/4237; ADM 51/2206; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 101–2. Farragut mentions Hillyar’s jacket: Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 12.

  11. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 144; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 12.

/>   12. ADM 52/4237; ADM 51/2206; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 102; Thornton to Thornton, 12 April 1814, Late United States Frigate Essex at Valparaiso; and Sampson to Mother, 2 April 1814, HMS Phoebe, Valparaiso Harbour, both reproduced in Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 130 and 136; Hillyar to Croker, HMS Phoebe, Valparaiso, 28 February 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  13. Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 12.

  14. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 144–5; ADM 52/4237; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, p. 12; ADM 51/2206; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 102; Thornton to Thornton, reproduced in Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, pp. 130–1.

  15. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 145–6.

  16. Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 144–6; ADM 52/4237; Farragut, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, pp. 12 and 14; Thornton to Thornton, Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 131.

  17. ADM 52/4237; ADM 51/2206; Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 146.

  18. ADM 52/4237; HMS Phoebe Pay Roll, ADM 35/3677; HMS Phoebe Muster Roll, ADM 37/4381; Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 147–8; Thornton to Thornton, in Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 131; Ingram Will PROB 11/1567.

  19. ADM 52/4237; ADM 53/291; Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 102; Thornton to Thornton, Gardiner, Hunting the Essex, p. 132; Hillyar to Croker, 28 February 1814, ADM 1/1950.

  20. ADM 52/4237; Hillyar to Croker, 10 February 1814, HMS Phoebe at Valparaiso, ADM 1/1949; Porter, Journal, Vol. 2, p. 173; letter of Samuel Burr Johnson, Valparaiso, 27 April 1814, reproduced in Diarios, Memorias y Relatos Testemoniales, http://www.historia.uchile.cl/CDA/fh_issue2/0,1392,ISID%253D405%2526JNID%253D12,00.html

  21. Collier, Ideas and Politics, pp. 109–15 and 201–6.