and found himself aboard rhe A m erican fri gate Constellation in time for the Quasi War w ith France. In February of 1799, he was a midshipman of the foretop in that ship when she encountered the French frigare L'lnsurgente. The ensuing battle was rhe first significa nt ship-to-ship conflict of the wa r, a nd the first opportunity for a yo ung midshipman and future naval captain to prove his menle. With both ships fully engaged, round shot, chain, and bar shot flew across the decks of Constellatio n and through her ri ggin g. Of course, the Frenchman was taking a bearing at the same time. While the enemy ship was equipped wirh carronades, designed to smas h a n opponent's hull and m as ts at close range, Constellation's armament consisred mostly of long guns, capable of firing twenty-fo ur pound shot well over a mile. Unfortunately, the two ships had closed to the effective range of L'!nsurgente's ca rron ades, allowing the French to fire heavier thirty-two and forty-pound shot into her adversary's hull and rig, causing some potentially disastrous da mage. N ineteen-year-old Midshipman Porter watched as the fore tops'! ya rd took a hit, causing it to splimer and hang from its position on the mast, swinging violently with each roll of the ship. With rhe weakened condition of the standing rigging on the foremast, it was readily apparent to the yo ung man that the swaying ya rd was in danger of bringing down the entire m as t, a n event that would have been disasuous to the American ship, preventing her from m aneuvering out of the range of rhe devasta ting French ca rronades. Quick as a flash, yo un g Midshipman Poner scampered a loft amid the shoe flyi ng through rhe air and French musket balls aimed at any American who showed himself as a target. H e reached the top and cut loose the damaged tops'! ya rd, lowering ir to the deck and saving the foremasr from being taken down . His acrion allowed Captain TruxtonandFirstLieutenantJohn Rod gers to sail Constellation out of the effective range of L'! nsurgente's carronades, pound the French ship with her longer-range weapons, and cause th e Frenchman's surrender with over seventy dead and wounded. Following the action and the subsequent French surrender, Porter acco mpanied John Rod gers to the prize to oversee irs
SEA HISTORY 129, WINTER 2009-10
Action between USS Constellation and the French Frigate Llnsurgente, 9 February 1799 being brought to St. Kitts in the company of Constellation. With only eleven A merican sailors aboard, plus all the French prisoners, a storm blew up, giving rhe French the hope of retaking their ship. Porter and two sailors, a rmed with cutlass a nd musket, herded the defeated French sailors into the bowels of their ship, ai med a loaded cannon down the hatch at them, and sa iled rheir prize into St. Kitts to rendezvous with Constellation. Ir was ye t anorher indication that great things we re in the offing for yo un g David Porter. With the hostilities w ith France still going strong (though wa r was never officia lly declared by either side, hence Quasi War), the newly minted Lieutenant Porter was assigned as seco nd lieutena nt in rhe apdy named Experiment. A far cry from the lofty frigate he had left, his new ship was a rwenty-g un sha llow-draft schooner, designed for close-to-shore work in the West Indies. Ju sr because his new ship was small and lightly a rmed was no reaso n for Porter to withdraw from the limelight, rhough it would not take much imagination for the average person to see hi s next "acco mplishmem " as something closely resembling mutiny. Experiment, commanded by a Lieurena nt William Maley, was ordered to accompany a small fleet of merchantmen along rhe coast of Haiti, a popular cruising gro und for pirates, priva teers, and other brigands of the sea. When the convoy was attacked by ten pirate vessels, Lieutenant Maley, already unpopular with his men, decided to surrender his ship-and by extension, his convoy-to the pirates wirhout a fight.
Obviously, this ac ti o n was unacce ptable to D avid Porter, who rallied the crew and fought fiercely, beatin g back the pirates and sinking rhree of their ten vessels. After briefly fleeing, the pirates returned quickly to cut out two of the m erch ants from rhe co nvoy and aga in sailed off, this time w ith rheir prizes. Though the ac tion was not a co mplete success, Poner h ad saved most of rhe convoy and his own ship, not to m ention the honor of rhe US Navy. Because of his own disgraceful conduct, Lieutenant Maley chose not to report the incident, thus saving Poner from a possible charge of mutiny. Maley was subsequemly brought down by hi s reputation for drunkenness, ab ras iveness, and cowa rdice, and dismissed from the service. On his second cruise in Experiment, Porter's commanding officer was Master Commandant C h arles Stewan, a calm and competem officer who would later co mmand several fri gares, including USS Constitution. On I September 1800, Experiment fell in with a French priva teer, D eux Amis, and brought her to surrender. Porter was named prize captain and, with a crew of five Americans, was instructed to bring the French vessel and its forty prisoners to St. Kitts. In what must have struck the yo ung lieutenam as deja vu, the French prisoners thought they might overpower the paltry American crew and retake their ship. Porter drew a line on the deck, herded the prisoners forward of it, and placed a cannon loaded with grape shot aft of the line. H e told rhe prisoners that the first m an to cross the line wo uld cause the Am erican 17