with some, most notably Bainbridge) who would later be helpful to his advancement. (One can not help but wonder at Bainbridge's take on the outcome, given his own recent surrender of an American warship!) With a short break in his sea duty assignments, the twenty-eight-year old naval officer took the opportunity to court and marry fifteen-year-old Evalina Anderson, daughter of a future congressman from Pennsylva nia. Shortly after their wedding on 10 March 1808, Porter was assigned to take command of the n aval station in New Orleans, a port plagued with rotting gunboats, low morale, yellow fever, and pirates. I twas no honeymoon for the newly married couple. Compounding his difficulties, Porter's father died during this tour, fo llowed soon after by the senior Porter's caregiver, Eliza beth Farragut-wife of George Farragut, one of the old man's cronies from the Revolution . To show his appreciation for all that the Farraguts had done for his father, Porter unofficially adopted one of the Farraguts' five children, a yo ung lad named David Glasgow Farragut, who would later serve in the Navy and become the first naval officer to rise to the then newly created rank of admiral (1862). As one might expect, Porter made some notable improvem ents in the situation in New Orleans, returning to C hester, Pennsylvania, in 1810 for a brief respite from his duties. Evalina was now pregnant with their second of what would be ten children. With another war with England looming on the horizon , Porter was promoted to master commandant and given command of the subscription frigate USS Essex in the summer of 1811. The ship h ad just undergone a major overhaul and refit, including the replacement of her battery oflong guns with thirty-two-pounder carronades. Porter complained bitterly to the Navy about this ch ange, recalling, no doubt, his experiences in Constellation and, specifically, how her long guns were a decided advantage over the carronade-equipped L1nsurgente. The hierarchy of the Navy held firm , and, while still not happy, Porter was not about to give up the command of a frigate, especially in light of the fact that the country would soon be at war with England . In the autumn of 1812, following Constitution's acclaimed victory over HMS Guerriere (August 18 12) and Decatur's
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stunning wm over HMS Macedonian (October 1812), Essex was ordered to join Commodore William Bainbridge's squadron to sail the South Atlantic in search of enemy ships . Bainbridge's fl ag flew in Constitution, but when the squadron, now co nsisting of Constitution and USS Ho rnet under James Lawrence, was preparing to depart Boston, Essex was not ready to sail. It was agreed that Porter would rendezvous with them off Brazil in December. Now a seasoned commanding officer (he had been promoted to captain during the summer of 1812) he chafed, as did most of his contemporaries, for action and victory commensurate with those achieved by Hull and Decatur. H e put to sea as quickly as his ship was ready, eager for combat, but he missed the rendezvo us. Bainbridge was busy claiming his own glory in single-ship combat against HMS Java, while Lawrence was doing the same against the British warship Peacock. After waiting in vain for several weeks for the other ships, Porter decided to try his luck in the Pacific. The fact that his was the first American warship to double Cape Horn and sail the Pacific Ocean probably did not signify to him at the time; he was spoiling for a fight and hoped to make prizes of the British whalers working the Pacific whaling grounds and, should England send out a warship to protect them , make a pri ze of her as well. To him, it was the natural course of events. Porter's bold action, consistent with his peers, was undoubted ly one of the many reaso ns the American Navy survived its fledgling yea rs. Their early victories were achieved through the audacity, confidence, and courage of its officers. It was these characteristics, which David Porter possessed in quantity, that propelled him into the Pacific in 1813. After revictualling in Valparaiso, Chile, a neutra l port, Porter set a course for the Galapagos Islands, seeking the British whaling fleet. En route, he gathered prizes and wreaked havoc on the whalers who, until he showed up alongside with guns run out, were unaware of a US warship in their waters. Porter's modus operandi was to collect the sailors from the ships they captured and, when he had too many to manage in Essex, send them off in one of their own ships, burning the other vessels . He did keep one, renamed her EssexJunior,
armed her, and used her as his consort. Technically, now in command of more than one ship, he could be called commodore. He had sai led all the way to the Marquesas in the far Pacific when word spread that an American naval ship was capturing and burning British whalers and that the fleet had headed west. Porter also heard that a British squadron, under Captain James Hillyar, was now in the Pacific looking for him. He established a shore base on Nukahiva, claiming it for the United States and renaming it Madison Island. (President Madison and the US government never officially recognized the conquest.) Hi s thirst for prizes now sated, and with fewer and fewer whalers left to catch, Porter dragged his men away from thei r island sweethearts and headed back east, arriving off Chile in January, 1814. En route, he had to put down several near-mutinies that were motivated by his crew's desire to return, not to their homes in the US , but back to their tropical love nests. Knowing Valparaiso was sti ll neutral, he sai led into the harbor, hoping to find Captain Hillyar and his flagship, HMS Phoebe. Catching unarmed whalers was one thing, but Porter so ught the glory of capturing or sinking a warship. While Hillyar was not in port, the American capta in did not have to wait for long. Within a couple ofweeks time, Phoebe sailed into the harbor, leaving herselfopen to a withering fire from Essex and Essex junior. Porter, well aware of the consequences of engaging in a neutral port, refrained from firing and, instead, sent Hillyar a note challenging him to single ship combat at sea. Hillya r declined the invitation and, after resupplying his ship and her consort, HMS Cherub, returned to sea to await Porter's departure. Essex sailed on 28 March and Porter attempted to slip, unseen, between the two British warships. Essex j unior remained in port. Unfort unately, a storm blew up, taking down one of the American's topmasts and forced Porter to seek refuge in a small bay outside of Valparaiso Harbor. Ignoring the rules of neutrality-Essex was still in neutral waters-Hillyar went into the bay and, remaining out of the range of Porter's carronades, poured devastating fire into the American frigate. Due to the limited space and shallow water, Porter was unable to
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