The Shining Sea (26 page)

Porter now had a fleet of six:
Georgiana, Atlantic, Greenwich, Montezuma, Policy,
and, of course,
Essex
. The potential in prize money was mounting, and so were the spirits of Porter's crew. The last two captures had 800 tortoises crammed into their holds—enough fresh food for the men in all six ships for a month. The captures also had plenty of naval stores—cordage, paint, tar, canvas, and the like. More importantly, the
Atlantic
and the
Greenwich
had in excess of 3,500 gallons of water, which alleviated Porter's immediate need. To be sure, the precious liquid was in the oily casks of whale ships and had an unpleasant smell and taste, but it was usable, and Porter was happy to have it until he found fresher water.

In addition to having adequate supplies Porter also had sufficient men, including prisoners, to man all the ships. He calculated that he had a total of 420, and, miraculously, every one of them was in excellent health, except for the few on the
Atlantic
and the
Greenwich
who exhibited signs of scurvy brought on by indifferent captains. Porter was careful about how he allocated the prisoners, integrating them into the crews of every ship, and he was pleased with the results. He found them to be as useful as his own men.

Although Porter thought the British tars performed well, he had no use for their captains nor for their uncaring service. The
Atlantic
, he discovered, was the ship that had taken the water and bread placed near Hathaway's Post Office. Captain Weir took them, not because he needed sustenance for his crew, but because he feared men might escape if they knew bread and water were on the island. Britain's tars, it seems, fled from the tyranny aboard their ships whenever and wherever they could, even to uninhabited islands.

On June 6, an awesome sight filled Porter and his crews with wonder. An immense volcano erupted. It was early afternoon when they observed thick, black, cone-shaped smoke rising rapidly from a huge crater on Albemarle Island. The column ascended to a great height before spreading off in grand white curls. The intriguing outburst continued into the evening, illuminating the night sky.

Despite the wondrous sights on these unique islands, by the second week of June Porter had had enough of the Galapagos. He was eager to return to the coast of Peru, fill his water casks, and resume the hunt for
whalers along the coasts of Peru and Chile, where he thought the hunting would be as good or better than in the treacherous Galapagos. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, he had no doubt that Admiral Dixon in Rio was aware of the
Essex
's rampage in the Pacific and would be sending one or more warships to destroy her. Needless to say, Porter was anxious to meet the British hunters.

CHAPTER

13

U
NPARALLELED
S
UCCESS

O
N
J
UNE
8, P
ORTER PASSED TO THE NORTH OF
A
BINGDON
(Pinta) Island with a fresh breeze. He had all but one of the dull sailing vessels in tow. They were heading for the Peruvian town of Tumbes, close to the Equator in the southern part of the Gulf of Guayaquil, nearly 600 miles north of Lima. Downes and the
Georgiana
were not with him, but Porter left instructions where to find him.

Porter planned to stop at the Island of La Plata on the way to Tumbes. It was seventeen miles off what is now the southern coast of Ecuador, but was then Peru. Legend had it that Captain Francis Drake landed there to bury treasure and divide his plunder. Porter expected to obtain wood and water and leave a message for Downes. The haze was so thick, however, that he did not find the island until the night of June 16.

As the
Essex
approached La Plata the following morning, Porter saw huge schools of sperm and finback whales. He dropped anchor two miles offshore and explored the waters around the island in a whaleboat. It proved a big disappointment. He could not find a comfortable landing place. Before continuing on to the Tumbes River, he left a message for Downes in a bottle and suspended it from the branch of a bush. To make
certain Downes did not miss the bottle, Porter painted the letters S.X. on a nearby rock—large enough to draw anyone's attention.

On June 19, the
Essex
ran into the spacious Gulf of Guayaquil and anchored on the south side, a mile off the mouth of the Tumbes River. A considerable sandbar blocked the entrance. As the
Essex
came to anchor, misfortune struck. One of the gunner's crew, John Rodgers, aged thirty-two, one of the best seamen on the ship, was helping to furl the mainsail. Suddenly he lost his balance and plunged headfirst to the deck, smashing his skull. Rodgers's fondness for rum had finally done him in, shocking and saddening the entire ship. Excessive drinking was a problem that never went away for skippers.

Porter now had to turn to the unpleasant business of dealing with the Peruvian authorities. He anticipated that they would be hostile but amenable to bribery. He sent Captain Randall of the
Barclay
upriver to the town of Tumbes to confer with the governor while the
Essex
men got busy bringing wood and water aboard. It was a hazardous business. The waters were loaded with big, hungry sharks and huge alligators; the surf was violent enough to upset rafts. Porter himself shot and killed an enormous, fifteen-foot alligator, placing a musket ball below the joint of the monster's foreleg near the shoulder.

On June 22, Randall returned with the governor and his retinue. The officials, especially the governor, were so wretchedly dressed that it was all Porter could do to stop from laughing. The Peruvians' wardrobe did not hinder negotiations, however. The governor and his men were anxious for money, which Porter supplied, and business went forward with no trouble, as he had anticipated it would. Still, Porter had to be careful; this was not friendly territory. He never went on shore or allowed any of his men to go without being heavily armed and on guard.

The following day, June 23, Porter went into Tumbes, reluctantly returning the governor's visit. The town had about fifty houses or huts and was as wretched as the attire of its officials. Tumbes was built on stilts to protect inhabitants from alligators, but nothing could shield them from swarms of mosquitoes and other insects. Porter spent as little time as possible with the governor and absolutely refused to stay the night.

On returning to the
Essex,
he was confronted with a problem he had long hoped to avoid. Again it had to do with alcohol. The acting second
lieutenant, James Wilson, after an abstinence of many months, was drunk again. Everyone liked Wilson, but he had a drinking problem, which Porter had had to deal with more than once. When he was told of Wilson's condition, he went directly to his cabin and advised him that he was under arrest for the remainder of the cruise. Wilson was shaken, reached for a pistol, and attempted to load it. Porter grabbed it from him, but Wilson went for another. Porter was too quick for him, however, and stopped him again. Wilson then told him that he had intended to use the pistol on himself. Porter believed him. He could see the terrible state the poor man was in. It was a sad business; Porter felt sorry for Wilson, and after giving the matter more thought, he decided to give him another chance. Wilson carried on, but he remained terribly unhappy with himself.

On the same day, Porter received a communication from the governor of Tumbes indicating that his superior, the governor of Guayaquil, would not approve of Porter's remaining in the river, and that he should depart as soon as possible. Porter thought this was a demand for more money, a demand he would not meet. But it was also obvious that he was in hostile territory and should leave as soon as he had collected sufficient supplies.

The next day, Lieutenant Downes and the
Georgiana
finally appeared with two prizes and a story to tell. Downes had captured three whalers off James Island in the Galapagos—the 11-gun
Hector
(270 tons), the 8-gun
Rose
(220 tons), and the 8-gun
Catharine
(270 tons). The
Hector
had a crew of twenty-five, the
Rose
twenty-one, and the
Catharine
twenty-nine. Downes had no trouble capturing the
Catharine
and the
Rose
. Their captains had assumed the
Georgiana
was a British ship and drove right up alongside her.

The
Hector
was another matter. She gave Downes plenty of trouble. He had spotted her one afternoon and did not catch up with her until late at night. He ran alongside and shouted for her to strike her colors, but the
Hector
's skipper cleared for action instead. Downes had only twenty men and boys; the others were on the prizes
Catharine
and
Rose
. Thinking he'd better act fast, Downes fired a shot that smashed into the
Hector
's stern, and crashed through the interior of the ship, doing considerable damage. He then called for a surrender, but the
Hector
got on more sail and tried to get away, whereupon Downes poured one broadside after another into her, killing two men and wounding six. After receiving five
rounds at point-blank range, the
Hector
's main topmast was down as was most of her standing and running rigging. With his ship a wreck, the
Hector
's plucky skipper finally struck his colors.

Downes now had seventy-five prisoners—too many to manage safely. He put all of them in the
Rose
—the poorest of the three ships—and sent them on parole to St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic. The British captain pledged that he would take them there and not serve against the United States until regularly exchanged. Downes thought the man would be as good as his word and gave him a passport to St. Helena. Before Downes let the
Rose
go, he transferred her sperm oil to the
Georgiana
and had all her guns thrown overboard.

Before leaving the Gulf of Guayaquil, Porter reorganized his fleet. He converted the
Atlantic
, the best of his captures, into a 20-gun cruiser with Downes in command and christened her
Essex Junior
. Since several more good men from the prizes had volunteered to serve in the American navy, Porter was able to put sixty men aboard her with Midshipman Richard Dashiell as sailing master. The contemporary anti-American British naval historian, William James, claimed that Porter had, with empty promises, enticed His Majesty's innocent seamen out of the prizes to serve on the
Atlantic
. The Admiralty and Parliament thought the same. They would never admit that the principal reason so many of their seamen deserted was the brutal conditions aboard their warships. For a large portion of every British crew, life aboard a man-of-war could be a brutal, dangerous existence. The food was unhealthy and the pay abysmal; threats of cruel, sometimes fatal beatings were routinely used to obtain obedience, and leave was never granted if it was thought the recipient would run away. The torment was unending. Seamen were required to serve for the duration of the war with France, which by 1813 had been going on for twenty years. The problem of desertion in the Royal Navy was endemic. It could never be solved as long as upper-class Britons refused to recognize the tyranny aboard their warships. For ordinary seamen, escape was the only way out, the only way to survive. Thousands ran away, many to the more benign ships of the United States. The Admiralty and its numerous supporters in Parliament refused to admit the obvious.

Those prisoners who did not want to join the American navy had repeatedly asked to be put on shore, and Porter decided that he would be
better off without them. He gave them three boats, all of their possessions, and set them free, including the obnoxious captains Weir and Shuttleworth.

Porter next appointed Mr. Adams to be skipper of the
Georgiana
and converted the
Greenwich
into a storeship, putting the extra provisions from all the ships into her, along with twenty guns. He estimated that he had enough supplies for all his ships to last seven months. At the same time he gave command of the prize ship
Montezuma
to Midshipman Feltus, who could not have been happier.

With these matters tended to, Porter, on the morning of June 30, made the signal to his fleet—including the ships in Downes's squadron—to get underway. On July 1, they stood out from the Gulf of Guayaquil, sailing west for the easterly trade winds, which Porter expected to pick up three or four hundred miles offshore. While the fleet sailed west, carpenters and other skilled men worked hard on
Essex Junior
, building up her breast-works and making other alterations to strengthen her as a fighting ship. On July 4, Porter stopped to commemorate Independence Day.
Essex, Essex Junior
, and
Georgiana
fired seventeen-gun salutes, and Porter ordered a double ration of grog for all the crews on the nine ships. The rum came from the prizes and was doubly welcome, since the
Essex
men, for some time, had had none at all.