USS Essex (1799)
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| Career (USA) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Essex |
| Namesake: | Essex County, Massachusetts |
| Cost: | $139,362 |
| Laid down: | 1789 |
| Launched: | 30 September 1799 |
| Commissioned: | 17 December 1799 |
| Captured: | 28 March 1814 |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Essex |
| Acquired: | 28 March 1814 |
| Fate: | Sold at Public Auction, 6 June 1837 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Frigate |
| Displacement: | 850 long tons (864 t) |
| Length: | 140 ft (43 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Draft: | 12 ft 3 in (3.73 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 300 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 40 × 32-pounder carronades + 6 × 12-pounder guns |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | Edward Preble (1799–1801) William Bainbridge (1801–1802) James Barron (1804) David Porter (1812–1814) |
| Operations: | Quasi-War |
The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a 36-gun [1] or 32-gun[2] sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and in the War of 1812, during which she was captured by the British in 1814 and served as HMS Essex until sold at public auction on 6 June 1837.
The frigate was launched on 30 September 1799 by Enos Briggs, Salem, Massachusetts, at a cost of $139,362 subscribed by the people of Salem and Essex County. On 17 December 1799 she was presented to the United States Navy and accepted by Captain Edward Preble.
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[edit] Service history
With the United States involved in naval action against France on 6 January 1800, Essex, under the command of Captain Edward Preble, departed Newport, Rhode Island in company with Congress to rendezvous with a convoy of merchant ships returning from Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Shortly after commencement of her journey, Essex became the first U.S. Naval Ship to cross the Equator. Congress was dismasted only a few days out, and Essex was obliged to continue her voyage alone, making her mark as the first U.S. man-of-war to double the Cape of Good Hope, both in March and in August 1800 prior to successfully completing her convoy mission in November.
[edit] First Barbary War
Captain William Bainbridge commanded Essex on her second cruise, whereon she sailed to the Mediterranean with the squadron of Commodore Richard Dale. Dispatched to protect American trade and seamen against depredations by the Barbary pirates, the squadron arrived at Gibraltar on 1 July 1801 and spent the ensuing year convoying American merchantmen and blockading Tripolitan ships in their ports. Following repairs at the Washington Navy Yard in 1802, Essex resumed her duties in the Mediterranean under Captain James Barron in August 1804. She participated in the Battle of Derne on 27 April 1805, and remained in those waters until the conclusion of peace terms in 1806.
Returning to the Washington Navy Yard in July, she was placed in ordinary until February 1809 when she was recommissioned for sporadic use in patrolling American waters and a single cruise to Europe.
[edit] War of 1812
When war was declared against Britain on 18 June, 1812, Essex, commanded by Captain David Porter, made a successful cruise to the southward. On 11 July near Bermuda she fell in with seven British (the HMS Silverside being one) transports and by moonlight engaged and took one of them as a prize. On 13 August she encountered and captured the sloop HMS Alert after an engagement. By September when she returned to New York, Essex had taken ten prizes.
Essex sailed in South Atlantic waters and along the coast of Brazil until January 1813, decimating the British whaling fleet in the Pacific. Although her crew suffered greatly from a shortage of provisions and heavy gales while rounding Cape Horn, she anchored safely at Valparaíso, Chile, on 14 March, having seized whaling schooners Elizabeth and Nereyda along the way. In the next five months, the Essex captured thirteen British whalers, including Essex Junior, (ex-Atlantic) which cruised in company with her captor to the Island of Nukahiva for repairs. Porter put his executive officer John Downes in command of that ship.
In January 1814, Essex sailed into neutral waters at Valparaíso, only to be trapped there for six weeks by the British frigate, Phoebe (36 guns), under Captain James Hillyar, and the sloop-of-war Cherub (18 guns). On 28 March 1814, Porter determined to gain the open sea, fearing the arrival of British reinforcements. Upon rounding the point, Essex lost her main top-mast to foul weather and was brought to action just north of Valparaíso.[3] [4] For 2½ hours, Essex, armed almost entirely with powerful, but short range carronades (which Porter had complained to the Navy about on several occasions), resisted the enemy's superior fighting power and longer gun range. A fire erupted twice aboard the Essex, at which point about fifty men abandoned the ship and swam for shore; only half of them landing. Eventually, the hopeless situation forced the frigate to surrender. The Essex suffered 58 dead and 31 missing of her crew of 154,[3] while the British casualties were 5 dead, 10 wounded.[Note 1][Note 2]
[edit] British service
Captain Hillyar of Phoebe placed Lieutenant C. Pearson in command of Essex for the voyage to England, where she arrived in November.[6] There the Admiralty had her repaired and taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Essex. Between 1824 and 1834 she served as a prison ship at Kingston, Ireland.[6] On 6 June 1837 she was sold at public auction. During some recent resurfacing work on the east pier of Dún Laoghaire harbour the permanent mooring anchor of the Essex was discovered embedded in the pier.[7]
[edit] In literature and popular culture
Herman Melville wrote about the Essex in "Sketch Fifth" in The Encantadas, focusing on an incident off the Galápagos Islands with an elusive British ship. The story was first published in 1854 in Putnam's Magazine.
The story of the Essex's attack on British whalers was adapted by Patrick O'Brian for his novel The Far Side of the World. The film adaptation of the novel, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, changed the American ship to a French one, presumably to help box office in the U.S.
[edit] Footnotes
- Notes
- ^ One the crew members of the Essex present at this action was 12 year old Midshipman David Farragut, the foster son of Captain Porter, who would rise to the rank of Admiral and achieve renown during the American Civil War.
- ^ A first-class share of a portion of the prize money for the Essex was worth £619 17s; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £7 13s 6d.[5]
- Citations
- ^ http://www.visit1812.com/historic-sites/usnm.html
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/robotti-essex.html
- ^ Account of Captain Porter's heroics, http://inportercounty.org/Data/PorterCountyCentennial/Sec1-4_PorterCoCenn-DavidPorterDiagram.html .
- ^ London Gazette: no. 16966. p. 110. 21 January 1815.
- ^ a b "NMM, vessel ID 366410". Warship Histories, vol i. National Maritime Museum. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_i.pdf. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ http://www.dlharbour.ie/content/history/essex/
[edit] References
- Frances Robotti and James Vescovi, The USS Essex and the Birth of the American Navy (Adams, 1999)
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
[edit] External links
- Essex, a scaled replica—A scaled wooden admiralty style model of the USS Essex.
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This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales License, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project
