The frigate was built byEnos Briggs,Salem, Massachusetts,[1][6][7] at a cost of $139,362 subscribed by the people of Salem andEssex County, to a design by James Hackett.Essex was armed with mostly short-range carronades that could not hope to match the range of 18- and 24-pounder naval guns. She was launched on 30 September 1799. On 17 December 1799 she was presented to the United States Navy and accepted by CaptainEdward Preble.
Quasi War: On 22 December she departed Salem, Massachusetts for Newport, Rhode Island.[8] On 28 December she joined USS Congress at Newport.[9] On 6 January 1800,Essex, under the command of Captain Preble, departedNewport, Rhode Island, in company withUSS Congress to escort a convoy of merchant ships toBatavia, Dutch East Indies.[10]Congress was dismasted only a few days out,Essex was obliged to continue her voyage alone. Sometime in early-mid February,Essex became the first US Naval ship to cross the Equator, being 16 deg. south of the Equator by the 14th.[11] On 11 March she sighted the Cape of Good Hope and anchored at Cape Town.[12] Due to poor quality of masts and rigging, similar to those problems suffered by USS Congress, she spent a week effecting repairs.[13] On 24 March a heavy gale hit Cape Town capsizing and sinking her launch, the crew was saved with difficulty byHMS Diomede's barge.[14] She departed Cape Town 28 March.[15] She was the first US man-of-war to double theCape of Good Hope, both in March and in August 1800 prior to successfully completing her convoy mission in November. On 6 May, 1800 she encountered a former American ship that had been captured, condemned for sale in Court and had a French Captain who claimed the ship was now Dutch owned. The next day Essex took control of the ship and entered theSunda Strait.[16] On 16 May she arrived atBatavia, Dutch East Indies.[17] On 16 June she departed Batavia escorting a convoy back to the U. S.[18] After spending a few days inMew Bay, Java she departed the Sunda Strait on 1 July.[19] She passed the Cape of Good Hope on 27 August.[20] On 10 September she arrived atSaint Helena Island (15°55′S06°18′W / 15.917°S 6.300°W /-15.917; -6.300).[21] St. Helena was the designated rendezvous point for her convoy of returning merchant ships if they got scattered in storms rounding Cape Horn, which they had. All were accounted for by 26 September and they departed.[22] On 11 October they passed St. Paul's Rocks.[23] Returned to New York City 28 November, mooring the next day.[24]
She departed New York City for Hampton Roads before 14 May to rendezvous with the squadron. On the same day the Bashaw of Tripoli declared War on the United States.[25]CaptainWilliam Bainbridge commandedEssex on her second cruise, receiving command from Capt. Preble on 29 May, 1801,[26] whereon she sailed for the Mediterranean with the squadron of CommodoreRichard Dale clearing the Cape on 2 June.[27] Dispatched to protect American trade and seamen against depredations by theBarbary pirates, the squadron arrived atGibraltar on 1 July 1801. She departed Gibraltar on 4 July escorting merchantmen "Hope" and "Grand Turk", Grand Turk transporting U.S. Government gifts to the Bey of Tunis.[28] She spent the ensuing year convoying American merchantmen and blockading Tripolitan ships in their ports. She departed Gibraltar for the U. S. on 16 June, 1802.[29] Arriving off Sandy Hook on 23 July she received Orders to proceed to Washington, she went on to New York for provisions.[30] While there, on 25 July a near mutiny occurred among the crew who wanted to get off at New York instead of going to Washington, 18 crew were put in irons.[31] Departed New York 29 July.[32] She returned to Washington, D. C. 9 or 10 August, 1802 and was placed "in ordinary".[33][34] Following repairs at theWashington Navy Yard in 1802 she was placed in ordinary. Recommissioned 2 April, 1804.[35] CaptainJames Barron was ordered to take command in a letter dated 11 April, 1804 from the Secretary of the Navy.[36] She departed Washington on 27 May.[37] She arrived at Hampton Roads on 14 June.[38] She passed the Capes on % July and arrived at Gibraltar on 13 August.[39] She participated in theBattle of Derne on 27 April 1805, and remained in those waters until the conclusion of peace terms in 1806. At some point Capt. Barron was replaced as Captain by Master Commandant Charles Stewart. On 22 August, 1805 Stewart exchanged commands with Capt. Hugh Campbell of USS Constellation.[40]
Returning to the Washington Navy Yard in July, she was placedin ordinary until February 1809, when she was recommissioned for sporadic use in patrolling American waters and a single cruise to Europe.
When war was declared against Britain on 18 June 1812,Essex, commanded by CaptainDavid Porter, made a successful cruise to the southward. On 11 July nearBermuda she fell in with seven British transports (Silverside being one) and by moonlight engaged and took one of them as a prize. On 13 August she encountered and captured the sloopHMS Alert afteran engagement. By September, when she returned to New York,Essex had taken ten prizes. The youngest member of theEssex crew was 10-year-old midshipmanDavid Glasgow Farragut, who would become the first admiral of the US Navy. Farragut, who was Captain Porter's foster son, remained with the ship for the next two years.
Essex capturingAlert.
Essex sailed in South Atlantic waters and along the coast of Brazil until January 1813. On 11 December 1812 she captured thePost Office Packet ServicepacketNocton asNocton was returning to England from Rio de Janeiro. The Americans removed the specie that she was carrying (about £16,000) and some of her crew.[a]
Essex then sailed to the Pacific where she decimated theBritish whaling fleet there. Although her crew suffered greatly from a shortage of provisions and heavy gales while rounding Cape Horn, she anchored safely atValparaíso, Chile, on 14 March, having seized the whaling schoonerElizabeth, and the Peruvian man-of-warNereyda along the way.Nereyda had captured two American whalers,Walker andBarclay, only to have the British whaler and privateerNimrod takeWalker.Nereyda had sentBarclay to Callao, where Porter was able to capture her before she could enter port. He sent a disarmedNereyda back to the Peruvian authorities as a gesture of good will. He searched forNimrod andWalker, but was unable to find them.[42][b] At ValparaisoEssex landed the crew members that she had taken offNocton.[41]
In the next five months,Essex captured thirteen British whalers, includingEssex Junior, (ex-Atlantic) which cruised in company with her captor; Porter put hisexecutive officer,John Downes, in command ofEssex Junior. The two ships and nine of their prizes put in at the island ofNuku Hiva in theMarquesas Islands on 25 October 1813 for repairs. While they were there, their crews became involved in a local dispute that resulted in theNuku Hiva Campaign, which temporarily established the United States' first colony and naval base in the Pacific Ocean.Essex andEssex Junior departed Nuku Hiva in mid-December 1813.
In January 1814,Essex sailed into neutral waters at Valparaíso, only to be trapped there for six weeks by the British frigateHMS Phoebe (36 guns), under CaptainJames Hillyar, and the sloop-of-warHMS Cherub (18 guns) commanded byThomas Tucker. 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.[44][45]
Despite Porter's complaints to the US Navy on several occasions,Essex was armed almost entirely with powerful but short-range 32-pounder carronades that gavePhoebe, armed with long 18-pounders, a decisive advantage at long range. For2+1⁄2 hours,Phoebe andCherub bombardedEssex from long range, whereEssex could only resist with her few long 12-pounders. Fires twice erupted aboardEssex, at which point about fifty men abandoned the ship and swam for shore, only half of them landing; the British saved sixteen.[46] Eventually, the hopeless situation forced Porter to surrender.Essex had suffered 58 dead and 31 missing of her crew of 214.[44] The British lost four men dead and seven wounded onPhoebe, and one dead and three wounded onCherub.[46][c]
The then LieutenantWilliam Bolton Finch was said to have served with distinction on theEssex between 1812 and 1814.[50][51]
BecauseEssex was stored and provisioned for six months, and capable of sailing to Europe without "the slightest cause for alarm",[46] Captain Hillyar placed Lieutenant C. Pearson in command of her for the voyage to England, supported by acting lieutenantAllen Francis Gardiner.Essex arrived in England in November.[52] There, the Admiralty had her repaired and taken into theRoyal Navy as HMSEssex.
The Royal Navy never fitted her for sea, but re-classed her as a 42-gun ship. She served as a troopship on 7 July 1819. She washulked atCork to serve as aprison ship inIreland in October 1823,[1] and between 1824 and 1834 served in this capacity atKingstown.[52] On 6 June 1837 she was sold at public auction for £1,230.[1]
During early 21st century resurfacing work on the east pier of Dún Laoghaire harbour,Essex's permanent mooring anchor was discovered embedded in the pier.[53]
^HMS Belvidera recapturedNocton on 5 January 1813.Nocton underwent some refitting at Bermuda and returned to Falmouth on 15 March.[41]
^Barclay, Gideon Randall, master, completed her voyage, returning to New Bedford in March 1814 with 1800 barrels of whale oil. Built in 1793, she continued to hunt whales through 1857, and was finally broken up in 1859.[43]
^A first-class share of a portion of the prize money forEssex was worth£619 17s; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £7 13s 6d.[47] The second distribution occurred on 24 October 1815 for which the value of a first-class share was worth £299 2s 9d; a sixth-class share was worth £3 2s.[48] A first-class share of the final distribution was worth £153 6s 6d; a sixth-class share was worth £3 2s.[49]
Daughan, George (013)The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the U.S.S. Essex during the War of 1812 (Basic Books). ASIN B00C4GRUMO
Howat, J.N.T. (1984).South American packets: the British packet service to Brazil, the River Plate, the West Coast (via the Straits of Magellan), and the Falkland Islands, 1808-80. York, England: Postal History Society in Association with William Sessions.ISBN0-900657-95-2.
Porter, David (1822).Journal of a Cruise made to the PACIFIC OCEAN by Captain David Porter in the United States Frigate ESSEX in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814. Vol 1 of 2, 2nd Printing. Wiley & Halsted, 3 Wall Street, New York. Available freely at thisGoogle eBook link
Winfield, Rif (2008).British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing.ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.