THE “ESSEX” BEING CUT TO PIECES
Thus ended one of the most bloody and obstinately contested actions in naval record. Out of the 255 men composing her crew, the Essex had but 151, including some of the wounded, able to stand on her decks; 58 were killed outright, 50 wounded, and 31 had been drowned.
The inhabitants of the city during the action had crowded to the shore. Their sympathies had been all with the American. When they had seen the various times when the Essex appeared to gain a slight advantage their cheers could be heard coming across the water. So close had the action been fought that many of the round shot from the Phoebe’s guns had struck the land, and some of the spectators had been wounded.
When the first British officer boarded the captured vessel, so shocking was the sight that met his eyes that, used to scenes of carnage though he was, he staggered back and almost fainted, struck with the sickening horror.
The loss on the Phoebe and Cherub has never been ascertained, but it must have been severe. The former had received eighteen 12-pound shot below her water-line; her first lieutenant was killed, and her spars were badly wounded. It was with some difficulty that she had been kept afloat, but it was with more difficulty still that the Essex could be prevented from going to the bottom.
Captain Porter and his crew were paroled, and permitted to return to the United States in the Essex Junior, her armament having previously been taken out. When off New York Harbor they were overhauled by a razee frigate, the Saturn, of His Majesty’s service, and the authority of the commander of the Phoebe to grant a passport to his prisoners was questioned.
All night the Saturn held the unarmed Essex Junior under her lee; but the next morning, taking advantage of a slight gray fog, Porter put off in his boat and rowed thirty miles to the shore, landing safely on Long Island.
To quote from the contemporaries again:
“His reception in the United States has been such as great service and distinguished valor deserve. The various interesting and romantic rumors that had reached this country concerning him during his cruise in the Pacific had excited the curiosity of the public to see this modern Sindbad; and, arriving in New York, his carriage was surrounded by the populace, who took out the horses and dragged him, with shouts and acclamations, to his lodgings.”