1814	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	288

prisoners were in a state of intoxication. This decided proof, that " American sailors want no grog, " accounts for the Phoebe and Cherub having sustained their principal, injury during the first three broadsides. Afterwards, the firing of the Essex became very irregular; and nearly all her shot went over the British ships.

The damages of the Essex were confined to her upperworks, masts, and rigging. " The battered state of the Essex," says Captain Porter, " will, I believe, prevent her ever reaching England." There is strong reason to believe that the greater part of the Essex-Junior's crew came on board the Essex, and returned when the colours were about to be struck ; but we shall consider the American frigate to have commenced action with only 260 men, and five lads or boys. Out of this number, the Essex, as far as is borne out by proof (the only safe way where an American is concerned), had 24 men killed, including one lieutenant, and 45 wounded, including two acting lieutenants and the master. But Captain Porter, thinking by exaggerating his loss, both to prop up his fame and account for the absentees of his crew at the surrender, talks of 58 killed and mortally wounded, 39 wounded severely, and 27 slightly. How then did it happen, that 23 dead (Lieutenant Wilmer had been previously knocked overboard and drowned) were all that were found on board the Essex, or that were reported as killed to the British ? As only 42 wounded were found in the Essex, and only three were acknowledged to have been taken away by Lieutenant Downes, what became of the remaining 21 ? The loss, too, as we have given it, is quite as much as from the damages of the Essex one might suppose that she had sustained. But it is Captain Porter, the author of the " Journal of a Cruise into the Pacific, &c.," who has made these extraordinary statements ; therefore, no more need be said about them.

For having done what was done, no merit is claimed by the two British captains. They had heard so much of American prowess, that they expected little short of being blown out of the water ; and yet, after the Essex had struck, the Phoebe, without the assistance of the Cherub, was ready to tackle with another American frigate of the same force. On the 31st of May the Phoebe and Essex, the latter commanded by Lieutenant Charles Pearson, set sail for England ; and on the 13th of November, having stopped some time at Rio-Janeiro, the two ships anchored in Plymouth sound. Lieutenant Pearson was immediately promoted to the rank of commander.

Let us now endeavour to trace what became of the 12 whaleships captured by the Essex. On the 25th of July, 1813, Captain Porter despatched home the Georgiana armed with 16 guns, manned with a lieutenant and about 40 men, and laden with a full cargo of spermaceti oil, which would be worth, in the United States, about 100,000 dollars. She was captured in the

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