The Shining Sea (22 page)

On March 23, just before leaving Valparaiso, Porter wrote to Commodore Bainbridge. He briefly described what had happened to him since leaving the Delaware River on October 26, 1812, and explained what he was doing in Chile. He spoke of the warm reception he had received in Valparaiso.

I here in six days after my arrival had on board as much provisions wood and water as my ship could conveniently stow, and shall sail on my cruise today—My reception here has been of the most friendly nature, the political state of the country is most favorable to our cause, and every advantage that a port of the United States could afford to us has already
been offered to me by the President & Junto—their cause is liberty and independence, and the arrival of this ship has given them fresh vigor.

Porter sent this report and the few ones that followed via Poinsett, who passed them on to Thomas Sumter Jr., the American minister in Rio. Needless to say, the letters took months to get to their destination.

During this time, Porter's competitive instincts were aroused to a high pitch when he received more accurate reports of the astonishing American naval victories at the start of the war. He yearned to accomplish what his colleagues Bainbridge, Hull, and Decatur had—a great victory over a British frigate. That remained his supreme goal. It was his path to everlasting fame, and a way to blot out forever the stain of the ignominious surrender of the
Philadelphia
long before.

CHAPTER

11

P
ERU AND THE
E
LUSIVE
N
IMROD

W
HEN
P
ORTER LEFT
V
ALPARAISO ON
M
ARCH
23,
HE SHAPED
a course northwest with a flag at the mainmast proclaiming FREE TRADE AND SAILORS RIGHTS. He was making for Peru, hoping to avoid the 74-gun
Standard
, check the viceroy's attacks on American vessels, and do maximum damage to Britain's whaling fleet and privateers.
He estimated that there were in excess of twenty enemy whalers in the eastern Pacific, and approximately twenty-three American. The British whalers were entirely at his mercy. The industry's leaders and their political supporters in London had pressed the Admiralty hard to protect the whalers, and their Lordships were keen to do so. But, of course, given the demands placed on the Royal Navy to fight the Napoleonic War, protect a worldwide commerce, and provide other services to a far-flung empire, they could not respond as swiftly or as strongly
as they might have liked.

At daylight on March 25, two days out of Valparaiso, a lookout spied a sail to the northeast. Porter gave chase and overtook the stranger, which turned out to be the American whale ship
Charles
out of Nantucket. Her
captain, Grafton Gardner, reported that four months earlier a Peruvian privateer had captured him and taken him to Callao (the port city for Lima), where he had only just been released after paying a ransom. Two days before meeting Porter, Captain Gardner had run into more trouble. He was sailing in company with two other American whalers, the
Walker
and the
Barclay,
off the Chilean port of Coquimbo, 280 miles north of Valparaiso. They began to be chased by the
Nimrod
, a British privateer posing as a whaler, and the
Nereyda,
a Peruvian privateer, also disguised as a whaler. The
Walker
and the
Barclay
were captured, but the
Charles
managed to escape. Hoping to surprise the
Nimrod
and the
Nereyda
, Porter crowded on all sail and sped toward Coquimbo.

At eight o'clock that same morning, a lookout spied another sail to the northward, and Porter raced after her with the
Charles
trailing behind. An English jack was flying over the
Charles
's American flag, indicating that she had been captured by a British ship. By meridian the
Essex
was close enough to see that the stranger was a small warship disguised as a whaler, with whaleboats on her quarters. Seeing British colors displayed on the
Essex
, she raised the Spanish flag and steered toward the frigate. When a mile away, she fired a shot at the oncoming
Essex
, enraging Porter. He almost pumped a broadside into her, but thought better of it when he considered that the
Essex
was flying British colors, and the shot could not have been meant as an insult to the American flag. The stranger mounted fifteen guns and looked like the Peruvian privateer
Nereyda
. She matched the description Captain Gardner had given of the marauder that had chased him and captured the
Walker
and the
Barclay
. Two shots across her bows brought her to.

She was indeed the
Nereyda
, and her second lieutenant soon appeared on the
Essex
with apologies from his captain, who, he claimed, could not present himself because of illness. The nervous lieutenant, assuming the
Essex
was a British frigate, told Porter the
Nereyda
had captured the
Walker
and
Barclay
and was taking them into the port of Coquimbo when the British privateer
Nimrod
suddenly appeared and stole the
Walker
from them, but not the
Barclay
. The
Nereyda
was searching for the
Nimrod
to get the
Walker
back, when she saw the
Essex
and the
Charles
. The lieutenant said that he thought they were the
Nimrod
and the
Walker
. He told Porter
that the
Nereyda
had been out of Lima for four months, searching only for American vessels, and that she had on board some of the
Barclay
's crew, and part of the
Walker
's, including her captain.

Porter ordered the second lieutenant to return to his ship, and if his captain was too ill, to send over the first lieutenant, along with Captain West of the
Walker
and one of the
Barclay'
s crew members. When West appeared, Porter took him into his cabin and assured him that the
Essex
was an American frigate. West was overjoyed; he could hardly believe his good luck. He told Porter that his ship and the
Barclay
had been loaded with whale oil and were sailing toward Coquimbo to take on supplies before returning to the United States when the
Nereyda
had captured them. They were taken completely by surprise; they had no idea a war was on. The Peruvians were a rough bunch, coming on board and grabbing everything in sight. West told Porter that the
Nereyda
's captain had sent the
Barclay
off to an unknown port (with her captain, Gideon Randall of New Bedford, Massachusetts, still on board), and that twenty-four American prisoners were on the Peruvian ship. After hearing this, Porter forced the
Nereyda
to strike her colors and took possession of her. Lieutenant Downes went aboard with some men and sent all the Peruvians, including her captain, over to the
Essex
.

Porter now went after the
Nimrod
, which had departed from the
Nereyda
only three days before. Thinking she might be nearby, he stood inshore and looked into Tongue Bay, but she wasn't there. He then looked into Coquimbo, but, again, found nothing. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur McKnight took command of the
Nereyda
that night, with orders to throw her arms, ammunition, and light sails overboard, leaving only her topsails and courses. Porter then sent her Peruvian crew, including her captain, back to their ship and brought her American prisoners over to the
Essex.
When that was done, he sent the
Nereyda
off to Callao with a letter for the viceroy, explaining that Porter had caught the
Nereyda
hunting and plundering American ships, but that he wished “to preserve the good understanding which should ever exist between the government of the United States and the provinces of Spanish America.” He was therefore sending the
Nereyda
back to Peru, knowing that his excellency would surely want to punish these criminals. Before the
Nereyda
departed for Callao, Porter
removed two whaleboats from her, which she had seized from the American whalers. They would come in handy when he needed to disguise the
Essex
as a whaler. He could also use them in shallow waters.

The
Nereyda
reached Callao with no difficulty, and when Viceroy Abascal read Porter's letter, he was furious. Instead of punishing the
Nereyda
's skipper, he retaliated by putting sixteen men from the American privateer
Colt
—which the Chilean revolutionary government had purchased and the Peruvians had captured—in irons and sent them to work at hard labor on public projects around Callao.

Porter believed that the capture of the
Nimrod
was of the greatest importance to his mission. She was a serious menace to the American whale fishery. There was no doubt in his mind that London was trying to eliminate American competition in these waters. Porter resolved to thwart them by capturing or destroying all the British armed whalers and privateers he could find, and forcing the rest to stay in port. Captains Gardner and West had already told him there were probably twenty or more enemy whalers along the coasts of Chile, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands, confirming what Captain Benjamin Worth of the
George
had told him earlier in Valparaiso.

If Porter succeeded in driving the British from the eastern Pacific and leaving it open for American vessels, he would be making an enormous contribution to the war effort. Of course, accomplishing this objective would also put money in his pocket—always a high priority for him and his crew. He estimated that the value of a fully loaded British whaler was in the neighborhood of $200,000—a mighty incentive.

Porter advised Captain Gardner to run the
Charles
into Coquimbo and demand the protection of his ship from the government of Chile. He suggested to Captain West that the best course for him was to go with Gardner to Coquimbo and from there travel to Valparaiso and present a claim for damages against the Peruvian government.

After seeing the two captains off, Porter tore after the
Nimrod
, racing northwest for Callao, over 1,500 miles away. He crowded on all sail, planning to capture her and recapture both the
Barclay
and the
Walker
. Located nine miles west of Lima, Callao was the center of Spanish commerce in the eastern Pacific and the most important port along the entire west coast of South America. Porter had to be careful. Callao was well-fortified with
batteries, and a flotilla of deadly gunboats that could inflict severe damage in the harbor's calm waters. On the way, Porter altered the appearance of the
Essex
to make her look like a Spanish merchantman. He painted a broad yellow streak around her hull as far as the fore channels, rigged false waist cloths as high as the quarterdeck nettings and painted ports on them, and then he got tarpaulins up and rigged a poop, complete with painted windows. He also painted the quarter galleries different colors.

As the
Essex
sped north, she passed the tropic, and the men saw flying fish for the first time since leaving the coast of Brazil, raising their spirits. On the morning of March 29, a lookout at the main masthead spotted a vessel bound for Callao that looked like an American whaler, possibly the
Barclay
. Porter raced toward the port to cut her off, and as he closed in, he could see that she was indeed the
Barclay
. He wet his light sails in order to hold the wind better and strained forward. The
Barclay
had to pass the island of San Lorenzo in order to get into Callao, and in weathering the point of the island she was becalmed, but the
Essex
—only two and a half miles away now—shot in with the breeze to within one hundred yards of her, lowered boats, boarded, and took possession. Porter then towed her away from the island and out of the harbor in the teeth of contrary winds that had suddenly sprung up.

The
Essex
now inched into Callao. Porter took a good look at the shipping in the harbor, hoping to find the
Nimrod
. But she wasn't there, and, with the wind serving, he departed. Immediately after leaving he turned his attention to the
Barclay
. Her seamen were a sorry lot. Having been seven months at sea without relief, many were sick with scurvy. All of them were anxious to leave their pestilent ship and sign on to the
Essex
, and Porter was willing to have them. He told the
Barclay
's rough old skipper, Gideon Randall, that he would be permitted to have his men back, but they were too weak to even sail the whaler to Valparaiso. If Randall decided to attempt the voyage anyway he would run the risk of being captured by Peruvian or British raiders. Well aware of the problem, Randall decided to remain in company with the
Essex
. Porter was glad to have him. He could be of considerable value, since he knew the whaling grounds, particularly around the Galapagos, where Porter planned to hunt.