The Shining Sea (53 page)

122
    
The Nereyda
reached Callao:
Samuel B. Johnston,
Three Years in Chile
(Erie, PA: R.I. Curtis, 1816), 122; Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812
, 3:740n.

122
    
Porter believed that the capture of the
Nimrod:
Porter,
Journal
, 135–37.

122
    
After seeing the two captains off:
Journal of Midshipman William W. Feltus
, March 13, 1813.

123
    
As the
Essex
sped north:
Porter to Hamilton, July 2, 1813, in Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812
, 2:697–99; Porter,
Journal
, 139.

123
    
Porter now inched his way into Callao:
Porter,
Journal
, 143.

124
    
After quitting the vicinity of Callao:
Ibid., 145–47.

Chapter Twelve: Fortune Smiles in the Galapagos Islands

127
    
Porter used dead reckoning to navigate:
Porter,
Journal
, 149–50.

128
    
On the morning of April 17:
Ibid., 162.

128
    
Porter undoubtedly exaggerated the inadequacies:
Stackpole,
Whales and Destiny,
129.

129
    
Britain's need for sperm oil was so great:
Eric Jay Dolan,
Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), 168.

131
    
Considering how important the whaling business:
Kevin D. McCranie,
Utmost Gallantry: The U.S. and Royal Navies in the War of 1812
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011), 185.

131
    
Hood Island is the southernmost:
Porter,
Journal
, 150, 175–76.

132
    
Porter expected to go into action:
Ibid., 152–54.

133
    
Porter suspected that finding water:
Ibid., 155–59.

133
    
Captain Colnett contributed to the legend:
Captain James Colnett,
A Voyage to the Northwest side of North America: The Journals of James Colnett
(Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004, reprint of 1798 edition).

133
    
The golden age of piracy occurred:
The best study of pirates is Colin Woodard,
The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
(New York: Harcourt, 2007).

134
    
After being disappointed at Charles Island:
Journal of Midshipman William W. Feltus
, April 24, 1813.

136
    
After restocking the Essex, Porter:
Porter,
Journal
, 167–70.

136
    
Fishing did not take the crew's mind off:
Farragut,
Life of David Glasgow Farragut,
23;
Journal of Midshipman William W. Feltus
, April 29 and 30, 1813.

137
    
Capturing the ships was so easy:
Porter,
Journal
, 180.

138
    
Downes received the Policy'
s ten guns:
Ibid., 177–94.

140
    
After returning to the Essex,
he delayed:
Ibid., 200–201.

142
    
Weir had been aboard for only a short time:
Ibid., 197–202.

143
    
Porter now had a fleet of six:
Ibid., 203–7.

Chapter Thirteen: Unparalleled Success

145
    
On June 8, Porter passed to the north of Abingdon:
Porter,
Journal
, 214–21.

146
    
On June 22, Randall returned:
Ibid., 223–25.

147
    
On the same day, Porter received:
Journal of Midshipman William W. Feltus
, June 25, 1813; Porter,
Journal
, 226–28.

148
    
Downes now had seventy-five prisoners:
Captain David Porter to Secretary of the Navy Hamilton, July 2, 1813, in Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812
, 2:697–99.

148
    
Before leaving the Gulf of Guayaquil:
William James,
The Naval History of Great Britain During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002, originally published in London by Richard Bentley, 1822–1824), 6:284; Daughan,
1812
, 17–22.

148
    
Those prisoners who did not want to join:
Journal of Midshipman William W. Feltus
, June 25, 1813; Porter to Hamilton, July 2, 1813, in Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812
, 2:697–99.

149
    
With these matters tended to:
Porter,
Journal
, 229–30.

150
    
Porter also gave Downes three letters addressed to:
Porter to Secretary of the Navy Hamilton, July 2, 1813, in Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812,
2:697–99.

151
    
Porter also wanted the navy to know how well:
Ibid., 2:701.

151
    
The president immediately released Porter's report:
See, for instance,
Boston Patriot
, Dec. 22, 1813;
Boston Gazette
, Dec. 23, 1813;
National Intelligencer
, Dec. 20, 1813.

151
    
Secretary Jones lost no time passing:
Secretary Jones to Evelina Porter, Dec. 14, 1813, David Dixon Porter Mss., Library of Congress, vol. 2.

152
    
Carrying Porter's letters to the navy secretary:
Farragut,
Life of David Glasgow Farragut
, 26–27; Lewis,
David Glasgow Farragut,
77–78.

153
    
While Downes was leading his squadron:
Porter,
Journal
, 230–34.

155
    
After they left, he strengthened the Seringapatam:
Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812,
2:702.

156
    
At noon on the day that Wilson left:
Porter,
Journal
, 237–41.

157
    
On August 4, Porter anchored his ships:
Ibid., 243.

157
    
Later, he explored parts of James Island:
Ibid., 255.

158
    
The goats did indeed make a difference:
Paul D. Stewart,
Galapagos: The Islands That Changed the World
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 51.

158
    
Suddenly one morning in the middle of August:
Long,
Ready to Hazard
, 20.

159
    
Porter had no inkling there was bad blood:
Porter,
Journal
, 252–53; Alexander,
The
Bounty, 351.

Chapter Fourteen: The Hunt for the
Essex

161
    
While waiting for Downes to return:
Porter,
Journal
, 255–58.

162
    
With all this in place, Porter left:
Ibid., 269–70.

163
    
Porter expected Downes to arrive any day now:
Crawford, ed.,
Naval War of 1812,
3:712.

164
    
The rest of the news from Downes:
Porter,
Journal
, 271–72.

164
    
In fact, in March 1813, the Admiralty:
Admiralty to Hillyar, March 12, 1813, in Dudley, ed.,
Naval War of 1812,
2:710–11.

165
    
The Canadian Northwest Company:
Kenneth McNaught,
The Penguin History of Canada
(London: Penguin, 1988), 64–65.

165
    
The large storeship
Isaac Todd:
Gerald S. Graham and R.A. Humphreys, eds.,
The Navy and South America, 1807–1823: Correspondence of the
Commanders-in-Chief on the South American Station
(London: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne and Co., 1962), 93; Kevin D. McCranie,
Utmost Gallantry: The U.S. and Royal Navies at Sea in the War of 1812
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011, 181.

167
    
Dixon did not know Porter's exact whereabouts:
Dixon to Croker, June 9, 1813; Dixon to Croker, June 11, 1813; Captain Heywood to Dixon, May 10, 1813; Brown and Watson (British agents) to Captain Heyward, April 8, 1813; in Graham and Humphreys, eds.,
The Navy and South America,
90–92.

167
    
When Hillyar arrived in Rio:
Dixon to Croker, June 21, 1813, in Graham and Humphreys, eds.,
The Navy and South America,
93.

167
    
Nearly a month went by, however, before Hillyar:
Report of Captain William Black of the
Racoon
to Croker, Columbia River, Dec. 13, 1813, in
Oregon Historical Quarterly
, xvii (1916), 147–48; McCranie,
Utmost Gallantry,
184.

168
    
Hillyar's expectations about the
Essex:
Captain William Bowles to Croker, Sept. 5, 1813; Hillyar to Croker, March 30, 1814, in Graham and Humphreys, eds.,
The Navy and South America,
141.

168
    
Meanwhile, Captain Black sailed the
Racoon:
Report of Captain William Black of the
Racoon
to Croker, Dec. 15, 1813 in Graham and Humphreys, eds.,
The Navy and South America,
149.

168
    
The Pacific Northwest had been of great interest:
Frederick Merk,
The Oregon Question: Essays in Anglo-American Diplomacy and Politics
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 1–29.

169
    
Porter enumerated in his journal:
Porter,
Journal
, 273–77.

170
    
Porter left the Galapagos in the nick of time:
Hillyar to Croker, Jan. 24, 1814, ADM 1/1949/186; McCranie,
Utmost Gallantry,
184.

Chapter Fifteen: The Marquesas Islands: “In Vales of Eden”

171
    
When Porter stood out from the Galapagos:
Porter,
Journal
, 281.

172
    
When, in the late nineteenth century, Robert Louis Stevenson:
Robert Louis Stevenson,
In the South Seas
(London: Penguin, 1998, first published in 1896), ix.

172
    
“No part of the world exerts the same attractive power”:
Ibid., 5–6.

173
    
“I can only conjecture”:
Quoted in Anne Salmond,
Bligh: William Bligh in the South Seas
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 215–16; Alexander,
The
Bounty, 357.

173
    
Bligh was undoubtedly right:
Quoted in Alexander,
The
Bounty, 155.

173
    
The mutineers had firm control:
Ibid., 107.

173
    
Once the
Bounty
left Tahiti:
Ibid., 140.

174
    
At the time of the mutiny, the
Bounty'
s:
Ibid., 171.

174
    
Bligh's chances of survival were practically nil:
Lieutenant William Bligh to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Aug. 18, 1789, in
William Bligh & Edward Christian: The
Bounty
Mutiny
(New York: Penguin Books, 2001), 72.

174
    
Porter studied Bligh's account carefully:
Alexander,
The
Bounty, 77.

175
    
Mutiny was in the air in those days:
N.A.M. Rodger,
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2004), 446–47.

175
    
Inspired by the apparent success at Spithead:
Ibid., 447–50.

176
    
Not long afterward, another sensational mutiny:
John Wetherell,
The Adventures of John Wetherell
, ed. by C.S. Forester (New York: Doubleday, 1953).