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The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars, and in the War of 1812, during which she was captured by the British (1814).
The frigate was launched September 30, 1799 by Enos Briggs, Salem, Massachusetts, at cost of $139,362 subscribed by the people of Salem and Essex County. On December 17, 1799 she was presented to the United States and accepted by Captain Edward Preble.
With the United States involved in naval action against France on January 6, 1800, Essex, under Captain Preble, departed New York in company with Congress to rendezvous with and convoy merchant ships returning from Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Shortly after commencement of her journey, Essex became the first U. S. Naval Ship to cross the Equator. Congress was dismasted only a few days out, and Essex was obliged to continue her voyage alone, making her mark as the first U.S. man-of-war to double the Cape of Good Hope, both in March and in August 1800 prior to successfully completing her convoy mission in November.
Captain William Bainbridge commanded Essex on her second cruise, whereon she sailed to the Mediterranean with the squadron of Commodore Richard Dale. Dispatched to protect American trade and seamen against depredations by the Barbary Pirates, the squadron arrived at Gibraltar on July 1, 1801 and spent the ensuing year convoying American merchantmen and blockading Tripolitan ships in their ports. Following repairs at the Washington Navy Yard in 1802, Essex resumed her duties in the Mediterranean under Captain James Barron in August 1804. She participated in the successful attack on the town of Derne on April 27, 1805 and remained in those waters until the conclusion of peace terms in 1806.
Returning to the Washington Navy Yard in July, she was placed in ordinary until February 1809 when she was recommissioned for sporadic use in patrolling American waters and a single cruise to Europe.
War of 1812
When war was declared against Britain on June 18, 1812, Essex, commanded by Captain David Porter, made a successful cruise to the southward. On July 11, near Bermuda, she fell in with seven British transports and by moonlight engaged and took one of them as a prize. On August 13, she encountered and captured the sloop Alert after an engagement. By September when she returned to New York, Essex had taken 10 prizes.
Essex sailed in South Atlantic waters and along the coast of Brazil until January 1813 when Captain Porter undertook the decimation of English whale fisheries in the Pacific. Although her crew suffered greatly from a shortage of provisions and heavy gales while rounding Cape Horn, she anchored safely at Valparaíso, Chile, on March 14, having seized schooners Elizabeth and Nereyda along the way. The next 5 months brought Essex 13 prizes, including Essex Junior, (ex-Atlantic) which cruised in company with her captor to the Island of Nukahiva for repairs. Porter put his executive officer John Downes in command of that ship.
In January 1814, Essex sailed into neutral waters at Valparaiso, only to be trapped there for 6 weeks by the British frigate, HMS Phoebe (36 guns) and the sloop-of-war Cherub (18 guns). On March 18, 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, forcing her return to the harbor. The British, disregarding the neutrality of the harbor, proceeded with the attack on the crippled ship. For 2½ hours, Essex, armed almost entirely with powerful but short range guns called carronades (which Porter had complained to the Navy about on several occasions), resisted the enemy's superior fighting power and longer gun range. A fire erupted twice aboard the Essex, at which point about 50 men abandoned the ship and swam for shore; only half of them landing. Eventually, the hopeless situation forced the frigate to surrender. The Essex suffered 58 killed, 97 wounded, while the British casualties were 5 dead, 10 wounded.
Essex was repaired and taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Essex, and in 1833 served as a prison ship at Kingston, Ireland. On June 6, 1837 she was sold at public auction.
David Farragut, who later became a prominent Federal naval officer in the American Civil War, served as a midshipman aboard the Essex.
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