January 1813, Capt. David Porter took ESSEX round stormy Cape Horn into the Pacific, where He decimated the Whaling fleet of the world's most powerful nation.

~ From the Journal of Capt. David Porter ~ 

"I had taken measures to prepare the ship for the worst, by sending down our royal masts and rigging, , unreaving all our running rigging not absolutely necessary, sending every heavy article out of the tops, as well as all the light sails such as royals, stay-sails, topgallant-studding-sails, etc ...

I also caused all the shot to be put below except six to each gun, on the gundeck; removed the guns from the extremities to midships; set the main rigging; and bent the storm-stay sails"   ~ Porter

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"It blew with a fury even exceeding anything we had yet experienced, bringing with it such a tremendous sea, as to threaten us every moment with destruction." ~ Porter

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A single Frigate lording over the Pacific in saucy defiance of

their thousand ships, reveling in the spoils of boundless

wealth, and almost banishing the British flag from these

regions where it had so long waved proudly Predominate.

- Washington Irving, on the Essex

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This excellant book about the First ESSEX reads like a C. S. Forester Novel. R. Sourisseau