the French Directory, the protection of our commerce from
its cruisers was a duty even more important than the retaliatory action
against the latter, to which the _quasi_ war of 1798 was confined. When
six days out, the Congress was dismasted. The Essex went on alone, and
was thus the first ship-of-war to carry the flag of the United States
around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. A dozen years later
the bold resolution of Porter to take her alone and unsupported into the
Pacific, during the cruise upon which young Farragut was now embarking,
secured for this little frigate the singular distinction of being the
first United States ship-of-war to double Cape Horn as well as that of
Good Hope. In the intervening period the Essex had been usefully, but
not conspicuously, employed in the Mediterranean in the operations
against Tripoli and in protecting trade. In 1811, however, she was again
an actor in an event of solemn significance. Upon her return to the
United States, where Porter was waiting to take command, she bore as a
passenger William Pinkney, the late Minister to Great Britain; who,
after years of struggle, on his part both resolute and dignified, to
obtain the just demands of the United States, had now formally broken
off the diplomatic relations between the two powers and taken an
unfriendly leave of the British Government.

Being just returned from a foreign cruise, the Essex needed a certain
amount of refitting before again going to sea under her new commander;
but in October, 1811, she sailed for a short cruise on the coast, in
furtherance of the Government's orders to Commodore Rodgers to protect
American commerce from improper interference. Orders of such a character
were likely at any moment to result in a collision, especially in the
hands of a gallant, hasty officer scarcely out of his first youth; for
Porter was at this time but thirty-one, and for years had felt, with the
keen resentment of a military man, the passive submission to insult
shown by Jefferson's government. No meeting, however, occurred; nor were
the months that elapsed before the outbreak of war marked by any event
of special interest except a narrow escape from shipwreck on Christmas
eve, when the Essex nearly dragged on shore in a furious northeast gale
under the cliffs at Newport. Farragut has left on record in his journal,
with the proper pride of a midshipman in his ship, that the Essex was
the smartest vessel in the squ