adron, and highly complimented as such by
Commodore Rodgers. In acknowledgment of the skill and activity of his
seamen, Porter divided the ship's company into three watches, instead of
the usual two--an arrangement only possible when the smaller number in a
watch is compensated by their greater individual efficiency. This
arrangement continued throughout the cruise, until the ship was captured
in 1814.

On the 18th of June, 1812, war was at last declared against Great
Britain. The Essex had again been cruising during the spring months; but
the serious character of the new duties before her made a thorough refit
necessary, and she was not able to sail with the squadron under
Commodore Rodgers, which put to sea from New York on the 21st of June.
On the 3d of July, however, she got away, Porter having the day before
received his promotion to post-captain, then the highest grade in the
United States Navy. The ship cruised off the coast, making several
prizes of vessels much inferior to herself in force, and on the 7th of
September anchored within the capes of the Delaware. Much to Porter's
surprise and annoyance, although ready to sail at once if furnished with
provisions, none reached him. The ship was therefore taken up the
Delaware and anchored off Chester, where she was prepared for a long and
distant cruise directed against British commerce, the suggestion of
which Porter believed came first from himself. By this a squadron
consisting of the Constitution, Essex, and Hornet sloop-of-war, under
the command of Commodore Bainbridge in the first-named frigate, were to
proceed across the Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands, thence to the
South Atlantic in the neighborhood of Brazil, and finally to the
Pacific, to destroy the British whale-fishery there. The plan was well
conceived, and particularly was stamped with the essential mark of all
successful commerce-destroying, the evasion of the enemy's cruisers;
for, though the American cruisers were primed to fight, yet an action,
even if successful, tended to cripple their powers of pursuit. A rapid
transit through the Atlantic, with an ultimate destination to the then
little-frequented Pacific, was admirably calculated to conceal for a
long time the purposes of this commerce-destroying squadron. As it
happened, both the Constitution and Hornet met and captured enemy's
cruisers off the coast of Brazil, and then returned to the United
States. Farragut thus lost the opportunity o