Free The Shining Sea by George C. Daughan

commerce raiding, instead of relying exclusively on privateers. Like most naval officers, he had no respect for privateers.“I detest the idea of trusting to our privateers for the destruction of British commerce,” he wrote to Samuel Hambleton; “are we to become a nation of buccaneers, a nest of villains, a detestable set of pirates? When a general system of piracy is countenanced by our government, when the whole maritime defense of a nation consists of buccaneers, farewell national honor, farewell national pride! Then we sink to the level of the bashaw of Tripoli, and the emperor of Haiti.”
    Porter did not anticipate that refurbishing the Essex would take very long, if supplies arrived from the Navy Department as quickly as he hoped. The ship needed a new suit of sails, the standing rigging replaced, and the bowsprit taken out and fished. She also needed as many supplies as she could hold, including double clothing for the crew, fresh fruits, vegetables, and lime juice to fight scurvy. Ammunition also had to be replenished and leftover gunpowder examined. It should have taken no more than two or three weeks to accomplish all of this, but since supplies were slow in coming, the work dragged on until the end of October. Part of the reason for the delay was that another warship, the eighteen-gun sloop of war Wasp , was being readied for sea in nearby Philadelphia at the same time that the Essex was.Her skipper, Jacob Jones, needed suppliesas much as Porter did. Years of neglecting the navy were now taking their toll.Porter feared that if he delayed much longer, a British blockade would trap him in the Delaware. “If we do not get out soon,” he wrote to Hambleton, “we shall all be kept in until winter, as the British force has been so much augmented.” Porter’s recent run-in with the three enemy warships off the tail of Georges Bank had heightened his fears. He was convinced that Britain was making a determined effort to close all the principal American ports. He told the secretary of the navy that, having run into the three-ship squadron, the Essex was already“cut off from New York and Rhode Island,” which is why he had put into the Delaware River.
    He was so worried about being blockaded that even while repairs were still being made on the Essex , he sailed her down to the Delaware Capes looking for intelligence about the British fleet. His fears intensified when he spoke a merchantman who told him that an enemy squadron was nearby. Porter feared that if he didn’t get to sea right away, he would be stuck in the Delaware for a long time.
    His concern was unwarranted, however; he was in no immediate danger. The British had not even begun to mount their blockade of the American coast. After Porter’s last cruise, he could have easily put into Boston, New York, or Newport. The enemy ships that the merchantman was warning him about actually constituted nearly the entire usable British fleet at Halifax, and it was searching for the American squadron commanded by Commodore John Rodgers, not patrolling off New York or Narragansett Bay. Britain would not have a blockade in place until the middle of 1813, and even then, it would be far from complete.
    Porter blamed Secretary of the Navy Hamilton for the delay in getting supplies to the Essex . “The neglect of the Department is unpardonable,” he wrote to Hambleton. “There must be a change or we never can expect to do anything except on our own responsibility; there is no energy, nor will there be while a pint of whiskey can be purchased in the District of Columbia—it is shameful.”
    Secretary Hamilton’s drinking problem had been bandied about Washington for years. It was rumored that nothing got done in the Navy Department after lunch, although that was an exaggeration. President Madison was aware of the problem, but even after war had been declared
    on June 18 Hamilton remained in charge of the