Free The Shining Sea by George C. Daughan Page B

challenge. When Hamilton made no objection, Porter rushed down to the Delaware Capes during the last week of September and hovered off them briefly before sailing back to Chester. The loud-talking, but cautious Yeo never appeared. He may have had second thoughts about his chances against the Essex . The Southampton was the oldest frigate in the Royal Navy, having been built in 1757. She carried thirty-two guns, but she would have had a hard time against the American frigate. The Southampton ’s long guns might have been a factor in her favor. Despite being old, if she were skillfully handled, she might have given the Essex a real battle. As it was, for one reason or another, Captain Yeo did not appear.

CHAPTER
    5
    T HE E SSEX
    PAST AND PRESENT

    I N O CTOBER 1812, C APTAIN D AVID P ORTER WAS ANXIOUS TO get to sea, but he had serious reservations about the Essex . What he objected to most was her armament. She carried forty 32-pound carronades and six long 12-pounders, a total of forty-six guns. The mix of weaponry was the exact opposite of what he wanted. Carronades were most effective as supplements to a main battery of long guns; they were not intended to be a frigate’s primary weapon. As far back as October 12, 1811, Porter had written to Navy Secretary Hamilton complaining that carronades remained “an experiment in modern warfare. . . . I do not conceive it proper to trust the honor of the flag entirely to them.” A little over a month later, after he had returned from a short cruise, Porter wrote to Sam Hambleton,“I am much pleased with my ship, and I wish I could say as much for her armament—She is armed with carronades which in my opinion are very inferior to long guns.”
    Porter remained so disgruntled that he asked Secretary Hamilton on October 14 to give him another ship, preferably the twenty-eight-gun Adams , sitting in the Washington Navy Yard. Porter told Hamilton thatbecause of her inadequate armament and “bad sailing” the Essex was the “worst frigate in the service.”Porter’s hyperbole did not move Hamilton. The secretary did not take the complaint about her poor sailing seriously, but faulting her battery of carronades had validity, which Hamilton was aware of. Nonetheless he turned down Porter’s request for another ship. The Adams was not ready to go, and even if she were, there wasn’t enough time to make a switch before Porter had to leave and join Bainbridge.
    The carronade was a relatively new weapon. The Carron Iron Company had developed it during the American Revolution in their massive iron works (the largest in the world) on the Carron River near Falkirk, Scotland. Made of cast iron, carronades were short and smoothbore with one-third the weight of a conventional long gun, but with explosive power. They were placed on a sliding rather than a wheeled carriage, and a turn screw achieved their elevation rather than quoins (wooden wedges). The screw was mounted on a lug underneath the barrel. Carronades required a smaller crew to operate, were easier to aim, and fired faster. At short range (less than 500 yards) they could be devastating. The British gave them the name “smasher” because of their ability to create clusters of deadly splinters when employed against an enemy’s wooden works, and their ability, at very close range, to drive through the hull of a ship as large as a frigate.
    Without a doubt, carronades had real advantages, but at long distances they were ineffective, and this was what bothered Porter. Until the Essex got close to an enemy, she was at risk. An alert British commander could cripple her with long guns (the main battery on all British frigates) before she got near enough to employ her carronades. An adverse wind, or anything else (such as enemy fire) that affected her ability to sail, could make the Essex a sitting duck. “Was the ship to be disabled in her rigging in the early part of an