few gallons of water, though a
less cool-headed commander would have thrown overboard guns,
ammunition, and every thing movable, in the face of so great a danger.
A modest sailor, as well as a skilful one, Capt. Hull showed himself
to be; for, while the popular adulation was at its height, he inserted
a card in the books of the Exchange Coffee-House at Boston, begging
his friends to "make a transfer of a great part of their good wishes
to Lieut. Morris and the other brave officers and crew under his
command, for their very great exertions and prompt attention to orders
while the enemy were in chase."

Leaving the "Constitution" thus snugly in port at Boston, we will turn
aside to follow the fortunes of a ship, which, though belated in
getting out to sea, yet won the honor of capturing the first British
war-vessel taken during the war.

When Commodore Rodgers set sail from New York with his squadron, in
the fruitless pursuit of the fleet of Jamaica men, he left in the
harbor the small frigate "Essex," under the command of Capt. David
Porter. The ship was thoroughly dismantled,--stripped of her rigging,
her hold broken out, and provided neither with armament, ammunition,
nor crew. Her captain, however, was a man of indomitable energy; and
by dint of much hard work, and constant appeals to the authorities at
Washington, he managed to get his ship in order, and leave the harbor
within a fortnight after the departure of the squadron under Rodgers's
command.

The "Essex" was a small frigate, lightly sparred, rating as a
thirty-two-gun ship, but mounting twenty-six guns only, of which six
were twelve-pounders, and the remainder carronades of thirty-two
pounds. A carronade is a short cannon of large calibre, but of very
short range. Capt. Porter protested vigorously against being furnished
with a battery so useless except at close quarters: but his protests
were unheeded; and the "Essex" put to sea, trusting to her ability to
get alongside the enemy, where her carronades would be of some use.

Among the midshipmen who bunked, messed, and skylarked together in the
steerage of the "Essex," was one lad whose name in later days was to
be inscribed on the roll of the greatest naval heroes of history.
David Glasgow Farragut was a child of seven years of age when he was
adopted by Capt. Porter, and began his training for a naval career. In
1810 the boy secured his appointment of midshipman; and now, in 1812,
we find him enrolled