ere many more British on
board than there were Americans, and some of them formed a plot to
capture the ship. They might have done it, too, but for the little
midshipman, David Farragut.

This little chap was lying in his hammock, when he saw an Englishman
come along with a pistol in his hand. This was the leader in the plot
who was looking around to see if all was ready for his men to break out
on the Americans.

He came up to the hammock where the boy lay and looked in at him. The
bright young fellow then had his eyes tight shut and seemed to be fast
asleep. After looking a minute the man went away. The instant he was out
of sight up jumped the lad and ran to the captain's cabin. You may be
sure he did not take many words to tell what he had seen.

Captain Porter knew there was no time to be lost. He sprang out of bed
in haste and ran to the deck. Here he gave a loud yell of "Fire! Fire!"

In a minute the men came tumbling up from below like so many rats. They
had been trained what to do in case of a night-fire and every man ran to
his place. Captain Porter had even built fires that sent up volumes of
smoke, so as to make them quick to act and to steady their nerves.

While the cry of fire roused the Americans, it scared the conspirators,
and before they could get back their wits the sailors were on them. It
did not take long to lock them up again. In that way Porter and Farragut
saved their ship.

The time was coming in which he would lose his ship, but the way he lost
it brought him new fame. I must tell you how this came about. When the
_Constitution_ and the _Hornet_, as I have told you in another story,
were in the waters of Brazil, the _Essex_ was sent to join them. You
know what was done there, how the _Constitution_ whipped and sunk the
_Java_, and the _Hornet_ did the same for the _Peacock_.

There was no such luck for the _Essex_, and after his fellow-ships had
gone north Captain Porter went cruising on his own account. In the
Pacific Ocean were dozens of British whalers and other ships. Here was
a fine field for prizes. So he set sail, went round the stormy Cape Horn
in a hurricane, and was soon in the great ocean of the west.

I shall not tell you the whole story of this cruise. The _Essex_ here
was like a hawk among a flock of partridges. She took prize after prize,
until she had about a dozen valuable ships.

When the news of what Porter was doing reached England, there was a sort
of panic. Som