Mad for Glory by Robert Booth

Author:Robert Booth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers

Porter had little to do for the next few weeks at Nukuhiva. As the refitting of the Essex went forward, he worked on his journal and wrote a formal report to the Navy Department recounting the challenges he had overcome and the splendid victories he had won.*

Porter thought about his next move. He could take his prizes and sail west like Lord Anson, across the wastes of the Pacific to Asia, greatly minimizing the chance of encountering British warships and likely gaining entry at Macao, Portugal’s neutral port of entry to China. There he could sell his vessels and perhaps his oil, placing some of the proceeds with dependable American agents. Unencumbered by the prizes, the Essex, with a full crew, could complete her cruise by crossing the Indian Ocean and lurking off the Cape of Good Hope to intercept an English merchantman making her way home. Perhaps in the North Atlantic, not far from New York City, he might surprise a Royal Navy frigate and end his odyssey with a spectacular victory. It seemed the prudent course, but there were other options and a greater temptation.

For months, Porter knew, he had been hunted, and he had been too smart for the hunters, hiding out at Nukuhiva and practicing the arts of a conqueror. If he really was something of a war god, if he had succeeded magnificently in this first cruise to the South Seas, nothing would seal his fame like surprising and destroying a superior force of pursuers. It was more than ironic that James Hillyar came for him, but in wartime no Briton was a friend. The reversal was irresistible. It would be a grand coup, written about first in his own book and then in the history books, and celebrated forever. He was certain that the Essex could out-sail these Britons and that his crew could outfight anyone. It was only a matter of sailing east and making contact; the rest was preordained.

Porter ordered that the New Zealander be loaded with barrels of whale oil from the other vessels and then sail for America under master’s mate John King. The other three vessels would stay at Nukuhiva under Gamble and a skeleton crew, with a few British prisoners, to man the fort and inhabit Madisonville. If Porter had not returned or sent word within six months, Gamble was to destroy one vessel and take the other two to Valparaiso.

For his part, Porter and the Essex were bound for glory. He wrote, “I had done all the injury that could be done to British commerce in the Pacific, and still hoped to signalize my cruise by something more splendid before leaving that sea.”

During his last days on the island, Opotee toured the remoter parts of the Teii valley, usually in the company of tribal shamans. People ran up to give him coconuts and other gifts, to which he responded with seeds from the American cornucopia, from melons and pumpkins to wheat and Indian corn. He had Wilson

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