AFTER balancing gains and losses, the result of the campaign favored Great Britain by the amount of plunder which the navy obtained in Alexandria, and by the posts which Governor Sherbrooke occupied between the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy in Maine. Considering the effort made and the waste of money, the result was a total disappointment to the British people; but even these advantages on land could not be regarded as secure until the British navy and mercantile marine had summed up their profits and losses on the ocean. At the beginning of the year 1814 the American navy had almost disappeared. Porter in the “Essex” still annoyed British interests in the Pacific; but of the five large frigates only the “President” was at sea. January 1 the “Constitution,” Captain Charles Stewart, left Boston and cruised southward, making a few prizes and destroying a British fourteen-gun schooner, but fighting no battle and effecting no object equivalent to her cost. In returning to Boston, April 3, she narrowly escaped capture by the two British frigates blockading the port, and with difficulty got into Marblehead harbor. The “Constitution” did not again go to sea until December 17. During her cruise of three months, from January 1 to April 3, she made four prizes. The “President” regained New York February 18, and was blockaded during the rest of the year. The “United States” and “Macedonian” remained blockaded at New London. The “Constellation” remained blockaded at Norfolk. The corvette “Adams,” twenty-eight guns, ran the blockade of Chesapeake Bay January 18, and cruised until August 17, making nine prizes and several narrow escapes before striking on the Isle of Haut and taking refuge in the Penobscot as the British forces occupied Castine. The story of her destruction has been told. Her fate was the same she would have met had she remained in Washington, where a week earlier the new forty-four-gun frigate “Columbia” and the new twenty-two-gun sloop-of-war “Argus” were burned to prevent them from falling prize to the British army. This short abstract accounted for all the frigates except the “Essex,” whose fortune was no happier than that of the larger ships. October 27, 1812, the “Essex,” Captain David Porter, left the Delaware, intending to meet Bainbridge and form part of a squadron under his command. Failing to meet Bainbridge, though constantly near him, Porter at last decided to sail southward; and when Bainbridge in the “Constitution” reached Boston February 27, 1813, the “Essex” had already passed Cape Horn, and was running up the western coast of South America to Valparaiso.