The loss on the _Phoebe_ and _Cherub_ has never been ascertained, but it must have been severe. The former had received eighteen 12-pound shot below her water-line; her first lieutenant was killed, and her spars were badly wounded. It was with some difficulty that she had been kept afloat, but it was with more difficulty still that the _Essex_ could be prevented from going to the bottom. Captain Porter and his crew were paroled, and permitted to return to the United States in the _Essex Junior_, her armament having previously been taken out. When off New York Harbor they were overhauled by a razee frigate, the _Saturn_, of His Majesty’s service, and the authority of the commander of the _Phoebe_ to grant a passport to his prisoners was questioned. All night the _Saturn_ held the unarmed _Essex Junior_ under her lee; but the next morning, taking advantage of a slight gray fog, Porter put off in his boat and rowed thirty miles to the shore, landing safely on Long Island. To quote from the contemporaries again: “His reception in the United States has been such as great service and distinguished valor deserve. The various interesting and romantic rumors that had reached this country concerning him during his cruise in the Pacific had excited the curiosity of the public to see this modern Sindbad; and, arriving in New York, his carriage was surrounded by the populace, who took out the horses and dragged him, with shouts and acclamations, to his lodgings.” The American commander’s own account of the affair, which appears in a little volume entitled _Porter’s Narrative_, shows well the spirit of this doughty old seaman, who, to use the expression applied to him, “had rather have fought than ate.” So virulent, however, were his tirades against the conduct of Captain Hillyar that it is only just to take into consideration that the latter commander, by refusing to take advantage of the many circumstances, would have missed entirely the object of his sailing from England; and his conduct has found many defenders among the writers of history on the other side of the water. The honor rolls of the United States navy show the records of many a family history, and the name Porter has been associated with the service from the Revolution to the present day. The late Admiral David D. Porter was the younger son of the David Porter of _Essex_ fame, and he had been named after his father, who was a doughty old sea-captain of the Revolution.