And we 'll drink to Captain Hull, And so merrily will push about the brandy, O. John Bull may toast his fill, Let the world say what it will, But the Yankee boys for fighting are the dandy, O. The English celebrated their one signal victory of the war--the capture of the Chesapeake by the Shannon, off Boston Light, a year later--by a parody of this song, of a decidedly inferior quality. One of the most notable events of the war was the cruise of the Essex, Captain David Porter, in the South Pacific, in 1813 and 1814. She did an immense amount of damage to the British whalemen, and the British ships Cherub and Phoebe were sent to capture her. After a rencontre in the harbor of Valparaiso, in which the captain of the Phoebe, taken at a disadvantage, protested his purpose to respect the neutrality of the port, and a challenge from which the British ships ran away, the Essex was caught disabled by a squall, chased into a harbor near Valparaiso, and captured after a tremendous engagement, in which the calibre of the British guns gave them every advantage, and in which the neutrality of the port was not taken into account. There was a poet on board the Essex, and he produced a long ballad describing the cruise and the retreat of the British ships after the challenge; but whether he perished in the later fight, or had no heart to add it to his verses, is not known. Among the crew of the Essex who did survive the fight was Midshipman David G. Farragut, who lived to achieve the greatest naval renown since that of Nelson, and be the theme of The Bay Fight, the noblest sea poem yet written. The ballad of the Essex is entitled "A Pleasant New Song. Chanted by Nathan Whiting (through his nose) for the amusement of the galley slaves on board the Phoebe, who are allowed to sing nothing but psalms." After describing the beginning of the trouble caused by "John Bull's taking our ships and kidnaping our true sailors," and the capture of British vessels in the first year of the war, the ballad takes up the cruise of the Essex. The saucy Essex, she sailed out To see what she could do. Her captain is from Yankee land, And so are all her crew. Away she sailed, so gay and trim, Down to the Galapagos, And toted all the terrapins, And nabbed the slippery whalers. And where d' ye think we next did go? Why, down to the Marquesas. And there we buried underground Some thousand golden pieces. Then sailed about the ocean wide, Sinking, burning, taking, Filling pockets, spilling oil, While Johnny's heart was aching. The ballad then describes the arrival of the Phoebe and Cherub and the rencontre in Valparaiso Bay, the challenge and the flight of the Phoebe, in verses which have a great deal of rude vigor. At last John Bull quite sulky grew, And called us traitors all,