After the battle the _Essex_ was repaired and sent to England, where she was added to the British Navy. It is worth noting that she was built in 1779 by the people of Salem, Massachusetts, and the surrounding country, who were enthusiastic in their desire to revenge the injuries done by French cruisers to American commerce. She was the product of the Federalist party ardor, and Rear-Admiral George Preble says, “the Federalists considered it a patriotic duty to cut down the finest sticks of their wood lots to help build the ‘noble structure’ that was to chastise French insolence and piracy.” They gave her as a present to the nation, and as armed at that time she was probably the most efficient ship of her size afloat. The _Essex Junior_ was disarmed and the American prisoners were put into her, and she was sent as a cartel to New York. Off the east coast of Long Island, on July 5, 1814, she was detained by British cruisers so long that the Americans were lawfully released from their parole, when Porter and a boat’s crew escaped ashore aided by a fog, and that was the only occasion during that cruise of this Yankee captain, that weather did aid him. He landed in Long Island, where he had to show his commission before the people would believe his story. He was then carried to New York by enthusiastic admirers, and was there received with every mark of honor. Meantime, the _Essex Junior_ was allowed to come in also. A few words will tell the fate of Lieutenant Gamble and the men left at Nukahiva with the captured whalers _Seringapatam_, _Greenwich_, and _Sir Andrew Hammond_. Immediately after Porter sailed away the natives began to rob the Americans of everything they could carry away, and Gamble had “to land and overpower them.” On February 28, 1814, one man was drowned accidentally. A week later four men deserted in a whale-boat to join their native sweethearts. On April 12th Gamble rigged the _Seringapatam_ and the _Hammond_ for sea, intending to burn the _Greenwich_, but the men became mutinous. So Gamble removed all the arms, as he supposed, to the _Greenwich_; but when he boarded the _Seringapatam_ on May 7th, the men there attacked him, shot him in the foot with a pistol, set him adrift in a native canoe, and then sailed away with the _Seringapatam_, leaving Gamble with but eight men. Two days later the natives came off to assault the ship. They were repulsed, but Midshipman William W. Feltus was killed, and three men wounded. The fight occurred on the _Hammond_. The following night the survivors went to sea. They eventually reached the Sandwich Islands, where they were captured by the _Cherub_, and were detained on her seven months. They finally reached New York in August, 1815. [Illustration: A Marquesan “Chief Warrior.” _From an engraving by Strickland of a drawing by Captain Porter._]