With Porter in the Essex: A Story of His Famous Cruise in the Southern Waters During the War of 1812
With Porter in the Essex: A Story of His Famous Cruise in the Southern Waters During the War of 1812
The USS Essex was once the terror of the Pacific, and this novel tells her story through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old Connecticut boy who signed aboard her decks dreaming of glory. Ezra McKnight knows nothing of sea or discipline when he enlists during the War of 1812, only that his cousin Stephen is a hero of the navy, and he longs to prove himself worthy of the name. What he finds instead is brutal seasickness, brutal discipline, and the brutal reality of naval warfare against the might of the British Empire. Yet amid the chaos of battle and the loneliness of distant waters, Ezra discovers what it truly means to be part of a ship's company, to face death with strangers who become brothers, and to serve under Captain David Porter as the Essex wages her legendary cruise against enemy whalers and warships alike. The novel pulses with authentic detail: the cramped quarters, the thunder of broadsides, the terror of boarding parties, and the peculiar courage required of boys who must become men overnight. Based on the supposed manuscript of the real Ezra McKnight, who later spent his life searching for any trace of his cousin lost to the war, this is adventure with the weight of history behind it.
