DAVID

See also:

• PORTER
• PORTER, BENJAMIN CURTIS (1843– )
• DAVID PORTER (1780-1843)
• PORTER, DAVID DIXON (1813-1891)
• PORTER, ENDYMION (1587–1649)
• PORTER, HENRY (ft. 1596-1599)
• PORTER, HORACE (1837– )
• PORTER, JANE (1776–1850)
• PORTER, MARY (d. 1765)
• PORTER, NOAH (1811–1892)

PORTER (1780-1843)  , American naval officer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 1st of February 1780 . His father, David, and his uncle, Samuel, commanded American ships in the War of Independence . In 1796 he accompanied his father to the West Indies; on a second and on a third voyage he was impressed on British vessels, from which, however, he escaped . He became a midshipman in the United States Navy in April 1798; served on the " Constellation (Captain Thomas Truxton) and was midshipman of the foretop when the " Constellation " defeated the " Insurgente "; was promoted lieutenant in October 1799, and was in four successful actions with French ships in this year . In 1803, during the war with Tripoli, he was first lieutenant of the " Philadelphia " when that vessel grounded, was taken prisoner, and was not released until June 18o5 . He was commissioned master commandant in April 1806; in 1807–18ro served about New Orleans 1, where he captured several French privateers, and in 1812 was promoted captain . He commanded the frigate " Essex " in her famous voyage in 1812–1814 . In the Atlantic he captured seven brigs, one ship, on the 13th of August 1812, the sloop " Alert," the first British war vessel taken in the War of 1812 . Without orders from his superiors he then (February 1813) rounded Cape Horn, the harbours of the east coast of South America being closed to him . In the South Pacific he captured many British whalers (the British losses were estimated at £500,000), and. on his own authority took formal possession (November 1813) of Nukahivah, the largest of the Marquesas Islands; the United States, however, never asserted any claim to the island, which in 1842, with the other Marquesas, was annexed by France . During most of February and March 1814 he was blockaded by the British frigates " Cherub " and " Phoebe " in the harbour of Valparaiso, and on the 28th of March was defeated by these vessels, which seem to have violated the neutrality of the port . He was released on parole, and sailed for New York on the " Essex, Jr.," a small vessel which he had captured from the British, and which accompanied the " Essex." At Sandy Hook he was detained by the captain of the British ship-of-war " Saturn " (who declared that Porter's parole was no longer effective), but escaped in a small boat .

He was a member of the new

board of naval commissioners from 1815 until 1823, when he commanded a squadron sent to the West Indies to suppress piracy . One of his officers, who landed at Fajardo (or Foxardo), Porto Rico, in pursuit of a pirate, was imprisoned by the Spanish authorities on the charge of piracy . Porter, without reporting the incident or awaiting instructions, forced the authorities to apologize . He was recalled (December 1824), was court-martialled, and was suspended for six months . In August 1826 he resigned his commission, and until 1829 was commander-in-chief of the Mexican navy, then fighting Spain; in payment for his services he received government land in Tehuantepec, where he hoped to promote an inter-oceanic canal . President Andrew Jackson appointed him consul-general to Algiers in 1830, and in 1831 created for him the post of charge d'affaires at Constantinople, where in 1841 he became minister . He died in Pera on the 3rd of March 1843 . He wrote a Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean in the U.S . Frigate " Essex" in 1812–13–14 (2 vols., 1815; 2nd ed., 1822), and Constantinople and its Environs (2 vols., 1835), a valuable guide-book . See the Memoir of Commodore David Porter (Albany, New York, 1875), by his son, Admiral David D . Porter .