The captain next tried to run her ashore; but while she was still nearly a mile from the land, the wind suddenly shifted. A hawser was bent to the sheet anchor, and the ship swung round so as to bring her broadside to bear on the enemy, but the hawser soon parted. Indeed, she had anchored in { 313}the first place with springs on her cables, but the springs had been repeatedly shot away. *
With all these misfortunes, the ship took fire, and as the flames burst up the hatchways Porter ordered all who could swim to jump overboard and strike out for the shore, as the boats had been destroyed by the enemy's shot. The flames were extinguished; but the Essex was now a wreck, deliberately raked by every discharge from her antagonist, and the colors were struck. The _Essex Junior_ had been in no condition to assist in the fight, but was included in the surrender. Out of two hundred and fifty-five men, Porter had lost one hundred and fifty-four in killed, wounded, or missing. Hillyar reported the loss on his two ships as five killed and ten wounded.
The battle had been witnessed by thousands of people on shore. So near were the vessels to land a part of the time, that many of the _Phoebe's_ shot struck the beach. The United States Consul, Joel R. Poinsett, protested to the Chilian authorities
* A "spring" of this sort is a rope, one end of which is attached to the cable and the other end carried to the after part of the ship, so that by hauling upon it she can be swung round to point her broadside in any desired direction. A high authority--Farragut--says one of Porter's serious mistakes in this action was in fastening the springs to the cable, when they should have been fastened to the anchor, which would have carried the greater part of them below the surface of the water, out of the reach of shot.
{ 314}against the violation of neutrality, and demanded that the batteries protect the _Essex_; but he received no satisfactory answer, and took the first opportunity of leaving the country. Captain Porter estimated that it had cost the British Government nearly six million dollars to possess his ship.
Among the crew of the _Essex_ was a midshipman twelve years old, who subsequently became the greatest of all naval commanders, David G. Farragut.