Ebook: The shining sea: David Porter and the epic voyage of the U.S.S. Essex during the War of 1812

Table of Contents; Introduction: The War of 1812; Maps; Prologue: First Victory; 1. President Madison's War Plan; 2. The Making of a Sea Warrior; 3. Disaster in Tripoli; 4. Primed for Battle; 5. The Essex: Past and Present; 6. First Rendezvous: Porto Praia; 7. In the South Atlantic, Dreaming of the Pacific; 8. Doubling Cape Horn; 9. Navigating Chile's Political Waters; 10. A Packed Week at Valparaiso; 11. Peru and the Elusive Nimrod; 12. Fortune Smiles in the Galapalagos Islands; 13. Unparalleled Success; 14. The Hunt for the Essex; 15. The Marquesas Islands: ""In Vales of Eden"";Shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Captain David Porter set out at the helm of the USS Essex, intent on rounding Cape Horn and hunting British whaling and merchant ships in the Pacific Ocean. Porter's odyssey took him to exotic isles and brought glory to the fledgling American navy, and in The Shining Sea, celebrated historian George C. Daughan tells the full story of this historic voyage for the first time. Porter's cruise is now regarded as the greatest maritime adventure of the period, but his monomaniacal quest to capture a British man-of-war ultimately cost.