USS Essex and the Forgotten War
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas islands. If you haven’t heard of it, watch to learn more because the US once fought a war there! Join The History Guy for another snippet of forgotten history and be sure to subscribe for more.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #USNavy
Ahhh I suppose pirates had to appear at some point like all good stories!🤔 You sir are a natural storyteller, and I can't get enough!
Indeed, he is a Raconteur par excellence
You and me both...pirates now the tale truly begins!!!🙏👍⚓👻
At ucsb there were 2 history profs that people would sit in lectures to be amazed and entertained and not be taking the class. Men such as this keep history alive and relevant which is a great service. It seems people now ignore history and feel irellivant .
Another beautiful Gem of History.
Greetings from Australia 🇦🇺💯
T.H.G. Still keeping it real.
Thanks THG, as soon as you said the Essex sailed into the Pacific to capture whaling ships, I thought to myself, "Yep, seen this movie!" 😅
I have never read the book but remember how those that had were incensed that the bad guys in the movie were French instead of Americans. I didn't realize that the story was actually based off real events though.
I never knew of this war in the South Pacific! Wow! Love learning history that is obscure!
Another fascinating story! "Master and Commander" is the BEST depiction of period naval warfare to date.
Best depiction of naval life at sea & a great story line - I agree wholeheartedly. As for naval warfare - as an Age of Sail enthusiast, I was Gravely disappointed - both battles are completely Mel Gibson-Ized.
Ask yourself: "Which way is the wind blowing?" in both engagements. Look at how the sails are set in succeeding frames.
In the 2nd engagement, we are to believe a 28 gun frigate can go from almost a dead stop, then, via setting a single main sail, to performing a total 360 degree turn (the 1st 180 into the very light wind), to end up on the other side of the Acheron, meanwhile, the French never have time to recover & fire at least 1 or 2 devastating broadsides? Then they abandon their quarterdeck during the boarding action? Pish Posh!!!!
In the 1st engagement, Lucky Jack plows ahead resolutely for 3 minutes (count em in the movie - 3 minutes!!!!) into the teeth of Acheron's acknowledged superior raking broadsides, never once considering a strategic retreat, whilst his ship is pounded into matchwood? Even Capt Jack Sparrow knew to turn & run from The Flying Dutchman in the 2nd Pirates movie, & knew how to use evasive maneuvers, yes, a supernatural character in a movie based on a Disney ride was Savvy-er than Lucky Jack. Savvy!!!!!
The Essex is still remembered by model ship builders :) Model Shipways, the oldest US model boat company currently has an absolutely gorgeous Admirality style model, but it is not for the beginner :)
It must be fun choosing just the right bow tie to wear for each video you record History Guy.
12 years old? Damn. What honor what respect for office those men must have had could you imagine being in a combat situation and the man giving the orders is a 12 year old but you don’t see that you see his rank you see his courage you see his honor and that is what you follow. We raise children nowadays in a very different way almost completely opposite we treat kids like kids for way to long and back then they saw them as nothing more than small adults
Typically commanding a prize crew was seen as an honor and a grave and a sober test, it often being one’s first opportunity at command. But there was a second, lesser-known and darker purpose - it was also a way to get rid of an unsatisfactory and undesirable officer; the individual is nominally in charge but is generally sent with despatches explaining how the officer failed in his duties so thoroughly that he has been affectively banished from his ship. Not, obviously, that ensign Farragut fell in that category of course!
In those days most officers would start their careers as Ensigns at the age of 10-12. This wasn't unique to just the navy. At that age most commoners would be apprentices working to learn a trade and often started as young as 7 or 8. What we think of as kids today is a very very modern thing. Even as recent as the early 1900s this wasn't an unusual practice in western countries and in poorer countries it was the norm for much longer.
@@alexsis1778 Indeed. It is curious to have become old enough to notice and wonder about the way we continually perpetuate childhood. I never have quite been able to understand the ’why’… and it’s difficult not to see it as being to the detriment of the youth in particular and society in general.
Yes, today some naval officers start at 14
@@heinzguderian628 😹your nom de plume.
You refer perhaps to the sea cadets?
Very good report. I like the idea of private patrotic contribution. I remember my parents telling me of how people on the homefront helped in fighting WWII. It is difficult to believe one could get people to do that today. I truly hope to be proved wrong.
You would be proved wrong if the circumstances were right. In WW2 people really believed the Axis could attack the continental US if allowed to. These days it’s a lot more difficult for people to believe they are in any real danger of being attacked and thus they are not inclined to band together and work towards a common goal. In fact it seems like Americans are only afraid of being attacked by other Americans. Though I am generalizing and simplifying the situation quite a bit.
How much money, stuff and time do the people of the US donate through private organizations for disaster relief and charitable aid?
There are the people you speak of.
There is only maybe 2 or 3 people who could afford to build a fighting navy ship today - one is busy building electric cars, one sells software that always seems to need improving and one sell Chinese made stuff to the masses. i might be able to pitch in to provide a rubber life raft 😂
@@SHAd0Eheart I agree with a large enough danger war bonds of this kind could certainly be raised again.
Excellent lesson! A great lead story for a follow-up lesson on the Essex-class carriers of WW2, perhaps?
Honestly haven't heard of this. Thanks for bringing this to light!
Good Morning to both of you and I would like to just tell you that YOU ARE OUTSTANDING BOTH OF YOU ✨🚀👍👌😇 Cheers 🍻🍻
My favorite 15 minutes of the day! Thank you THG!
I visited Valparaiso Chile in 1993 on USS Whidbey Island LSD 41 while deployed in support of UNITAS 34-93...Circumnavigated all of South America...
Outstanding job,thank you THG,whether I know about the story or not your presentations are always well done.
I live in Porter County, Indiana, whose county seat is Valparaiso. Thank you THG for featuring our namesake!
Yes, Porter asked that the city be named after his greatest defeat.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Ha I just read that moments ago, as the name was familiar as I was curious about its origin and was going to add it, but It's already here :)
Love this channel. Ibhave a degree in history, chairedcan historical society, done resesrch and had as a hobby. The amount of history the history guy shows that i was unaware of is large. And done in a proffesionsl and interesting way. I enjoy emensly thanks. One thing he brings out well is how history is more interesting than most fiction. Thanks.
The local women were friendly...really friendly. Guam has the highest concentration of different male haplotypes in the world, all of the whaling ships liked to stop there.
Tonga was similar
While watching “Master and Commander” in the theater I recognized that some of it was taken from the story of the Essex and David Porter. I read a lot of early U. S. Navy history in high school and college in the 1960’s. Problem with the Essex was it was armed mostly with carronades, short cannons that fired a large ball, very effective at short range but did not have a long range. Porter had complained about this but the Navy did not allow him to change it. Most frigates at that time had carronades on the upper deck and long guns of the gun deck. The British ship was able to stay out of the Essex’s range and just pound it into submission. I had always thought that Capt. Porter should have observed the Star Trek “prime directive” and stayed out of the natives war, but THG explained his reasoning for that.
Interesting obscure trivia: There were several other small frigates built under the subscription program - Boston, New York, John Adams, &, oddly enough, John Quincy Adams (1 of those was shortened to Adams, forget which one), all rated at 28 guns, 12 pdr's on their main decks, all slightly smaller than Essex. None went on to any glorious careers.
@@sideshowbob A quick internet search I can't fine it, but I am sure I have it in books I have in storage. The Adams had a mistake in building were the frames were larger on one side than the other (the keel was off center) and she could sail on one tack faster than the other. Charles Morris was in command in the War of 1812 and being chased by a larger British ship she managed to get on the faster tack and made it to an inlet in the US where they had to burn it to keep it from being captured.
@@WhaleGold I never heard that story - thanks!
Yes, it had been refitted with carronades as a main armament. Porter did not like the configuration and repeatedly asked that the ship be equipped with more long guns.
@@WhaleGold There used to be something called "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships" - had it in book form as a kid when I was into this stuff, then was in text form in the early days of the internet. Prolly replaced by Wikipedia.
I first learned of Porter in Junior High mostly because of his exploits with the West Indies Squadron in fighting pirates out of Key West starting in 1823.
Charles Wilkes and the Exploratory Expedition of 1838 might make an interesting video for you. Have a good day.
What a GRAND ADVENTURE!! ⛵️
Yet another gem from THG! Thanks for this very interesting, obscure chapter NavHis.
This was another fun one! Thanks for digging so deep.
Thank you, I'd never heard of this piece of history and the frigate USS Essex.
thanks
You there man, guy!
You mentioned pirates several times but never said "...don't all good stories involve pirates?"
Quite a feisty family, those Porters!
Long time Patrick O'Brian fan here and, although I *loved* this episode, and the novel The Far Side of the World involved the hunt for the Essex, the Peter Weir film by the same name had nothing to do with that. A fine film, certainly, but it was more a collection of moments from several O'Brian novels (there are 20 and a partial one he died while writing). And although I first thought that Russell Crowe was a poor choice to play Jack Aubrey, given that Crowe is so short, it worked out splendidly. A fine actor, Russell Crowe can *play large* despite his physical size. 😉
Hello beautiful how are you doing?
So that is how America got the Marshal Islands. Never knew this story. Good job.
The period when the Marshall Islands were a US Trust Territory was the result of WWII and unrelated to the Essex.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Thanks for that clarification. But it did seem that the expedition did take the Island.
Great video.
Please do a THG episode on, "Beautiful Jim Keys", the greatest and smartest horse in American history, bred and trained by a former slave, who fought in the Civil war for the Confederacy and after the war, he bought the plantation he was born on, and then gave the family who previously owned Jim and the plantation their house back to them and they lived together. It's history worth remembering and accepting.
"The Educated Horse." Very briefly mentioned in this episode: ua-cam.com/video/I3CODJJutW4/v-deo.html
I asked my Magic 8 Ball if I should hold off on dinner and watch this episode. It said "as I see it, Yes".
What a great story. Thank you
The early 19th century US Navy- wooden ships, iron cannon, and brass balls.
Good morning to everyone watching from Ft Worth TX. Please keep everyone in the path of Hurricane Ian in your thoughts as the storm approaches.
Thank you William for your kind words. As a native Texan I live in San Antonio now (was in Fort Worth as a child), but our son and friends in Florida do need prayer for safety an endurance. I join with you in prayer. Be a blessing.
@@mikenixon2401 You're welcome. My daughter and her husband live near Tampa. My aunt lives in Ft Meyers
@@RetiredSailor60 I hope they evacuated. My wife and I stayed for Harvey. That was a really bad decision.
I am north of Tampa and the storm is forecast to bypass me to the east but I am keeping a wary eye on it.
Your initial descriptions of David Porter sounded like James T Kirk.
I served on USS PORTER named, partially, after Commodore Porter.
Did I miss it? Don't all great stories involve pirates?
Man, I was still building starships with Legos at twelve. Where did I go wrong?
Hollywood should make a film on this instead of remakes of previous films.
Always fascinating when native cultures are mentioned. It always brings up questions. Like, is Nuku Hiva a tourist destination today with the native women performing the same customs? Asking for a friend.
This would make an awesome movie. Does Oliver Stone still write screenplays?
good morning history guy,
I am not sure if you have done a "history mention" about the USS Liberty incident. the USS Liberty was torpedoed on 8 June 1967, by Israel. The attack killed 34 crew members, wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. I think these sailors deserve to be remembered.
It never fails. Some UA-cam guy has to come by and start yapping about Liberty. The story has been done to death. And and never gets bought up except to push an anti-Israel agenda.
The unanswerable question has always been was it mistaken identity and the fog of war, or just I don’t give a damn arrogance on the IDF’s part?
Strafed with rockets and 30 mm cannon fire & bombed with napalm from IDF fighters, raked with machine gun and cannon fire from the torpedo boats as well as torpedoed… 34 dead in 171 wounded sailors.
As an Essex, I approve of this video :)
Holy Cow, HG. I thought you were gonna preach to us Polynesian folk about the Samoan Wars. Der
Don't all good stories involve pirates?
😉
So interesting.
What an adventurous time to be alive! :p
Back in the Saddle Again Naturally!
they violated the "prime directive" on that island.
I always feel a bit begrudged when im reminded the united states wasnt supposed to have a large army in peacetime. When totday it has a 700 billion dollar budget?
Indeed. On the other hand, I wonder where of those 1 1/2 million people would find employment otherwise?
With respect to the capturing of British Prizes, it was about this time that the British were at war with the US. One ( ex Irish family ) Philadephia based marine trader from the US lost one of his ships to the British. He sued for its return and the British refused, I dont think the US authorities helped and I cannot find a record of compensation for the ship and the goods
65th, 28 September 2022
The thumbnail is NOT the Essex. She was a ship, not a brig.
This must be why the USS Essex was named.
There have been five US Navy ships named Essex, all were named after Essex County, Massachusetts.
As a proud U.S. NAVY veteran I salute the Essex and her gallent crew. I hadn't known of the ship and her service. I think the Navy should hold Naval history classes during boot camp so that sailors can learn about the history of the Navy and be inspired by it. But the idiots who run it ( both civilian and Navy brass) are more concerned with uniform styles and ratings changes. Fools.
Would porter’s amphibious landing be assisted by shore bombardment?
Due to the limitations of sailing using wind and negotiating the vagaries of tide and current, the hazards of manoeuvering amongst shoals & reefs, as well as the uncertain accuracy of smoothbore naval ordinance, offshore fire support was virtually unheard of during the age of sail.
I found no mention of them using the Essex Junior's gun, The fighting appears to have been more inland.
Shore bombardment was certainly a thing- in fact, the very same Lt John Downs who participated in the attack on the Happah would use it to effect as captain of USS Potomac in the First Sumatran Expedition in 1832.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel fascinating
Yeah. Being rash will get you a long ways ... if ... you have a superior force ...
Being rash against a superior force gets you in trouble ...
Going into the Pacific after the British Whaling Fleet was a good idea but he should have dispatched all his prizes home and called it quits before the British Realized what he was doing and responded.
.
As a native of Southend, I'd be grateful if someone could confirm the derivation of the Essex's name. I'm assuming the ship was named after the county in New York State, Is this correct?
It was named after the county in Massachusetts.
The United States Navy sure could use some of that "COCKYNESS" NOW!!!!!
Research why Lt. Presley Obannon( USMC) was given the mammaluke sword at Tripoli( Libya) ended the Barbary War. I caught you on other ( rembering history) oops, namely the importance of the inhumane Ellis Island purpose.
Russell Crowe film Master & Commander was not against a French ship but American vessel, Hollywood would not financially back a film that had the enemy being 🇺🇸
No wonder the local men didn't like the sailors.
if I was one of the native man and a bunch of strange men showed up out of nowhere and walked off arm and arm with my wives or girlfriends I'd be furious too.
Many a native man likely ended up spending his nights alone in his hut sulking
Alert, caught while Asleep. But the Essex, hmmmm??? Anyone round here seen a white whale?
Don't all good stories involve US Navy personnel having relations with native women?
Algorithm
So cocky youthful Essex sailor men lost favor for getting a little Nukie? Well excuse my French if I curse using all my pronouns like a sailor, not fair I get.
Two Civil Wars in Samoa; both featured US, UK intervention
"Six Frigates - The Epic Founding of the U.S. Navy" by Ian W. Toll is an excellent book about this period.
Truly stated,an amazing book.
This one was one of your best. I actually had no previous knowledge of this bit of history. Great video.
One of your very best HG...I was waiting for the O'brien reference with baited breath!!! fantastic research and wonderful dialogue makes obriens series a fantastic read...four times..all 21 novels I have read.
*bated* breath
As in: abated (stopped or withheld)
As in: to hold one's breath in anticipation
No minnows, worms, or cheese involved :-)
I’m a self-styled U.S. Naval historian. This is the first time I’ve heard an oral history of the senior Porter’s exploits and it was remarkably complete, accurate, and well presented. Thank you shipmate!
I, too, am a dilettante military historian, and I was unfamiliar with this as well. It’s such an intimidatingly vast subject! Always a pleasure to learn something new.
Did you also know the four 5" naval guns used in the defense of Wake Island were removed from Battleship Texas during a refit? I didn't but I heard it from the History Guy first. This is some deep dive content! Cheers!
Then you're a pretty poor "historian"
@@dziban303 How so?
saying you are a self styled *anything* is a great way to over-represent your credentials. thank you for that, im stealing it 🥸
Never knew about the exploits of the first USS Essex. My grandmother's older brother, George Dunning served aboard a later version of USS Essex in 1898 during the Spanish-American war. We have a photo of him standing on the deck with the name "USS Essex" clearly readable on his cover.
Congress in 1812: shocked that sailors had romantic liaisons with the local women of a foreign port.
USN: Good thing that never happened again!
There were/are four other USS Essex's. An ironclad steamer during the American Civil War, a wooden screw steamer, the lead ship (CV-9) of the Essex-class aircraft carriers during WW2, and the current USS Essex (LHC-2) an amphibious assault ship.
"Master and Commander" flashbacks.
Naming a Polynesian bay (or rather trying to name) after a US state named after a Native American people is kind of funny-ironic in a grim way.
“It’s called a cruel irony, like my dependence on _you!“_ ~Yzma, The Emperor’s new groove
This was fascinating! Definitely one of your best.
Don't all good stories involve pirates? For the second time in a week! 😸
😅 I had to pause a moment because every time I see ‘Essex’ & ‘Pacific’ I think of the whaling ship ship & Moby Dick…
I tend to like all your videos (being a history buff , myself) but this one was outstanding. It taught me a few thing from the times that I didn't know. Thanks.
I wonder if suddenly introducing all those captured whale teeth into the Islands wealth of flowing capital had any influence for better or worse on the tribal economy? Wouldn’t it dilute the worth of the 🦷?
I wondered that too- did they debase the currency? But I couldn’t find any record of it.
I have family on Nuku Hiva and it caught me off guard to hear the little island mentioned in the start of your video.
The Marquesan people have had a rough history since European contact and one estimate I hear suggests the island's population today is less than 5% what it was before European contact.
Nuku Hiva is still a small but significant supply port for small vessels traveling the Pacific and one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited.
And you can still visit one of the six, Old Ironsides in Boston. It is quite Illuminating to see how little space those men had below decks. Imagine being cramped like that for years on end!
I was there in May- they let me fire the cannon.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Video please?
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel they did?! That's so amazing! I was there a long time ago on a road trip, when I was on Constitution. They had a massive whaling ship that was being restored as well. I remember taking some of the chips of wood off the ground from it. I still have it actually! Idk what ever became of it though.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Indeed? Impressive, is it not? Makes you better appreciate the names of the guns of Captain Jack Aubrey‘s gun deck- particularly ‘Jumping Billy’!
Maybe that’s why they had 12 year old midshipmen. . .
Master and Commander is a great movie. They even mentioned how the ship they were perusing was made of hard white oak. Now I realize we were watching and cheering for the “enemy”. 😂
Very much “inspired by.” O’Brien made the ship French. Ironically, the trick Aubrey uses to draw in the the Acheron in the movie- pretending to be a whaler- is actually the ploy that Porter used on HMS Alert.
Saw it in the NJROTC in 10th grade.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannelPatrick O'Brien was a naval historian before he wrote his books, and they are a veritable trove of interesting little known history although with the Aubrey - Maturin fiction interposed. The books far exceed the movie.
Two requests for videos, please please please - 1) a factual account of the defense of Fort McHenry (There is an increasing number of false history videos on UA-cam that need to be countered by actual historians) and 2) The defense of the 105th infantry Regiment against the 5,000 man Banzai charge on Saipan. Please - my uncle was the Regimental S-2 (intelligence officer) and the last man to see Lt Colonel William J O'Brien (posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor) alive. (Lt Luther "Luke" Hammond) and he was one of the primary sources used by Lt Colonel O'Brien's nephew when he wrote his book "Battling for Saipan"
@@erichammond9308 Wow! That would be interesting to hear.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Thank you. I do know watching that movie that at the time England was our enemy. A fact I remind my wife of every time she’s watching one of her Jane Austin movies.😉
Farragut- "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
The Polynesian women were still turning heads during WWII. My Dad was sent to the South Pacific with a stop in Samoa. The women were beautiful...and topless.
In the novel the Frigate was USS Akron. In the movie it was French Frigate the Akron. Interesting how the movie switched it from a US warship to a French privateer.
The French frigate in the movie was the Acheron
Aye, and Yankee-built, too. A true product of the fascinating age in which she was built.
Fascinating stuff. I never heard of any of this. Thank You.
Thank you for the lesson.
I recommend reading the time life series the seafarers book the frigates. It covers most of this and other ships of the early navy. David Farragut also stood down at mutiny with a pistol while command the ship at 12 yrs old. That is true courage.
Interesting history. Good night
American author Herman Melville's ship Acushnet, an American whaler, sailed into Nukuhiva Bay, where he and a friend jumped ship and stumbled upon the Typee tribe while making good their escape. VERY cool story in his book 'Typee'. Well worth the read!
I didn't know about the island war, though I'm familiar with the Barbary Powers War, thanks to Charles Harding's DVD on it.
Thank you for making this episode.
Aye matey !
Interesting history of the USS Essex. I live in the original County of Essex in SE England. Why was the Salem frigate called 'Essex'?
The Frigate was named after Essex County, Massachusetts, where it was built. But Essex county was named after the county in England.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I understand. I know many people from Essex went off to the Colonies. There are many towns in Massachusetts named after towns in Essex England.
@@Musketeer009 Don't forget Essex Connecticut
@@philhawley1219 Hi Phil. I had no idea there was a town anywhere called Essex.
@@philhawley1219 Lol. Just discovered a town called Essex, in Essex County, Massachusetts.
For the sake of accuracy, you should give serious consideration to referring to the American conflict in the Philippines as the Philippine-American War.
not to be confused with another Essex of that time, this was a whaling ship sunk by a whale ramming it. 1820, I believe.
Thank-um-you THG🎀.....Old Navy Flying Shoe🇺🇸
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Give every opportunity a chance, leave no room for regrets
So Edwin Star has an answer to his query regarding the value of military conflict? Then we can author a book and call it “My Struggle”?
Love your philosophy. Without struggle we cannot grow-
@@chrisbflory Or if you were an early 20th Century Austrian, you could call it 'Mein Kampf'!
Wow!!! Great words, put together correctly , imparting wisdom & confidence . Unfortunately a rare thing these days. Thank you.