{"id":"01KG8AJKVCZHTB2VN2KY6B55ZD","cid":"bafkreieomb5sziosd6kug2tw4ijpik2fkxheawzndd3iv7el2qqnocoypq","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# SKETCH FIFTH. THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.\n## Overview\nThis is a chapter titled \"SKETCH FIFTH. THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.\" It is part of the short story collection [The Piazza Tales](arke:01KG8AJ9NXJ7YCJCWAH2W8FBFN) and was extracted from the file [the_piazza_tales.txt](arke:01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7).\n\n## Context\nThis chapter is part of a larger collection, [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). It appears in *The Piazza Tales* between [SKETCH FOURTH. A PISGAH VIEW FROM THE ROCK.](arke:01KG8AJKV9ZQFH8B25R0K04EV5) and [SKETCH SIXTH.\nBARRINGTON ISLE AND THE BUCCANEERS.](arke:01KG8AJKV9F0TYBV7859MZSR9Z).\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter recounts an incident involving the U.S. frigate Essex, captained by David Porter, in 1813 near Rodondo Island. The Essex, becalmed and drifting towards the rocks, spots a strange sail moving rapidly under a strong wind. After a breeze allows the Essex to escape the rocks, it pursues the mysterious vessel, which alternately displays American and English colors. The chapter also mentions the Essex's broader role in the War of 1812 in the Pacific, including its tortoise-hunting activities in the Encantadas (Galapagos Islands) and its eventual defeat off Valparaiso. The chapter concludes by listing three eyewitness authorities on the Enchanted Isles: Cowley (1684), Colnet (1798), and Porter (1813).\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.583Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"SKETCH FIFTH. THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.","end_line":6648,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:36.328Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"SKETCH FIFTH.\nTHE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":6587,"text":"SKETCH FIFTH.\r\nTHE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.\r\n\r\n“Looking far forth into the ocean wide,\r\nA goodly ship with banners bravely dight,\r\nAnd flag in her top-gallant I espide,\r\nThrough the main sea making her merry flight.”\r\n\r\n\r\nEre quitting Rodondo, it must not be omitted that here, in 1813, the\r\nU.S. frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, came near leaving her bones.\r\nLying becalmed one morning with a strong current setting her rapidly\r\ntowards the rock, a strange sail was descried, which—not out of keeping\r\nwith alleged enchantments of the neighborhood—seemed to be staggering\r\nunder a violent wind, while the frigate lay lifeless as if spell-bound.\r\nBut a light air springing up, all sail was made by the frigate in chase\r\nof the enemy, as supposed—he being deemed an English whale-ship—but the\r\nrapidity of the current was so great, that soon all sight was lost of\r\nhim; and, at meridian, the Essex, spite of her drags, was driven so\r\nclose under the foam-lashed cliffs of Rodondo that, for a time, all\r\nhands gave her up. A smart breeze, however, at last helped her off,\r\nthough the escape was so critical as to seem almost miraculous.\r\n\r\nThus saved from destruction herself, she now made use of that salvation\r\nto destroy the other vessel, if possible. Renewing the chase in the\r\ndirection in which the stranger had disappeared, sight was caught of\r\nhim the following morning. Upon being descried he hoisted American\r\ncolors and stood away from the Essex. A calm ensued; when, still\r\nconfident that the stranger was an Englishman, Porter dispatched a\r\ncutter, not to board the enemy, but drive back his boats engaged in\r\ntowing him. The cutter succeeded. Cutters were subsequently sent to\r\ncapture him; the stranger now showing English colors in place of\r\nAmerican. But, when the frigate’s boats were within a short distance of\r\ntheir hoped-for prize, another sudden breeze sprang up; the stranger,\r\nunder all sail, bore off to the westward, and, ere night, was hull down\r\nahead of the Essex, which, all this time, lay perfectly becalmed.\r\n\r\nThis enigmatic craft—American in the morning, and English in the\r\nevening—her sails full of wind in a calm—was never again beheld. An\r\nenchanted ship no doubt. So, at least, the sailors swore.\r\n\r\nThis cruise of the Essex in the Pacific during the war of 1812, is,\r\nperhaps, the strangest and most stirring to be found in the history of\r\nthe American navy. She captured the furthest wandering vessels; visited\r\nthe remotest seas and isles; long hovered in the charmed vicinity of\r\nthe enchanted group; and, finally, valiantly gave up the ghost fighting\r\ntwo English frigates in the harbor of Valparaiso. Mention is made of\r\nher here for the same reason that the Buccaneers will likewise receive\r\nrecord; because, like them, by long cruising among the isles,\r\ntortoise-hunting upon their shores, and generally exploring them; for\r\nthese and other reasons, the Essex is peculiarly associated with the\r\nEncantadas.\r\n\r\nHere be it said that you have but three, eye-witness authorities worth\r\nmentioning touching the Enchanted Isles:—Cowley, the Buccaneer (1684);\r\nColnet the whaling-ground explorer (1798); Porter, the post captain\r\n(1813). Other than these you have but barren, bootless allusions from\r\nsome few passing voyagers or compilers.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"SKETCH FIFTH.\nTHE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ9NXJ7YCJCWAH2W8FBFN","peer_type":"short_story","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJKV9ZQFH8B25R0K04EV5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJKV9F0TYBV7859MZSR9Z","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:37.324Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:54.040Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}