by Ralph D. Paine
Reprinted from "Ships and Sailors of Old Salem" by Ralph D. Paine
The history of the construction of this famous frigate. From the beginning of the chapter: "One hundred and ten years ago there was launched from a Salem shipyard a wooden sailing frigate called the "Essex." She was the fastest and handsomest vessel of the United States navy and a dozen years after she first flew the flag of her country she won immortal renown under Captain David Porter. There is hardly a full-rigged sailing ship afloat today as small as the "Essex," and in tonnage many modern three-masted coasting schooners can equal or surpass her. Yet her name is one of the most illustrious in the list of a navy which bears also those of the "Constitution," the "Hartford," the "Kearsarge" and the "Olympia."
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