THE WAR OF 1812 119 



then one day she was attacked by the British ships Phoebe and 

 Cherub, and in spite of determined resistance she was obliged to 

 surrender — Hterally cut to pieces. 



The Essex, cruising in the Pacific, had defended the whalers 

 of her own country, and for a time she had destroyed British whal- 

 ing in those waters, for the vessels that escaped her fled to port 

 and dared not come out again so long as she herself was at sea. 

 But that stirring voyage, which for a time turned the tables, 

 gave England only a small dose of the medicine that we our- 

 selves took more copiously, for at the end of the war our whaling 

 industry was for the second time nearly at an end. Our whahng 

 towns had lost many vessels to England. The market for whale 

 products had almost ceased. The business structure of the 

 industry had scarcely one stone left upon another. It is doubt- 

 ful if there was a prophet so sanguine by half as to dare fore- 

 tell the golden future that awaited those nearly ruined towns. 



