On the Ocean 27 



courage of Captain Porter and those under his 

 command. Her colors were not struck until the 

 loss in killed and wounded was so awfully great and 

 her shattered condition so seriously bad as to render 

 all further resistance unavailing." 24 He also bears 



M James (p. 419) says: "The Essex, as far as is borne out by 

 proof (the only safe way where an American is concerned), 

 had 24 men killed and 45 wounded? But Captain Porter, 

 thinking by exaggerating his loss to prop up his fame, talks 

 of 58 killed and mortally wounded, 39 severely, 27 slightly," 

 etc., etc. This would be no more worthy of notice than 

 any other of his falsifications, were it not followed by various 

 British writers. Hilyar states that he has 161 prisoners, has 

 found 23 dead, that 3 wounded were taken off, between 20 

 and 30 reached the shore, and that the "remainder are either 

 kilted or wounded." It is by wilfully preserving silence about 

 this last sentence that James makes out his case. It will be 

 observed that Hilyar enumerates 161+23+3+25 (say) or 212, 

 and says the remainder were either killed or wounded ; Por 

 ter having 255 men at first, this remainder was 43. Hilyar 

 stating that of his 161 prisoners, 42 were wounded, his 

 account thus gives the Americans in killed and wounded. 

 James' silence about Hilyar's last sentence enables him to 

 make the loss but 69, and his wilful omission is quite on a 

 par with the other meannesses and falsehoods which utterly 

 destroy the reliability of his work. By Hilyar's own letter it 

 is thus seen that Porter's loss in killed and wounded was cer 

 tainly in, perhaps 116, or if Porter had, as James says, 265 

 men, 126. There still remain some discrepancies between the 

 official accounts, which can be compared in tabular form: 



Hilyar. Porter. 



Prisoners un wounded, 119 75 prisoners un wounded 



wounded, 42 ^^ slightly wounded 



Taken away wounded, j 39 severely 



Those who reached shore, 25 58 killed. 



Remainder killed or wounded, 43 31 missing. 



Killed 23 25 reached shore. 



*55 *5S 



The explanation probably is that Hilyar's "wounded" do 



