USS Essex is a 32-gun frigate built in Salem, Massachusetts, with funds raised at Salem and in Essex County, Massachusetts. Her builder, Enos Briggs, made her 140' in length, 36'6" across the beam, and 12'3" depth in the hold. Captain Edward Preble took command of her in November, 1799.
The list of men who commanded the USS Essex reads like a who's who of the early American navy: Edward Preble, William Bainbridge, James Barron, and David Porter. The Essex was the first ship to round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. She also became the first American man-of-war to round the Horn into the Pacific, where her crew fought and lost one of the bloodiest sea battles in U. S. history.
Many of her fifteen years of service in the navy were spent in ordinary, performing the mundane but necessary tasks that protected American merchant vessels from the Barbary States of North Africa and other enemies. She was noted for her fast speed and the beauty of her lines.
The memory of the Essex and her crewmen lives on. An entire class of aircraft carriers, vital to victory in World War II, is named after the frigate.
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