cleared for action and offered the _Minerva_ battle. The captain,
however, deemed it his duty to remain with his convoy, and continued his
course to Quebec, while Porter headed southward, afterward restoring his
prize to its owners for a liberal ransom.

Captain Porter had become so clever in disguising his vessel as a
merchantman that some days later he lured the British 16-gun ship-sloop
_Alert_ to attack him. In the space of eight minutes the _Alert_ was so
helplessly crippled that her captain surrendered. The _Essex_ did not
suffer the slightest injury and no men were killed on either vessel.

The _Essex_ had now five hundred prisoners aboard, and they formed an
element of serious danger, for they began plotting among themselves to
capture the ship from the Americans and turn her over to the enemy.
Captain Porter was a severe disciplinarian, and one of his practices was
to have the alarm of fire sounded at all hours of the day or night, that
his crew might be taught the successful way of fighting the ever-present
danger. To make such training perfect, he occasionally started a fire in
the hatches.

The leader in the conspiracy to seize the ship fixed upon a night to
make the attempt, and his friends were on the alert to join him the
moment he gave the signal. In one of the hammocks was sleeping a
midshipmite only eleven years old, but, young as he was, he was a hero.
Pistol in hand, the plotter tiptoed up beside the hammock to learn
whether the boy was asleep. The little fellow was never wider awake in
his life; but he kept his eyes closed and breathed regularly, so as to
deceive the scoundrel, who slipped away to lead his companions in their
murderous uprising.