Essex's prizes had sharply different outcomes, so the number captured overstates the lasting loss to British commerce. Essex Junior reached New York as a cartel and was subsequently seized, condemned, and sold for $25,000. Some other prizes were burned, while Charlton and Rose returned captured crews to British hands. Mutineers recovered Seringapatam, and her owners ultimately reclaimed her after paying salvage. British warships recaptured several further prizes, including New Zealander only a day from New York and Sir Andrew Hammond in June. Getting a prize safely home remained a separate problem from capturing it.
Notable Point · 2:13:38-2:17:30
Blockade and recapture erased most of Essex's prize haul
A ship-by-ship accounting shows that most of Porter's captured whalers were burned, released, seized, recovered by their crews, or retaken before reaching an American port.