Captain David Porter was the ideal candidate to combine free trade and sailors’ rights. As a young merchant sailor and as an officer in the American navy, Porter came to understand what each concept meant at first hand. Born into a maritime family, the teenage Porter sailed on several merchant ships commanded by his father on voyages to the West Indies. There, he experienced the impositions of both the British and the French that threatened sailors’ rights and limited American trade. When only sixteen, Porter was on board his father's schooner, Eliza, and helped to beat back a British press gang in the confrontation at Jérémie, St. Domingue, on February 9, 1796. Men were killed and wounded on both sides in the affray. Porter may have faced British press gangs two other times in his early maritime career. Porter's own son wrote a biography detailing one occasion on which Porter hid in a ship as a press gang searched for men, and another time when Porter was actually pressed into British service, but managed to escape. Whatever the truth of these additional stories, the battle at Jérémie was real and must have left an indelible mark on the future captain of the Essex. The Porter family also faced French depredations. On his father's next voyage after the battle with the press gang – it is unclear whether Porter was with him – French privateers stopped and searched the ship. Although the privateers allowed the senior Porter to proceed, they looted the cargo and robbed the passengers. As the United States responded to such French outrages and entered the Quasi War, Porter garnered a midshipman's commission on April 16, 1798, and was aboard the Constellation when it fought L’Insurgent. Porter remained in the navy after the crisis with France had passed and was dispatched to the Mediterranean, where he served on several ships protecting American trade against the Barbary states. Unfortunately for Porter, he was on the Philadelphia when it grounded off Tripoli, and he suffered eighteen months of captivity, providing him further insight into the ordeal of Jack Tar. After his release, Porter had command of his own ships on the Mediterranean station, and then the navy charged him with enforcing the Embargo in New Orleans.