d waving his sword, called to his men to follow him to the decks of
the Yankee. The Britons rallied nobly under the encouragement of their
brave captain, and again advanced to the assault. But the figure of
the daring officer, as he stood thus before his men, waving his sword
and calling on them to come on, caught the eye of one of the men in
the "Wasp's" maintop; and the next instant a ball crashed into the
captain's brain, and he fell heavily to the deck, with his dying eyes
turned upwards toward the flag in whose service he had given his life.

Seeing the British captain fall and the men waver, Capt. Blakely with
a cheer called up the boarders of the "Wasp;" and in an instant a
stream of shouting sailors, cutlass in hand, was pouring over the
hammock-nettings, and driving the foe backward on his own decks. The
British still fought stubbornly; but their numbers were terribly
thinned, and their officers had fallen one by one, until now the
captain's clerk was the highest officer left. Seeing his men falling
back before the resistless torrent of boarders, this gentleman finally
struck the flag; and the battle ended, twenty-seven minutes after the
"Reindeer" had fired the opening gun, and eighteen after the "Wasp"
had responded.

[Illustration: The End of the "Reindeer."]

The execution and damage done on the "Reindeer" by the "Wasp's" shot
were appalling. Of her crew of one hundred and eighteen men,
thirty-three were killed or fatally wounded, and thirty-four were
wounded. The havoc wrought among her officers has already been
mentioned. Evidence of the accuracy and skill of the American gunners
was to be seen in the fact that the brig was completely cut to pieces
in the line of her ports. Her decks were swept clean of boats, spars,
and rigging. Her masts were badly shattered, and her foremast soon
went by the board. The "Wasp" had suffered severely, but was in much
better condition than her captured adversary. Eleven of her crew were
killed or mortally wounded, and fifteen were wounded severely or
slightly. She had been hulled by six round and many grape shot, and
her foremast had been cut by a twenty-four-pound shot. A few hours'
work cleared from her decks all trace of the bloody fight, and she was
in condition for another action. But it would have been folly to try
to get the crippled "Reindeer" to port from that region, swarming with
British cruisers: so Capt. Blakely took the prisoners on the "Wasp,"
put a few o