lost at sea and
followed the other _Wasp_ to the bottom, she did not do so without
sending some British messengers there in advance.

I will tell you the story of this _Wasp_, and how she used her sting,
but it must be done in few words.

She was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and sailed on May 1, 1814,
her captain being Johnston Blakeley; her crew a set of young countrymen
who were so unused to the sea that most of them were seasick for a week.
Their average age was only twenty-three years, so they were little more
than boys. Yet the most of them could hit a deer with a rifle, and they
soon showed they could hit a _Reindeer_ with a cannon. For near the end
of June they came across a British brig named the _Reindeer_, and in
less than twenty minutes had battered her in so lively a fashion that
her flag came down and she was a prize.

The crew of the _Reindeer_ were trained seamen, but they did not know
how to shoot. The Americans were Yankee farmer-lads, yet they shot like
veteran gunners. I am sure you will think so when I tell you that the
British could hardly hit the _Wasp_ at all, though she was less than
sixty yards away. But the Yankees hit the _Reindeer_ so often that she
was cut to pieces and her masts ready to fall. In fact, after she was
captured, she could not be taken into port, but had to be set on fire
and blown to pieces.

But I must say a good word for the gallant captain of the _Reindeer_.
First, a musket ball hit him and went through the calves of both legs,
but he kept on his feet. Then a grape-shot--an iron ball two inches
thick--went through both his thighs. The brave seaman fell, but he rose
to his feet again, drew his sword, and called his men to board the
_Wasp_. He was trying to climb on board when a musket ball went through
his head. "O God!" he cried, and fell dead.

This fight was in the English Channel, where Blakeley was doing what
John Paul Jones had done years before. Two months after the sinking of
the _Reindeer_ the _Wasp_ had another fight. This time there were three
British vessels, the _Avon_, the _Castilian_, and the _Tartarus_, all of
them brig-sloops like the _Reindeer_. These vessels were scattered,
chasing a privateer, and about nine o'clock at night the _Wasp_ came up
with the _Avon_ alone. They hailed each other as ships do when they meet
at sea. Then, when sure they were enemies, they began firing, as ships
do also in time of war. For forty minutes the fight kept up