The
_Wasp_ was perfectly willing to take on this second adversary, but just
then a third British ship loomed through the obscurity, and the ocean
seemed a trifle overpopulated for safety. Blakely ran off before the
wind, compelled to abandon his prize. The _Avon_, however, was so badly
battered that she went to the bottom before the wounded seamen could be
removed from her. Thence the _Wasp_ went to Madeira and was later
reported as spoken near the Cape Verde Islands, but after that she
vanished from blue water, erased by some tragic fate whose mystery was
never solved. To the port of missing ships she carried brave Blakely and
his men after a meteoric career which had swept her from one victory to
another.

Of the frigates, only three saw action during the last two years of the
war, and of these the _President_ and the _Essex_ were compelled to
strike to superior forces of the enemy. The _Constitution_ was lucky
enough to gain the open sea in December, 1814, and fought her farewell
battle with the frigate _Cyane_ and the sloop-of-war _Levant_ on the
20th of February. In this fight Captain Charles Stewart showed himself a
gallant successor to Hull and Bainbridge. Together the two British ships
were stronger than the _Constitution_, but Stewart cleverly hammered the
one and then the other and captured both. Honor was also due the plucky
little _Levant_, which, instead of taking to her heels, stood by to
assist her larger comrade like a terrier at the throat of a wolf. It is
interesting to note that the captains, English and American, had
received word that peace had been declared, but without official
confirmation they preferred to ignore it. The spirit which lent to naval
warfare the spirit of the duel was too strong to let the opportunity
pass.

The _President_ was a victim of a continually increased naval strength
by means of which Great Britain was able to strangle the seafaring trade
and commerce of the United States as the war drew toward its close.
Captain Decatur, who had taken command of this frigate, remarked "the
great apprehension and danger" which New York felt, in common with the
entire seaboard, and the anxiety of the city government that the crew of
the ship should remain for defense of the port. Coastwise navigation was
almost wholly suspended, and thousands of sloops and schooners feared to
undertake voyages to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Charleston. Instead of
these, canvas-covered wagons struggled o