ce from British squadrons
and seven times run the blockade through strong British fleets; she had
captured three frigates and a sloop-of-war, besides many merchantmen,
and had taken more than eleven hundred prisoners. From all of these
engagements she had emerged practically unscathed, and in none of them
had she lost more than nine men. Stewart was the last survivor of the
great captains of 1812, living until 1869, having been carried on the
navy list for seventy-one years.

Johnston Blakeley was a South Carolinian, and won renown by a remarkable
cruise in the Wasp. The Wasp was a stout and speedy sloop, carrying
twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and seventy men, and in 1814
she sailed from the United States, and headed for the English Channel,
to carry the war into the enemy's country, after the fashion of Paul
Jones. The Channel, of course, was traversed constantly by English
fleets and squadrons and single ships-of-war, and here the Wasp sailed
up and down, capturing and destroying merchantmen, and, by the skill and
vigilance of her crew and commander, escaping an encounter with any
frigate or ship-of-the-line.

But one June morning, while chasing two merchantmen, she sighted the
British brig Reindeer, and at once prepared for action. The Reindeer
accepted the challenge, and after some broadsides had been exchanged,
the ships fouled and the British boarded. A desperate struggle followed,
in which the English commander was killed. Then the boarders were driven
back, and the Americans boarded in their turn, and in a minute had the
Reindeer in their possession. Her colors were hauled down, she was set
afire, and the Wasp continued her cruise.

Late one September afternoon, British ships of war appeared all around
her, and selecting one which seemed isolated from the others, Captain
Blakeley decided to try to run alongside and sink her after nightfall.
She was the eighteen-gun brig Avon, a bigger ship than the Wasp, but
Blakeley ran alongside, discharged his broadsides, and soon had the
Avon in a sinking condition. She struck her flag, but before Blakeley
could secure his prize, two other British ships came up and he was
forced to flee.

Soon afterwards, he encountered a convoy of ships bearing arms and
munitions to Wellington's army, under the care of a great three-decker.
Blakeley sailed boldly in, and, evading the three-decker's movements,
actually cut out and captured one of the transports and made his e