Among the famous ships of the Americans in this war were two
named the Wasp. The first was an eighteen-gun ship-sloop, which
at the very outset of the war captured a British brig-sloop of
twenty guns, after an engagement in which the British fought with
great gallantry, but were knocked to Pieces, while the Americans
escaped comparatively unscathed. Immediately afterward a British
seventy-four captured the victor. In memory of her the Americans
gave the same name to one of the new sloops they were building.
These sloops were stoutly made, speedy vessels which in strength
and swiftness compared favorably with any ships of their class in
any other navy of the day, for the American shipwrights were
already as famous as the American gunners and seamen. The new
Wasp, like her sister ships, carried twenty-two guns and a crew
of one hundred and seventy men, and was ship-rigged. Twenty of
her guns were 32-pound carronades, while for bow-chasers she had
two "long Toms." It was in the year 1814 that the Wasp sailed
from the United States to prey on the navy and commerce of Great
Britain. Her commander was a gallant South Carolinian named
Captain Johnson Blakeley. Her crew were nearly all native
Americans, and were an exceptionally fine set of men. Instead of
staying near the American coasts or of sailing the high seas, the
Wasp at once headed boldly for the English Channel, to carry the
war to the very doors of the enemy.

At that time the English fleets had destroyed the navies of every
other power of Europe, and had obtained such complete supremacy
over the French that the French fleets were kept in port. Off
these ports lay the great squadrons of the English ships of the
line, never, in gale or in calm, relaxing their watch upon the
rival war-ships of the French emperor. So close was the blockade