The privateer _Young Teazer_ met a singular fate. In June she was chased by a British man-of-war. Her lieutenant had been once captured, and released on parole, and had gone into the service again without waiting to be exchanged. When he saw a probability of another capture, he seized a firebrand and ran into the cabin, and in another moment the vessel was blown to fragments, and { 220}every man on board perished, except seven sailors who were standing on the forecastle.
The privateer _Wasp_, carrying two guns, had a battle of nine hours' duration, on the 31st of July, with the British war-schooner _Bream_, of ten guns. For the last forty-five minutes the action was at close quarters, and the _Wasp_ then surrendered.
In August the privateer _Decatur_, carrying seven guns, Captain Dominique Diron, was cruising in the track of West India traders, when on the 5th she encountered the English war-schooner _Dominica_, of sixteen guns, and after a bloody battle captured her. It was at first a running fight, the _Dominica_ firing frequent broadsides, and the _Decatur_ answering with her Long Tom and volleys of musketry. After several futile attempts to board, Captain Diron succeeded in forcing his bowsprit over the enemy's stern, and sending the jib-boom through her mainsail. The next moment, while a part of his crew kept up the musketry fire, the remainder rushed on board the _Dominica_, and a hand-to-hand slaughter at once began. Men were cut down with swords, and shot with pistols, till the deck was covered with the dead and wounded. The English crew did not surrender till their captain, G. W. Barrette, was killed, all the other officers except the surgeon and one midshipman either killed or wounded, and { 221}altogether sixty men disabled. Of the _Decatur's_ men, five were killed and fifteen wounded.
The _Globe_ privateer had a desperate fight, on the 3d of November, with two heavily armed packet brigs. Broadside after broadside was exchanged at the distance of a few yards, and the brigs were compelled to strike. But when the _Globe_ hauled alongside to take possession of one of them, she raised her colors again and fired a broadside; after which both brigs sailed slowly away, while the Globe, which had lost twenty-three men, was too badly crippled to follow.