The “commerce-destroyers” of those days were not spoken of in that term, but the trade of Great Britain was crippled severely by the swift-sailing privateers and our handy little sloops of war.
[Illustration: MEDAL PRESENTED BY CONGRESS TO CAPTAIN JOHNSTON BLAKELEY]
In a very amusing cartoon, printed in the latter part of the year 1814 in an American paper, our cousin Johnnie Bull was represented flourishing a cutlass above his head and vainly endeavoring to defend himself from the attack of a nondescript-looking animal that had succeeded in running him through the body with its sting.
As was the custom in drawing cartoons at that time, the legend issued from the lips in a cloud, and Johnnie Bull appeared to be smoking out the words, “Save me, oh, save me from this vicious insect!”
The insect was supposed to be the United States sloop of war _Wasp_, of 18 guns, then on a most remarkable cruise in European waters. Under the command of Captain Johnston Blakeley her career had been smiled upon by good fortune.
In a cruise of under four months she had captured thirteen British merchantmen, and had engaged and caused to surrender two of the finest brigs in the service of Great Britain.
The value of her prizes was reckoned at not less than two hundred thousand pounds sterling.
On the 1st of May, 1814, the little sloop had set sail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was manned by a crew of one hundred and seventy-three men, the majority of them being green hands, and many of them mere boys, for they averaged but twenty-three years in age.
Meeting with some severe weather when only a few days out, it is on record that one-third of her crew were sea-sick for a week. This fact, however, did not prevent them from becoming great fighters afterwards.
On the 28th of June, in latitude 48° 36´, longitude 11° 15´, she fell in with the _Reindeer_, sloop of war in His Majesty’s service, mounting 19 guns--sixteen 24-pound carronades, two long 9-pounders, and a shifting 12-pounder. She had on board a complement of one hundred and eighteen men.
In an action that lasted but nineteen minutes from the first broadside, the _Reindeer_ was destroyed, her ports having been blown into one gaping streak of splintered wood. Not a boat was left, and her foremast fell the day after the action.