Hero tales from American history; or, The story of some Americans, who showed that they knew how to live and how to die . eeping the wreck of the Britishforce before them, and in a minute the Reindeerwas in their possession. All of her officers, andnearly two-thirds of the crew, were killed orwounded; but they had proved themselves asskilful as they were brave, and twenty-six of theAmericans had been killed or wounded. The Wasp set fire to her prize, and after retir-ing to a French port to refit, came out again tocruise. For some time she met no antagonist ofher own size with which to wage war
Hero tales from American history; or, The story of some Americans, who showed that they knew how to live and how to die . eeping the wreck of the Britishforce before them, and in a minute the Reindeerwas in their possession. All of her officers, andnearly two-thirds of the crew, were killed orwounded; but they had proved themselves asskilful as they were brave, and twenty-six of theAmericans had been killed or wounded. The Wasp set fire to her prize, and after retir-ing to a French port to refit, came out again tocruise. For some time she met no antagonist ofher own size with which to wage war, and shehad to exercise the sharpest vigilance to escapecapture. Late one September afternoon, whenshe could see ships of war all around her, sheselected one which was isolated from the others,and decided to run alongside her and try to sinkher after nightfall. Accordingly she set her sailsin pursuit, and drew steadily toward her antago-nist, a big eighteen-gun brig, the Avon, a shipmore powerful than the Reindeer. The Avonkept signaling to two other British war vessels The Fighting Sailormen Sprang Forward The Cruise of the Wasp 107 which were in sight—one an eighteen-gun brigand the other a twenty-gun ship; they were soclose that the Wasp was afraid they would inter-fere before the combat could be ended. Never-theless, Blakeley persevered, and made his attackwith equal skill and daring. It was after darkwhen he ran alongside his opponent, and theybegan forthwith to exchange furious the ships plunged and wallowed in the seas,the Americans could see the clusters of topmenin the rigging of their opponent, but they knewnothing of the vessels name or of her force, saveonly so far as they felt it. The firing was fastand furious, but the British shot with bad aim,while the skilled American gunners hulled theiropponent at almost every discharge. In a veryfew minutes the Avon was in a sinking condition,and she struck her flag and cried for quarter,having lost
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectunitedstatesbiograph
