236     LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS     1813

Atlas letter of marque, of Philadelphia, mounting 10 guns, and measuring 240 tons; the former, the Anaconda letter of marque, of New York, mounting 18 long 9-pounders, and measuring 387 tons. In the course of the morning the troops were landed, and took possession of Ocracoke and the town of Portsmouth, without the slightest opposition. The inhabitants behaved with civility, and their property, in consequence, was not molested. After remaining on shore for two days, Rear-admiral Cockburn, with the troops and seamen, re-embarked without loss or molestation. Not, as it would appear, because he had performed the service intrusted to him, but, on account of his " not feeling himself competent to the attack on Newburn, now that its citizens were preparing to receive him." No sooner had the British soldiers and seamen departed, than the American militia flocked to the post ; thus presenting us with a new system of military defence. Both the prizes were afterwards added to the British navy, the Anaconda, by her own name, as an 18-gun brig-sloop, and the Atlas, by the name of St.-Lawrence, as a 14-gun schooner.

On the 11th of July, at 9 a.m., the two United States' gun-vessels Scorpion and Asp got under way from Yeocomico river, but soon afterwards were chased back by the British brig sloops Contest, Captain James Rattray, and Mohawk, Captain the Honourable Henry Dilkes Byng. The two brigs then came to anchor off the bar ; and, seeing that one of the two enemy's vessels, a schooner, was considerably in the rear of her consort, Captain Rattray despatched in pursuit of her the cutter of each brig, under the orders of Lieutenant Roger Carley Curry, assisted by Lieutenant William Hutchinson, and by midshipmen George Morey, --------- Bradford, and Caleb Evans Tozer.

Lieutenant Curry pushed up the narrow inlet of Yeocomico, and, when about four miles from the entrance, found the American schooner, which was the Asp, of one long 18-pounder, two 18-pounder carronades and swivels, hauled up close to the beach, under the protection of a large body of militia. The British boats, however, persevered in their attack, and after a smart struggle, in which they had two men killed and Lieutenant Curry and five men wounded, carried the vessel. The American commanding officer, Lieutenant Segourney was killed, and nine out of his 25 in crew were either killed or wounded. The British set fire to the Asp, but not effectually, as the Americans after-wards extinguished the flames and preserved the vessel.

In the month of July Captain Sanders, with his frigate the Junon and the ship-sloop Martin, Captain Henry Fleming Senhouse, of 16 carronades, 24-pounders, and two long nines, was stationed in Delaware bay. On the 29th, about 8 a.m., the Martin grounded on the outer ridge of Crow's shoal, within two and a half miles from the beach ; and, it being a falling tide, could not be floated again before the return of flood. The

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