1813	Landrail and Syren	299

lieutenant (John Harvey), one midshipman (John Travers), and 29 seamen and marines wounded severely and slightly. According to Captain Blakeley, the Wasp received only four round shot in her hull, and, out of her acknowledged complement of 173 men, had but two killed and one wounded. The gallantry of the Avon's officers and crew cannot, for a moment, be questioned ; but the gunnery of the latter appears to have been not a whit better than, to the discredit of the British navy, had frequently before been displayed in combats of this kind. Nor, from the specimen given by the Castilian, is it likely that she would have performed any better.

The Wasp, unfortunately for her brave officers and crew, never reached a port of the United States : she foundered, as is supposed, between the 15th, when she was off Madeira, and the end, of September. To the merit justly due to the captain of the Wasp, for his conduct in his two successful actions, America must be contented to divide her claim ; as Captain Blakeley was a native of Dublin, and, with some English and Scotch, did not, it may be certain, neglect to have in his crew a great many Irish. The construction of so fine a ship as the Wasp, and the equipment of her as an effective man of war, is that part of the merit, and no small part either, which belongs exclusively to the United States.

On the 12th of July the British cutter Landrail, of four 12-pounder carronades and 19 men and boys, commanded by Lieutenant Robert Daniel Lancaster, in her way across the British Channel with despatches, was chased by the American privateer schooner Syren; and maintained with her a running fight of one hour and 10 minutes, and a close action, within pistol-shot, of 40 minutes, in all two hours. The Landrail then surrendered, with the loss of seven men wounded. Her sails were riddled with shot-holes, and her hull much struck. The Syren, whose force was one long 18-pounder on a travelling carriage, four long 6-pounders and two 18-pounder carronades, with a crew of 75 men, had three men killed, and 15 wounded, including some of her principal officers ; a tolerable proof of the execution that may be done by two 12-pounder carronades, if well pointed. The action certainly reflects great credit on Lieutenant Lancaster and his ship's company, or rather, his boat's crew.

Although the Landrail had not even room for another gun beyond the four she mounted, the American historians, in the first instance, gave her 10 guns, and afterwards, by way of amending their statement, 8 guns ; at which the Landrail now stands in their prize-lists. The Landrail was recaptured on her way to the United States, and carried into Halifax, Nova-Scotia consequently her valuable services as a cruiser were not lost to the British navy.

Much about the time that the Landrail encountered the Syren, the Ballahou of the same class as the former, but rigged

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