Each captain manœuvred for the weather-gauge, but the Englishman gained it, and coming up on the “Wasp’s” weather-quarter, repeatedly fired his light twelve-pound bow-carronade, filled with round and grape shot, into the American ship. Blakeley, “finding the enemy did not get sufficiently on the beam to enable us to bring our guns to bear, put the helm a-lee,” and fired as his guns bore. The firing began at 3.26 P. M. and lasted until 3.40, fourteen minutes, at close range. In that space of time each gun in the broadside could be fired at the utmost three times. Apparently Manners felt that he had no chance with his guns, for he brought his vessel’s bow against the “Wasp’s” quarter and repeatedly attempted boarding. Early in the action the calves of his legs were shot away; then a shot passed through both his thighs; yet he still climbed into the rigging to lead his boarders, when two balls at the same moment struck him in the head. His fall ended the battle; and such had been the losses of his company that the highest officer remaining unhurt on the British brig to surrender the vessel was said to be the captain’s clerk. At 3.45 the “Reindeer’s” flag was struck,--the whole action, from the “Wasp’s” first gun, having lasted nineteen minutes. Had every British vessel fought like the “Reindeer,” Englishmen would have been less sensitive to defeat. In this desperate action the “Wasp” suffered severely. Her foremast was shot through; her rigging and spars were much injured; her hull was struck by six round shot and much grape; eleven men were killed and fifteen wounded, or nearly one man in six, “chiefly in repelling boarders,” reported Blakeley. The “Reindeer” was a wreck, and was blown up as soon as the wounded could be removed. Of her crew, numbering one hundred and eighteen, thirty-three lost their lives; thirty-four were wounded,--in all, sixty-seven, or more than half the brig’s complement. Ten days afterward Blakeley ran into Lorient, where his ship was well received by the French, whose British antipathies were increased rather than lessened by their enforced submission. After refitting, the “Wasp” sailed again August 27, and four days later cut out a valuable ship from a convoy under the eyes of a seventy-four. The same evening, September 1, at half-past six, Blakeley sighted four vessels, two on either bow, and hauled up for the one most to windward. At 9.26 at night the chase, a brig, was directly under the “Wasp’s” lee-bow, and Blakeley began firing a twelve-pound bow-carronade, which he must have taken from the “Reindeer,” for no such gun made part of his regular armament.