In the list of the vessels of the American navy in commission during the war of 1812 the name of the _Wasp_ is starred, with one or two others bearing the same mark, and, looking at the bottom of the page, we see this short comment, “Lost at sea.” This was the sad fate of the gallant little craft which caused John Bull so much trouble in her short career. It was never known what became of her. Some authorities on the British side stated that she had sunk from the injuries received in her action with the _Avon_; but of course we have the report of Captain Blakeley sent by a vessel spoken off the Western Isles. In speaking of the disappearance a contemporary writes: “The most general impression is that she [the _Wasp_] was lost by one of those casualties incident to the great deep which have destroyed so many gallant vessels in a manner no one knows how.” A strange circumstance, however, gives rise to a supposition. A British frigate put into Lisbon in a shattered condition. She reported having fallen in with a vessel and having engaged her through the better part of the night. She had made out that her antagonist was much smaller than herself, and evidently an American. She had not surrendered, and had disappeared suddenly, “as if the sea had swallowed her.” This may have been the _Wasp_. The fact remains, however, that no trace of her or any of her crew was ever found after she spoke the vessel at the Western Isles. The first _Wasp_, captured with her prize (the British sloop _Frolic_) by an English ship of the line, was also lost at sea, after being refitted and commissioned in the English service. Johnston Blakeley was an Irish-American. He was born in Ireland (in the village of Seaford, in the county of Down). When he was but two years old his father, John Blakeley, emigrated to America and took up his residence in Philadelphia, from whence he moved to the South. He had the misfortune to lose all of his children with the exception of Johnston, whom he sent to New York for his education. This was in the year 1790; but the young man, although he studied law with the intention of becoming a member of the bar, gave up all idea of it shortly after his father’s death. He left the University of North Carolina, at which he was a student, and succeeded in getting a midshipman’s warrant when he was nineteen years of age, much older than the average run of reefers. Blakeley was a favorite with all who knew him, and his loss was mourned by all his countrymen. XV THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN [September 11th, 1814] [Illustration: MEDAL PRESENTED BY CONGRESS TO CAPTAIN THOMAS MACDONOUGH]