But though disabled, the enemy was not yet conquered. Her captain had, early in the fight, been cut through the calves of both legs by a musket-ball that made a most painful wound. Of course, he stood to his post. And then, as his ship was fouling the _Wasp_, a grape shot--a round iron ball more than two inches in diameter--pierced both thighs. He fell to his knees, but he struggled up and, sword in hand, cheered on his men, and then calling away boarders he ran forward to lead them, and was climbing into the rigging when two musket-balls, fired simultaneously from the maintop of the _Wasp_, struck him in the top of the head and passed down through to come out beneath his chin. “Placing one hand to his forehead and with the other convulsively brandishing his sword, he exclaimed ‘Oh God!’ and dropped lifeless on his own deck.” The end had come. The British seamen recoiled, as their leader fell, and Blakeley’s men who had gathered to repel boarders now boarded in turn and swept the crew of the shattered ship into her hold. It was exactly 3.44 P.M. and twenty-nine minutes had passed since the first gun was fired by the enemy, and but eighteen since the _Wasp_ returned the fire. And then the Yankees learned that they had captured the British brig-sloop _Reindeer_, commanded by Captain William Manners. “The captain’s clerk, _the highest officer left_, surrendered the brig.” Her captain and purser were dead; her first (and only) lieutenant and sailing-master were wounded. So were one midshipman, a boatswain and a master’s mate. Whether she had other midshipmen is not stated--probably she had none. In this action between the _Wasp_ and the _Reindeer_ we have, at last, after describing a year’s fighting, a British crew of which British writers speak well. That they do so only because the _Reindeer’s_ armament and the number of her crew were much under the _Wasp_ is not to be doubted. Nevertheless it is a pleasure to note that James is willing to write that “the British crew had long served together, and were called the pride of Plymouth,” but he states their number as consisting of “ninety-eight men and twenty boys.” No crew ever fought more bravely than they did until Captain Manners fell; and when he was down they yielded exactly as did the crew of the Yankee _Argus_ when her captain was shot down. Being assured that the _Reindeer_ had the best of British crews, we can form an estimate of their skill by considering the damage which they were able to do to the _Wasp_ during the twenty-nine minutes they were firing at her--firing at a range that varied from sixty yards down to a point where the ships touched each other--a range which for eighteen minutes was under sixty feet.