Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-04-19

: enemy, and as the fire was not returned
Blnkely hailed them a second time:
Have you struckr
, A faint AYE, ave- now come over tho wa.
ters, and boat was nt once low cred 10 TAX,
!, Possession Of the prize Az the cutter touch.
ed the wave, the look out-man cried
sail o! close atoard!'
The smoke having clelrcd away, onothei
vessel was seen nearing the Wasp. The cut.
ter was run up to the davts, and the crew
sent ag ain to the guns.
The Wasp wts soon in readiness to -ecsive
the second antagonist; but two more sails
hcaving in sight astern, the conqueror was
forced to leave his prize.
The helm Of the Wasp was therefore put
up, and the vesse, ran off free, in order to
repair Ter rigging and to d-aw the vessel OF
, the enemy from its consorts.
The second stranger continued her chase
Of the Wasp urtil she got across her stern
gave her parting broldside, and beat up to-
wards his consort, whose signt guns OF dis.
tress now echoed in melancholy murmurs a.
long the midnight deep
The Wssp left her prize in such haste as
TO be ignorant os her name and force. When
the sea gives up its dead, and the crew of
the little Avon and the little band of Blake
:. ", shall muster together at the final judg-
ment, then, and then only, shall the conque-
for know his vanished foe.
The Wasp was soon lost amidst the dark
ness Of the night, while the Castalian the
vessel that came to the assistance OF the en-
envy, and the consorts hovered around the
! of . ba
the crew.
! As the morning watch was called the a.
Won We sudden roll to the leewsrd, then
settling swiftly by the stern, she sank with
u gurgling sound, while her dead men float
ed in ghastly forms upon the sea. With
heavy hearts tie English cruisers lowered
their ensigns at half mast, and left the ocean
tomb of their Sister, firing minute guas to
the memory of the brave.
Having repaired damages which were prn-
cipally in spara and rigging, the Wasp con-
,inued her cruise to the westward and on the
18th of September, fell in with and took
tie Three Brothers. After scuttling her, she
overhauled and took the Brig BACILLUS. This
vessel she soon sent TO final resting place
in cold water. As che neared the Western
Islands an armed brig hove in sight. Crow
ding on al. sail, the gallant Blakely fired
shot across her bow, and received her des.
cending flag as token Of Submission. The
vessel proved to be the Atalanta Of eighteen
guns and nineteen men. Nlishipmau Gel
senger, now a post captain in the service,
was put on board OF her, and the prize mas
ter and his crew were the last Americans
! ,.I, ,l,o b,. l.,
and lived to 'el the tale.
On the 9th of October following, the Swe-
dish brig Adonis, from Rio, bound to Fa!-
mouth, was boarded by the Wasp in latitude
ls deg. 35 min. North longitude 80 deg.
10 min. West, and two passengers, Lieut..
Mcknight, and masters mate Lyman, late Of
tn e gallant Essex, were taken from her. The
Swede then pursued his course, while the
American cruiser continued to he Southward
under easy sail At p. NJ, her topsails
dipped in the Southern Ocean; and when
the sun set she was seen no more.
OF the fnt end Of the Wasp, rumor hat
been busy with her thousand tongues. At
one time she was said to have been lost on
the desolate coast of Africa. while her sea-
men tatted with the Arabs of tile desert,
then she was said to have sunk in gale off
the Spanish shere, after an action with an
English frigate. A one time she was suppo-
sed to have been lost in the wild ocean, alone.
At another, blown up by the accidental ig-
milton of her magazines. History being ST.
lent on the subject, the pen Of Imagination
must trace her last. moments.
1t was an awful night in the South Allan
al in ,,if So l,lya
spectre knights in dusky armor. Loud roll
ed the thunder OF heaven, and round the hor-
izon the lightning, like the tongue OF thou
sand adders forked in air, or reared around
tile magazines of hail, that reared their pale
blue bodies upon the bosom Of the Storm
The wind swspt in cne unbroken howl and
the din OF the dashing waters completed the
elementary war.
Not sail was to be seen. 1t seemed that
man had left the ocean in its majesty to his +,
God d,while the clouds and darkness, the whiri F,
wind and the water spout, the lightning and
the deep mouthed thunder, gave terrific evil
dence of the presence Of the Creator. But,
bark! n cannon echoes fuint,y; see. a lie
sepulchral light family gares upon the deep!
And now, with the velocity of the wounded
whale, a sloop-of-war with her sails in strips,
her spars twisted, splintcred and broken, her
buIwarks partly carried aw,y,-her rudder
rome. comes down before the wind. She
falls off from her course; now she buries her
head in the foam, and now her stern seems
fast disappearing in the hollow of the deep.
Sea after sea rolls over her deck, and the
seamen asheS to her sides seem waiting the
hour ofnesr destruction.
The commander at the wheel with his bra
zen trum pet is silent. His eye flashes like
that of the chained eagle; as he scans the
deep. A few hours more and the vessel
must founder at seu. Her banner still floats
in ribbons at her peak, faint light CLEANS
from her statboard pinnace and the sigma
bell tolls sadly as she Is thrown from broad
side to broadside upon the sideling waves.
The storm abates! The ferceness of the
blast is gone! The sea rolls in gentle bill
lows, and the heavens shower darkness In