The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-09-05

well disciplined e ~
est of officers ><sws, led by the fin
Lotl a;Il It was a brave fight on
D.. ~ -, In nineteen minutes the
--etdeef Was reduced to a complete
wreck,
Loaded with prisoners and wounded,
the Wasp made for a French port for
hasty repairs. Then she renewed hey
captures Of British merchantmen. Two
months after the Reindeer fight, the
Wasp was overhauled by another Brit
.ish cruiser, the Avon, under Captain
Arbuthnot. This time the antagonists
were equally matched, but after an
action of forty-fve minutes the Avon
was rapidly sinking. Before Blakely
could transfer his prisoners, several
other men-of-war appeared on the
scene. The Wasp eluded them and
made good her escape.
Once more the Wasp renewed her
raids on British commerce. One of
her prizes taken at this time, the At
lanta, formerly the privateer Siro, of
Baltimore, was dispatched with valu-
able cargo and papers to the United
States. Under the command of Gels
niger, the Atlanta safely reached Sa-
vannah in October. Three weeks after
her fight with the Avon the Wasp was
spoken, some 900 miles south of Ma
deira, by a Swedish bark bound for
England, which transferred to the
Wasp two American naval officers,
who had been on another of our IA
NOUS sea raiders, the Essex. These
two men, exchanged prisoners of war,
were making their roundabout way
home from South America via Eng
land. The report of the capture of the
Swedish bark was the last word ever
heard of the Wasp and her brave cap
tain an dcrew. To this day her fate is
shrouded in mystery.
Young Geisinger and his prize crew
were therefore the only survivors of
the Wasp's little epic. In the next
thirty years, during the regular rou-
tine of peace duties, he took his turn
ashore and afoat We find him in
command of the East India squadron
in 1916, when Japan was ending her
2O0-year policy Of seclusion and hos
tility to western nations. When Gels
niger arrived in Japanese waters the
shoguns were holding as prisoners
eighteen sailors who had been ship
wrecked from an American whaler
along their shores. Geisinger sent the
u. S. S. Preble, under command of
Captain GIynn, to Nagasaki with pre-
emptory orders for the release Of these
Americans. A few years previous on
a similar mission, but with orders not
to arouse the hostility Of the Japanese,
Commodore Biddle had made a futile
attempt to protect American rights,
and by Biddle's failure the Japanese
had been emboldened to try intimida-
ton again. But Geisinger's orders
called for results. Captain Glynn
broke through the Gordon of guard
boats that surrounded the Preble the
moment he dropped anchor. He
brought his broadside to bear on the
city, and after some parleying the
prisoners were delivered on board the
Preble. Thus Geisinger led the way
for Commodore Perry's successful eff
forts half a dozen years later to stop
Japanese barbarity to shipwrecked
crews of American merchantmen.
From this resume of Commodore
Geisinger's career it would appear
that the awarding to him Of gold
mounted sword by the Maryland Leg
isIature a hundred years ago was
well-merited honor, rejecting credit
alike on the giver and the recipient.
Commodore Geisinger died in 1860,
81 10 n