The Wasp was struck by four shot in the hull, each of which shot was thirty-two pounds in weight, being one and three-quarter pounds heavier than any the American carried.
For a long time the fate of the vessel which she had been fighting was not known, but she sank a few hours after the action. The loss on board the Wasp was two killed and one wounded. From the English account, the loss on board the Avon was nine killed and thirty-three wounded. As she was sinking, the Tartarus, a sloop of war, came up and took on board forty of her crew.
THE “WASP’S” FIGHT WITH THE “AVON”
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.