The United States sloop-of-war Wasp, of eighteen guns, commanded by
Captain Jacob Jones, sailed from the Delaware, on the 13th of October;
and on the 18th of the month, after a long and heavy gale, fell in with
a convoy of six merchantmen, four of them strongly armed, under the
protection of His Britannic Majesty sloop-of-war Frolic, of twenty-two
guns, Captain Whinyates. At half-past eleven in the morning, the
action commenced at the distance of about fifty yards. But, during
the action, so near did they come to each other, that the rammers of
the Wasp’s cannon struck against the side of the Frolic. The fire of
the English vessel soon slackened; and after a most sanguinary action
of forty-three minutes, every brace of the Wasp being shot away, and
the rigging so much torn, that Captain Jones resolved to board the
enemy. With this view he wore ship and running down upon the enemy, the
vessels struck. The officers surrendered the vessel, and the colors
were hauled down by Lieutenant Biddle. The Frolic was in a shocking
condition; the berth-deck was filled with dead and wounded. No sooner
had the engagement ceased, than the British ship, Poictiers, of seventy
four guns, came up, and captured both vessels.
[Illustration: DEATH OF GENERAL PIKE.]