“The affection manifested by ---- is truly grateful to my heart.
Indeed, I begin already to feel for her a filial regard, and the more
so, as it was my lot to lose my mother before I was sensible of a
mother’s tenderness.”
In reply to a letter, in which the solicitude for his professional
reputation was cordially expressed by the lady alluded to, he
remarks--“Should I be fortunate enough to acquire any fame, my good old
friend will make me debtor for more than half. With her prayers for
my success can I doubt it? I hope the last Blakeley who exists, will
lay down his life ere he tarnish the reputation of those who have gone
before him. My blessed father’s memory is very dear to me, and I trust
his son will never cast a reproach on it.” In another, he observes,
“It is true, that in the war in which we are engaged, we have to
contend under great disadvantages, but this should stimulate to greater
exertions, and we have already seen that our enemy is not invincible.”
In a letter, dated on board the Enterprise, the 29th of April, 1813,
he observes--“Independent of personal feeling, I rejoice at the good
fortune of the navy, believing it to be that description of force best
adapted to the defence of this country. I confess the success of our
sailors has been much greater than I had any reason to expect, taking
into view the many difficulties they had to encounter. The charm which
once seemed to have encircled the British navy, and rendered its very
name formidable, appears to be fast dispelling.”
In a letter, dated Newburyport, 20th of January, 1814, he remarks--“I
shall ever view as one of the most unfortunate events of my life
having quitted the Enterprise at the moment I did. Had I remained in
her a fortnight longer, my name might have been classed with those
who stand so high. I cannot but consider it a mortifying circumstance
that I left her but a few days before she fell in with the only enemy
on this station with which she could have creditably contended. I
confess I felt heartily glad when I received my order to take command
of the Wasp, conceiving that there was no hope of doing anything in
the Enterprise. But when I heard of the contest of the latter ship,
and witnessed the great delay in the equipment of the former, I had
no cause to congratulate myself. The Peacock has ere this spread her
plumage to the winds, and the Frolic will soon take her revels on the
ocean, but the Wasp will, I fear, remain for some time a dull, harmless
drone in the waters of her own country. Why this is, I am not permitted
to inquire!” These extracts will strike the reader as being strongly
indicative of an amiable and heroic character. There is something
touching in his gratitude to the good old lady who had manifested an
interest in his successes. There is something noble in his reference
to the memory of his father, as a motive stimulating him in the path
of honor; and there is something heroic, we think, in the unaffected
manner in which he expresses his regret at having left the Enterprise.
It is unnecessary to remark here, that it was in the action between
that vessel and the Boxer, that Burrows conquered, and lost his life.
Yet Blakeley regretted he had not been in his place, either because he
considered the sacrifice of life as a cheap price for the purchase of
glory, or had forgotten, in his love of fame, that such a price had
been paid. But he was determined before long to acquire at least equal
reputation, and to perish equally with the regrets of his country.
After various services, Blakeley was appointed, in 1813, to the Wasp,
with the rank of master commandant.
In this vessel he fell in with his Britannic majesty’s ship Reindeer,
mounting sixteen twenty-four pound carronades, two long nine pounders,
and a shifting twelve pound carronade; and having a complement of one
hundred and eighteen men. An action commenced, and, in nineteen minutes
ended in the capture of the Reindeer. The loss of the Americans was
twenty-one killed and wounded; that of the enemy sixty-seven. The
Reindeer was cut to pieces in such a manner as to render it impossible
to save her, and she was accordingly set on fire. After this the Wasp
put into L’Orient; from which port she sailed on the 27th of August,
and four days afterwards, falling in with ten sail of merchantmen,
under a convoy of a ship of the line, she succeeded in cutting off one
of the vessels. On the evening of the first of September, 1814, she
fell in with four sail, two on each bow, but at considerable distances
from each other. The first was the British brig-of-war Avon, which
struck after a severe action; but Captain Blakeley could not take
possession, as another enemy was fast approaching. This enemy, it
seems, however, was called off to the assistance of the Avon, which
was now sinking. The enemy reported that they had sunk the Wasp by
the first broadside; but she was afterwards spoken by a vessel off
the Western Isles. After this we hear of her no more; and though her
fate is certain, the circumstances attending it are beyond the reach
of discovery. The most general impression is that she 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; for there are
so many uncertainties connected with the unfathomable deep, that even
imagination is bewildered in tracing the fate of those who are only
known to have perished, because they are never more heard of or seen.
Another impression is, that the Wasp, very shortly after being spoken
off the Western Isles, had a severe engagement with a British frigate,
which put into Lisbon in a shattered condition; and reported having
had an action, in the night, with a vessel which they believed to have
sunk. But whatever may have been the fate of the generous Blakeley,
this much is certain, that he will, to use his own expression, “be
classed among those names that stand so high.”
The lustre of his exploits, not less than the interest excited by
those who remembered how, in his very boyhood, he was left, as he says,
without a single being around him with whom he could claim kindred
blood,--how, by his merit, he obtained friends, and conferred honor on
that country which was not only his parent, but which has become the
parent of his only child; and how, last of all, he perished, is known
only to One who rules the sea, and commands the troubled waves to “be
still;”--has all given to his character, his history, his achievements
and his fate, a romantic interest, marking the name of Blakeley for
lasting and affectionate remembrance.
Notwithstanding his professional duties, which were scarcely
interrupted from the time of his obtaining a warrant, his literary and
scientific acquirements were very respectable; and among his brother
officers he was always considered a man of uncommon intellect, as well
as great courage and professional skill.
In December, 1813, he married Jane, the daughter of Mr. Hoope, of New
York, the old and respected friend of his father; by whom he has left
an only daughter, who received one of the most noble and substantial
tributes of national gratitude which has occurred in the history of
this country.
On the 27th of December, 1816, the legislature of North Carolina,
after prescribing the destination of the sword they had voted to
Captain Blakeley, “Resolved unanimously, that Captain Blakeley’s child
be educated at the expense of this state; and that Mrs. Blakeley be
requested to draw on the treasurer of this state, from time to time,
for such sums of money as shall be required for the education of
the said child.” This, we repeat, is substantial gratitude. It is
classical, too, and reminds us of those noble eras in the history of
some of the illustrious states of Greece, when the offspring of those
who had fallen for their country, became the children of that country
whose cause had made them fatherless. It is in this way that our states
may acquire a parental character, that will endear them still more to
the hearts of the citizens; that will inspire fathers to die in defence
of their country, and be held up as an example to the world.
It is in this way, too, that the different members of the Union
may nobly indulge their local feelings, and display their honest
homebred affections. Let them exemplify their desire to appropriate to
themselves the fame of their distinguished citizens, by their peculiar
care in honoring their memory and cherishing their helpless orphans. A
gold medal (_see_ Plate XIV.) was, by a vote of Congress, presented to
Captain Blakeley, for the capture of the British sloop-of-war Reindeer,
Captain Manners, June 28th, 1814.