Stories of Our Naval Heroes Every Child Can Read (Paperback)

Excerpt: ... But her captain was not of the runaway kind. The fire of the Wasp had covered his deck with blood, but he fought boldly on. As they fought the two ships drifted together and soon their sides met with a crash. Then, as they were swept apart by the waves, two of the Wasp's guns were fired into the 160 bow-ports of the Frolic and swept her gun-deck from end to end. Terrible was the slaughter done by that raking fire. The next minute the bowsprit of the Frolic caught in the rigging of the Wasp, and another torrent of balls was poured into the British ship. Then the Yankee sailors left their guns and sprang for the enemy's deck. The captain wanted them to keep firing, but he could not hold them back. First of them all was a brawny Jerseyman named Jack Lang, who took his cutlass between his teeth and clambered like a cat along the bowsprit to the deck. Others followed, and when they reached the deck of the Frolic they found Jack Lang standing alone and looking along the blood-stained deck with staring eyes. Only four living men were to be seen, and three of these were wounded. One was the quartermaster at the wheel and the others were officers. Not another man stood on his feet, but the deck was strewn with the dead, whose bodies rolled about at every heave of the waves. When the men came running aft the three officers flung down their swords to show that they had surrendered, and one of them covered 161 his face with his hands. It hurt him to give up the good ship. Lieutenant Biddle, of the Wasp, had to haul down the British flag. Never had there been more terrible slaughter. Of the 110 men on the Frolic there were not twenty alive and unhurt, while on the Wasp only five were dead and five wounded. The hull of the Frolic was full of holes and its masts were so cut away that in a few minutes they both fell. Thus ended one of the most famous of American sea-fights. It was another lesson that helped to stop the English from singing "Britannia rules the...