Combat· War of 1812
Wasp vs HMS Avon
The Wasp's last recorded victory before she vanished.
About 300 miles off Ireland, on the night of 1 September, Blakeley's USS Wasp engaged the British brig-sloop HMS Avon and pounded her in a close night action, the Marines under Sergeant Barnes again at their stations. The Avon struck her colors, but before the Americans could take possession, the appearance of other British warships forced the Wasp to break off and slip away in the darkness; the abandoned Avon sank from her damage soon after. It was a clean victory, the Wasp's second over a Royal Navy sloop in two months, though she could not claim the prize. The Wasp sailed on into the Atlantic and was never heard from again, lost with her entire crew, including her Marine detachment, in one of the war's enduring mysteries.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 231