112

over

fiercely

the Philadelphia and ran
up the masts and rigging. A

became heated they were discharged, q
pouring its shots into the town.

cables

mass

blew

ping

F

parted, and then the Phila of flames, drifted across the ha up. Meantime the batteries of and the castle had been turned

around

Intrepid, but although the shot st one shot through her mainsail, and, joi

Siren,

her, she escaped successfully w

bore away.

This successful attack was carried thro

the cool

discipline of his men.

great, depended

courage of Decatur and the ad
The hazard wa

the odds were very heavy, and ever
on the nerve with which the

was made and the completeness of the su
Nothing miscarried, and no success could
been more complete. Nelson, at that time
Mediterranean, and the best judge of a nava

ploit as

well as the greatest naval comma

who has ever lived, pronounced it "the We bold and daring act of the age." single feat exactly like it in our own naval Cushing's destruction of the Albemarle in tory, brilliant as that has been, until we com war of the rebellion. In the years that h

elapsed,

the great events that ha

occurred

since that time, Decatur's burning of Philadelphia has been well-nigh forgotten;

but it is one of those feats of arms which illustrate the high courage of American seamen, and which ought always to be remembered.

THE CRUISE OF THE WASP "