Concluding Operations 159 



tacked the schooner Brant, a tender to H. M. S. 

 Severn, mounting an i8-pounder, and with a crew 

 of two midshipmen, and twenty-one marines and 

 seamen. A running fight began, the Brant evi 

 dently fearing that the other boats might get across 

 the reef and join in the attack; suddenly she ran 

 aground on a sand-bank, which accident totally de 

 moralized her crew. Eight of them escaped in her 

 boat, to the frigate; the remaining fifteen, after fir 

 ing a few shot, surrendered and were taken posses 

 sion of. 53 



I have had occasion from time to time to speak of 

 cutting-out expeditions, successful and otherwise, 

 undertaken by British boats against American pri 

 vateers; and twice a small British national cutter 

 was captured by an overwhelmingly superior Ameri 

 can opponent of this class. We now, for the only 

 time, come across an engagement between a priva 

 teer and a regular cruiser of approximately equal 

 force. These privateers came from many different 

 ports and varied greatly in size. Baltimore pro 

 duced the largest number; but New York, Phila- 



53 Letter of Captain Dent, February 16 (in "Captains' Let 

 ters," vol. 42, No. 130). Most American authors, headed by 

 Cooper, give this exploit a more vivid coloring by increasing 

 the crew of the Brant to forty men, omitting to mention 

 that she was hard and fast aground, and making no allusion 

 to the presence of the five other American boats which un 

 doubtedly^ caused the Brant's flight in the first place. 



