Concluding Operations 177 



westerly gale began to blow, and the American ves 

 sels, according to their custom, at once prepared to 

 take advantage of the heavy weather and run by 

 the blockaders. They passed the bar by daylight, 

 under storm canvas, the British frigates lying to in 

 the southeast being plainly visible. They were ig 

 norant of the fate of the President, and proceeded 

 toward Tristan d'Acunha, which was the appointed 

 rendezvous. A few days out the Hornet parted 

 company from the two others ; these last reached 

 Tristan d'Acunha about March i8th, but were driven 

 off again by a gale. The Hornet reached the island 

 on the 23d, and at half-past ten in the morning, the 

 wind being fresh S.S.W., when about to anchor off 

 the north point, a sail was made in the southeast, 

 steering west. 74 This was the British brig-sloop 

 Penguin, Captain James Dickenson. She was a 

 new vessel, having left port for the first time in 

 September, 1814. While at the Cape of Good Hope 

 she had received from Vice- Admiral Tyler 12 ma 

 rines from the Medway, 74, increasing her comple 

 ment to 132; and was then despatched on special 

 service against a heavy American privateer, the 

 Young Wasp, which had been causing great havoc 

 among the homeward-bound Indiamen. 



When the strange sail was first seen Captain Bid- 



14 Letter from Captain Biddle to Commodore Decatur, 

 March 25, 1815. 



