 |
Medal Name: Capture of the Reindeer
Struck for: Captain Johnston Blakeley
Approval: Act of Congress November 3, 1814
OBVERSE
JOHNSTON BLAKELEY REIP. FÆD. AM. NAV. WASP DUX. (Johnston Blakeley, Reipublicæ FæderatæAmericanæ navis Wasp dux: Johnston Blakeley, Captain of the American Federal Republic's vessel Wasp.)
Bust of Captain Blakeley, in uniform, facing the right.
REVERSE
EHEU! BIS VICTOR PATRIA TUA TE LUGET PLAUDITQ. (Plauditque) (Alas! twice conqueror, thy country laments and applauds thee.)
Naval action between the United States sloop-of-war Wasp, of eighteen guns, Captain Blakeley, and the British sloop-of-war Reindeer, of eighteen guns, Captain Manners;
The Wasp, to windward, is firing her port broadside.
The British vessel is striking her colors.
Exergue: INTER WASPNAV. AMERI. ET REINDEER NAV. ANG. DIE XXVIII JUNIUS MDCCCXIV. (Inter Wasp navemAmericanam et Reindeer navem Anglicanam, die 28 Junius, 1814: Between the American vessel Wasp and the English vessel Reindeer, June 28, 1814.)
BACKGROUND
Johnston Blakeley was born at Seaford, County Down, Ireland, October, 1781. He was brought, when very young, to North Carolina, where his parents settled, and where they died while he was still a child. He entered the navy as a midshipman, February 5, 1800, and served under Commodore Preble in the Tripolitan campaign. In 1813, when a lieutenant, he commanded the Enterprize, and in the same year became master-commandant of the sloop-of-war Wasp, with which, on June 28, 1814, he took the British sloop-of-war Reindeer, Commander William Manners. For this memorable action Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal. He afterward cruised off the coast of France, and was lost at sea in the Wasp, of which no news has ever been received.
Resolution of Congress Voting Voting Medals to Captain Blakeley, etc.
Resolved unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the President of the United States be requested to present to Captain Johnston Blakeley, of the sloop Wasp, a gold medal, with suitable devices, and a silver medal, with like devices, to each of the commissioned officers, and also a sword to each of the midshipmen, and the sailing-master of the aforesaid vessel, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of the gallantry and good conduct of the officers and crew, in the action with the British sloop-of-war Reindeer, on the twenty-eighth of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fourteen; in which action determined bravery and cool intrepidity, in nineteen minutes, obtained a decisive victory by boarding.
Approved November 3, 1814.
Source: The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by J. F. Loubat, LL.D. (1878)