Thence the _Wasp_ went to Madeira and was later reported as spoken near the Cape Verde Islands, but after that she vanished from blue water, erased by some tragic fate whose mystery was never solved.

To the port of missing ships she carried brave Blakely and his men after a meteoric career which had swept her from one victory to another.
Of the frigates, only three saw action during the last two years of the war, and of these the _President_ and the _Essex_ were compelled to strike to superior forces of the enemy.

The _Constitution_ was lucky enough to gain the open sea in December, 1814, and fought her farewell battle with the frigate _Cyane_ and the sloop-of-war _Levant_ on the 20th of February.

In this fight Captain Charles Stewart showed himself a gallant successor to Hull and Bainbridge.

Together the two British ships were stronger than the _Constitution_, but Stewart cleverly hammered the one and then the other and captured both.