USS Argus vs HMS Pelican

14 August 1813, Off St David's Head, Wales

British victory; Argus captured

Argus had spent a month raiding in the Channel and the Irish Sea, taking nineteen merchant ships and burning most of them, and the Admiralty sent ships out to hunt her down. The brig-sloop Pelican found her at dawn off the Welsh coast, after a night in which, it is said, many of her crew had drunk wine from a captured ship. Early in the action William Henry Allen of Argus had a leg taken off by a round shot, and Pelican's heavier carronades cut up the American's rigging until she could not manoeuvre. After about 45 minutes, with Pelican's boarders ready to cross, Argus struck. Allen died at Plymouth a few days later and was buried with full honours.

Map

• Argus raids the Channel and the Irish Sea July – August 1813