Wickes had to drop anchor because of unfavorable winds. Four days later Wickes hailed a fishing boat, which took Franklin and his grandsons ashore at the village of Auray. Setting sail in January 1777, Wickes took Reprisal to sea on a cruise which took her to the Bay of Biscay and the mouth of the English Channel. On February 5, his ship captured the armed packet-boat Swallow, carrying mail between Britain and its ally Portugal, after a hard action of 40 minutes duration. During the battle, Reprisal suffered two officers seriously wounded and one man killed. During the remainder of this foray against British shipping, Wickes took five additional prizes and left them at Port Louis. Wickes moved Reprisal to Lorient, but was ordered to leave the port in 24 hours by the French government—the port authorities apparently stirred to action by bitter remonstrances from the British government. Wickes, however, claimed that Reprisal had sprung a leak and needed to be careened for hull repairs. Wickes proved to be skillful at gaining time; as, on several occasions, he thwarted the intentions of the French government to have him sail. In April 1777, the Continental vessels Lexington and Dolphin joined Reprisal and constituted a squadron under Wickes' command. Setting sail from St. Auzeau on May 28, the ships cruised around Ireland in June, July, and August; during one phase of the voyage, the three ships captured 15 ships in five days. On September 14, Wickes left France in Reprisal, in company with Dolphin, bound for home. Around October 1, Reprisal foundered off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, with the loss of all hands except the cook. Legacy Louis H. Bolander, the assistant librarian at the Naval Academy, wrote an article on Wickes in 1928, entitled "A Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution." Appearing in Americana, in April 1928, the article closed with a fitting epitaph for Capt. Lambert Wickes: "Thus closed a career distinguished for patriotism, gallantry and humanity, for not a single charge of cruelty or harshness was ever breathed against him by any one of his many prisoners. Franklin, who knew him well, said of him, 'He was a gallant officer, and a very worthy man.' " Two ships in the United States Navy have been named in his honor. The two iron balls on each side of a magnetic compass, used to balance out and counteract magnetic variations