4. LE BON HOMME RICHARD AND SERAPIS.
On the 10th of April, 1778, the celebrated John Paul Jones sailed on a cruise from France, having the Ranger placed under his command by the American commissioners, Franklin, Deane, and Lee. In consideration of his previous valuable services, he was allowed to cruise wherever he pleased. Accordingly, he directed his course along the British coast, and for a time kept the people of the maritime part of Scotland, and part of England, in a state of great alarm and excitement.
Among his exploits on this cruise, previous to that in which he engaged the Serapis, his descent upon Whitehaven was of the boldest character. Two forts, with thirty pieces of cannon, guarded this port, in which, at the time, were a hundred vessels at anchor.
"Two parties landed in the night; the forts were seized and the guns spiked; the few look-outs that were in the works being confined. In effecting this duty, Captain Jones was foremost in person; for, having once sailed out of that port, he was familiar with the situation of the place. An accident, common to both the parties into which the expedition had been divided, came near defeating the enterprise in the outset. They had brought candles in lanterns, for the double purpose of lights and torches, and, now that they were about to be used as the latter, it was found that they were all consumed. As the day was appearing, the party under Mr. Wallingford, one of the lieutenants, took to its boat without effecting any thing, while Captain Jones sent to a detached building, and obtained a candle. He boarded a large ship, kindled a fire in her steerage, and by placing a barrel of tar over the spot, soon had the vessel in flames. This ship lay in the midst of more than a hundred others, high and dry, the tide being out; Captain Jones took to his boats, and pulled towards his ship. Some guns were fired on the retiring boats without effect; but the people of the place succeeded in extinguishing the flames before the mischief became very extensive."
Jones setting Fire to the Ships at Whitehaven.
During this cruise, another bold enterprise was undertaken. This was an attempt to seize the Earl of Selkirk, who had a seat on St. Mary's Isle, near the point, where the Dee flows into the channel. Jones was well acquainted with the place, his father having been gardener to the earl, but he was not himself immediately engaged in the attempt, that being entrusted to a subordinate officer. The party landed, demanded and took possession of the house, but, to their great disappointment, the duke himself was absent. One unauthorized act of the party, Captain Jones condemned, viz: the seizure of about one hundred pounds value of plate. This, however, he afterwards purchased of the crew, and returned to Lady Selkirk, with a letter expressive of his regrets at the occurrence.
He next steered towards the coast of Ireland, where he encountered the Drake, twenty, a ship which he had a sincere desire to meet. On approaching the Ranger, the Drake hailed, and received the name of her antagonist, by way of challenge, with a request to come on. As the two ships were standing on in this manner, the Drake a little to leeward and astern, the Ranger put her helm up, a manœuvre that the enemy imitated, and the former gave the first broadside. The wind admitted of but few changes, but the battle was fought running fire, under easy canvas. It lasted an hour and four minutes, when the Drake called for quarter, her ensign being already cut down.
The English ship was much cut up, both in her hull and aloft, and Captain Jones computed her loss at about forty men. Her captain and lieutenant were both desperately wounded, and died shortly after the engagement. The Ranger suffered much less, having Lieutenant Wallingford and one man killed, and six wounded. The Drake was not only a heavier ship, but she had a much stronger crew than her antagonist. She had also two guns the most.
With this prize, Jones returned to Brest, where for a time he remained in hope of receiving a more important command, and which had brought him to Europe.
After many delays, the king of France purchased for him the Duras, an old Indiaman, which name Jones exchanged for Le Bon Homme Richard.[51] To this were, added by order of the French ministry, the Pallas, Cerf, and Vengeance, and, by Dr. Franklin, commissioner, the Alliance, thirty-two, then in France. The Cerf and Alliance were the only vessels of the squadron fitted for war.
Paul Jones.
With this squadron, Commodore Jones, on the 19th of June, 1779, sailed from the anchorage under the Isle of Groix, off l'Orient, bound southward; but, finding it necessary to return, he left the anchorage a second time, on the 14th of August. About the 23d of September, he fell in with a fleet of merchantmen, of more than forty sail, under convoy of the Serapis, forty-four, Captain Richard Pearson, and the Countess of Seaborough, twenty-two.
The Serapis was a new ship, mounting on her lower gun-deck, twenty eighteen-pound guns, on her upper gun deck, twenty nine-pound guns, and on her quarter-deck and forecastle, ten six-pound guns; making an armament of fifty guns in the whole. Her crew consisted of three hundred and twenty men. The Bon Homme Richard was a single-decked ship, with six old eighteen-pounders mounted in the gun-room below, and twenty-eight twelve-pounders on her main or proper gun-deck, with eight nines on her quarter-deck forecastle, and six in the gangways, making in all a mixed, or rather light amount of forty-two guns. Her crew consisted of three hundred and eighty men, of whom one hundred and thirty-seven were marines or soldiers.
Our narrative will be confined to the action between the Richard and the Serapis, which proved one of the most terrible and hotly-contested engagements recorded in the annals of naval warfare.
Le Bon Homme Richard and Serapis.
About half-past seven in the evening, the Richard came up with the Serapis. Captain Pearson hailed. The answer of Commodore Jones was designedly equivocal, and, in a moment after, both ships delivered their entire broadsides. A sad and destructive catastrophe befel the Richard. Two of her eighteen guns burst, blowing up the deck above, and killing or wounding a large proportion of the people stationed below. This disaster caused all the heavy guns to be deserted, the men having no longer sufficient confidence in them to use them. The loss of these reduced the Richard one-third below that of her rival; in short, it became a contest between a twelve-pounder and an eighteen pounder, a species of contest in which it has been said the former has never been known to prevail. Captain Jones, however, more than most men, was fitted for desperate circumstances, and in a moment determined to make up in rëdoubled activity what was wanting in power of metal.
Nearly an hour was consumed in different manœuvres—shifting, firing—each endeavoring to obtain the advantage of position; till, at length, the vessels came close together, but not in a manner which permitted either party to board. The firing ceased for a few minutes. Captain Pearson, imagining the enemy had surrendered, demanded, "Have you struck your colors?" "I have not yet begun to fight!" vociferated the intrepid Jones.
The ships again separated, and the firing was renewed. Again they fell upon each other, and in the moment of collision, Captain Jones, with his own hands, lashed the enemy's head-gear to his mizen-mast. This brought them more entirely side by side, and it being desirable on the part of Captain Jones to retain the enemy in that position, additional lashings were employed to effect that object. This was a disappointment to Captain Pearson, but he determined to be first in boarding, and now made a vigorous attempt with that object in view, but was repulsed.
"All this time, the battle raged. The lower ports of the Serapis having been closed, as the vessels swung, to prevent boarding, they were now blown off, in order to allow the guns to be run out; and cases actually occurred in which the rammers had to be thrust into the ports of the opposite ship, in order to be entered into the muzzles of their proper guns. It is evident that such a conflict must have been of short duration. In effect, the heavy metal of the Serapis, in one or two discharges, cleared all before it, and the main guns of the Richard were in a great measure abandoned. Most of the people went on the upper deck, and a great number collected on the forecastle, where they were safe from the fire of the enemy, continuing to fight by throwing grenades and using muskets.
"In this stage of the combat, the Serapis was tearing her antagonist to pieces below, almost without resistance from her enemy's batteries, only two guns on the quarter-deck, and three or four of the twelves, being worked at all. To the former, by shifting a gun from the larboard side, Commodore Jones succeeded in adding a third, all of which were used with effect, under his immediate inspection, to the close of the action. He could not muster force enough to get over a second gun. But the combat would now have soon terminated, had it not been for the courage and activity of the people aloft. Strong parties had been placed in the tops; at the end of a short contest, the Americans had driven every man belonging to the enemy below; after which, they kept up so animated a fire, on the quarter-deck of the Serapis in particular, as to drive nearly every man off it, that was not shot down.
"Thus, while the English had the battle nearly all to themselves below, their enemies had the control above the upper-deck. Having cleared the tops of the Serapis, some American seamen lay out on the Richard's main-yard, and began to throw hand-grenades upon the two upper-decks of the English ship; the men on the forecastle of their own vessel seconding these efforts, by casting the same combustibles through the ports of the Serapis. At length, one man in particular became so hardy, as to take his post on the extreme end of the yard, whence, provided with a bucket filled with combustibles and a match, he dropped the grenades with so much precision, that one passed through the main-hatchway. The powder-boys of the Serapis, had got more cartridges up than were wanted, and, in their hurry, they had carelessly laid a row of them on the main-deck, in a line with the guns. The grenade just mentioned, set fire to some loose powder that was lying near, and the flash passed from cartridge to cartridge beginning abreast the main-mast, and running quite aft.
"The effect of this explosion was awful. More than twenty men were instantly killed, many of them being left with nothing on them but the collars and wristbands of their shirts, and the waistbands of their duck trowsers; while the official returns of the ship, a week after the action, show that there were no less than thirty-eight wounded on board still alive, who had been injured in this manner, and of whom thirty were said to have been then in great danger. Captain Pearson describes this explosion as having destroyed nearly all the men at the five or six aftermost guns. On the whole, nearly sixty must have been disabled by this sudden blow.
"The advantage thus obtained by the coolness and intrepidity of the topmen, in a great measure restored the chances of the combat; and, by lessening the fire of the enemy, enabled Commodore Jones to increase his. In the same degree that it encouraged the crew of the Richard, it diminished the hopes of the people of the Serapis. One of the guns, under the immediate inspection of Commodore Jones, had been pointed some time against the main-mast of his enemy, while the two others had seconded the fire of the tops, with grape and cannister. Kept below decks by this double attack, where a scene of frightful horror was present in the agonies of the wounded, and the effects of the explosion, the spirits of the English began to droop, and there was a moment when a trifle would have induced them to submit. From this despondency, they were temporarily raised, by one of those unlooked-for events that ever accompany the vicissitudes of battle.
"After exchanging an ineffective and distant broadside with the Scarborough, the Alliance kept standing off and on, to leeward of the two principal ships, out of the direction of their shot, when, about half-past eight, she appeared crossing the stern of the Serapis and the bow of the Richard, firing at such a distance as to render it impossible to say which vessel would suffer the most. As soon as she had drawn out of the range of her own guns, her helm was put up, and she ran down nearly a mile to leeward, hovering about, until the firing had ceased between the Pallas and Scarborough, when she came within hail, and spoke both of these vessels. Captain Cottineau, of the Pallas, earnestly entreated Captain Landais to take possession of his prize, and allow him to go to the assistance of the Richard, or to stretch up to windward in the Alliance himself, and succor the commodore."[52]
At length, Captain Landais determined to go to the assistance of the Richard, but on reaching the scene of engagement, he opened a fire which did as much damage to friend as foe. He was hailed, and informed that he was firing into the wrong ship. At the time, it was supposed to be a mistake; but afterwards it was more than conjectured to have been a wanton and cruel act of revenge on the part of Landais, who had for some time exhibited strong feelings of hostility to Captain Jones, and had neglected on several occasions to follow out his orders.
"Let the injuries have been received," continues Mr. Cooper, "from what quarter they might, soon after the Alliance had run to leeward, an alarm was spread in the Richard that the ship was sinking. Both vessels had been on fire several times, and some difficulty had been experienced in extinguishing the flames; but here was a new enemy to contend with, and as the information came from the carpenter, whose duty it was to sound the pump-wells, it produced a great deal of consternation. The Richard had more than a hundred English prisoners on board, and the master-at-arms, in the hurry of the moment, let them all up below, in order to save their lives. In the confusion of such a scene at night, the master of a letter-of-marque, that had been taken off the north of Scotland, passed through a port of the Richard into one of the Serapis, when he reported to Captain Pearson, that a few minutes would probably decide the battle in his favor, or carry his enemy down, he himself having been liberated in order to save his life. Just at this instant, the gunner, who had little to occupy him at his quarters, came on deck, and not perceiving Commodore Jones, or Mr. Dale, both of whom were occupied with the liberated prisoners, and believing the master, the only other superior he had in the ship, to be dead, he ran up the poop to haul down the colors. Fortunately, the flag-staff had been shot away, and, the ensign already hanging in the water, he had no other means of letting his intention to submit be known than by calling out for quarters. Captain Pearson now hailed to inquire if the Richard demanded quarter, and was answered by Commodore Jones himself in the negative. It is probable that the reply was not heard, or if heard, supposed to come from an unauthorized source; for encouraged by what he learned from the escaped prisoner, by the cry, and by the confusion that prevailed in the Richard, the English captain directed his boarders to be called away, and, as soon as mustered, they were ordered to take possession of the prize. Some of the men actually got on the gunwale of the latter ship, but finding boarders ready to repel boarders, they made a precipitate retreat. All this time the topmen were not idle, and the enemy were soon driven below again with loss.
"In the mean while, Mr. Dale, who no longer had a gun that could be fought, mustered the prisoners at the pumps, turning their consternation to account, and probably keeping the Richard afloat by the very blunder that had come so near losing her. The ships were now on fire again, and both parties, with the exception of a few guns on each side, ceased fighting, in order to subdue this dangerous enemy. In the course of the combat, the Serapis is said to have been set on fire no less than twelve times, while towards its close, as will be seen in the sequel, the Richard was burning all the while.
"As soon as order was restored in the Richard, after the call for quarter, her chances for success began to increase, while the English, driven under cover almost to a man, appear to have lost, in a great degree, the hope of victory. Their fire materially slackened, while the Richard again brought a few more guns to bear; the main-mast of the Serapis began to totter, and her resistance, in general, to lessen. About an hour after the explosion, or between three hours and three hours and a half after the first gun was fired, and between two hours and two hours and a half after the ships were lashed together, Captain Pearson hauled down the colors of the Serapis with his own hands, the men refusing to expose themselves to the fire of the Richard's tops."
Sinking of the Bon Homme Richard.
Thus ended a conflict as murderous and sanguinary as the annals of naval warfare have recorded. Each ship lost about one hundred and fifty men, or nearly one-half of the whole number engaged.
At the time of the surrender, the Richard was on fire, and apparently sinking. So imminent was the danger, that the powder was hastily removed from the magazine, and placed on the deck, to prevent explosion. Men from the other ships were sent on board, and the pumps were kept in motion, and water raised and dashed around until ten o'clock the next day, before the fire was got under. An examination of the ship followed, the result of which was, that it was necessary to abandon her. The wounded were consequently ordered to be removed, and on the following day, about ten o'clock, this gallant ship settled slowly into the sea.
The squadron now left the scene of mortal combat, with the Serapis and Scarborough, the latter having struck to the Pallas. The former having lost her main-mast, jury masts were obliged to be rigged; after driving about in the rough sea until the 6th of October, the squadron and prizes entered the Texel, the port to which they had been ordered to repair.