Great Events in the History of North and South America

by Charles A. Goodrich

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.