Naval battles of the world

by Edward Shippen

By these evolutions the English ship lost some of her way, while the American, having kept her sails trimmed, not only closed, but actually ran on board of her antagonist, bows on, a little on her starboard quarter. The wind being light, much time was consumed in these manœuvres, and nearly an hour had elapsed between the firing of the first gun and the moment when the vessels got foul of each other, in the manner just described. The English thought it was the intention of the Americans to board; and for some minutes it was uncertain whether they would do so or not, but the position was not safe for either party to pass into the opposing ship.

There being at this time a complete cessation of the firing, Captain Pearson hailed, and asked whether the Richard had struck. “I have not yet begun to fight,” was the answer from Jones.

The Richard’s yards were then braced aback, and the sails of the Serapis being full, the ships separated.

As soon as they were far enough apart, the Serapis put her helm hard down, laid all aback forward, shivered her after sails, and wore short round on her heel, with a view, most probably, of luffing up across the Richard’s bow, in order to rake her. In this position the Richard would have been fighting her starboard, and the Serapis her port guns; but Jones, by this time, had become convinced of the hopelessness of success against so much heavier metal; and so backed astern some distance, filled on the other tack, and luffed up, with the intention of meeting the enemy as he came to the wind, and of laying him athwart hawse.

In the smoke and dim light, one or the other party miscalculated the distance, for the vessels came foul again, the bowsprit of the English vessel passing over the poop of the American. As neither had much way the collision did but little injury, and Jones, with his own hands, immediately lashed the enemy’s head-gear to his mizzen-mast. The pressure on the after sails of the Serapis, which vessel was nearly before the wind at the time, brought her hull round, and the two ships gradually fell close alongside of each other, head and stern; the jib-boom of the Serapis giving way with the strain. A spare anchor of the English ship now hooked in the quarter of the American, and additional lashings were got out on board the latter, to secure her opponent in this position.

Captain Pearson, who was a brave and excellent officer, was fully aware of his superiority in weight of metal; and he no sooner perceived that the vessels were foul than he dropped an anchor, in the hope that the Richard would drift clear of him. But, of course, such an expectation was futile, as the yards were interlocked, the hulls pressed close together, there were lashings fore and aft, and every projection aided in holding the two ships together. When the cable of the Serapis took the strain, the vessels slowly tended, with the bows of the Serapis and the stern of the Richard, to the tide.

At this time the English made an attempt to board, but were repulsed, with trifling loss. All this time there was a heavy fire kept up from the guns. The lower ports of the Serapis having been closed as the vessel swung, to prevent boarding, they were now blown off, 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 opposing ship, in order to be entered in the muzzles of their proper guns. It was evident that such a state of things could not last long. In effect, the heavy metal of the Serapis, in one or two discharges, cleared all before it, and the main-deck guns of the Richard were almost abandoned. Most of her people went upon the upper deck, and a great number collected on the forecastle, where they were safe from the battery of the Serapis; continuing the fight by throwing grenades and using muskets.

At this stage of the action, then, the Serapis was tearing the American to pieces, below, at each discharge of her battery; the latter only replying to the English fire by two guns on the quarter-deck, and three or four of her twelve-pounders. To the quarter-deck guns Jones succeeded in adding a third, by shifting a gun from the port side; and all these were used with effect, under his own eye, until the close of the action.

He tried to get over a second gun, from the port side, but did not succeed.

The fight must now have been decided in favor of the English, but for the courage and activity of the people aloft. Strong parties were placed in the tops, and, after a sharp and short contest, the Americans had driven every man of the enemy from the upper deck of the English frigate. After this they kept up so sharp a fire of small-arms upon the quarter-deck of the English ship as to keep it clear, shooting down many in the operation.