About an hour after the explosion, or about three hours and a half after the first gun was fired, and about two hours and a half after the ships were lashed together, Captain Pearson hauled down his colors with his own hands, his men refusing to expose themselves to the fire of the Richard’s tops.
As soon as it was known that the English colors were down, Mr. Dale got upon the gunwale of the Richard, and, laying hold of the main-brace pendant, swung himself on board the Serapis. On the quarter-deck he found the gallant Captain Pearson, almost alone, that officer having maintained his post throughout the whole of this close and murderous engagement, proving himself a man of great nerve and ability.
Just as Mr. Dale addressed the English Captain the First Lieutenant of the Serapis came up from below, to inquire if the Richard had struck, as her fire had entirely ceased. Mr. Dale informed the English officer that he had mistaken the position of things, the Serapis having struck to the Richard, and not the Richard to the Serapis. Captain Pearson confirming this, his surprised subordinate acquiesced, offering to go below and silence the guns on the main deck, which were still playing on the American ship. To this Mr. Dale would not consent, but passed both the English officers at once on board the Bonhomme Richard. The firing below then ceased. Mr. Dale had been closely followed to the quarter-deck of the Serapis by a midshipman, Mr. Mayrant, with a party of boarders, and as the midshipman struck the quarter-deck of the prize, he was run through the thigh with a boarding pike, in the hands of a man who was ignorant of the surrender. Thus did the close of this remarkable sea-fight resemble its other features in singularity, blood being shed, and shot fired, while the boarding officer was in amicable discourse with his prisoners.
As soon as Captain Pearson was on board the Bonhomme Richard, and a proper number of hands sent to Mr. Dale, in the prize, Commodore Jones ordered the lashings to be cut, and the vessels to be separated, hailing the Serapis, as the Richard drifted from alongside of her, and ordering her to follow his own ship. Mr. Dale had the head-sails of the Serapis braced sharp aback, and the helm put down, but the vessel did not obey either the canvas or the helm. Mr. Dale was so surprised and excited at this that he sprang from the binnacle, to see the cause, and fell, full length, on deck. He had been severely wounded in the leg, by a splinter, and until that moment had been ignorant of the injury. He had just been picked up and seated, when the Master of the Serapis came up and informed him of the fact that the ship was anchored. By this time Mr. Lunt, the Second Lieutenant, who had been away in the pilot-boat, had got alongside, and came on board the prize, when Mr. Dale gave him charge, the cable was cut, and the ship followed the Richard, as ordered.
Although this protracted and bloody contest had now ended, the victors had not done with either dangers or labors. The Richard was not only sinking, from shot-holes, but she was on fire, so that the flames had got within the ceiling, and extended so far that they menaced the magazine; while all the pumps, in constant use, could barely keep the water in the hold from increasing.
Had it depended upon the exhausted crews of the two combatants the ship must soon have foundered; but the other vessels now sent men on board to assist. So imminent did the danger from the fire become, that all the powder left was got on deck, to prevent an explosion. In this manner did the night of the battle pass, with one gang always at the pumps and another fighting the flames, until about ten o’clock in the forenoon of the 24th, when the fire was got under.
Before daylight that morning eight or ten Englishmen, of the Richard’s crew, had stolen a boat of the Serapis, and made their escape, landing at Scarborough. Several other men of the Richard were so alarmed at the condition of the ship that, during the night, they jumped overboard and swam to the other vessels. At daylight an examination of the ship was made. Aloft, on a line with those guns of the Serapis which had not been disabled by the explosion, the timbers were nearly all beaten in, or beaten out, for in this respect there was little difference between the two sides of the ship. It is said, indeed, that her poop and upper-decks would have fallen into the gun-room, but for a few futtocks which the shot had missed.
So large was the vacuum, in fact, that most of the shot fired from this part of the Serapis, at the close of the action, must have gone through the Richard without touching anything. The rudder was cut from the stern-post, and her transoms were nearly driven out of her. All the after part of the ship, in particular, that was below the quarter-deck, was torn to pieces; and nothing had saved those stationed on the quarter-deck but the impossibility of elevating guns which almost touched their object.
The result of the examination was to convince every one of the impossibility of carrying the Richard into port, in the event of its coming on to blow.
Commodore Jones reluctantly gave the order to remove the wounded, while the weather continued fair.