Portrait of Jones [Frontispiece]
Facsimile—first page log Serapis [xxxvi]
" letter of Groube [xxxvii]
" first page muster-roll Bon Homme Richard [xxxix]
Picture—Engagement of Bon Homme Richard and Serapis [xlv]
FOREWORD
The executive committee of the Naval History Society having decided to publish for its initial volume the logs of the three ships commanded by John Paul Jones during the years 1779 and 1780, the owner has consented to edit this publication, with a description of the book itself, together with its history, so far as it can be ascertained, believing that it will add something of interest to the voluminous records and the literature relating to the life and services of the distinguished hero of our Revolutionary navy.
Besides these logs of the Serapis, Alliance, and Ariel, there are, in the Library of the Navy Department, copies of the log of the Ranger, beginning November 26, 1777, and ending May 18, 1778; also of the log of the Bon Homme Richard, beginning at L'Orient May 18, 1779, and ending September 24, 1779.
The original log-books, as shown by notes and a copy of a letter accompanying and attached to them, are stated to have been purchased by Captain Boyd, of Greenock, from a person of the name of Harding, a baker, in New York, in 1824; and to have been presented to Lady Isabella Helen Douglas, daughter of the fifth Earl of Selkirk, by William John, ninth Lord Napier, on March 17, 1830; they are now supposed to rest among the manuscripts of the Selkirk family.
Had the editor known of the existence of this log of the Bon Homme Richard, covering the period of her commissioning and cruise prior to the engagement with the Serapis, he would have deemed it proper to have included it in this publication. The information came to him too late to have it fully transcribed and prepared for the printer. A few excerpts from it are placed in the Appendix.[1]