The Great Republic by the Master Historians The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis byBancroft, Hubert H.
[The Revolutionary War, which in its earlier years had been in great part
confined to the North, was in its later years transferred to the South, which
became the scene of its most important events. During 1779 active operations
took place in both regions. In the South the British were endeavoring to reduce
South Carolina and Georgia; in the North, Clinton and Washington stood opposed;
and in the West Indies the fleets of England and France contended. The fall of
Savannah was soon followed by the capture of Sunbury, which gave the British
military command of Georgia. They were defeated in an attack upon Port Royal,
but soon afterwards General Ash was defeated at Brier Creek, with the loss of
nearly his whole army of two thousand men. General Prevost, the British
commander, now marched on Charleston, but was compelled to retreat by the
advance of the Americans under General Lincoln. In September, the French fleet,
under Count D'Estaing, in concert with General Lincoln's army, laid siege to
Savannah. The siege continued for a month, when an assault was made, in which
the Americans were repulsed with severe loss. This forced them to raise the
siege.
Meanwhile, in the North, desultory fighting continued, but no engagements of
importance took place. Governor Tryon headed several expeditions, which resulted
only in the barbarous plundering and burning of defenceless towns. During one of
these occurred General Putnam's famous feat at Horse-Neck, Connecticut, in which
he plunged at the full speed of his horse down a precipitous descent, without
injury either from the desperate ride or from the bullets of the enemy. Another
brilliant exploit was the capture by General Wayne of the fort at Stony Point,
on the Hudson, which had some time before been taken by General Clinton. Wayne
arrived near this fortress, unperceived by the garrison, on the evening of July
15. Dividing his force into two columns, and forbidding them to load their
muskets, he marched them silently against the post. They were forced to wade
through a deep morass, and while here were discovered by the English, who opened
on them with a terrible fire of musketry and grape-shot. Yet without a moment's
check they rushed impetuously forward, forced their way with the bayonet, and
the two columns met in the centre of the fort, which instantly yielded. More
than six hundred of the British were killed and taken, with a large amount of
stores. Another important event of the year was General Sullivan's expedition
against the Six Nations, of whom only the Oneidas favored the Americans. He
penetrated their country, defeated them in a severe encounter, burned their
villages and corn, and so intimidated them that they gave much less trouble
during the remainder of the war. During the summer Spain declared war against
Great Britain, and joined her fleet to that of France.
In September of this year occurred the famous naval battle between the Bon Homme
Richard and the Serapis, which is of sufficient interest to describe in detail.
With the exception of this one striking conflict, the naval history of the war
is of secondary importance, as compared with the conflict on land. Early in the
war the American Congress authorized privateering, and much damage was done to
the British shipping by the active rovers of the seas. Efforts were also made to
build fleets, and many actions took place at sea, but none of particular
interest, during the first half of the war. John Paul Jones, the boldest of
American naval commanders of that period, first entered the service on May 10,
1776, in command of the sloop-of-war Providence, one of the American squadron of
thirteen war-vessels built in 1776. But he first attained celebrity in 1778, as
commander of the Ranger, of eighteen guns. With this vessel, which is described
as being crank and slow, he descended on the coasts of England and Scotland and
made an effort to burn the shipping in the harbor of Whitehaven. This attempt
proved unsuccessful. He afterwards attempted to seize the Earl of Selkirk,
landing and taking possession of his house, from which the earl chanced to be
absent. These daring operations created the greatest alarm along the English
coast. The Ranger afterwards captured the sloop-of-war Drake, after a severe
combat, and carried her prize safely into the harbor of Brest, though chased
repeatedly.
The exploits of the captain of the Ranger yielded him so much celebrity that the
French government soon after gave him command of the Duras, an old Indiaman of
some size, which was placed under the American flag and fitted up as a ship of
war, being armed with six eighteen-pounders, twenty-eight twelves, and eight
nines. The vessel was old-fashioned and clumsy, and had a motley crew, from
almost every nation of Europe, with one hundred and thirty-five marines to keep
them in order. This ship, in company with four smaller vessels, the Alliance,
the Pallas, the Cerf, and the Vengeance, of which only the Alliance and the Cerf
were fitted for war, set sail from L'Orient on June 19, 1779. The name of the
Duras had previously been changed to the Bon Homme Richard, in compliment to
Franklin. After a short cruise the squadron returned, and sailed again on August
14. The Richard had now nearly one hundred Americans on board, gained from some
exchanged American seamen.
After having produced a general alarm along the coast of England by his daring
movements, Captain Jones met, on the 13th of September, a British fleet of more
than forty sail of merchantmen, convoyed by the Serapis, a forty-four-gun ship,
and the Countess of Scarborough, of twenty-two guns. The Serapis was a new
vessel, reputed a fast sailer, and armed with twenty eighteen-pounders, twenty
nine-pounders, and ten six-pounders, making fifty guns in all. She had a trained
man-of-war's crew of three hundred and twenty men. This encounter took place off
Flamborough Head, within easy view of the English coast.
On learning the character of the fleet, Captain Jones gave the signal for chase,
and displayed signs of hostility which alarmed the English ships and caused a
hurried flight for safety, while the Serapis hauled out to sea, until far enough
to windward, when she stood in again to cover her convoy. The Alliance and
Pallas, who were in company with the Richard, moved with indecision, as if in
doubt whether to fly or fight. The story of the remarkable naval battle which
succeeded we select from Cooper's "History of the Navy of the United States of
America," where it is well told.]
It was now quite dark, and Commodore Jones was compelled to follow the movements
of the enemy by the aid of a night-glass. It is probable that the obscurity
which prevailed added to the indecision of the commander of the Pallas, for,
from this time until the moon rose, objects at a distance were distinguished
with difficulty, and, even after the moon appeared, with uncertainty. The
Richard, however, stood steadily on, and about half-past seven she came up with
the Serapis, the Scarborough being a shot distance to leeward. The American ship
was to windward, and, as she drew slowly near, Captain Pearson hailed. The
answer was equivocal, and both ships delivered their entire broadsides nearly
simultaneously. The water being quite smooth, Commodore Jones had relied
materially on the eighteens that were in the gun-room; but at this discharge two
of the six that were fired burst, blowing up the deck above, and killing or
wounding a large proportion of the people that were stationed below. This
disaster caused all the heavy guns to be instantly deserted, for the men had no
longer confidence in their metal. It at once reduced the broadside of the
Richard to about a third less than that of her opponent, not to include the
disadvantage of the manner in which the force that remained was distributed
among light guns. In short, the combat was now between a twelve-pounder and an
eighteen-pounder frigate,--a species of contest in which, it has been said, we
know not with what truth, the former has never been known to prevail. Commodore
Jones informs us himself that all his hopes, after this accident, rested on the
twelve-pounders that were under the command of his first lieutenant.
The Richard, having backed her topsails, exchanged several broadsides, when she
filled again and shot ahead of the Serapis, which ship luffed across her stern
and came up on the weather quarter of her antagonist, taking the wind out of her
sails, and, in her turn, passing ahead. All this time, which consumed half an
hour, the cannonading was close and furious. The Scarborough now drew near, but
it is uncertain whether she fired or not. On the side of the Americans it is
affirmed that she raked the Richard at least once; but by the report of her own
commander it would appear that, on account of the obscurity and the smoke, he
was afraid to discharge his guns, not knowing which ship might be friend or
which foe. Unwilling to lie by and be exposed to shot uselessly, Captain Piercy
edged away from the combatants, exchanging a broadside or two, at a great
distance, with the Alliance, and shortly afterwards was engaged at close
quarters by the Pallas, which ship compelled him to strike, after a creditable
resistance of about an hour.
Having disposed of the inferior ships, we can confine ourselves to the principal
combatants. As the Serapis kept her luff, sailing and working better than the
Richard, it was the intention of Captain Pearson to pay broad off across the
latter's fore-foot, as soon as he had got far enough ahead; but, making the
attempt, and finding he had not room, he put his helm hard down to keep clear of
his adversary, when the double movement brought the two ships nearly in a line,
the Serapis leading. By these uncertain evolutions the English ship lost some of
her way, while the American, having kept her sails trimmed, not only closed, but
actually ran aboard of her antagonist, bows on, a little on her weather quarter.
The wind being light, much time was consumed in these different manoeuvres, and
near an hour elapsed between the firing of the first guns and the moment when
the vessels got foul of each other in the manner just described.
The English now thought that it was the intention of the Americans to board
them, and a few minutes passed in the uncertainty which such an expectation
would create; but the positions of the vessels were not favorable for either
party to pass into the opposing ship. There being at this moment a perfect
cessation of the firing, Captain Pearson demanded, "Have you struck your
colors?" "I have not yet begun to fight," was the answer.
The yards of the Richard were braced aback, and, the sails of the Serapis being
full, the ships separated. As soon as far enough asunder, the Serapis put her
helm hard down, laid all aback forward, shivered her after-sails, and wore short
round on her heel, or was box-hauled, with a view, most probably, of luffing up
athwart the bow of the enemy, in order to again rake her. In this position the
Richard would have been fighting her starboard and the Serapis her larboard
guns; but Commodore Jones by this time was conscious of the hopelessness of
success against so much heavier metal, and, after having backed astern some
distance, he filled on the other tack, luffing up with the intention of meeting
the enemy as he came to the wind, and of laying him athwart hawse. In the smoke,
one party or the other miscalculated the distance, for the two vessels came foul
again, the bowsprit of the English ship passing over the poop of the American.
As neither had much way, the collision did but little injury, and Commodore
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 in this position.
Captain Pearson, who was as much aware of his advantage in a regular combat as
his opponent could be of his own inferiority, 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 such an expectation was perfectly futile, as the yards
were interlocked, the hulls were pressed close against each other, there were
lashings fore and aft, and even the ornamental work aided in holding the 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 instant the English made an attempt to board, but were repulsed with
trifling loss.
All this time the battle raged. The lower ports of the Serapis having been
closed, as the vessel 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-deck 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, and at the end of the 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 that was not shot down.
Thus, while the English had the battle nearly 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 of 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
of 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 trousers; 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 then said to be in great danger. Captain
Pearson described the explosion as having destroyed nearly all the men at the
five or six aftermost guns. On the whole, nearly sixty of the Serapis's people
must have been instantly disabled by this sudden blow.
This advantage thus obtained, by the coolness and intrepidity of the topman, 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 the enemy, while the two
others had seconded the fire of the tops with grape and canister. 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
Englishmen 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 characterize the vicissitudes of battle.
[The event here alluded to was the following. While the fight was taking place
between the Pallas and the Scarborough, the Alliance stood off and on, as if in
doubt how or where to be of service. She finally approached the Richard and
Serapis, and fired in such a way as to do as much damage to friend as to foe, if
not even more. Fifty voices hailed her, calling out that she was firing into the
wrong ship. Ten or twelve men seem to have been killed and wounded on the
Richard by this discharge. The Alliance, after some further ineffectual efforts
to aid her consort, stood off, and took no part in the remainder of the fight.]
The fire of the Alliance added greatly to the leaks of the Richard, which ship
by this time had received so much water through the shot-holes as to begin to
settle. It is even affirmed by many witnesses that the most dangerous shot-holes
on board the Richard were under her larboard bow and larboard counter, in places
where they could not have been received from the Serapis. This evidence,
however, is not unanswerable, as it has been seen that the Serapis luffed up on
the larboard quarter of the Richard in the commencement of the action, and,
forging ahead, was subsequently on her larboad bow, endeavoring to cross her
fore-foot. It is certainly possible that shot may have struck the Richard in the
places mentioned, on these occasions, and that, as the ship settled in the water
from other leaks, the holes then made may have suddenly increased the danger. On
the other hand, if the Alliance did actually fire while on the bow and quarter
of the Richard, as appears by a mass of uncontradicted testimony, the dangerous
shot-holes may very well have come from that ship.
Let the injuries have been received 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 good 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 from below, in order to save their
lives. In the confusion of such a scene at night, the master of the 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 in 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 on 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 quarter. 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, was
supposed to come from an unauthorized source; for, encouraged by what he had
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
common 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 a call for quarter, her
chances of 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.
As soon as it was known that the colors of the English had been lowered, Mr.
Dale got upon the gunwale of the Richard, and, laying hold of her main brace
pendant, he swung himself on board the Serapis. On the quarter-deck of the
latter he found Captain Pearson, almost alone, that gallant officer having
maintained his post throughout the whole of this close and murderous conflict.
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, her fire having
entirely ceased. Mr. Dale now gave the English officer to understand that he was
mistaken in the position of things, the Serapis having struck to the Richard,
and not the Richard to the Serapis. Captain Pearson confirming this account, his
subordinate acquiesced, offering to go below and silence the guns that were
still playing upon the American ship. To this Mr. Dale would not consent, but
both the English officers were immediately passed on board the Richard. The
firing was then stopped below. Mr. Dale had been closely followed to the
quarter-deck of the Serapis by Mr. Mayrant, a midshipman, and a party of
boarders, and as the former struck the quarter-deck of the prize he was run
through the thigh by a boarding-pike in the hands of a man in the waist, who was
ignorant of the surrender. Thus did the close of this remarkable combat resemble
its other features in singularity, blood being shed and shots fired while the
boarding officer was in amicable discourse with his prisoners.
[After the surrender the Richard was discovered to be both sinking and burning.
The other vessels of the squadron sent men on board, of which one party worked
the pumps, while another fought the fire. The flames were at length subdued, but
an examination showed that it would be almost impossible to carry the vessel
into port. She was accordingly abandoned, and about ten the next day "the Bon
Homme Richard wallowed heavily, gave a roll, and settled slowly into the sea,
bows foremost." The Serapis, which was much less injured, was taken safely into
port. Thus ended the most extra-ordinary sea-fight on record, and one which has
given to the name of Paul Jones an imperishable fame.]
