“The game was up. Jones hauled down his false British colors and broke out the Continental Navy ensign. At just that moment, a nervous marine in the Bonhomme Richard’s tops fired his musket. Both ships erupted, loosing their broadsides at once. The sound was appalling: the tremendous concussion of forty-two cannon and scores of small arms fired at nearly the same instant, the cracking of splintered wood, the jarring clang of a cannonball striking an iron muzzle or an anchor fluke, and, very soon thereafter, the shrieks and cries of the wounded. At the range of twenty-five yards, every gun hit home. For the officers standing exposed on the quarterdeck, it must have taken extraordinary willpower not to flinch or cringe, much less dive for cover. “The battle thus begun was continued with unremitting fury,” wrote Jones. The second broadside was more cataclysmic than the first. In the gun room, one, possibly two of the Bonhomme Richard’s aging 18-p0unders burst in a blinding flash. The force of the explosion was so great that it ripped a chunk out of the ship’s starboard side right above the waterline. Inside the gun room there was utter devastation. Men lay dead, dismembered, and horribly burned. Jones knew right away what had gone wrong, and he ordered the gun room abandoned. The remaining 18-pounders were useless, made unreliable by age and poor casting. The ten 18-poundes on the port side of the Serapis were in perfect working order, however, and they were manned by crews who had relentlessly practiced loading and firing. Jones had rarely [if ever] exercised his great guns with live ammunition; he lacked sufficient gunpowder. As the two ships glided along, blasting away in a pall of smoke, Pearson outfoxed Jones. The American commander had wanted the Bonhomme Richard to sail to windward of the Serapis. Normally, the ship to windward has more manueverability, and hence more ability to dictate the course of the battle, because a square-rigged sailing ship has a much easier time bearing down, sailing away from the wind, than trying to head up into it. The more aggressive British generally tried to get to windward against the French, who stereotypically hung to leeward because it was easier to escape. By sailing to windward, Jones thought he had seized the role of the aggressor and put the Serapis on the defensive. AS the Bonhomme Richard blanketed the Serapis, stealing the light and eddying breeze from her sails, Jones ship drew ahead. Then Pearson made his play. As soon as the stern of the Bonhomme Richard cleared the bow of the Serapis, Pearson veered up a few points, cutting to windward and behind the Bonhomme Richard. The British ship gained momentum and briefly blanketed the American ship. Then, at just the right moment, Pearson ordered, “Ware ship!” The helmsman spun the wheel, and the Serapis slipped down at right angles to the Bonhomme Richard’s stern. Those beautiful stern windows that lit up Jones’s great cabin, all the carving and gilt work, presented a fat target to the port battery of the Serapis.”
Excerpted from “John Paul Jones”, author, Evan Thomas. Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER. Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
Islander.