Post by spence on Jul 20, 2023 10:44:54 GMT -7
All's quiet on all fronts.
I've always been interested in sailing and have been privileged to do a fair bit of it. So, items in the old literature concerning sailing always catch my attention. This one concerning the battle which made John Paul Jones famous certainly did. Excuse the length.
The Pennsylvania Gazette
March 1, 1780
From the COURIER de l'EUROPE (a French paper, printed in London) of November 5, 1779.
By the last letters from France we have received a new relation of the famous battle which happened the 23d of September last, between the Serapis and the Good Man Richard: As it does, if possible, add to the glory of Captain Pearson, and at the same time proves that Commodore Paul Jones united humanity with courage; in a word, as it is much more particular than that which appeared in the London Gazette, we have thought it our duty to give a translation of it, it being equally authentic, and we may even say official.
Extract of a letter from the Hon. John Paul Jones, Esq; Commodore of a small squadron lately cruizing on the coast of Great Britain, to Benjamin Franklin , Esq; at Passy; dated on board the Serapis, in the Texel, October 3, 1779.
ON the 23d of September we fell in with a fleet, Flamborough Head bearing N.N.E. of us. This circumstance determined me to leave the merchant ships which were at anchor in Burlington bay, and I made a signal for a general chase. When the fleet perceived that we were bearing down upon them, all the merchant ships made sail for the shore; on the contrary, the two ships of war who had them under convoy made out to sea, and prepared for an engagement. While we approached the enemy, all sails set, I gave a signal for forming the line of battle; but, anxious as I was to engage, I could not come up with the Commodore till seven at night. When I was within pistol shot, he hailed the Good Man Richard, which we answered with a whole broadside. The fight, thus begun, was maintained with equal fury on both sides, each vessel using all possible means to gain an advantageous situation to rake the other. I must own that the enemy, having infinitely the superiority over the Good Man Richard in working the ship, thereby gained advantageous situations, in spite of every effort of mine to prevent it. As I had to do with an enemy of a much superior force, I found myself under a necessity of keeping close abroad him, to compensate the advantage he had over me in working the ship. My intention was to lay the Good Man Richard athwart the enemy’s hause; but as this required much skill in setting the sails and in steering, especially as some of our yards were already carried away, this design did not succeed to my wish. The bowsprit of the enemy being run between the poop and the mizenmast, I seized this occasion for lashing the vessels together; the wind then driving the enemy’s stern against the boy of the Good Man Richard, the two ships came close together, from stem to stern, yardarm and yardarm, and the mouths of their cannon pointed to the opposed sides. It was near eight o’clock when we found ourselves in this position; before this time the Good Man Richard had received many 18 pound shot between wind and water, and became very leaky; my tier of 12 pounders, on which I most depended, commanded by Lieutenant Dale and Colonel Vinbert, served chiefly by American seamen and French volunteers, was entirely silenced and abandoned. As to the six old 18 pounders, they were of no service to me; they were fired but eight times in all, and at the first fire two of them bursting, killed all the men that were at them. Before this critical minute Col. Chamillard, who commanded 20 men upon the poop, had left his station, after having lost all his people but five.
I had then but two nine pounders left fit for use; they were mounted on the quarter deck, and during the rest of the action we did not make use of a single gun of the large bore. --- The Sieur Mease, purser of the ship, who commanded the guns upon the quarter deck, having received a dangerous wound in the head, I was obliged to put another in his place, and had much difficulty to rally some of our people: I succeeded in removing one gun from the lee side, so that we had three nine pounders to play upon the enemy. During the whole engagement the fire of this small battery was seconded only by that of my men from the round tops, especially the maintop, where Lieutenant Stack commanded. I directed the fire of one of the three cannon, loaded with cross bar shot, against the enemy’s mainmast, while the other two, which were exceeding well served, poured in grape shot in order to silence the enemy’s musketry and to clear her decks, which was at length effected. I have since learnt that t this very time the enemy was going to beg for quarter, when the cowardice, or perfidy, of three of my subalterns induced them to beg for quarters from the enemy. The English Commodore desired to know if I asked for quarter? As I answered in the negative in the most determined manner, the fight began again with redoubled fury; they were not able to stay upon deck; but their fire, especially from their lower tier, entirely of eighteen pounders, was continual; the two ships were on fire in several parts, and the spectacle they both presented was dreadful beyond all expression.
To account for the timidity of my three subalterns, the Chief Gunner, Master Carpenter, and Master at Arms, I must observe that the two first were dangerously wounded. As the ship had received several shot between wind and water, and one of the pumps had been carried away, the carpenter declared his fear that we should go to the bottom: from which the two others concluded that we should really sink, and the Chief Gunner thereupon ran to the stern, without my knowledge, to strike the ensign: happily for me a cannon shot had long before done that business, by carrying away the ensign staff; then he thought himself reduced to the necessity of begging for quarter, and did so.
The whole of this time the Good Man Richard had maintained the fight alone; and the enemy, though of much greater force, would have been glad to get clear, as appears by their own acknowledgment, and by their having cut away an anchor, by which means they might have escaped, had I not taken the precaution to lash their ship fast to the Good Man Richard. At last, abut half after nine at night, the Alliance came up, and I thought the fight was over; but, to my great astonishment, she poured a whole broadside into the cabbin windows of the Good Man Richard. WE conjured them, in God’s name, not to fire upon us; yet they came up alongside us, continuing to fire. We gave a signal of acquaintance, by putting up three lanthorns in a horizontal line, one at the fore shrouds, another amidship, and the third on the mizen shrouds: We told them as loud as we could, that they took us for the other ship; but nothing put a stop to their fire, they passed all round us, firing upon our bow, our stern and through our sides; one of their broadsides killed eleven of my best and most useful men, and mortally wounded a brave officer. My situation was truly deplorable. The Good Man Richard received many shot between wind and water, the pumps were not able to keep the ship free, and the flames encreased on board both vessels. Some officers, of whose courage and honest intentions I had a good opinion, tried to persuade me to strike. My Master at Arms, without my knowledge, set all my prisoners free, and it must be owned that my prospect at this time was become terrible; but I would not give up my resolution.
The enemy’s main mast began to totter; his fire slackened fast, ours on the contrary became a little more brisk, and at half an hour after ten at night the enemy struck. It proved to be the Serapis, an English man of war of 44 guns, built on an excellent model, with two tier of guns, one of them of 18 pounders.
It was still my misfortune to be engaged with two enemies much more formidable than the English, I mean fire and water. The Serapis was attacked by the first, but the Good Man Richard by both; we had five feet water in the hold; and although the wind was but light, with the three pumps that were left it was with great great difficulty we could keep the water from gaining upon us: AS to the fire it continued, in spite of all the water we could throw on it to extinguish it; and it got at last as far as the magazine, and the flames were not many feet from the powder. I ordered it upon deck, to be at hand in order to throw it over board in the last extremity. It was ten o’clock next day before we were so happy as to put the fire all out.
As to the condition the Good Man Richard was otherwise in, her rudder was carried away, her timbers and planking, from the main mast to the transom, considerably damaged by time, were so shattered, that it is impossible for me to describe their condition. One must have been an eyewitness, in order to form a true idea of the sad spectacle of wreck and ruins when the return of day presented us with. Humanity shuddered at the sight of those horrors, and sighed in thinking that war is capable of producing such fatal effects.
When the carpenters, Captain Cottineau and other proper judges, had examined the vessels, which was not quite over till five in the evening, it was their unanimous report, that it was impossible to keep the Good Man Richard above water until she could get to some port, let the wind rise ever so little: There was then a moderate breeze. I had only time left to remove my wounded, which was become unavoidable, and was effected in the night and the morning early. I determined, however, to keep the Good Man Richard afloat, and carry her, if possible, into some port: For this purpose the first Lieutenant of the Passas staid on board with some men to keep the pumps going; the boats were disposed within call to take them in, if the water should gain upon them fast. In the night the wind encreased, as it did also the next day (25th) so that it became impossible to prevent the Good Man Richard from going down --- Our people did not leave her till after nine o; the water rose to her lower deck, and a little after ten, to my inexpressible grief, I had my last sight of the Good Man Richard. No body was lost with the ship; but it was impossible to save any of the stores; I lost almost al my cloaths, books and papers: Many of my officers lost all their cloaths and effects.
Captain Cottineau had an engagement with the Countess of Scarborough, and took her after an hour’s fight, while the Good Man Richard was engaged with the Serapis. The Countess of Scarborough is an armed ship of twenty six pounders, commanded by a Lieutenant of the navy.
I forgot to mention, that immediately after the Captain came aboard the Good Man Richard, the main mast and mizen top mast fell overboard into the sea.
(Signed) JOHN PAUL JONES.
*********
Spence
I've always been interested in sailing and have been privileged to do a fair bit of it. So, items in the old literature concerning sailing always catch my attention. This one concerning the battle which made John Paul Jones famous certainly did. Excuse the length.
The Pennsylvania Gazette
March 1, 1780
From the COURIER de l'EUROPE (a French paper, printed in London) of November 5, 1779.
By the last letters from France we have received a new relation of the famous battle which happened the 23d of September last, between the Serapis and the Good Man Richard: As it does, if possible, add to the glory of Captain Pearson, and at the same time proves that Commodore Paul Jones united humanity with courage; in a word, as it is much more particular than that which appeared in the London Gazette, we have thought it our duty to give a translation of it, it being equally authentic, and we may even say official.
Extract of a letter from the Hon. John Paul Jones, Esq; Commodore of a small squadron lately cruizing on the coast of Great Britain, to Benjamin Franklin , Esq; at Passy; dated on board the Serapis, in the Texel, October 3, 1779.
ON the 23d of September we fell in with a fleet, Flamborough Head bearing N.N.E. of us. This circumstance determined me to leave the merchant ships which were at anchor in Burlington bay, and I made a signal for a general chase. When the fleet perceived that we were bearing down upon them, all the merchant ships made sail for the shore; on the contrary, the two ships of war who had them under convoy made out to sea, and prepared for an engagement. While we approached the enemy, all sails set, I gave a signal for forming the line of battle; but, anxious as I was to engage, I could not come up with the Commodore till seven at night. When I was within pistol shot, he hailed the Good Man Richard, which we answered with a whole broadside. The fight, thus begun, was maintained with equal fury on both sides, each vessel using all possible means to gain an advantageous situation to rake the other. I must own that the enemy, having infinitely the superiority over the Good Man Richard in working the ship, thereby gained advantageous situations, in spite of every effort of mine to prevent it. As I had to do with an enemy of a much superior force, I found myself under a necessity of keeping close abroad him, to compensate the advantage he had over me in working the ship. My intention was to lay the Good Man Richard athwart the enemy’s hause; but as this required much skill in setting the sails and in steering, especially as some of our yards were already carried away, this design did not succeed to my wish. The bowsprit of the enemy being run between the poop and the mizenmast, I seized this occasion for lashing the vessels together; the wind then driving the enemy’s stern against the boy of the Good Man Richard, the two ships came close together, from stem to stern, yardarm and yardarm, and the mouths of their cannon pointed to the opposed sides. It was near eight o’clock when we found ourselves in this position; before this time the Good Man Richard had received many 18 pound shot between wind and water, and became very leaky; my tier of 12 pounders, on which I most depended, commanded by Lieutenant Dale and Colonel Vinbert, served chiefly by American seamen and French volunteers, was entirely silenced and abandoned. As to the six old 18 pounders, they were of no service to me; they were fired but eight times in all, and at the first fire two of them bursting, killed all the men that were at them. Before this critical minute Col. Chamillard, who commanded 20 men upon the poop, had left his station, after having lost all his people but five.
I had then but two nine pounders left fit for use; they were mounted on the quarter deck, and during the rest of the action we did not make use of a single gun of the large bore. --- The Sieur Mease, purser of the ship, who commanded the guns upon the quarter deck, having received a dangerous wound in the head, I was obliged to put another in his place, and had much difficulty to rally some of our people: I succeeded in removing one gun from the lee side, so that we had three nine pounders to play upon the enemy. During the whole engagement the fire of this small battery was seconded only by that of my men from the round tops, especially the maintop, where Lieutenant Stack commanded. I directed the fire of one of the three cannon, loaded with cross bar shot, against the enemy’s mainmast, while the other two, which were exceeding well served, poured in grape shot in order to silence the enemy’s musketry and to clear her decks, which was at length effected. I have since learnt that t this very time the enemy was going to beg for quarter, when the cowardice, or perfidy, of three of my subalterns induced them to beg for quarters from the enemy. The English Commodore desired to know if I asked for quarter? As I answered in the negative in the most determined manner, the fight began again with redoubled fury; they were not able to stay upon deck; but their fire, especially from their lower tier, entirely of eighteen pounders, was continual; the two ships were on fire in several parts, and the spectacle they both presented was dreadful beyond all expression.
To account for the timidity of my three subalterns, the Chief Gunner, Master Carpenter, and Master at Arms, I must observe that the two first were dangerously wounded. As the ship had received several shot between wind and water, and one of the pumps had been carried away, the carpenter declared his fear that we should go to the bottom: from which the two others concluded that we should really sink, and the Chief Gunner thereupon ran to the stern, without my knowledge, to strike the ensign: happily for me a cannon shot had long before done that business, by carrying away the ensign staff; then he thought himself reduced to the necessity of begging for quarter, and did so.
The whole of this time the Good Man Richard had maintained the fight alone; and the enemy, though of much greater force, would have been glad to get clear, as appears by their own acknowledgment, and by their having cut away an anchor, by which means they might have escaped, had I not taken the precaution to lash their ship fast to the Good Man Richard. At last, abut half after nine at night, the Alliance came up, and I thought the fight was over; but, to my great astonishment, she poured a whole broadside into the cabbin windows of the Good Man Richard. WE conjured them, in God’s name, not to fire upon us; yet they came up alongside us, continuing to fire. We gave a signal of acquaintance, by putting up three lanthorns in a horizontal line, one at the fore shrouds, another amidship, and the third on the mizen shrouds: We told them as loud as we could, that they took us for the other ship; but nothing put a stop to their fire, they passed all round us, firing upon our bow, our stern and through our sides; one of their broadsides killed eleven of my best and most useful men, and mortally wounded a brave officer. My situation was truly deplorable. The Good Man Richard received many shot between wind and water, the pumps were not able to keep the ship free, and the flames encreased on board both vessels. Some officers, of whose courage and honest intentions I had a good opinion, tried to persuade me to strike. My Master at Arms, without my knowledge, set all my prisoners free, and it must be owned that my prospect at this time was become terrible; but I would not give up my resolution.
The enemy’s main mast began to totter; his fire slackened fast, ours on the contrary became a little more brisk, and at half an hour after ten at night the enemy struck. It proved to be the Serapis, an English man of war of 44 guns, built on an excellent model, with two tier of guns, one of them of 18 pounders.
It was still my misfortune to be engaged with two enemies much more formidable than the English, I mean fire and water. The Serapis was attacked by the first, but the Good Man Richard by both; we had five feet water in the hold; and although the wind was but light, with the three pumps that were left it was with great great difficulty we could keep the water from gaining upon us: AS to the fire it continued, in spite of all the water we could throw on it to extinguish it; and it got at last as far as the magazine, and the flames were not many feet from the powder. I ordered it upon deck, to be at hand in order to throw it over board in the last extremity. It was ten o’clock next day before we were so happy as to put the fire all out.
As to the condition the Good Man Richard was otherwise in, her rudder was carried away, her timbers and planking, from the main mast to the transom, considerably damaged by time, were so shattered, that it is impossible for me to describe their condition. One must have been an eyewitness, in order to form a true idea of the sad spectacle of wreck and ruins when the return of day presented us with. Humanity shuddered at the sight of those horrors, and sighed in thinking that war is capable of producing such fatal effects.
When the carpenters, Captain Cottineau and other proper judges, had examined the vessels, which was not quite over till five in the evening, it was their unanimous report, that it was impossible to keep the Good Man Richard above water until she could get to some port, let the wind rise ever so little: There was then a moderate breeze. I had only time left to remove my wounded, which was become unavoidable, and was effected in the night and the morning early. I determined, however, to keep the Good Man Richard afloat, and carry her, if possible, into some port: For this purpose the first Lieutenant of the Passas staid on board with some men to keep the pumps going; the boats were disposed within call to take them in, if the water should gain upon them fast. In the night the wind encreased, as it did also the next day (25th) so that it became impossible to prevent the Good Man Richard from going down --- Our people did not leave her till after nine o; the water rose to her lower deck, and a little after ten, to my inexpressible grief, I had my last sight of the Good Man Richard. No body was lost with the ship; but it was impossible to save any of the stores; I lost almost al my cloaths, books and papers: Many of my officers lost all their cloaths and effects.
Captain Cottineau had an engagement with the Countess of Scarborough, and took her after an hour’s fight, while the Good Man Richard was engaged with the Serapis. The Countess of Scarborough is an armed ship of twenty six pounders, commanded by a Lieutenant of the navy.
I forgot to mention, that immediately after the Captain came aboard the Good Man Richard, the main mast and mizen top mast fell overboard into the sea.
(Signed) JOHN PAUL JONES.
*********
Spence
