From Wikipedia
The Bonhomme Richard was built for France in 1765 and named the Duc de Duras and intended for the East Indies trade. The French king placed the ship at John Paul Jones' disposal and he renamed in Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin who had written Poor Richard's Almanac which was published in France as Les Maximes du Bonhomme Richard.
The ship weighed 998 tons, was 152 feet long and had a 40 foot beam and a crew of 380. Its armament consisted of 28X12-pounder smoothbores, 6X18-pounder smoothbores and 8X9-pounder smoothbores.
Before the battle, it had been sailing off the British coast attacking merchant ships when it came across a big convoy protected by the HMS Serapis and another British ship.
The battle last four hours and at first appeared to be a victory for the British. About half of the crews of both ships were killed or wounded and eventually the fighting was between the two ships as they were tied together. When the French warship Alliance joined in and opened fire on both vessels, the Serapis was forced to surrender when it could not bring its guns to bear on it.
The Bonhomme Richard sank September 25, 1779, after Jones had transferred his command to the Serapis which later became a French privateer and sank.
I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight. --Cooter
No comments:
Post a Comment