AFTER THE _SERAPIS_ SURRENDERED
RICHARD DALE TOO BRIGHT FOR THE BRITISH LIEUTENANT--A FAIR
ESTIMATE OF CAPTAIN PEARSON OF THE _SERAPIS_--THE TREACHERY OF
LANDAIS--REMARKABLE ESCAPE FROM TEXEL--HONORS FOR THE VICTOR--“THE
FAME OF THE BRAVE OUTLIVES HIM; HIS PORTION IS IMMORTALITY.”
As soon as the flag was dragged down on the _Serapis_, John Paul
Jones ordered Lieut. Richard Dale on board of her to take charge, but
before he could do so the mainmast of the _Serapis_ came crashing
down, pulling the mizzentopmast with it. Then Dale jumped on the rail
of his own ship, grasped the brace of the yard from which the lucky
hand-grenade had been dropped, and swung himself down on the deck of
the _Serapis_. A few of his crew followed him.
“As he made his way aft he saw a solitary person leaning on the
tafferil in a melancholy posture, his face resting upon his hands. It
was Captain Pearson. He said to Dale,
“‘The ship has struck.’ While hurrying him on [the _Bonhomme Richard_]
an officer came from below and observed to Captain Pearson, that the
ship alongside was going down.
“‘We have got three guns clear, sir, and they’ll soon send her to the
devil.’
“The captain replied,
“‘It’s too late, sir. Call the men off. The ship has struck.
“‘_I’ll go below, sir, and call them off immediately_,’ and he was
about to descend when Dale, interfering, said,
“‘_No, sir, if you please you’ll come on board with me._’”
The above is quoted from the “British Journal” of an old date. Dale
was of the opinion that, once that officer got below, he would have
disregarded the surrender--that he would have used the three guns to
send the _Bonhomme Richard_ “to the devil,” as he had proposed to do.
That he might have done so is not doubted.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN SIR RICH^D. PEARSON KN^T.
_Lieutenant Governor of Greenwich Hospital_]
And then came John Paul Jones to receive the sword of the defeated
Pearson. According to the older accounts of this fight, Pearson said,
as he handed his sword to his conqueror:
“It is painful to deliver up my sword to a man who has fought with a
halter around his neck.”
To this, it is said, Jones replied:
“Sir, you have fought like a hero; and I make no doubt your sovereign
will reward you in the most ample manner.”
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_After a rare engraving._]
In the present era of intense desire for arbitration instead of
war a historian of this battle has written that “The story that
Captain Pearson said, in giving up his sword, that it added to his
mortification to give up his sword to a man who fought with a rope
around his neck, is an idle fabrication, and a slur on Captain Pearson.”
Whether Captain Pearson said it or not cannot now be definitely
determined, but the reader shall judge for himself, further on, whether
the story is “a slur on” him or not.
The fight occurred so close inshore as to be plainly visible from the
bluff overlooking the sea, and hundreds of people from the country-side
gathered there to gaze upon the scene. For a time, of course, there was
nothing distinguishable but the flash of the guns through the night,
but after an hour the moon rose out of the sea, and then two ships,
locked in the embrace of death, stood out in the midst of a cloud of
smoke. That these spectators looked on confidently rejoicing in the
prospect of a victory for their own ship, need not be doubted. How they
rejoiced as they thought that their shores were now to be rid of the
“pirates” is easily imagined; but who shall picture their consternation
when a boatload of their countrymen escaped ashore and told the direful
facts?
To show the spirit in which English historians have always written
about any matter in which the American navy had part, it is worth
noting that Allen (“Battles of the British Navy”), ignoring the
presence of tens of thousands of Hessians in the British forces in
America, tries to throw contempt on the crew of the _Bonhomme Richard_
by calling them “hirelings,” and even stigmatizes the established fact
of the treachery of Landais as an “absurd” charge.
A brief statement of the comparative strength of the two ships is
essential. The _Bonhomme Richard_ entered the fight with forty-two
guns, which could throw 557 pounds of projectiles at a discharge; the
_Serapis_ carried fifty, throwing 600 pounds. After the first broadside
the _Bonhomme Richard_ had no eighteen-pounders in action, while the
_Serapis_ had twenty. The crew of the American ship had been reduced
to 304 by the drafts made in manning prizes, and of these no more than
one-third were Americans. The _Serapis_ carried 320, chiefly picked
men. So effective had been the work of the crew of the _Serapis_ that
at the end of an hour any ordinary man would have surrendered the
_Bonhomme Richard_; but John Paul Jones was of different character
from ordinary men. With a tenacity of purpose that has never been
surpassed, he continued the fight and won. The number of killed on
each ship was forty-nine. The _Serapis_ had sixty-eight wounded and
the _Bonhomme Richard_ sixty-seven, among whom were John Paul Jones
himself and Richard Dale. Jones was hit in the head, and the wound
afterwards seriously affected his eyes, but he said nothing about it
in his report. Dale was wounded by a splinter during the fight, but
did not even know it until after the fight was over. While sitting on
the binnacle of the _Serapis_ and giving orders to get her under way,
he found she did not move when her sails were full. He did not then
know she was anchored. Jumping up to see what was the matter, he fell
at full length on the deck. His blood had cooled by this time, and the
wound disabled him then.
[Illustration: Signature of Richard Dale.
_From a letter at the Lenox Library._]
The smaller British ship that was protecting the convoy, the _Countess
of Scarborough_, is lost to sight during the remarkable conflict
between the _Serapis_ and the _Bonhomme Richard_, but she was forced
into battle by the gallant Captain Piercy of the _Pallas_, and for
two hours she maintained it. Then she surrendered. The _Pallas_ was
superior to her in guns and crew, but, on the whole, not to the extent
that British historians would have their readers believe, for the
_Pallas_ was a merchant ship modelled to carry cargo only, while the
_Countess of Scarborough_ was built as a man-of-war.
Of the treachery of Captain Landais a brief space will suffice because,
as already said, his disappointments while in the French service
had made him partially insane. That he fired into the _Bonhomme
Richard_ was proved beyond any doubt by his own men, some of whom (the
Americans) refused to fire the guns at his order. It was proved by his
own officers (Frenchmen at that) that he said he would have “thought it
no harm if the _Bonhomme Richard_ had struck, for it would have given
him an opportunity to retake her and to take the _Serapis_.” A sane
man would have been executed for such treachery as his, of course, but
he was very properly dismissed only. He settled down in New York City
after the war, where he lived on an income of $100 a year, derived from
prize money that he had obtained. It was his habit to take a walk on
lower Broadway every day when the weather and his health permitted. He
was a curious figure there, for he “never appeared abroad with his
old-fashioned cocked hat in its legitimate station,” but “carrying
it forever in his hand, as a mark of homage and respect to, and in
commemoration of the cruel death of his beloved sovereign.”
[Illustration: A Letter from Pierre Landais.
_From the original at the Lenox Library._]
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_From a miniature, recently found (1897) in a cellar at the Naval
Academy._]
To return to the story of what happened immediately after the
conclusion of the battle between the _Bonhomme Richard_ and the
_Serapis_, the facts may best be given in the words of John Paul Jones
himself. In his report he says:
“I had yet two Enemies to encounter far more formidable than the
britons, I mean fire and Water. the _Serapis_ Was attacked only by the
first, but B. _h._ R. Was assailed by both, there was five feet Water
in the hould, and tho’ it Was moderate from Explosion of so much gun
powder, yet the three pumps that remained could with difficulty only
keep the Water from gaining. the fire broke out in Various parts of
the Ship in spite of all the Water that Could be thrown (immediately)
to quench it, and at length broke out as low as the powder magazine
and within a few inches of the powder. in that dilema I took out the
powder upon deck ready to be thrown overboard at the last extremity,
and it Was ten O’clock A.M. the next day the 24 before the fire Was
entirely extinguished. With respect to the Situation of the B. _h._ R.
the rudder Was cut Entirely off the stern frame and transoms Were
almost Entire Cut away, the timbers by the lower Deck especially from
the mainmast to the stern, being greatly decayed With age, were mangled
beyond my power of description, and a person must have been an Eye
Witness to form a Just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage, Wreck
and Ruin that Every Where appeared. humanity cannot but Recoil from the
prospect of such finished horror and Lament that War should produce
such fatal consequences.
“After the Carpinters as well as Captain De Cottineau and other men of
Sense had well examined and Surveyed the Ship (which was not finished
before five in the Evening) I found every person to be convinced
that it was Impossible to keep the B. _h._ R. afloat So as to reach a
port if the Wind should increase it being then only a very moderate
breeze. I had but little time to remove my Wounded, which now became
unavoidable and which Was effected in the Course of the night and
next morning. I was determined to keep the B. _h._ R. afloat and, if
possible, to bring her into port for that purpose the first Lieutenant
of the _Pallas_ continued on board with a party of men to attend the
pumps with boats in Waiting ready to take them on board in Case the
water should gain on them too fast the Wind augmented in the Night
and the next day on the 25, So that it was Impossible to prevent the
good old ship from Sinking. they did not abandon her till after nine
o’clock. the Water was then up to the Lower deck, and a little after
ten I saw With inexpressible grief the last glimpse of the B. _h._ R.”
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_From a very rare engraving at the Navy Department, Washington._]
The _Bonhomme Richard_ had gone into the fight with a great American
ensign, four times as long as it was broad, floating in the breeze. It
was shot away during the conflict and lay floating over the stern for
a time, but it was rescued. And when it was seen that the old ship was
past saving, the battle-torn flag was hoisted to its old place, and
with that fluttering in the brisk air the famous old ship sank out of
sight.
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_From an engraving by Chapman in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane._]
When John Paul Jones arrived at Texel on October 3d a British squadron
was close behind him. Sending in to the Dutch admiral, he asked
permission to anchor in the harbor. The Dutch were not then at war
with the English, and their admiral, influenced by the attitude of
the Dutch court, which was not friendly to the Americans, refused the
permission, but later he grudgingly granted it, and the Americans
arrived in after a narrow escape.
The conduct of Captain Pearson of the _Serapis_ on arrival in Texel
must be noted because it helps to portray that of his conqueror. When
the plate, linen, etc., that had been taken from the _Serapis_ were
offered to him by John Paul Jones, he refused to accept it from Jones,
but said he would take it if offered by Captain Cottineau of the
_Pallas_. “Paul Jones magnanimously overlooked this vulgar subterfuge,
and returned it through Cottineau.” In view of this undisputed fact, is
it really a slur on Captain Pearson to suppose that he said what he is
charged with saying when he surrendered his sword? The British, through
their ambassador, demanded that the _Serapis_ and her consort be
returned and that the Americans be delivered up as pirates. The Holland
court did not yield that far, though they compelled John Paul Jones to
go to sea in the face of a blockading squadron, and because the request
of the British was refused, war was declared against Holland. And so
the victory of the _Bonhomme Richard_ was far-reaching in its effects.
To offset the manifest advantages which accrued to the Americans
through this fight, and especially to counteract the fear and
depression which it occasioned throughout England and Scotland, the
British ministry adroitly chose to treat Pearson as well as if he had
obtained a victory. He was made a knight, and some London merchants
were induced to give him silver plate worth £100. Piercy was promoted,
and got silver worth £50. When John Paul Jones heard of Pearson’s luck
he said:
“He has deserved it; and if I should have the good fortune to fall in
with him again, I will make him a lord.”
The flight of John Paul Jones from Texel in the _Alliance_ was
characteristic of the man, for instead of taking the long route around
the north of the British Islands he boldly headed for the narrow
Straits of Dover, leaving port in a howling gale. He passed so close to
Dover that he counted the warships in the Downs, and he counted those
at Spithead also. He sailed from Texel on December 27, 1779, and he
reached Corruna on January 16th. It is worth noting that throughout
this extraordinary passage he kept the American flag flying.
[Illustration: John Paul Jones’s Medal.]
On reaching Paris, John Paul Jones was the hero of the day. The
American commissioners paid him every honor. The king (Louis XVI) gave
him a gold-hilted sword appropriately inscribed and the Grand Cross of
the Order of Military Merit. When he appeared in the queen’s box at
the opera the whole audience rose up to cheer. Later in the evening
a laurel wreath was suspended above his head, but he left his seat
then--“an instance of modesty which is to this day held up as a model
to French schoolboys.”
In the autumn of 1780 Jones sailed to America in the _Ariel_ with
supplies for the American army. He was the honored guest of the
greatest men of the nation. The Congress passed resolutions in his
honor three times. It gave him a gold medal, and it placed him at the
head of the navy, which was an honor that he had fully earned and which
was to him a greater satisfaction than all other honors.
[Illustration: John Paul Jones.
_From an engraving in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane._]
Meantime the British government denounced John Paul Jones as a pirate
and put a price upon his head. It offered ten thousand guineas for him,
dead or alive, and that sum then was equal to more than $100,000 now.
It is to the glory of this naval captain that it was so. The English
writers to this day deliberately misrepresent the man. They strive
to distinguish him from all other heroes of the American Revolution
because he was born in Scotland. They pretend to admire those who were
born in the colonies. But in so distinguishing Jones they ignore the
fact that the heroic General Montgomery, who perished before the icy
walls of Quebec, was born in Ireland, as was Commodore John Barry,
another American hero. The truth is that John Paul Jones entered the
American navy in December, 1775, when every man in the service was a
citizen of Great Britain. He became a citizen of the United States when
the new nation was born. At the end of the war he could make the proud
boast that “I have never borne arms under any but the American flag,
nor have I ever borne or acted under any commission but that of the
Congress of America.”
“I have ever looked out for the Honour of the American flag,” he writes
at another time, and when, at the last, he wrote his will in the face
of death, he described himself, although he had been loaded with
honors, simply as “John Paul Jones, a citizen of the United States.”
“The fame of the brave outlives him; his portion is immortality.”
[Illustration: A Letter from John Paul Jones to Thomas Jefferson.
_From the original at the Lenox Library._]