BRITISH RESEARCHERS FIND JONES’ BONHOMME RICHARD
British search and recovery firm Merlin Burrows [merlinburrows.com] has discovered the wreck of USS Bonhomme Richard, the 152-foot, 42-gun frigate commanded by Capt. John Paul Jones, Continental Navy hero and “Father of the American Navy.” The ship lay off the Yorkshire coast, where it sank on Sept. 25, 1779, after defeating HMS Serapis in the hard-fought Battle of Flamborough Head. Divers recovered timbers and mast sections, which show signs of the fire that swept the doomed ship.
The French-built East Indiaman, laid down in 1765 and named Duc de Duras, was designed for easy conversion to a man-of-war when needed. That time came amid the American Revolution in 1779, when King Louis XVI donated the vessel to Jones. The captain renamed his ship Bonhomme Richard as a nod to U.S. Minister to France Benjamin Franklin, whose Poor Richard’s Almanac was published in Paris under the moniker Les Maximes du Bonhomme Richard.
Off Flamborough Head on Sept. 23, 1779, Jones’ four-vessel Franco-American patrol encountered a British merchant convoy of more than 50 ships, guarded by the 50-gun engaged in a brutal four-hour exchange that killed roughly half of both crews. to its opponent. After failed boarding attempts by both crews, the timely arrival of USS prompted captain to surrender and earned Jones his nation’s first naval victory in British waters. sank 36 hours later as Jones sailed the captured to the Netherlands for repairs.
