162 



NAVV. 



Pearson cried out, " What ship is that?" This was 

 at eight in the evening. The sky was beautifully 

 clear, and the sea smooth ; the moon, just then 

 rising, lit the combatants, whilst it enabled crowds 

 of people, collected on Flamborough Head, to watch 

 the progress of the battle. When commodore Pear- 

 son bad waited in vain for an answer to his challenge, 

 the Serapis opened a terrible fire upon the Richard. 

 It was at once returned ; but three of the Richard's 

 heaviest guns burst at the discharge, not only becom- 

 ing lost for the rest of the fight, but destroying more 

 men than the whole broadside of the Serapis, and 

 scattering death and confusion on every side. The 

 battle had not continued long, ere Jones found that 

 he was suffering so much from the Serapis being able, 

 by her superior sailing, to choose raking positions, 

 that he would soon have to yield if the contest con- 

 tinued so unequal ; he therefore ordered his ship to 

 be laid on board the Serapis. This manoeuvre did 

 not succeed, for the Richard could not bring a single 

 gun to bear. Jones therefore backed his sails, and 

 sheered off, when Pearson, thinking the American 

 was about to yield, because his fire had ceased, asked 

 him if he struck ; to which Jones answered, that he 

 had not yet begun to fight. He was not long, how- 

 ever, in making a commencement ; for, having sailed 

 by the Serapis, he once more put his helm up, and 

 ran across her bow. Her jib-boom came over the 

 Richard's poop, and Jones himself assisted the master 

 in making the jib-stay, which had been shot away, 

 and hung down upon his deck, fast to his mizzen- 

 mast. At the same time, the anchor of the Serapis 

 hooked one of the Richard's ports, so that when pre- 

 sently Pearson anchored, to let his enemy sweep clear 

 of him with the tide, both ships swung beside each 

 other, the stern of the Richard to the bow of the 

 Serapis, and their starboard sides so close together 

 that the guns met, muzzle to muzzle ; the rammers 

 entered opposite ports, and were dragged from those 

 who used them, who presently began assaulting each 

 other. It is a singular proof of the coolness of Jones, 

 that, while engaged with the master in making the 

 vessels fast, he should have thought to check him for 

 his profanity, saying, " Mr Stacy, this is no time for 

 swearing ; in the next moment you may be in eter- 

 nity. Let us do our duty." Thus grappled, the 

 two ships kept up a long and desperate struggle for 

 victory. In battering, the superior metal of the 

 Serapis gave her a decided advantage ; her shot 

 went through and through the rotten sides of the 

 Richard, cutting the men in pieces, and destroying 

 Jiem with splinters. The rudder was destroyed ; 

 the quarter beat in ; and while the water entered on 

 every side, one of the pumps was shot away. There 

 was already four feet water in the hold, and it was 

 gaining. Upon this the carpenter, instead of con- 

 cealing the ship's condition from all but the captain, 

 cried out that she was sinking. The panic spread. 

 The master-at-arms, moved by the supplications of a 

 hundred British prisoners confined below, released 

 them from irons ; and the gunner ran terrified on 

 deck, and bawling for quarter. Among the pris- 

 oners thus left at large, one of them, a shipmaster, 

 crawled through the ports to the Serapis, and told 

 captain Pearson to hold out, for he had begun to*, 

 meditate a surrender. Nevertheless, Jones quickly 

 recovered from his desperate position. He punished 

 the cowardice of the gunner by throwing his pistols 

 at him, one of which fractured his skull, and precipi- 

 tated him down the hatchway. At the same time, 

 he repulsed an attempt to board from the Serapis, 

 and removed the danger of so many prisoners at 

 large below by employing them at the pumps, and 

 telling them to work or sink. 



Whilst the battle had taken this unfavourable turn 



below, the face of affairs was reversed above, b^ the 

 exertions of a few men stationed in the tops of tlie 

 Richard. According to Jones's orders, they had just 

 directed their fire into the enemy's tops, until not a 

 man remained alive, except one in the lore-top, who 

 kept loading his musket, and dodging, now and then, 

 from behind the mast, to fire. This bold fellow was 

 at length struck by a ball from the Richard's main- 

 top, and sent headlong upon deck. And now the 

 exertions of the sharpshooters were all turned to 

 clearing the decks of the Serapis. Some of the 

 bravest even passed, by the yards, into the tops of 

 the Serapis, whence they threw stinkpots, flasks, and 

 grenades down her hatches, stifling her men, and 

 firing the ship in various directions. At this time, 

 both ships having taken fire, the cannonade was sus- 

 pended, to extinguish it. Jones soon renewed it, 

 however, from some guns which alone remained in 

 order on the forecastle, and which he directed him- 

 self. At the same time, a grenade, thrown from the 

 Serapis's top, having bounded into the lower deck, 

 and fired some loose powder, this communicated to 

 the cartridges, which had been brought from the 

 magazine faster than they were used, and lay care- 

 lessly upon the deck ; and a general explosion took 

 place, by which every man in the neighbourhood was 

 blown to pieces, or dreadfully burned. No way 

 remained for commodore Pearson to save the rem- 

 nant of his crew, but to yield ; but even this it was 

 not easy to signify, for none of his crew would take 

 down the flag, which had been nailed, before the 

 action, to its staff; and he was compelled to perform 

 the perilous and humiliating task with his own hand. 

 Thus ended the battle of the Bon Homme Richard 

 and Serapis. The victory was dearly bought, for the 

 carnage on both sides was terrible. The Bon 

 Homme Richard lost three hundred men, in kil.pd 

 and wounded ; and nearly all the last died, from the 

 indifferent care which they received, and the dread- 

 ful gale which followed the battle. The lo=s of the 

 Serapis was nearly as great. Of the men who were 

 blown up, some lingered until the flesh dropped from 

 their bones, dying in excruciating agony. The Poor 

 Richard, assailed by fire and water, was abandoned 

 to her fate, and went down, carrying with her many 

 of her wounded crew. 



The battle of Trafalgar is a renowned instance of 

 naval warfare by fleets. It occurred near Cadiz, 

 between the allied French and Spanish fleets, of 

 thirty-three sail of the line, and the British fleet, of 

 twenty-seven sail. The force of the allies was far 

 superior in ships, guns, and men, and they had a 

 brave and skilful commander in admiral Villeneuve; 

 but there were circumstances that more than counter- 

 balanced the disparity. The Spaniards had no 

 national interest in the struggle, and between them 

 and the, French there was no cordiality. The allied 

 ships, too, had been hastily refitted, and, having just 

 put to sea, were very inefficient ; for their crews, 

 belonging, as they did, to nations which had little 

 commercial marine and few seamen, were made up, 

 in a great measure, of soldiers, who had never been 

 long enough embarked to get their sea legs. The 

 British ships, on the contrary, were in the finest 

 order ; their crews had been actively employed dur- 

 ing years of war ; they were commanded by veteran 

 officers, each a hero of many battles, all obeying one 

 only admiral Nelson of the Nile. 



Having taken his station off Cadiz, Nelson waited 

 the sailing of the enemy, who were ignorant of his 

 force, and had determinrd to put to sea. October 

 19, 1805, the frigates in shore repeated the signal 

 that the enemy were coming out ; on the 20th, they 

 were all at sea off Cadiz; and on the 2lst, after 

 much manoeuvring, the two fleets came in sight, with 



