JOHN PAUL JONES OFF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD

John Paul Jones off Flamborough Head

Three years later, on the same date of the calendar, an American naval squadron under Captain John Paul Jones fought one of the most celebrated sea battles of the war off the English coast near Flamborough Head. Commanding the aging frigate Bonhomme Richard, Jones closed with the newer and more heavily armed British warship Serapis in a night action watched by stunned civilians along the shore. Early in the fight, his own ship was badly damaged, and British calls for his surrender prompted the defiant reply later remembered as “I have not yet begun to fight.” Jones lashed his vessel to Serapis and hammered the enemy at close range until the British captain yielded. Bonhomme Richard was mortally wounded and sank, forcing Jones and his crew to transfer to the captured Serapis. The action did little to change the naval balance of the war, but it proved that American colors could challenge the Royal Navy in its own home waters and gave the young Navy a legend of audacity and resolve.