The following information was taken from the “Ships of the World – An Historical Encyclopedia” along with information gathered from the Internet.

The BONHOMME RICHARD was the French DUC de DURAS frigate before she became the BONHOMME RICHARD. She was 145 feet long, 36.8 feet wide and 17.5 feet deep with a burden of 700 tons. She was originally built by M. Segondat-Duvernet in L’Oreint, France, 1765. She was of wooden construction with a complement of 322 officers and men. She was armed with 6 x 18pdr, 28 x 12 pdr, 6 x 8 pdr and 10 swivels.

She was built for the La Compagnie des Indes and originally named for one of the French East India Company’s shareholders, DUC de DURAS made two roundtrips to China before the company was dissolved in 1769. Taken over by the French government, she made one voyage to Ile de France as a troop transport before being sold to Sieur Bernier and Sieur Berard – the latter eventually taking full ownership.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy officer John Paul Jones – a veteran of the fledgling republic’s ALFRED, PROVIDENCE, and RANGER – had been promised a ship by the French government, and in 1778, the merchant Leray de Chaumont intervened with the government to secure DUC de DURAS for him. After ordering his ships refit with twenty-eight 12-pdr. and six 8-pdr. guns and ten 3-pdr. swivels, Jones named his ship BONHOMME RICHARD after Benjamin Franklin’s own translation of Poor Richard’s almanac.

On August 14, 1779, BONHOMME RICHARD sailed at the head of a seven-ship squadron, including ALLIANCE (36 guns), PALLAS (32), and VENGEANCE (12). Jones’s squadron spent three seeks raiding merchant shipping in and around the Irish Sea, and then sailed around Ireland and northern Scotland into the North Sea. After sailing into the Firth of Forth to threaten Edinburgh, on September 23, they were off Flamborough Head when they encountered a convoy of 41 merchant ships homeward bound from the Baltic and escorted by HMS SERAPIS, a 44-gun two-deck fifth-rate frigate under Captain Richard Pearson, and by the armed merchant ship DUCHESS of SCARBOROUGH (20). Alerted to the presence of enemy ships, the convoy was ordered to scatter. Jones maneuvered BONHOMME RICHARD towards HMS SERAPIS but refused to answer the latter’s signals until the two ships were less than 50 meters apart.

The battle erupted with simultaneous broadsides at about 1915. On the second round, two of BONHOMME RICHARD’S 18-pdr. guns exploded and Jones ordered the gundeck cleared. Within half an hour, SERAPIS’S repeated 18-pdr. broadsides on the starboard hull and stern had devastated BONHOMME RICHARD, leaving 60 dead and as many wounded, and seven holes along the waterline. At about 2000, the two ships were lying starboard-to-starboard, and realizing that their only advantage lay in keeping SERAPIS close, Jones ordered his men to grapple the British ship. Nonetheless SERAPIS guns continued to fire, so destroying BONHOMME RICHARD’S hull that much of the shot passed through the hull without hitting anything before falling into the water. One observer later remarked “One might have driven in with a coach and six (horses), at one side of this breach, and out the other”. SERAPIS continued firing with such intensity that both ships were soon ablaze.

Meanwhile, the French marines in the tops had effectively cleared the British tops and prevented the British crew from securing the quarterdeck, across which the Americans were now attempting to board. At about 2100, ALLIANCE, which had been standing off from the action, closed the two ships and fired broadsides of canister and grape shot that inflicted serious injuries on both combatants. Although BONHOMME RICHARD was now effectively reduced to two 18-pdr. guns, when asked by SERAPIS’S Captain Richard Pearson if he wanted to surrender, Jones replied, “No. I’ll sink, but I’m damned if I’ll strike.”

At 2200, BONHOMME RICHARD’S quartermaster released the 100 or so British prisoners in the hold. At the same time, a grenade thrown into the main hatch of SERAPIS exploded in the gundeck, knocking out the entirebattery.Reckoning that he had secured the safety of his convoy, and that further fighting would only result in the needless slaughter of his men – half of whom were already dead – Captain Pearson struck his flag. Jones accepted Pearson’s surrender with grace, inviting him to share a glass of wine in what was left of his quarters after three or four broadsides. Of the 322 crew with which Jones had started the battle, 140 died during or shortly after the battle. BONHOMME RICHARD was so badly holed that Jones transferred his flag to SERAPIS the following morning.

On January 25, BONHOMME RICHARD sank in about 200 meters a few miles off Flamborough Head, from which the entire night engagement had been watched. SERAPIS landed at Texel, the Netherlands, on October 4, and from 1779 to 1781 she was on the lists of the French Navy. The victory of BONHOMME RICHARD over SERAPIS was achieved neither by superior tactics, or superior training, nor certainly better ships. As Captain Edward Beach has written, it was “due to sheer power of will.” But of such intangibles are legends made, and above any other achievement, it is for the Battle of Flamborough Head, neither strategically nor tactically significant in itself, that John Paul Jones is remembered as the father of the United States Navy.

There have been two attempts to find the wreck of Jones’s command, both funded by the American author Clive Cussler. The first was mounted in 1978 by English historian Sydney Wignall. The next year, an expedition “covered ten time as much territory with a cost factor less than half the first effort,” according to Cussler. But “even with a toprated team, we failed to find the elusive BONHOMME RICHARD. So much for the epic story of the BONHOMME RICHARD. There is, or was, a kit model of the BONHOMME RICHARD available by Aeropiccola, but I do not know if it is any longer available. The Aeropiccola kit model is questionable, anyway. There is a set of excellent plans of the BONHOMME RICHARD available by Jean Boudriot which is translated into English by David Roberts. This set of plans was used by our own Henry Bikhazi to scratch build an outstanding model of this ship, which is shown below. I believe the plans and book can still be obtained from Peir Books/Dupont Communications, P.O. Box #5, Piermont, NY 10968-0005. You can call if interested at (845) 268-5845 or e-mail at www.pierdupont.com.