isoners at large on the
ship! But with Lieutenant Richard Dale to help him, he boldly ordered
the prisoners to man the pumps, and continued the fight with
undiminished energy. Soon after occurred the event which practically
decided the battle in his favor. He had given orders to drop hand
grenades from the tops of the Richard down through the enemy's main
hatch. It was by this means that the Serapis had been so often set on
fire. Now at an opportune moment, a hand grenade fell among a pile of
cartridges strung out on the deck of the Serapis and caused a terrible
explosion, killing many men. This seemed to reduce materially the
fighting appetite of the British, and soon after a party of seamen from
the Richard, with the dashing John Mayrant at their head, boarded the
Serapis, and met with little resistance. Captain Pearson thereupon
struck his colors, and the victory which marked the zenith of Jones's
career, and upon which all else in his life merely served as commentary,
was scored. Captain Pearson, in his court-martial, which was a formality
in the British navy in case of defeat, explained Jones's victory in a
nutshell: "It was clearly apparent," he said, "that the American ship
was dominated by a commanding will of the most unalterable resolution,"
and again, "the extraordinary and unheard-of desperate stubbornness of
my adversary had so depressed the spirits of my people that, when more
than two hundred had been slain or disabled out of 317 all told, I could
not urge the remnant to further resistance."

The capture of the British ship, which took place about half-past ten at
night, came none too soon, for the old Bonhomme Richard was sinking. The
flames were extinguished by combined efforts of crew and prisoners by
ten o'clock the next morning, but with seven feet of water, constantly
increasing in the hold, it was then apparent that it was impossible to
keep the old vessel afloat, and men, prisoners, and powder were
transferred to the Serapis. On the morning of the 25th Jones obtained,
"with inexpressible grief," as he said, "the last glimpse of the
Bonhomme Richard," as she went down.

The desperate battle fought in the bright moonlight was witnessed by
many persons in Scarborough and on Flamborough Head, and they spread
the alarming tidings throughout England. In a letter to Robert Morris,
written soon after, Jones said, of the cruise in general: "We alarmed
their coasts prodigiously from Cape Clear round to Hul