ch Jones sailed from a French port, for Congress had found what a
hero they had in their Scotch sailor, and now they made him commodore of
a fleet.

The flagship of this fleet was a rotten old log of a ship, which had
sailed in the East India merchant service till its timbers were in a
state of dry rot. It was a shapeless tub of a vessel, better fitted to
lie in port and keep rabbits in than to send out as a battle-ship. Paul
Jones named it the "Bon Homme Richard," which, in English means "Poor
Richard." This was a name used by Benjamin Franklin for his almanac.

It was not until the summer of 1779 that Jones was able to set sail. His
ship had thirty-six guns, such as they were, and he had with him three
other ships under French officers--the "Alliance," the "Pallas," and the
"Vengeance." Among his crew were a hundred American sailors, who had
just been set free from English prisons. And his master's mate, Richard
Dale, a man of his own sort, had just escaped from prison in England.

Away they went, east and west, north and south, around the British
isles, seeking for the men-of-war which should have swarmed in those
seas, but finding only merchant vessels, a number of which were captured
and their crews kept as prisoners. But the gallant commodore soon got
tired of this. He had come out to fight, and he wanted to find something
worth fighting. At length, on September 23d, he came in view of a large
fleet of merchant ships, forty-two in all, under the charge of two
frigates, the "Serapis," of forty-two guns, and the "Countess of
Scarborough," of twenty-two smaller guns.

Commodore Jones left the smaller vessel for his consorts to deal with,
and dashed away for the "Serapis" as fast as the tub-like "Bon Homme
Richard" could go. The British ship was much stronger than his in number
and weight of guns, but he cared very little for that. The "Serapis" had
ten 18-pound cannon in each battery, and the "Bon Homme Richard" only
three. And these were such sorry excuses for cannon that two of them
burst at the first fire, killing and wounding the most of their crews.
After that Jones did all his fighting with 12 and 8-pound guns; that is,
with guns which fired balls of these weights.

It was night when the battle began. Soon the 18-pounders of the
"Serapis" were playing havoc with the sides of the "Bon Homme Richard."
Many of the balls went clear through her and plunged into the sea
beyond. Some struck her below the water lev