of removing the
wounded was now commenced, and completed in the course of the night and
following morning. The prisoners who had been taken in merchant-ships
were left until the wounded were all removed. Taking advantage of the
confusion, and of their superiority in numbers, they took possession of
the ship, and got her head in for the land, toward which the wind was
now blowing. A contest ensued, and, as the Englishmen had few arms, they
were speedily overcome. Two of them were shot dead, several wounded and
driven overboard, and thirteen of them got possession of a boat and
escaped to the shore.

Jones was very anxious to keep the Richard afloat, and, if possible, to
bring her into port, doubtless from the very justifiable vanity of
showing how desperately he had fought her. In order to effect this
object he kept the first lieutenant of the Pallas on board of her with a
party of men to work the pumps, having boats in waiting to remove them
in the event of her sinking. During the night of the 24th the wind had
freshened, and still continued to freshen on the morning of the 25th,
when all further efforts to save her were found unavailing. The water
was running in and out of her ports and swashing up her hatchways. About
nine o'clock it became necessary to abandon her, the water then being up
to the lower deck; an hour later, she rolled as if losing her balance,
and, settling forward, went down bows first, her stern and mizzen-mast
being last seen.

"A little after ten," says Jones in his report, "I saw, with
inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bonhomme Richard." The
grief was a natural one, but, far from being destitute of consolation,
the closing scene of the "Poor Richard," like the death of Nelson on
board the Victory in the moment of winning a new title to the name, was
indeed a glorious one. Her shattered shell afforded an honorable
receptacle for the remains of the Americans who had fallen during the
action.

The Richard was called by Captain Pearson a forty-gun ship, while the
Serapis was stated by the pilot, who described her to Jones when she was
first made, to have been a forty-four. Jones and Dale also gave her the
same rate. The Richard, as we have seen, mounted six eighteen-pounders
in her gunroom on her berth deck, where port-holes had been opened near
the water; fourteen twelve, and fourteen nine-pounders on her main deck,
and eight six-pounders on her quarter-deck, gangways, and forecastle.