tery grave. Fenimore Cooper, the pioneer historian of the United
States navy, writes:--

"When the day dawned, an examination was made into the situation of
the 'Richard.' Abaft on a line with those guns of the 'Serapis' that
had not been disabled by the explosion, the timbers were found to be
nearly all beaten in, or beaten out,--for in this respect there was
little difference between the two sides of the ship,--and it was said
that her poop and upper decks would have fallen into the gun-room, but
for a few buttocks that had been missed. Indeed, so large was the
vacuum, that most of the shot fired from this part of the 'Serapis,'
at the close of the action, must have gone through the 'Richard'
without touching any thing. The rudder was cut from the stern post,
and the transoms were nearly driven out of her. All the after-part of
the ship, in particular, that was below the quarter-deck was torn to
pieces; and nothing had saved those stationed on the quarter-deck but
the impossibility of sufficiently elevating guns that almost touched
their object."

Despite the terribly shattered condition of the ship, her crew worked
manfully to save her. But, after fighting the flames and working the
pumps all day, they were reluctantly forced to abandon the good ship
to her fate. It was nine o'clock at night, that the hopelessness of
the task became evident. The "Richard" rolled heavily from side to
side. The sea was up to her lower port-holes. At each roll the water
gushed through her port-holes, and swashed through the hatchways. At
ten o'clock, with a last dying surge, the shattered hulk plunged to
her final resting-place, carrying with her the bodies of her dead.
They had died the noblest of all deaths,--the death of a patriot
killed in doing battle for his country. They receive the grandest of
all burials,--the burial of a sailor who follows his ship to her
grave, on the hard, white sand, in the calm depths of the ocean.

How many were there that went down with the ship? History does not
accurately state. Capt. Jones himself was never able to tell how great
was the number of dead upon his ship. The most careful estimate puts
the number at forty-two. Of the wounded on the American ship, there
were about forty. All these were happily removed from the "Richard"
before she sunk.

On the "Serapis" the loss was much greater; but here, too, history is
at fault, in that no official returns of the killed and wounded have
been preser