The National tribune., 1898-05-19
CHAPTER TX.

IN THE ENGLISH PRIZE-LANDAIS
DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT = CHA
LENGES JONES, THEN FEARS 7
MEET HIM-DANGER TO JONES FRO
THE BRITISH FLEET.
More has been written about the sineuI
battle between the Bon Homme Ricnai
and the Serapis than about any 9th,
score of single ship combdtS In Eavs
annals. Ii had among its unique dlstint
tiOnS the fact that alone among Eava
battles il has always appealed alike {
the pride of the three greatest marIt,m
powers-England, France and the Unite
States.
Jones's conduct has been analyzed o,
some of the ableSt writer's The Englisl
at least until recent years have general!,
held that his unexamped desperation ant
unconQuerabe resolution were inspiret
simply by the belief that they would hav,
hanged him had he surrendered alive
This theory is SO perfectly characteristic
of the average English mind that il is no
worth while TO discuss il. If a base motive
for any act hostile to England be imagin-
able, Englishmen will always imagine il.
My own study of the event. which has
occupied my leisure from time to time since
i was a small boy and in which had the
incentive of descent from member of the
Richards crew has brought me To the
by far loftier feelings and nerved by far
more heroic hopes. That he never thought
of surrender seems self-evident. Ii is clear
that there never was any question in his
mind except the Guestion-fOr some time
not little doubtful-whether the Richard
would stay afloat long enough TO enable
him To storm the decks OF his foe.
His motives cannot be appreciated with
out accurate knowledge of all the con
ditions under which he fought.
The flag he was defending had been
created by the same resolution OF Congress
that commissioned him 10 command the
Ranger; in which he hoisted il for the first
time, and also showed IL for the first time
across the ocean
This was the moro impressive battle"
which he had assured Washington and
Lafayette and Franklin and HeweS that
he longed 10 fight
The Serapis was the superior ship.
whose approach, he told them, he would
welcomel
These incentives TO man with the dead
game heart Paul Jones had in HIM would
have been enough.
But the author of the History of French
Privateering (Guerres de Course franchises,
says there was another. Frenchman-like,
when any extraordinary event is to be ex-
planned. he says, "Cherchez la femlne!
t"Find the woman.i
From this point of view, il must be re-
membered that this was the English
frigate" which Jones had promised TO Lay
at the feet Of the noblest, wisest, best and
loveliest Frenchwoman of her ume-Marie
d. Orleans-Marie la Belle.
She had divided her pin-money with him
when he was dead broke" She had
found the way for him to lay his case be-
fore the King. More than anyone else she
had helped him TO get the ship he was de-
Tending. She, the daughter OF French
Kings. had lionized him, a Scottish peas
ants scni
Even the rare little Louis Quinze watch
with which he timed his battle was her
gift, and on its dial was enameleG her
beautiful miniature. Perhaps the French
man is right 1t may be that Paul Jones'S
memoirs of the Duchesse de ChaTtres and
the chivalry he felt toward her had more to
do than any or perhaps all other impulses,
with the destiny of that battle and the
fate of Richard Pearson.
Certain it is that Capt. Pearson was up
against the hardest game that any naval
commander ever met, and maybe he was
Indebted for il 10 Marie d Orleans!
AFTER THE BATTLE.
The horrors of this unexampled sea-
battle did not end when the fight was over.
In some respects they rather began. When
Jones and his remaining men saw the last
spar OF the poor old Richard dip beneath
the sea, they were confronted with d
charnel house in their prize:
Ii should be said here that as soon as
Landais saw the result OF the battle he
suddenly bore away to the southwark and
eastward in the Alliance leaving-as his
half-cTaZed brain doubtless imaglned-his
hated superior 10 the fate OF recaptuTe by
some of the numerous British sGuadrons
hoverng along the coast. Capt. Cottineau,
i'm the Pallas. with his prize, the Countess
of Scarboro, and Capt. Ricot, in the little
Vengeance however, stood by.
After the transfer of the wounded, the
prisoners and those unhuTt of the Richard s
crew, the Serapis had on board over $50
men, Of whom about 250 were helplessly
wounded. About 25O more were prisoners,
some unhurt, from the Serapis's crew and
the rest transferred from the Richard. To
take care Of all these and work the ship
not more than 100 OF the Richard s crew
remained fit for duty. The Serapis, though
not dangerously damaged in her hull, had
lost her mainmast near the close OF the
action, and was therefore badly crippled as
TO sailing.
The wind came to blow from south south
west in the forenoon Of the 25th-36 hours
after the battle ended. AS the port which
Jones desired To make was Dunkirk
France, almost exactly south from where
he then was, this was q head wind
against which the Scraps, crippled as her
spars were, could not beat at all. The
only fortunate thing about il was that the
southwestcr blew him off the English
tent gave him chance OF escape from
pursuing sGuadrons.
So he let his battered ships go off north
east, nearly before the wind during the
25th and 2eth. meantime exhausting the
powers OF the feeble remnant Of his crew 10
rig iuTy-spars and get things shipshape
On the 9th IL came on TO blow hard from
the southwest which drove him over
toward the coast OF Denmark. This gale
continued until evening OF the 29th, when
~ 4g..1f
an effort 10 shape a course ior Dunkirk
again.
A FORLORN VOYAGE
Nathaniel Tanning, in his "reminiscences.
gives a graphic account OF this forlorn
voyage. He says:
During this time the scenes on board
beegared description. There were but few
cots ana not even enough hammocks for
the wounded, so that many of them had to
lie on the hard decks where they died in
numbers night and day. Capt. Pearson
and his officers, with watches of their men
took almost the whole charge of the
wounded, and SO left US free TO work the
ship. Our Surgeon, DIR. Brooke and Drs
Bannatyne and Edgerley, the English Sur
geons, performed prodigious work and by
their skill and ceaseleSs care saved MANY
uFes. In the common danger enmity was
forgotten and everyone who could walk
worked with a will 10 save the shin and
their own lives. Finally on the 5th day.
the wind abated and hauled Ia the north
west, when we ran down TO the coast of
Holland, and made the entrance of tbe