USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Bonhomme Richard.

Bonhomme Richard, formerly Duc de Duras, was a warship in the American Continental Navy named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. She was originally an East Indiaman, a merchant ship built in France for the French East India Company in 1765, for service between France and Asia. She was placed at the disposal of John Paul Jones on 4 February 1779, by King Louis XVI of France as a result of a loan to the United States by French shipping magnate Jacques-Donatien Le Ray.

History
United States
Name	Bonhomme Richard
Namesake	Benjamin Franklin
Builder	French East India Company
Laid down	1765
Launched	1766
Acquired	4 February 1779
In service	4 February 1779
Out of service	25 September 1779
Fate	Sunk by HMS Serapis
General characteristics
Tonnage	998
Length	152 ft (46 m)
Beam	40 ft (12 m)
Draft	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	380 officers and enlisted
Armament	28 × 12-pound smoothbore 6 × 18-pound smoothbore 8 × 9-pound smoothbore

Origin

Bonhomme Richard was originally an East Indiaman named Duc de Duras, a merchant ship built at Lorient according to the plan drawn up by the King's Master Shipwright Antoine Groignard for the French East India Company in 1765. Her design allowed her to be quickly transformed into a man-of-war in case of necessity to support the navy. She made two voyages to China, the first in 1766 and the second in 1769. At her return the French East India Company had been dissolved, and all its installations and ships transferred to the French Navy. As a naval ship she made a voyage to Isle de France (Mauritius) before being sold to private shipowners in 1771. She sailed in private service until she was purchased by King Louis XVI of France in early 1779 and placed under the command of John Paul Jones on 4 February. The size and armament of Duc de Duras made her roughly equivalent to half of a 64-gun ship of the line.

Jones renamed her Bon Homme Richard (usually rendered in more correct French as Bonhomme Richard) in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the American Commissioner at Paris whose Poor Richard's Almanack was published in France under the title Les Maximes du Bonhomme Richard.

First patrols

On 19 June 1779, Bonhomme Richard sailed from Lorient accompanied by USS Alliance, Pallas, Vengeance, and Cerf with troop transports and merchant vessels under convoy to Bordeaux and to cruise against the British in the Bay of Biscay. Forced to return to port for repair, the squadron sailed again August 14, 1779. It went northwest around the west coast of the British Isles into the North Sea and then down the east coast. The squadron took 16 merchant vessels as prizes.

Battle of Flamborough Head

Main article: Battle of Flamborough Head

Bonhomme Richard on fire

On 23 September 1779, the squadron encountered the Baltic Fleet of 41 sail under convoy of HMS Serapis and HM hired armed ship Countess of Scarborough near Flamborough Head. Bonhomme Richard and Serapis entered a bitter engagement at about 6:00 p.m. The battle continued for the next four hours, costing the lives of nearly half of the American and British crews. British victory seemed inevitable, as the more heavily armed Serapis used its firepower to rake Bonhomme Richard with devastating effect. The commander of Serapis finally called on Jones to surrender. He replied, "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!" Jones eventually managed to lash the ships together, nullifying his opponent's greater maneuverability and allowing him to take advantage of the larger size and considerably more numerous crew of Bonhomme Richard. An attempt by the Americans to board Serapis was repulsed, as was an attempt by the British to board Bonhomme Richard. Finally, after another of Jones's ships joined the fight, the British captain was forced to surrender at about 10:30 p.m. Bonhomme Richard – shattered, on fire, leaking badly – defied all efforts to save her and sank about 36 hours later at 11:00 a.m. on 25 September 1779. Jones sailed the captured Serapis to the Dutch United Provinces for repairs.

Though Bonhomme Richard sank after the battle, the battle's outcome was one of the factors that convinced the French crown to back the colonies in their fight to become independent of British authority.

Search for the wreck

Bonhomme Richard's final resting location was the subject of much speculation. A number of unsuccessful efforts had been conducted to locate the wreck. The location was presumed to be in approximately 180 feet (55 m) of water off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, a headland near where her final battle took place. The quantity of other wrecks in the area and a century of fishing trawler operations had complicated all searches.

A wreck was identified in 1974 off Flamborough Head and in 2001 it was concluded that there was a high possibility that the wreck was that of the Bonhomme Richard. The remains were designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act in 2002. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.

One season's attempts to locate and retrieve the ship, or some artifacts from her, using USNS Grasp were filmed for the Discovery Channel's Mighty Ships series in 2011. The U.S. Navy's mission was unsuccessful. In 2012, an expedition with the Ocean Technology Foundation and the French Navy located a wreck of interest (called "Target 131") in 70 meters of water. The wreck is mostly buried, but some artifacts are visible on the seabed surface, including an anchor that would fit the dimensions and style of the kedge anchor on the Bonhomme Richard. In 2014, the French Navy and Ocean Technology Foundation mounted an expedition to have the French Navy dive Target 131. Artifacts discovered by the divers included a deadeye block (part of a sailing ship's rigging), large sections of half-buried planking, and what appeared to be an iron spar hoop, with a few pieces of decomposing wood still encircled in it. No evidence of modern objects has been found on the site. The Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration (GFOE) has since continued the work of the Ocean Technology Foundation, leading an expedition with the French and U.S. navies in 2016, again aboard USNS Grasp. More remote sensing was conducted, and researchers discovered additional objects within the wreck site that were deemed worthy of further investigation. A 2019 expedition involving GFOE, the French navy, and the U.S. Navy was planned, but was postponed indefinitely due to a disagreement among France and the U.S. about the ultimate ownership of the Bonhomme Richard. The goal of this mission was to prove or disprove Target 131 as being the Bonhomme Richard.

In 2018 remains were found after Merlin Burrows conducted 25 dives on the site, with 32 ships-timbers recovered and in excess of 140 non-recovered artifacts identified, believed by Merlin Burrows to be those of the Bonhomme Richard, in shallow water very close to the coast of Filey, North Yorkshire, England, by the Land and Sea search team Merlin Burrows. However, the location of this wreck remains contentious with conflicting views between different research teams and some eyewitness accounts on land, stating that on the morning of 25 September 1779, the Bonhomme Richard disappeared out of sight over the horizon. Collaboration between Merlin Burrows and the United States Naval History and Heritage Command is ongoing, wherein Merlin Burrows are sharing the entirety of their research data/works and recovered items.

See also

• Serapis flag

References

Notes

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Bibliography

• Allen, Gardner Weld (1913). A Naval History of the American Revolution. Vol. II. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 2613121.
• Beach, Edward L. (1986). The United States Navy 200 Years. New York: H. Holt. ISBN 978-0-03-044711-2. OCLC 12104038.
• Cooper, James Fenimore (1856). History of the Navy of the United States of America. New York: Stringer & Townsend. OCLC 197401914.
• Hill, Frederic Stanhope (1905). Twenty-Six Historic Ships. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 1667284.
• Maclay, Edgar Stanton; Smith, Roy Campbell (1898) [1893]. A History of the United States Navy, from 1775 to 1898. Vol. 1 (New ed.). New York: D. Appleton. OCLC 609036.
• "Navy Searches for John Paul Jones' Ship". Navy News Service. 11 September 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
• Ryan, Melisa (Fall–Winter 2006). "Recapturing the Unsinkable Spirit of the Bonhomme Richard" (PDF). Wrack Lines Magazine. 6 (2). Groton: Connecticut Sea Grant. ISSN 2151-2825. OCLC 48206014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2010.
• Smith, Roff (August 2008). "The Ghost Ship of Filey Bay". National Geographic. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 6451257. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010.

External links

• Search for the Bonhomme Richard – Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration
• Search for the Bonhomme Richard – Clive Cussler recounts his elusive search for the Bonhomme Richard.
• Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1000080)". National Heritage List for England.