While the American victory over HMS Serapis in 1779 is one that many historians have extolled, John Paul Jones himself soberly recounted the decisive encounter as reflected by his statement to Benjamin Franklin just weeks after the bloody battle concluded. Yet this 1858 engraving, after the original Alonzo Chappel painting depicting Jones on the deck of Bonhomme Richard as he fires his pistol to repel British boarders as sailors from both vessels fight back and forth across the two warships’ rails in the moonlit night, demonstrates the continued interest in Jones’ naval exploits by American audiences over 50 years after the close of the American Revolution.
When the ferocious battle was over, First Lt. Richard Dale led the boarders from Bonhomme Richard to Serapis after the British flag had been lowered in surrender. The three-and-a-half-hour, close-range cannon, and small arms duel between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis left some 300 casualties. Lt. Dale, surveying the grisly aftermath of the battle was shocked to find the remains of the Serapis crew completely scorched, still at their guns.