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Foreword xiii

List of Officers and Men of the Continental Ship, Bon Homme Richard, July the 26th, 1779 3

A List of The Men Names that has Desarted from The Bone Homme Richard, Lorient July. 19th. 1779 18

A List of Officers, & Men, belonging to the American Continental Ship of War, Ariel, Commanded, by the Honble, John Paul Jones 20

Some Remarkable Occurrences that happened on the 23d day of September 1779--relative to the Bon Homme Richard, and the Serapis.--Commanded by Richard Pearson Esqr 24

A Journall Kept on Board the Serapis, an English Ship of War, of 44 Guns taken the 23rd. of September, now Commanded by the Honble. John Paul Jones 25

A Journall Kept on Board the American Continentall Frigate of War, Alliance of 36 Guns, under, the Command of the Honble, John Paul Jones 42

An Account of Occurrences in L'Orient respecting the Bon Homme Richards Officers & Crew 90

A Journall Kept on Board the American Continental Ship of War, Ariel, of 26.... Nine Pounders, Commanded by the Honble. John Paul Jones Esqr. 91

Appendix A.--Copies of the remarks in the log of the Bon Homme Richard for the 22d, 23d and 24th September. The log is now in the possession of the Selkirk family, at St. Mary's Isle. A typewritten copy, with facsimiles of several pages, is in the Library of the Navy Department 123

Appendix B.--A letter of Captain James Nicholson to Captain John Barry, dated June 24th, 1781--relative to Jones' efforts before Congress to obtain higher rank in the reorganized navy 125

Appendix C.--A letter of Jones to the Honble. E. Hopkins, Esquire, Admiral of the American Fleet, dated on board the Providence, at sea, Lat. 37? 40' N., and Long. 54? W. per the Brig Sea Nymph, Capt. W. Hopkins 128

Appendix D.--A letter of Jones to John Wendell, Esqr., Portsmouth, N. H., dated on board the Ranger, Nantes, 11th Decr., 1777 130

Appendix E.--Extract from Nathaniel Fanning's Narrative, describing the entertainment given by Jones about the 10th day of December, 1780 132

Appendix F.--A relation of the voyage of the Ariel to the United States, and her encounter with a ship called Triumph 134

Appendix G.--The storm which wrecked the Ariel. An account given by Fanning in his Narrative 135

Appendix H.--Fanning's account of the taking possession of the Alliance by Landais 137

Facsimile--first page log Serapis xxxvi

" letter of Groube xxxvii

" first page muster-roll Bon Homme Richard xxxix

Picture--Engagement of Bon Homme Richard and Serapis xlv

FOREWORD

The executive committee of the Naval History Society having decided to publish for its initial volume the logs of the three ships commanded by John Paul Jones during the years 1779 and 1780, the owner has consented to edit this publication, with a description of the book itself, together with its history, so far as it can be ascertained, believing that it will add something of interest to the voluminous records and the literature relating to the life and services of the distinguished hero of our Revolutionary navy.

The original log-books, as shown by notes and a copy of a letter accompanying and attached to them, are stated to have been purchased by Captain Boyd, of Greenock, from a person of the name of Harding, a baker, in New York, in 1824; and to have been presented to Lady Isabella Helen Douglas, daughter of the fifth Earl of Selkirk, by William John, ninth Lord Napier, on March 17, 1830; they are now supposed to rest among the manuscripts of the Selkirk family.

The book is fourteen inches tall, nine and one quarter inches wide, bound in old vellum, stained, warped, worn with age and hard usage on land and sea. The paper is rough, greenish in color, the hand-made linen paper of the period, with a watermark showing it to be of English manufacture.

Upon the exterior of both covers are numerous scribblings: "R. D. June 2d, 1779"--"R. D. June 26, 1779"--"Richard Dales book"--"September the 3d--1780--This book belongs to Mr. Henry Lunt, Lieutenant of the Ship of War, the ." Richard Dale's name is also found in several places on the pages of the book.

No other or more circumstantial account of the fight existed in the book when it came into the possession of its later owners, but a close examination showed that, besides minor mutilations, two leaves, immediately preceding that containing the statement of "Some Remarkable Occurrences," had, at some time, been torn out. In order to incorporate into the book a clearer and more circumstantial account of the fight, a former owner caused to be copied on several blank leaves the narrative found amongst the Peter Force Collection of Manuscripts, "John Paul Jones Papers," Volume VI, number 29.

The authorship and penmanship of this document have been ascribed by various biographers of Jones to Richard Dale.

September the 3d, 1780. This book belongs to Mr. Henry Lunt, Lieutenant of the Ship of War, the

Comparisons of letters of Henry Lunt, also in the Peter Force Collection, with the narrative establish beyond any doubt that it is the penmanship of Lieutenant Henry Lunt. Mr. Gaillard Hunt, chief of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, in a letter to the editor, in reply to his suggestion that Lunt may have been the writer, states as follows:

Jones indorses this as follows:

This certificate of Lieut. Lunt, who was a mere spectator, is of great weight and importance, it being only in the power of this gentleman to give a true account of the respective positions and manoeuvres of the ships engaged.

J. P. JONES.

It is a matter of interest to a collector to be able to identify the author or writer of this narrative of the engagement, and to place it, after a long separation, where it originally was written.

Safely anchored in the Texel, Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador at The Hague, who persistently referred to Jones as "that pirate, Paul Jones: a rebel subject and criminal of State," immediately demanded the surrender of the prizes and the release of the prisoners. The demand was refused by the High Commissioners, and after much correspondence Jones obtained permission, under certain restrictions, to land his prisoners and wounded, and to mount guard over them on an island in the Texel. Jones may fairly be said to have added to his fame by being mainly instrumental in bringing about an open rupture between England and Holland by the stand taken by him during this trying period.

The English kept a squadron cruising off the port, but Jones determined to get to sea as soon as the weather would permit. He thought he had recovered the trim of the ship which had been lost under Landais. He states that the ship was well manned, and would not be given away; that the Holland squadron had been drawn up ready for battle for more than a month to drive him out if he should attempt to remain after the wind became fair, while the English fleet was almost constantly in sight of the harbor.

On the 27th of December, the wind serving, he set sail from the Texel, fell foul of a Dutch merchant ship, lost the best bower-anchor and cable, and had other mishaps, owing to the ignorance or drunkenness of the old pilot.

This prize-money question, as shown by the voluminous correspondence of the time, was a troublesome matter, the cause of dissension, controversy, and insubordination amounting to mutiny in the ship's company.

On the morning of the 12th of June Jones, at L'Orient, assembled his crew, before going on shore, and asked them if they could say a word to his disadvantage. They answered that they could not, and, according to Jones' account, showed every appearance of contentment and subordination. Jones then went on shore, and Landais, taking advantage of his absence, seized the command during the afternoon of that day. Jones heard of the transaction from Dale, who informed him that he and some others had just been turned ashore.

The log-book now contains

Although apparently ready for sea early in September, the ship was moved only to the Roads of Groix, where she lay until the 8th of October, apparently detained by contrary winds or foul weather. On that day she got to sea, and on the very night of her departure encountered a heavy gale which increased to a hurricane the following day, in which the ship was nearly lost.

I arrived here on the evening of the 8th, it blowing very hard at S. E.; the next morning the wind shifted suddenly to W. N. W. and blew a gale all yesterday from that to W. S. W. and S. W. and continued until one or two o'clock this morning; in which I had the misfortune to part my two Bowers and Sheet Cable, and was reduced to my spare anchor, which I had providentially got two cables on, which brought me up at eleven o'clock last night, when I found myself under the necessity of cutting away all my masts for the preservation of his Majesty's ship and the lives of my people. I am now in the same distressing situation as I was last night.

Upon several pages are also inscribed the following receipts:

Theobald Jennings

and

?28.00.00.

James Dick

Upon the termination of hostilities, in common with most of the officers of the navy, Dale was "disbanded," and engaged in the East India trade until 1792, when he was restored to the navy as captain in the reorganized marine.

The papers and property of Jones, upon his death in Paris in 1792, passed to his sister Mrs. Taylor, and upon them as a base followed the Edinburgh "Life of Jones," also that by Sands--by all conceded to be the best of the numerous biographies of Jones--while Sherburne's book, published in 1825, is properly criticized as a chaotic compilation, creating inextricable confusion in the mind of a reader.

This caused the editor to make further investigations, as it was apparent that if Fanning was not, possibly Midshipman Groube was, the writer of the logs, particularly as he had been considered competent to act as judge-advocate of a number of courts martial, and, inferentially, was a better scholar than other officers under Jones' command.

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