Time Surfing: Experience History.
The Historical Backdrop
By the autumn of 1779, the American Revolution had spilled onto the oceans. The young United States had almost no navy, so it depended on daring captains raiding British waters. John Paul Jones, a Scottish-born sailor who had thrown in his lot with the American cause, was given command of an old, worn-out French merchant ship. He renamed her Bonhomme Richard to honor Benjamin Franklin and his “Poor Richard’s Almanack.” Jones sailed a small, quarrelsome squadron around the British Isles, terrifying coastal towns. On the evening of September 23, 1779, off the chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head on England’s Yorkshire coast, he found a fat Baltic merchant convoy guarded by two Royal Navy warships. The strongest was the brand-new frigate HMS Serapis, faster and better armed than anything Jones had.
Our subject is John Paul Jones, thirty-two years old, small, wiry, with a temper as hot as his ambition. Born poor in Scotland, he had gone to sea as a boy, killed a mutinous sailor in a fight years earlier, and fled to America to start over.
Date/Time and Location: September 23, 1779 — Dawn, North Sea off the Yorkshire coast, aboard the Bonhomme Richard
You stand at the weather rail before the sun is fully up. The deck is cold and wet under your shoes. Tar and salt fill your nose. Your ship is old and she groans in the swell. A lookout calls down from the mast. Sails to the south. Many of them. You lift your glass and your heart quickens. A convoy. You have hunted these waters for weeks. Today the sea will finally give you a fight.
Date/Time and Location: September 23, 1779 — Mid-morning, North Sea near Flamborough Head
You count the sails now. Forty merchant ships, maybe more, running for shore. Two warships turn to cover them. The big one is new, painted sharp, her copper flashing at the waterline. She is faster than you and carries heavier guns. You know it in your gut. But your orders and your pride point one way. You clear your throat and give the command to make ready. Word passes down the deck like fire in dry grass.
Date/Time and Location: September 23, 1779 — Early afternoon, gun deck of the Bonhomme Richard
You go below to see the guns yourself. The air is thick and close. Men strip to the waist and sling sand across the planks so no one slips in blood later. Powder monkeys, boys really, run cartridges up from the magazine. You touch one of the old French eighteen-pounders and worry. The iron is tired. You do not say this aloud. You say only that today they will make England remember them. The men cheer, but you hear the fear underneath.
Date/Time and Location: September 23, 1779 — About 6:00 PM, closing on HMS Serapis
The sun is going down and the sky burns orange over the land. The big frigate comes at you slow and sure. You hold your fire. Closer. Closer still. Someone across the water calls out, asking what ship you are. You answer with a lie to buy a few more yards. Then the mask drops on both sides. The gun ports fly open. You give the word. The evening tears apart in flame and thunder and the smell of burnt powder rolls over you.
Date/Time and Location: September 23, 1779 — Minutes later, lower gun deck of the Bonhomme Richard
