USS Richard

“ If he holds on, the Richard will run him down; he can already see the great, black cutwater rearing itself on high, as though to crush him and cut him in two. If he pays off the head of the Serapis, and avoids being run down, the Richard will still foul and grapple with him. Lieutenant Mayrant’s bandaged head shows above the Richard’s hammock nettings, as, with grappling irons ready for throwing, he musters a party of boarders—cutlass and pistol and pike—to have them in hand the moment the ships crash together. ”

“ The fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis is a classic. "Surrender?" he cried with most of his rigging shot away, and his vessel sinking, "Why, I have just begun to fight!"
Belated honors were done to his memory, a few years ago, when his body was brought home from a neglected grave in France, and reinterred at Annapolis with all the honors in the gift of the nation. When the readers young and old lay aside this thrilling story, they also will understand why America honors his memory. He may be regarded as the founder of the United States Navy. ”

“ Richard immediately ordered that all the troops that were in a condition to march should set out immediately, to proceed down the coast from Acre to Jaffa. He himself, he said, would hasten on by sea, for the wind was fair, and a part of his force, all that he had ships enough in readiness to convey, could go much quicker by water than by land, besides the advantage of being fresh on their arrival for an attack on the enemy. So he assembled as many ships as could be got ready, and embarked a select body of troops on board of them. ”

“ Richard had performed his office well; she was cheered and heartened. So he deftly tucked in a stray corner of the rug and slipped quietly away. Far off he had seen Geraldine, her face in agony.
Fortunately the majority of the passengers had gone down to early dinner. The deck was free as he sped forward at full speed.
“Quick!” she called to him. “There! Walter! Oh, quick! quick!”
The stern of the boat was narrow and almost cylindrical, like the hull of a tank steamer. Only a hand-rail and a life-saving raft or two gave any protection against sliding off into the sea. ”

“ Richard, having sent his mother home to England, sailed from Messina on April 7th, at the head of a fleet of about two hundred ships, of which fifty-three were large vessels of the sort styled galleys; his sister, the queen dowager of Sicily, and the Princess Berengaria accompanying him. The King of France had set sail about a week before. Several months, however, elapsed before Richard reached the Holy Land, having been detained by an attack which he made upon the island of Cyprus ”

“ On receiving the demand which Richard sent him, the King of Cyprus, anticipating difficulty, drew up his galleys in order of battle across the harbor, and marched troops down to commanding positions on the shore, wherever he thought there might be any danger that Richard would attempt to land. Richard very soon brought up his forces and advanced to attack him. Isaac's troops retreated as Richard advanced. Finally they were driven back without much actual contest into the town, and Richard then brought his squadron up into harbor and landed. ”

“ Before Richard arrived in England, however, [Pg 76] he had formed the plan, in connection with Philip, the King of France, of going on a crusade. Richard was a wild and desperate man, and he loved fighting for its own sake; and inasmuch as now, since his father was dead, and his claim to the crown of England, and to all his possessions in Normandy, was undisputed, there seemed to be nobody for him to fight at home, he conceived the design of organizing a grand expedition to go to the Holy Land and fight the Saracens. ”

“ As soon as Richard's fleet appeared in view, the whole camp was thrown into a state of the wildest commotion. The drums were beat, the trumpets were sounded, and flags and banners without number were waved in the air. The troops were paraded, and when the ships arrived at the shore, and Richard and his immediate attendants and followers landed, they were received by the commanders of the Crusaders' army on the beach with the highest honors, while the soldiers drawn up around filled the air with long and loud acclamations. ”

“ And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold, And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent; And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;
But Sir Richard cried in his English pride: ‘We have fought such a fight for a day and a night As may never be fought again! We have won great glory, my men! And a day less or more At sea or ashore, We die—does it matter when? Sink me the ship, Master Gunner—sink her, split her in twain! ”

“ Altogether, she seems to have been about as devilish a craft as even Germans could invent. As she showed no colours Richard hailed her, when she said she was a French ship bound for Acre. But as no one on board could speak French he sent a galley to test her. As soon as the Englishmen went near enough the Turks threw Greek fire on them. Then Richard called out: "Follow me and take her! If she escapes you lose my love for ever. If you take her, all that is in her will be yours." But when the galleys swarmed round her she beat them off with deadly showers of arrows and Greek fire. ”

“ Sir Richard answered that he might do with his body what he list, for he esteemed it not, and as he was carried out of the ship he swooned, and reviving again, desired the company to pray for him. The general used Sir Richard with all humanity, and left nothing unattempted that tended to his recovery, highly commending his valour and worthiness, and greatly bewailed the danger wherein he was, being unto them a rare spectacle, and a resolution seldom approved. ”

“ Nothing indeed except Richard’s northman-blood can account for the intense love of the sea, and the consummate seamanship, as sound and practical as it was brilliant and daring, which he displayed on his outward voyage. No sea-king of old ever guided his little squadron of “long keels” more boldly, more skilfully and more successfully through a more overwhelming succession of difficulties and perils than those through which Richard guided his large and splendid fleet on its way from Messina to Acre. ”

“ It was a fierce contest fought almost hand to hand; then the Redcoats began to fall back, and with a quick rush the Continentals turned their retreat to a rout.
Returning from that fierce charge with the flush of the fight upon him, Richard came upon a man lying prone upon his face in the stubble—the gallant English captain who had led the sally. He had seen him as he fell far in advance of his column. There the retreat had left him inside the new lines of the Continentals, and finding him still alive, Richard turned him over softly so as not to start his wound afresh ”

“ Richard objected. She stopped at the doorway. Geraldine was not always considerate of Walter, but Richard remembered that the care of Walter was his chief claim to “Red Jacket.”
[151] “Never mind me,” Walter crouched in his chair sullenly.
“Haven’t you a boat?” Richard turned to the boy.
“No!” he growled. “Can’t have nothin’ ’round here.”
“Mother would not hear of owning a sail-boat,” Geraldine explained; “we’ve always had to go passenger on somebody else’s.”
“Who owns that sloop over there?” he asked.
“That’s George Alexander’s. And it isn’t a sloop,” corrected Geraldine; “it’s a cat-boat.” ”

“ Then Richard roared out: "If this ship escapes every one of you men will be hanged!" After this some men jumped overboard with tackle which they made fast to the Turkish rudder. They and others then climbed up her sides, having made ropes fast with grapnels. A furious slashing and stabbing followed on deck. The Turks below swarmed up and drove the English overboard. Nothing daunted, Richard prepared to ram her. Forming up his best galleys in line-abreast he urged the rowers to their utmost speed. ”

“ It was from Messina, on March 27th, 1190, that Richard dated his charter to the Cinque Ports.
The reign of Richard marked another epoch in the naval history of Britain, for he issued the first articles for the government of an English fleet. If any man slew another on board a ship, he was to be fastened to the dead body and thrown with it into the sea; if the murder was committed on shore, he was to be bound to the corpse, and buried with it. If any one was convicted by legal testimony of drawing his knife upon another, or of drawing blood in any manner, he was to lose his hand. ”

“ They had fifty-three ships of war, and above 10,000 men, and had been engaged against this single ship for fifteen hours. At the same time, Sir Richard endeavoured to prevail upon as many of the company as he could influence, to commit themselves to the mercy of God, and not of their enemies, since they had like valiant men repulsed so many enemies, urging them not now to obscure their honour and that of their nation, for the sake of prolonging their lives a few days. The master gunner and various others of the crew readily assented to this desperate resolution ”

“ As for the "Bon Homme Richard," she had proved a failure; being unable to overhaul the enemy that she wished to engage, or escape from the man-of-war she might wish to avoid. Jones saw his reputation fast slipping away from him. Bitterly he bewailed the fate that had put him at the mercy of a lot of quarrelsome Frenchmen. He determined that when once again he got to sea he would ignore his consorts, and fight the battles of his country with his own ship only.
It was on the 14th of August that the squadron weighed anchor, and left the harbor of L'Orient. ”

“ The first thing Paul Jones did was to paint out the old name and give for a new one the French equivalent of Dr. Franklin's almanac name, Bon Homme Richard ("Poor Richard," or "Goodman Richard") ; for he gave the credit of his sudden success to Franklin's wise maxim.
248. The Battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.—Our daring mariner soon sailed out with six other vessels, all flying the beautiful new American flag. The crew on the Richard numbered nearly four hundred men, a medley of sailors from almost every nation in Europe, and even including some Malays. ”

“ France and England had been on bad terms with each other not only during the whole of Richard's reign, but through a great number of reigns preceding; and now, just before the period when this marriage was proposed, the two nations had been engaged in a long and sanguinary war. But Richard said that he was going to make peace, and that this marriage was to be the means of confirming it.
"But she is altogether too young for your majesty," said Richard's counselors. "She is a mere child."
"True," said the king; "but that is an objection which will grow less and less every year. ”

“ For the next five years we have little news of Sir Richard's doings, except that he swept the sea of pirates other than his own countrymen. But in 1591 he was sent out as vice-admiral with seven Queen's ships under Lord Thomas Howard, to intercept the Spanish fleet from the West Indies, which had wintered in Havannah the preceding year by royal order, lest it should fall into the hands of Hawkins and Frobisher. For Philip chose rather to hazard the perishing of ships, men, and goods than that they should become the prize of the English. ”

“ They told him he must go back to Australia and find a living there. Richard objected; said he had only just left it, and did not like Australia. Upon the captain’s death, whenever that should take place, Richard would come into a small estate of between two and three hundred a-year, of which nothing could deprive him; for Captain MacEveril had no son; only a daughter, who would be rich through her mother.
Richard was a gay-mannered young fellow and much liked, but he was not very particular. He played billiards at the Bell Inn with Valentine Chandler, with young Scott, and with other idlers ”

“ He served against the Armada as captain of the Swallow, and afterwards was bitten by the prevailing ambition to search the far-off shores of a new world.
So, with his father's counsel and help, he planned a voyage to Japan, the Philippines and Moluccas, China and the East Indies by the way of the Straits of Magellan and the Pacific. At their own expense father and son had a ship built on the Thames of about 400 tons. "She was pleasing to the eye," Richard says in his "Observations"; "profitable for storage, good of sail and well-conditioned." ”

“ It was considered [Pg 167] remarkable that a young man not yet out of his teens should show so much skill, and act with so much resolution and energy in times so trying, and the country resounded with his praises.
Richard made Lord High Admiral of England.
As soon as Edward was established on the throne, he raised Richard to what was in those days, perhaps, the highest office under the crown, that of Lord High Admiral of England. This was the office which the Earl of Warwick had held, and to which a great portion of the power and influence which he exercised was owing. ”

“ Richard had laid his plan and went resolutely to put it into execution. “Very few sailors can swim. Walter’s a born sailor. Do you know that you are going to buy him a boat and let him lift the Lake cup?”
“Eh?” she turned to this confident man with a touch of her old resentment towards being managed. “I said he should never own a boat or sail it alone until——”
“Of course you did,” Richard interrupted, glancing down upon the Lake where Walter was plainly coming about on his second tack. “We all say a lot of foolish things. And now you’re going to buy him one and let him employ that mind of his. ”