Blue jackets of '76. A history of the naval battles of the American revolution; together with a narrative of the war with Tripoli by Abbot Willis J

Author:Abbot, Willis J[ohn], 1863-1934. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: United States. Navy
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead, & co
Published: 1888-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

and by ten o'clock the next morning there were left on the " Richard" only a few sailors, who alternately worked at the pumps, and fought the steadily encroaching flames. ,

For Jones did not intend to desert the good old ship without a struggle to save her, even though both fire and water were warring against her. Not until the morning dawned did the Americans fully appreciate how shattered was the hulk that stood between them and a watery grave. Fenimore Cooper, the pioneer historian of the United States navy, writes : —

" When the day dawned, an examination was made into the situation of the ' Richard.' Abaft on a line with those guns of the ' Serapis' that had not been disabled by the explosion, the timbers were found to be nearly all beaten in, or beaten out, — for in this respect there was little difference between the two sides of the ship, — and it was said that her poop and upper decks would have fallen into the gun-room, but for a few buttocks that had been missed. Indeed, so large was the vacuum, that most of the shot fired from this part of the ' Serapis,' at the close of the action, must have gone through the ' Richard ' without touching any thing. The rudder was cut from the stern post, and the transoms were nearly driven out of her. All the after-part of the ship, in particular, that was below the quarter-deck was torn to pieces ; and nothing had saved those stationed on the quarter-deck but the impossibility of sufficiently elevating guns that almost touched their object."

Despite the terribly shattered condition of the ship, her crew worked manfully to save her. But, after fighting the flames and working the pumps all day, they were reluctantly forced to abandon the good ship to her fate. It was nine o'clock at night, that the hopelessness of the task became evident. The " Richard" rolled heavily from side to side. The sea was up to her lower port-holes. At each roll the water gushed through her port-holes, and swashed through the hatchways. At ten o'clock, with a last dying surge, the shattered hulk plunged to her final resting-place, carrying with her the bodies of her dead. They had died the noblest of all deaths,—the death of a patriot killed in doing battle

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