Ever since the Bonhomme Richard sank off
Flarnborough Head after defeating H . M.S. Serapis in
1779, there has been speculation about her appearance. Contemporary paintings and engravings are inaccurate, manuscript records are sketchy, and the original plans have not survived. Over the last 200 years the evidence has become dispersed , and is now to be found in public and private collections in Frànce, in England , and in America . Because Bonhomme Richard was a French ship, lent by Louis XVI to Captain John Paul Jones of the young American Navy, it required an unusual combination of talents to attempt the reconstruction: knowledge ofwhere to look for the elues; access to both French and English-language archives; a knowledge of the ships of the French East India Company ; the ability to represent the evidence visually, in a style which is bath clear and interesting; and a historian's skill to weigh facts which are sometimes conflicting, and place them within the context of the late !8th century.

In this book, Jean Boudriot has cal led on the talents of many people, from both sides of the Atlantic, to achieve the goal which he had set: nothing Jess than bringing to !ife the wreck of a ship which lies in the deep waters of the North Sea, reconstrucfing it timber by timber in a succession of drawings, and showing us, for the first time in more than two hundred years, the true appearance of the Bonhomme Richard on that fateful day in September 1779.

The sarne painstaking search for accuracy is found in every chapter: the first detailed account of the farnous and bloody battle with H.M.S. Serapis; an evaluation of the ship's sailing qualities; a discussion of the uniforms wom by John Paul Jones during those earl y years of the Arnerican Navy ; a series of masterful paintings which breathe !ife into the events which are recounted ; a series of computer drawings which allow us to look at the hull from every perspective; and finally a remarkable mode!built from Jean Boudriot's plans. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before.


Cover Painting by Wm. Gilkerson
William Gilkerson , who has contributed many of the additional illustrations for this book , is weil known as a marine artist; he held a one-man exhibition at the Peabody Museum of Salem in 1981, and many of the paintings which appear in this book feature in an exhibition at the Naval Academy Museum entitled The Ships of John Paul Jones , held in 1987/8. His paintings have been commissioned or purchased by the Harnburg Maritime Museum, The National Geographie Society, The National Library of Scotland , The New Bedford Whaling Museum , The White House, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston , and many others. The jacket illustration depicts Bonhomme Richard , Pallas and Le Cerf leaving L'Orient on Saturday August !4th 1779: "got under way from the Isle of Graw in France".

Foreword
Notes on 18th Century Measurements

Chapter I: The Indiaman: The Duc de Duras
Chapter II: The Warship: The Bonhomme Richard
Chapter III: Fitting Out For Battle - The Great Guns - The Small Arms - The Seamen - The Marines
Chapter IV: The Battle
Chapter V: The Uniforms of John Paul Jones
Chapter VI: The Bonhomme Richard Under Sail
Chapter VII: The Bonhomme Richard as Seen by The Computer
Chapter VIII: The Bonhomme Richard Rebuilt: Ship Models


LIST OF PLATES

I Bonhomme Richard & Pallas in a Gale by William Gilkerson
II Bonhomme Richard by William Gilkerson
III "The hail of fire from Richard 's tops was now intense" by William Gilkerson
IV The Battle: September 23rd 1779 by William Gilkerson
V United States Flags by William Gilkerson
VI The Uniforms of the Régiment de Walsh-Sérrent by Michel Pétard
VII "/ saw with inexpressible grief the fast glimpse" by William Gilkerson
VIII John Paul Jones in Uniform by William Gilkerson
IX The Uniforms of the United States Navy by Michel Pétard
X "Got under way from the Isle of Graw in France"
Saturday, August 14th 1779 by William Gilkerson