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Navy searches for Jones’ famed frigate
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 31, 2008 8:04:46 EDT
On the brink of retirement, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered research submarine will join the hunt this summer for the wreck of one of the most famous U.S. Navy warships in history — the frigate Bonhomme Richard, from which Capt. John Paul Jones had not yet begun to fight.
The Ocean Technology Foundation of Groton, Conn., will work with the submarine NR-1 starting in June to search the North Sea for the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard, which dueled off the English coast for almost four hours in 1779 with the British frigate Serapis.
At one point, when the American frigate had taken heavy damage, Capt. Richard Pearson of the Serapis is said to have shouted a question to Jones about whether he had lowered, or “struck†his flag, showing surrender.
Jones’ apocryphal reply: “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike!â€
Jones and his crew won the battle, taking the Serapis as their prize, but the Bonhomme Richard was so badly damaged that it drifted for about 36 hours and then sank.
The shipwreck has eluded several previous expeditions, said Melissa Ryan, chief scientist with the Ocean Technology Foundation, because the ship drifted for so long after the battle. Searchers this time are using new historical information and eyewitness accounts from other sailors, she said, to help pinpoint the Bonhomme Richard’s resting place.
The NR-1 is a crucial addition to the search because of its high-powered sensors and ability to loiter underwater no matter the weather on the surface, Ryan said. When searchers use sonar or remotely operated vehicles from surface ships, rough seas can eliminate much of the time set aside for the search.
The 11-man NR-1, crewed by Navy submariners, has its own support ship, the Carolyn Chouest, which accompanies the submarine on its missions and carries a unique complement of support equipment, said Lt. James Stockman, a spokesman for Navy Submarine Group 2 in Groton. The NR-1 joined the fleet in 1969, although it was never technically commissioned, and it is scheduled to retire later this year.
Searchers will use the submarine to look for the Bonhomme Richard’s distinctive ballast of pig iron, Ryan said, which set the ship apart from other vessels of its day, many of which carried cheaper stone ballast. Personal effects from the wreck also will help confirm that it is Jones’ ship, because Revolutionary War-era sailors often carved their names into their mugs or other belongings.
In fact, some of Jones’ own gear may still be at the wreck site, Ryan said. After he had taken command of the Serapis, he sent a sailor in a small boat after the drifting Bonhomme Richard to recover his things, but when the boat arrived the frigate was already sinking.
And it didn’t even belong to the U.S.
The Bonhomme Richard was on loan from the French, who were assisting the American revolutionaries in the fight against their mutual English enemies. That means that France could make a claim to artifacts recovered from the wreck, but Ryan said that her foundation has been meeting with French government officials at the French embassy in Washington to work out those details in advance. She said that France might want to mount a joint expedition for the Bonhomme Richard this fall.
By that time the NR-1 will likely be out of service, Stockman said. The sub is now scheduled to go through the Navy’s standard nuclear-sub recycling process, he said — unless a museum requests to save it.
Navy searches for Jones’ famed frigate
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 31, 2008 8:04:46 EDT
On the brink of retirement, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered research submarine will join the hunt this summer for the wreck of one of the most famous U.S. Navy warships in history — the frigate Bonhomme Richard, from which Capt. John Paul Jones had not yet begun to fight.
The Ocean Technology Foundation of Groton, Conn., will work with the submarine NR-1 starting in June to search the North Sea for the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard, which dueled off the English coast for almost four hours in 1779 with the British frigate Serapis.
At one point, when the American frigate had taken heavy damage, Capt. Richard Pearson of the Serapis is said to have shouted a question to Jones about whether he had lowered, or “struck†his flag, showing surrender.
Jones’ apocryphal reply: “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike!â€
Jones and his crew won the battle, taking the Serapis as their prize, but the Bonhomme Richard was so badly damaged that it drifted for about 36 hours and then sank.
The shipwreck has eluded several previous expeditions, said Melissa Ryan, chief scientist with the Ocean Technology Foundation, because the ship drifted for so long after the battle. Searchers this time are using new historical information and eyewitness accounts from other sailors, she said, to help pinpoint the Bonhomme Richard’s resting place.
The NR-1 is a crucial addition to the search because of its high-powered sensors and ability to loiter underwater no matter the weather on the surface, Ryan said. When searchers use sonar or remotely operated vehicles from surface ships, rough seas can eliminate much of the time set aside for the search.
The 11-man NR-1, crewed by Navy submariners, has its own support ship, the Carolyn Chouest, which accompanies the submarine on its missions and carries a unique complement of support equipment, said Lt. James Stockman, a spokesman for Navy Submarine Group 2 in Groton. The NR-1 joined the fleet in 1969, although it was never technically commissioned, and it is scheduled to retire later this year.
Searchers will use the submarine to look for the Bonhomme Richard’s distinctive ballast of pig iron, Ryan said, which set the ship apart from other vessels of its day, many of which carried cheaper stone ballast. Personal effects from the wreck also will help confirm that it is Jones’ ship, because Revolutionary War-era sailors often carved their names into their mugs or other belongings.
In fact, some of Jones’ own gear may still be at the wreck site, Ryan said. After he had taken command of the Serapis, he sent a sailor in a small boat after the drifting Bonhomme Richard to recover his things, but when the boat arrived the frigate was already sinking.
And it didn’t even belong to the U.S.
The Bonhomme Richard was on loan from the French, who were assisting the American revolutionaries in the fight against their mutual English enemies. That means that France could make a claim to artifacts recovered from the wreck, but Ryan said that her foundation has been meeting with French government officials at the French embassy in Washington to work out those details in advance. She said that France might want to mount a joint expedition for the Bonhomme Richard this fall.
By that time the NR-1 will likely be out of service, Stockman said. The sub is now scheduled to go through the Navy’s standard nuclear-sub recycling process, he said — unless a museum requests to save it.