Excerpt from I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight A Story About John Paul Jones by Elaine Marie Alphin

"I have not yet begun to fight!"

 

In the confusion, the deck guns on the Bonhomme Richard went unmanned. John Paul Jones took charge of a 9-pounder himself, calling the firing commands for the gun crew. The crew loaded and fired in time with the armed men in the rigging. But the damage below decks was so severe that some of the junior officers panicked.

Warrant Officer Henry Gardiner realized the Richard was sinking and tried to find a senior officer. Someone mistakenly told him that both the Lieutenant and Captain had been killed. Gardiner thought he must be the senior surviving officer. Crying "Quarters, Quarters, our ship is sinking!" he ran to strike the colors and surrender.

John, still commanding the 9-pounder, heard the cry. In fury he ordered Gardiner shot and pulled out his own pistols to carry out the command. Finding them empty, John threw the pistols at Gardiner, knocking him unconscious. But Captain Pearson of the British Serapis had also heard. He demanded to know if the Richard was striking her colors and asking for quarter.

Standing on the deck of a sinking flagship, betrayed by his allies, John shouted his refusal. The earliest record reports that he replied, "I have not yet thought of that, but I am determined to make you ask for quarter!" Lieutenant Richard Dale, serving with John on the Richard, recalls his Captain answering, "I have not yet begun to fight!"

Heartened by their Captain's determination, the men in the rigging increased their musket fire and the rain of grenades. They destroyed the deck guns on the Serapis. Then a well-aimed grenade hit the powder bags that had been carried up to reload the guns. Fire erupted on deck, racing to the gundeck below, where smoke and flames forced the men out.

Copyright ©2003 by Elaine Marie Alphin