The Bonhomme Richard sank in
about 180ft of water
Posted on 06/22/2006 6:38:09 AM PDT by Pharmboy
The Bonhomme Richard sank in
about 180ft of water
Experts have expressed confidence that they can find the sunken wreck of the ship made famous by legendary Solway born sailor John Paul Jones next month. The Bonhomme Richard went down in 1779 off Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire as Jones famously said: "Surrender - I have not yet begun to fight."
Several bids have been made to recover the ship captained by a man credited as the founding father of the US Navy.
Now underwater archaeology experts will use hi-tech methods to try to find it.
Dr Robert Neyland, head of the underwater archaeology unit at the US Navy Historical Centre, will head a team of six on a three-week search.
"We thought that one way to go about it would be to take the last historical information for locations of the fleet and the ship itself," he said.
"We put that together with the weather and tide information for that time period which have been recreated very well.
'Relatively deep'
"We then used modern computers to create a predictive model of where the ship went down," he added.
Dr Neyland is confident the wreck can be found despite the depth of waters involved.
"It is going to be in waters that are relatively deep - probably 150 to 200ft," he said.
"Divers are able to work in those waters - and archaeologists too."
Jones, a native of Arbigland on the Solway coast, engaged the British ship Serapis off Flamborough Head.
He captured Serapis but had to watch his own ship sink into the North Sea.
The battle on 23 September, 1779 is counted as one of the most memorable battles of the American Revolution
And today we have leadership (motly dems) in the US Government who says "Fight? - We need to cut and run and surrender."
The John Paul Jones Flag
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Jones was also the greatest Admiral in the history of the Russian Navy.
Perhaps they can start by looking under the black dot on the inset map you posted... :)
uh nope. He was told to strike or he'll sink and his reply was "I'll sink but I'll be damned if I'll strike" which was deemed bad language, so the line sas sanitized for public consumption. (From the Museum of Our National Heritgage, Lexington, MA)
The guy really led an interesting life. Evan Thomas (of Newsweak fame) published a biography a few years back.
strike as in strike your colors - lower your flag, surrender.
HAHA...good one.
The "Richard" part is derived from the pen name of Benjamin Franklin, the author of "Poor Richard's Almanak".
Gobs of American history connected with this naval vessel. I really pray they find it.
Leni
Thanks for that bit of arcane (but important) info...I did not know that.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
-- John Paul Jones, 1778, US Navy Patriot
Great!
I suppose previous attempts were made by consulting the Psychic Friends Network?
And to think that Kerry was a member of that same Navy.
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