The FReeper Foxhole Revisits John Paul Jones

.......

The Bon Homme Richard vs. the Serapis
In September of 1779 occurred the famous naval battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, which is of sufficient interest to describe in detail. With the exception of this one striking conflict, the naval history of the Revolutionary War is of secondary importance, as compared with the conflict on land. Early in the war the American Congress authorized privateering, and much damage was done to the British shipping by the active rovers of the seas. Efforts were also made to build fleets, and many actions took place at sea, but none of particular interest, during the first half of the war.

John Paul Jones, the boldest of American naval commanders of that period, first entered the service on May 10, 1776, in command of the sloop-of-war Providence, one of the American squadron of thirteen war-vessels built in 1776. But he first attained celebrity in 1778, as commander of the Ranger, of eighteen guns. With this vessel, which is described as being crank and slow, he descended on the coasts of England and Scotland and made an effort to burn the shipping in the harbor of Whitehaven. This attempt proved unsuccessful. He afterwards attempted to seize the Earl of Selkirk, landing and taking possession of his house, from which the earl chanced to be absent. These daring operations created the greatest alarm along the English coast. The Ranger afterwards captured the sloop-of-war Drake, after a severe combat, and carried her prize safely into the harbor of Brest, though chased repeatedly.

The exploits of the captain of the Ranger yielded him so much celebrity that the French government soon after gave him command of the Duras, an old Indiaman of some size, which was placed under the American flag and fitted up as a ship of war, being armed with six eighteen-pounders, twenty-eight twelves, and eight nines. The vessel was old-fashioned and clumsy, and had a motley crew, from almost every nation of Europe, with one hundred and thirty-five marines to keep them in order. This ship, in company with four smaller vessels, the Alliance, the Pallas, the Cerf, and the Vengeance, of which only the Alliance and the Cerf were fitted for war, set sail from L'Orient on June 19, 1779. The name of the Duras had previously been changed to the Bon Homme Richard, in compliment to Franklin. After a short cruise the squadron returned, and sailed again on August 14. The Richard had now nearly one hundred Americans on board, gained from some exchanged American seamen.

After having produced a general alarm along the coast of England by his daring movements, Captain Jones met, on the 13th of September, a British fleet of more than forty sail of merchantmen, convoyed by the Serapis, a forty-four-gun ship, and the Countess of Scarborough, of twenty-two guns. The Serapis was a new vessel, reputed a fast sailer, and armed with twenty eighteen-pounders, twenty nine-pounders, and ten six-pounders, making fifty guns in all. She had a trained man-of-war's crew of three hundred and twenty men. This encounter took place off Flamborough Head, within easy view of the English coast.

On learning the character of the fleet, Captain Jones gave the signal for chase, and displayed signs of hostility which alarmed the English ships and caused a hurried flight for safety, while the Serapis hauled out to sea, until far enough to windward, when she stood in again to cover her convoy. The Alliance and Pallas, who were in company with the Richard, moved with indecision, as if in doubt whether to fly or fight.

IT was now quite dark, and Commodore Jones was compelled to follow the movements of the enemy by the aid of a night-glass. It is probable that the obscurity which prevailed added to the indecision of the commander of the Pallas, for, from this time until the moon rose, objects at a distance were distinguished with difficulty, and, even after the moon appeared, with uncertainty. The Richard, however, stood steadily on, and about half-past seven she came up with the Serapis, the Scarborough being a shot distance to leeward. The American ship was to windward, and, as she drew slowly near, Captain Pearson hailed.

The answer was equivocal, and both ships delivered their entire broadsides nearly simultaneously. The water being quite smooth, Commodore Jones had relied materially on the eighteens that were in the gun-room; but at this discharge two of the six that were fired burst, blowing up the deck above, and killing or wounding a large proportion of the people that were stationed below. This disaster caused all the heavy guns to be instantly deserted, for the men had no longer confidence in their metal. It at once reduced the broadside of the Richard to about a third less than that of her opponent, not to include the disadvantage of the manner in which the force that remained was distributed among light guns. In short, the combat was now between a twelve-pounder and an eighteen-pounder frigate,--a species of contest in which, it has been said, we know not with what truth, the former has never been known to prevail. Commodore Jones informs us himself that all his hopes, after this accident, rested on the twelve-pounders that were under the command of his first lieutenant.

The Richard, having backed her topsails, exchanged several broadsides, when she filled again and shot ahead of the Serapis, which ship luffed across her stern and came up on the weather quarter of her antagonist, taking the wind out of her sails, and, in her turn, passing ahead. All this time, which consumed half an hour, the cannonading was close and furious. The Scarborough now drew near, but it is uncertain whether she fired or not. On the side of the Americans it is affirmed that she raked the Richard at least once; but by the report of her own commander it would appear that, on account of the obscurity and the smoke, he was afraid to discharge his guns, not knowing which ship might be friend or which foe. Unwilling to lie by and be exposed to shot uselessly, Captain Piercy edged away from the combatants, exchanging a broadside or two, at a great distance, with the Alliance, and shortly afterwards was engaged at close quarters by the Pallas, which ship compelled him to strike, after a creditable resistance of about an hour.

Having disposed of the inferior ships, we can confine ourselves to the principal combatants. As the Serapis kept her luff, sailing and working better than the Richard, it was the intention of Captain Pearson to pay broad off across the latter's fore-foot, as soon as he had got far enough ahead; but, making the attempt, and finding he had not room, he put his helm hard down to keep clear of his adversary, when the double movement brought the two ships nearly in a line, the Serapis leading. By these uncertain evolutions the English ship lost some of her way, while the American, having kept her sails trimmed, not only closed, but actually ran aboard of her antagonist, bows on, a little on her weather quarter. The wind being light, much time was consumed in these different manoeuvres, and near an hour elapsed between the firing of the first guns and the moment when the vessels got foul of each other in the manner just described.

The English now thought that it was the intention of the Americans to board them, and a few minutes passed in the uncertainty which such an expectation would create; but the positions of the vessels were not favorable for either party to pass into the opposing ship. There being at this moment a perfect cessation of the firing, Captain Pearson demanded, "Have you struck your colors?" "I have not yet begun to fight," was the answer.

The yards of the Richard were braced aback, and, the sails of the Serapis being full, the ships separated. As soon as far enough asunder, the Serapis put her helm hard down, laid all aback forward, shivered her after-sails, and wore short round on her heel, or was box-hauled, with a view, most probably, of luffing up athwart the bow of the enemy, in order to again rake her. In this position the Richard would have been fighting her starboard and the Serapis her larboard guns; but Commodore Jones by this time was conscious of the hopelessness of success against so much heavier metal, and, after having backed astern some distance, he filled on the other tack, luffing up with the intention of meeting the enemy as he came to the wind, and of laying him athwart hawse.

In the smoke, one party or the other miscalculated the distance, for the two vessels came foul again, the bowsprit of the English ship passing over the poop of the American. As neither had much way, the collision did but little injury, and Commodore Jones, with his own hands, immediately lashed the enemy's head-gear to his mizzen-mast. The pressure on the after-sails of the Serapis, which vessel was nearly before the wind at the time, brought her hull round, and the two ships gradually fell close alongside of each other, head and stern, the jib-boom of the Serapis giving way with the strain. A spare anchor of the English ship now hooked in the quarter of the American, and additional lashings were got out on board the latter to secure her in this position.

Captain Pearson, who was as much aware of his advantage in a regular combat as his opponent could be of his own inferiority, no sooner perceived that the vessels were foul than he dropped an anchor, in the hope that the Richard would drift clear of him. But such an expectation was perfectly futile, as the yards were interlocked, the hulls were pressed close against each other, there were lashings fore and aft, and even the ornamental work aided in holding the ships together. When the cable of the Serapis took the strain, the vessels slowly tended, with the bows of the Serapis and the stern of the Richard to the tide. At this instant the English made an attempt to board, but were repulsed with trifling loss.

All this time the battle raged. The lower ports of the Serapis having been closed, as the vessel swung, to prevent boarding, they were now blown off, in order to allow the guns to be run out; and cases actually occurred in which the rammers had to be thrust into the ports of the opposite ship in order to be entered into the muzzles of their proper guns. It is evident that such a conflict must have been of short duration. In effect, the heavy metal of the Serapis, in one or two discharges, cleared all before it, and the main-deck guns of the Richard were in a great measure abandoned. Most of the people went on the upper deck, and a great number collected on the forecastle, where they were safe from the fire of the enemy, continuing to fight by throwing grenades and using muskets.

In this stage of the combat, the Serapis was tearing her antagonist to pieces below, almost without resistance from her enemy's batteries, only two guns on the quarter-deck, and three or four of the twelves, being worked at all. To the former, by shifting a gun from the larboard side, Commodore Jones succeeded in adding a third, all of which were used with effect, under his immediate inspection, to the close of the action. He could not muster force enough to get over a second gun. But the combat would now have soon terminated, had it not been for the courage and activity of the people aloft. Strong parties had been placed in the tops, and at the end of the short contest the Americans had driven every man belonging to the enemy below; after which they kept up so animated a fire on the quarter-deck of the Serapis in particular as to drive nearly every man off that was not shot down.

Thus, while the English had the battle nearly to themselves below, their enemies had the control above the upper deck. Having cleared the tops of the Serapis, some American seamen lay out on the Richard's main-yard, and began to throw hand-grenades upon the two upper decks of the English ship; the men of the forecastle of their own vessel seconding these efforts, by casting the same combustibles through the ports of the Serapis. At length one man, in particular, became so hardy as to take his post on the extreme end of the yard, whence, provided with a bucket filled with combustibles, and a match, he dropped the grenades with so much precision that one passed through the main hatchway. The powder-boys of the Serapis had got more cartridges up than were wanted, and, in their hurry, they had carelessly laid a row of them on the main deck, in a line with the guns. The grenade just mentioned set fire to some loose powder that was lying near, and the flash passed from cartridge to cartridge, beginning abreast of the main-mast, and running quite aft.

The effect of this explosion was awful. More than twenty men were instantly killed, many of them being left with nothing on them but the collars and wristbands of their shirts and the waistbands of their duck trousers; while the official returns of the ship, a week after the action, show that there were no less than thirty-eight wounded on board, still alive, who had been injured in this manner, and of whom thirty were then said to be in great danger. Captain Pearson described the explosion as having destroyed nearly all the men at the five or six aftermost guns. On the whole, nearly sixty of the Serapis's people must have been instantly disabled by this sudden blow.

This advantage thus obtained, by the coolness and intrepidity of the topman, in a great measure restored the chances of the combat, and, by lessening the fire of the enemy, enabled Commodore Jones to increase his. In the same degree that it encouraged the crew of the Richard it diminished the hopes of the people of the Serapis. One of the guns under the immediate inspection of Commodore Jones had been pointed some time against the main-mast of the enemy, while the two others had seconded the fire of the tops with grape and canister. Kept below decks by this double attack, where a scene of frightful horror was present in the agonies of the wounded and the effects of the explosion, the spirits of the Englishmen began to droop, and there was a moment when a trifle would have induced them to submit. From this despondency they were temporarily raised by one of those unlooked-for events that characterize the vicissitudes of battle.

While the fight was taking place between the Pallas and the Scarborough, the Alliance stood off and on, as if in doubt how or where to be of service. She finally approached the Richard and Serapis, and fired in such a way as to do as much damage to friend as to foe, if not even more. Fifty voices hailed her, calling out that she was firing into the wrong ship. Ten or twelve men seem to have been killed and wounded on the Richard by this discharge. The Alliance, after some further ineffectual efforts to aid her consort, stood off, and took no part in the remainder of the fight.

The fire of the Alliance added greatly to the leaks of the Richard, which ship by this time had received so much water through the shot-holes as to begin to settle. It is even affirmed by many witnesses that the most dangerous shot-holes on board the Richard were under her larboard bow and larboard counter, in places where they could not have been received from the Serapis. This evidence, however, is not unanswerable, as it has been seen that the Serapis luffed up on the larboard quarter of the Richard in the commencement of the action, and, forging ahead, was subsequently on her larboad bow, endeavoring to cross her fore-foot. It is certainly possible that shot may have struck the Richard in the places mentioned, on these occasions, and that, as the ship settled in the water from other leaks, the holes then made may have suddenly increased the danger. On the other hand, if the Alliance did actually fire while on the bow and quarter of the Richard, as appears by a mass of uncontradicted testimony, the dangerous shot-holes may very well have come from that ship.

Let the injuries have been received from what quarter they might, soon after the Alliance had run to leeward an alarm was spread in the Richard that the ship was sinking. Both vessels had been on fire several times, and some difficulty had been experienced in extinguishing the flames; but here was a new enemy to contend with, and, as the information came from the carpenter, whose duty it was to sound the pump-wells, it produced a good deal of consternation. The Richard had more than a hundred English prisoners on board, and the master-at-arms, in the hurry of the moment, let them all up from below, in order to save their lives. In the confusion of such a scene at night, the master of the letter-of-marque that had been taken off the north of Scotland passed through a port of the Richard into one of the Serapis, when he reported to Captain Pearson that a few minutes would probably decide the battle in his favor, or carry his enemy down, he himself having been liberated in order to save his life.

Just at this instant the gunner, who had little to occupy him in his quarters, came on deck, and, not perceiving Commodore Jones or Mr. Dale, both of whom were occupied with the liberated prisoners, and believing the master, the only other superior he had in the ship, to be dead, he ran up on the poop to haul down the colors. Fortunately, the flag-staff had been shot away, and, the ensign already hanging in the water, he had no other means of letting his intention to submit be known than by calling out for quarter. Captain Pearson now hailed to inquire if the Richard demanded quarter, and was answered by Commodore Jones himself in the negative. It is probable that the reply was not heard, or, if heard, was supposed to come from an unauthorized source; for, encouraged by what he had learned from the escaped prisoner, by the cry, and by the confusion that prevailed in the Richard, the English captain directed his boarders to be called away, and, as soon as mustered, they were ordered to take possession of the prize. Some of the men actually got on the gunwale of the latter ship, but, finding boarders ready to repel boarders, they made a precipitate retreat. All this time the topmen were not idle, and the enemy were soon driven below again with loss.

In the mean while, Mr. Dale, who no longer had a gun that could be fought, mustered the prisoners at the pumps, turning their consternation to account, and probably keeping the Richard afloat by the very blunder that had come so near losing her. The ships were now on fire again, and both parties, with the exception of a few guns on each side, ceased fighting, in order to subdue this common enemy. In the course of the combat the Serapis is said to have been set on fire no less than twelve times, while towards its close, as will be seen in the sequel, the Richard was burning all the while.

Jones sailed into a Dutch harbor, flying this distinctive flag.

As soon as order was restored in the Richard, after a call for quarter, her chances of success began to increase, while the English, driven under cover, almost to a man, appear to have lost, in a great degree, the hope of victory. Their fire materially slackened, while the Richard again brought a few more guns to bear; the main-mast of the Serapis began to totter, and her resistance, in general, to lessen. About an hour after the explosion, or between three hours and three hours and a half after the first gun was fired, and between two hours and two hours and a half after the ships were lashed together, Captain Pearson hauled down the colors of the Serapis with his own hands, the men refusing to expose themselves to the fire of the Richard's tops.

As soon as it was known that the colors of the English had been lowered, Mr. Dale got upon the gunwale of the Richard, and, laying hold of her main brace pendant, he swung himself on board the Serapis. On the quarter-deck of the latter he found Captain Pearson, almost alone, that gallant officer having maintained his post throughout the whole of this close and murderous conflict. Just as Mr. Dale addressed the English captain, the first lieutenant of the Serapis came up from below to inquire if the Richard had struck, her fire having entirely ceased. Mr. Dale now gave the English officer to understand that he was mistaken in the position of things, the Serapis having struck to the Richard, and not the Richard to the Serapis. Captain Pearson confirming this account, his subordinate acquiesced, offering to go below and silence the guns that were still playing upon the American ship. To this Mr. Dale would not consent, but both the English officers were immediately passed on board the Richard. The firing was then stopped below. Mr. Dale had been closely followed to the quarter-deck of the Serapis by Mr. Mayrant, a midshipman, and a party of boarders, and as the former struck the quarter-deck of the prize he was run through the thigh by a boarding-pike in the hands of a man in the waist, who was ignorant of the surrender. Thus did the close of this remarkable combat resemble its other features in singularity, blood being shed and shots fired while the boarding officer was in amicable discourse with his prisoners.

............

The man whom Thomas Jefferson later described as "the principal hope of America's future efforts on the ocean" was born on 6 July 1747 in the gardener's cottage of the Arbigland Estate, Kirkbean, Scotland.

1760
Apprenticed to a merchant at age 13, John Paul went to sea in the brig Friendship to learn the art of seamanship. He first voyaged between Whitehaven, England, and Barbados with cargoes of consumer goods or sugar. At twenty-one he received his first command on the brig John.

1773
On the Caribbean island of Tobago, where his ship Betsy ended her outward voyage, Jones decided to invest money in return cargo rather than pay his crew for their shore leave. One sailor, known as "the ringleader," attempted to go ashore without leave. Jones drew his sword on the man to enforce his orders, but the man set on his captain with a bludgeon. In response to the attack Jones ran him through with his sword. Jones immediately went ashore to give himself up, but the death of the ringleader had so stirred up local sentiment that John Paul's friends prevailed upon him to escape to Virginia at once.

1775
In December 1775 Jones received his lieutenant's commission from the Continental Congress for its navy. On 3 December 1775, as first lieutenant of Alfred, he hoisted the Grand Union flag for the first time on a Continental warship. The flag's Union Jack in the upper left canton and thirteen red and white stripes represented a united resistance to tyranny but loyalty to the English King.

1776
In February 1776 John Paul Jones participated in the attack on Nassau, New Providence Island. Jones was appointed to command Providence on 10 May 1776; his commission as Captain in the Continental Navy was dated 8 August 1776. The 12- gun sloop departed for the Delaware Capes on 21 August. Within a week she had captured the whaling brigantine Britannia. Near Bermuda, she fell in with a convoy escorted by the 28-gun frigate Solebay. In a thrilling chase lasting ten hours, Jones saved Providence from the larger warship by an act of superior seamanship. By 22 September he had captured three British merchant vessels. While anchored he burnt an English fishing schooner, sank another, and made prize of a third. Jones would later declare that his best crew had been on board Providence; he had received sound financial rewards from the prizes, making this venture the most enjoyable of his career.

1777
In November 1777, John Paul Jones sailed for France in Ranger, carrying word of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. Admiral La Motte-Picquet returned Jones' salute at Quiberon Bay on 14 February 1778, the first time the Stars and Stripes were recognized by a foreign power. Ranger later captured the British sloop of war Drake off the coast of Ireland on 24 April and pillaged the British coast.

1779
The French king loaned Jones the Bonhomme Richard, which Jones had renamed after Poor Richard's Almanac, in honor of Benjamin Franklin. On 14 August 1779, in command of four other ships and two French privateers, Jones continued his raids on English shipping. In his most famous engagement, 23 September 1779, Jones engaged the British frigate Serapis off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire. Serapis was a superior ship compared to Richard. She was faster, more nimble and carried a far greater number of eighteen pounders. The two ships fired simultaneously. At the first or second salvo, two of Jones' eighteen pounders burst, killing many gunners and ruining the entire battery as well as blowing up the deck above. After exchanging two or three broadsides, and attempting to rake the Serapis' bow and stern, the commodore estimated that he must board and grapple, a gun-to-gun duel seeming futile. Serapis' Captain Pearson repulsed the boarders, and attempted to cross Richard's bow to rake her.

During this stage of the bloody and desperate battle, Pearson, seeing the shambles on board Bonhomme Richard, asked if the American ship had struck. Jones' immortal reply, "I have not yet begun to fight," served as a rallying cry to the crew. The two ships grappled and Jones relied on his marines to clear the enemy's deck of men. To Jones' disgust, Alliance, under the Frenchman Pierre Landais, fired three broadsides into Richard. Landais later stated that he wanted to help Serapis sink Richard, then capture the British frigate. Even though his ship had begun to sink, Jones determined he would not strike his colors. He used his remaining guns to weaken Serapis' main mast. It began to tremble, Pearson lost his nerve and decided to strike his colors. When the battered Bonhomme Richard sank on 25 September, Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis. For his victory, Congress passed a resolution thanking Jones, and Louis XVI presented him with a sword.

1779
One of Jones' midshipman on board the Bonhomme Richard was Beaumont Groube. He acquired fame as the "Lieutenant Grub" of chapbooks (comics), supposedly shot by Jones for striking the colors during battle, an action which would have signified the Richard's surrender.

1783-1790
After the Revolutionary War, Commodore John Paul Jones was active in negotiating prize money claims in Paris. In 1788 he entered the service of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia as a rear admiral. He hoped that command of a battle fleet in Russia would qualify him for higher command if and when the United States built a permanent Navy. Although he successfully commanded the Black Sea Squadron in the Dnieper River, court intrigues forced Jones to leave Russia.

1790-92
John Paul Jones returned to Paris in 1790 where he died 18 July 1792.

'Have you struck your colors?'

-- Captain Richard Pearson,
Commander of the Serapis

'I have not yet begun to fight'

-- Captain John Paul Jones,
Commander of the Bon Homme Richard

Crypt of John Paul Jones on the lower deck of the USNA Chapel

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The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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Has anyone surveyed the resting place of the Bon Homme Richard?

To The FReeper Foxhole

It's Friday. Good Morning Everyone.

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I found this.

http://www.numa.net/expeditions/bonhomme_richard_2.html

Very interesting presentation again on Jones and the original "Bonney Dick."

My paths crossed many times with the Bonney Dick (CVA-31) in the sixties before her retirement and later being sold for scrap in '92. And now a new Bonney Dick (LHD-6). A proud history carries into the future.

GO NAVY!

The story of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis is known to all men of the United States Navy. John Paul Jones was, is, the father of our Navy. Go for broke - intelligently.

Jones was a Jacobite, a defender of the true King, not of those German Usurpers. George I, II, III, ugh. A bit like Blackbeard in that way, but not so bloody minded.

The Jacobites supported the Stuart kings. The wealthy English class resented having to pay taxes, much rathering the middle class do the job, and so put in the Georges after neutralizing Queen Anne Stuart (Thus Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge.)

The Jacobites went to war against the Usurper in 1715 and 1745, and nearly won. My own suspicion is that the Stuart would not have allowed relations with the American Colonies to deteriorate into war.

We could have had the Cross of Saint Andrew on the Stars and Stripes!!! No Mexican invasion!! No WWI, so no WWII!!!

And boy, would we have ever waxed Napoleon!!! This avoids the militarization of Prussia, another block to WWI. No WWI, no Bolsheviks, no USSR, no communism, no Hitler, no nuclear weapons.

Since this is the Foxhole--a haven of gentle camaraderie and overall flame free zone--I'm going to put this as gently as I can.

It wouldn't have worked out that way. Ditto for the speculations in post #10.

Peace.

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

DD932 USS John Paul Jones in 1963
Forest Sherman Class Escort Destroyer

DDG53 USS John Paul Jones in 2005
Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer
"In Harm's Way"

Good Friday morning to all. Again, another great story.

In reading through the account here of the battle between the Richard and the Serapis, I was struck by how the Marines were a part of it. Yet in recent years they have taken a path to distance themselves from the Navy. In view of this account, they are distancing themselves from their own roots.

Obviously, in this account of the fledgling days of the U.S. Navy, gaining the respect of the world by their exploits under John Paul Jones as a competent fighting arm of the United States, the Navy and Marines were one cohesive unit.

Friday Funnie Bump for the Freeper Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 23:
00484BC Euripides Greek playwright (Trojan Women)
0063BC Octavian (Augustus Caesar), first Roman emperor (27 BC-14 AD)
1713 Ferdinand VI king of Spain (1746-59)
1745 John Sevier Tennessee, indian fighter (Gov/Rep-Tn)
1800 William H McGuffey educator (McGuffey Readers)
1805 Matthew Adams Stickney Rowley Mass, numismatist
1838 Victoria Chaflin Woodhull Ohio, feminist/reformer/free love/1st female presidential candidate
1852 William Stewart Halsted established 1st US surgical school
1869 Mary Church Terrell famous African
1880 John Boyd Orr nutritionist, UN's FAO (Nobel 1949)
1889 Walter Lippmann NYC, journalist/political writer (Men of Destany)
1900 Louise Nevelson US, sculptor (Sky Cathedral)
1910 Soulima Stravinsky Lausanne Switz, Russian pianist (Igor's son)
1917 Imry Nemeth Hungary, hammer thrower (Olympic-gold-1948)
1936 Sylvain Saudan skiier (60ø descent)
1938 Romy Schneider Vienna Austria, actress (Bloodline, Death Watch)
1944 Loren J Shriver Iowa, Col USAF/astronaut (STS 51-C, STS-31, sk:46)
1945 Paul Petersen Glendale Calif, actor (Jeff Stone-Donna Reed Show)
1947 Mary Kay Place Tulsa Okla, actress/country singer (Mary Hartman!)
1961 Elizabeth Pe¤a Havana Cuba, actress (La Bamba, Jacob's Ladder)

Deaths which occurred on September 23:
1877 Urbain JJ Leverrier codiscoverer of Neptune, dies
1972 Carl Frank actor (Uncle Gunnar-Mama), dies at 63
1974 Cliff Arquette comedian "Charlie Weaver", dies at 68
1982 Jimmy Wakely country western singer, dies of heart failure at 68
1985 Mickey Simpson actor, dies of a heart attack at 72

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 CALLAHAN DAVID F. JR. WINDSOR VT.
1968 OSBORNE DALE H. SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0951 Otto I the Great becomes king of Italy
1553 The Sadians defeat the last of their enemies and establish themselves as rulers of Morocco.
1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike pays $2,000 to buy from the Sioux a 9-square-mile tract at the mouth of the Minnesota River that will be used to establish a military post, Fort Snelling.
1806 Lewis & Clark return to St Louis from the Pacific Northwest
1845 1st baseball team, NY Knickerbockers organize, adopt rule code
1846 Johann Gottfried Galle & Heinrich d'Arrest find Neptune
1862 Lincoln's Emancipation is published in Northern Newspapers
1863 Confederate siege of Chattanooga begins
1868 Grito de Lares proclaims Puerto Rico's independence (crushed by Spain)
1873 Tom Allen beats Mike McCale for Heavyweight Boxing title
1879 Baldwin steam motors tram 1st tried in Sydney Australia
1890 Ed Cartwright bats in 7 RBIs in 1 inning
1897 1st frontier days rodeo celebration (Cheyene Wyoming)
1908 Giant Fred (Bonehead) Merkle fails to touch 2nd, causes 3rd out in 9th disallows winning run (game ends tied, Cubs win replay & pennant)
1908 University of Alberta opens
1912 1st Mack Sennett "Keystone Comedy" movie released
1926 Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey for world heavyweight boxing title
1932 Kingdom of Hejaz & Nejd renamed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
1933 Yanks commit 7 errors in 1 game but beat Boston 16-12
1938 British premier Neville Chamberlain flies to Munich
1938 Time capsule, to be opened in 6939, buried at World's Fair in NYC (capsule contained a woman's hat, man's pipe & 1,100' of microfilm)
1939 Cookie Lavagetto goes 6 for 6-Dodgers get 27 hits & beat Phillies 22-4
1949 Truman announces evidence of USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation
1950 Phila A's Joe Astroth is 4th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (6th)
1952 1st closed circuit pay-TV telecast of a sports event
1952 Richard Nixon makes his "Checker's" speech
1952 Rocky Marciano KOs heavyweight champ Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 for heavyweight boxing title
1957 White mob forces 9 black students who had entered a Little Rock high school in Arkansas to withdraw
1961 1st movie to become a TV series-How to Marry a Millionaire
1962 ABC's 1st color TV series-The Jetsons
1962 LA Dodger Maury Wills steals record setting #97 on his way to 104
1962 NY's Philharmonic Hall (since renamed Avery Fisher Hall) opens as 1st unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
1967 Radio Malta stops testing
1969 Northern Star starts rumor that Paul McCartney is dead
1973 Former Argentine President Juan Peron returns to power
1973 Largest known prime, 2 ^ 132,049-1, is discovered
1976 Ford-Carter TV debate
1976 Soyuz 22 returns to Earth
1977 3rd test of Space Shuttle Enterprise
1977 Cheryl Ladd replaces Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels
1978 100,000 cheering Egyptians welcome Sadat home from Camp David summit
1979 Jane Fonda & 200,000 attend anti-nuke rally in Battery Park, NYC
1979 Lou Brock steals record 935th base
1980 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opens
1983 Columbia moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating in preparation of STS-9
1983 Phillies Steve Carlton wins his 300th game (beating St Louis Cards)
1984 SF 49er Joe Montana misses his 1st start in 49 games
1984 Sparky Anderson is 1st manager to win 100 games in both leagues
1986 Houston Astro Jim Deshales sets record of striking out 1st 8 men starting a ball game, beating the LA Dodgers 4-0
1987 The British government lost its appeal to prevent the Australian publication of "Spycatcher:
1988 Jose Canseco becomes baseball's 1st to steal 40 bases & hit 40 HRs
1990 PBS begins an 11 hour miniseries on The Civil War
1990 Saddam says he will destroy Israel
1991 NY Islanders Mike Bossy & Denis Potvin inducted into NHL Hall of Fame
1997 The Senate Finance Committee opened hearings into reports of alleged abuses by the Internal Revenue Service.
1997 Islamic terrorist in Algeria kill 85-200 people at Baraki suburb of Algiers. One of the worst massacres since Algeria's Islamic insurgency began.
1998 Death toll from hurricane Georges reached 110. 17 people were killed in Haiti and 17 in the Dominican Republic as the storm hit Cuba. (And where was George Bush?)
2001 President George W. Bush returned the American flag to full staff at Camp David, symbolically ending a period of national mourning.
2001 Osama bin Laden issued a statement that called for Muslim brothers to resist the "Christian-Jewish crusade led by the big crusader Bush under the flag of the Cross…" (His call sends Muslims around the world into spasms of apathy)
2002 Hurricane Isidore left two dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico's Yucatan and moved toward the U.S. Gulf coast.
(And where was George Bush?)
2003 Scientists report that human bone fragments found in a cave from Aveline's Hole in the Mendip Hills of southwest England date from 10,200-10,400BCE.
2004 Latvia lawmakers reject a proposal to let nearly 500,000 ethnic Russians vote in local elections, despite giving the same right to citizens of EU countries who live in the Baltic state.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Puerto Rico : Grito de Lares Day (1868)
Saudi Arabia : Unification Day (1932)
Wyoming : Frontier Day
US : Press Sunday (Sunday)
US : Good Neighbor Day
Japan : Autumnal Equinox Day
National Checkers Day
National Multiple Wives Day
Bourbon Month
National Bed Check Month

Religious Observances
RC : Commemoration of St Linus, 2nd pope (c 67-c 76), martyr

Religious History
1122 The Concordat of Worms was reached between Pope Callistus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. It settled the Investiture Controversy over who had the right -- bishop or emperor -- to choose replacement clergy for vacant positions.
1595 Spain launched an intensive missionary campaign in the American Southeast. During the next two years, about 1,500 American Indians were converted to the Catholic faith.
1667 In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring slaves from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1888 Birth of Gerhard Kittel, German Lutheran Bible scholar. He was first editor of a 10-volume Greek lexicon which took 43 years to complete (1933-76). In its English edition (1964-76), the work is entitled, "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament" -- or "TDNT" for short.
1960 While mourning the recent death of his wife Joy Davidman, English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'My great recent discovery is that when I mourn Joy least I feel nearest to her. Passionate sorrow cuts us off from the dead.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Guinea pig's love record
From: Reuters
September 23, 2005

SOOTY has set a new world record for the most valentine cards sent to a guinea pig.
The three-year-old guinea pig from Wales received 206 cards from as far away as New Zealand to gain a bizarre entry in the latest edition of Guinness World Records.
Sooty was joined in the ranks of the world's weirdest and wackiest achievers by Briton Paul Hunn who took the record for the world's largest burp. Louder than a pile driver, his burps can be heard from a distance of 30 metres.

Not to be outdone, Canadian Christa Rasanayagam set a new record when accompanied up the aisle by no less than 79 bridesmaids aged from one to 79.

American Ashrita Furman found yet more Guinness immortality by pushing an orange one mile with his nose in 24 minutes and 36 seconds.

Furman is no stranger to Guinness, laying claim to 94 official records with such feats as climbing Mount Fuji on a pogo stick, underwater rope jumping and lighting 27,000 candles on a birthday cake in New York.

Thought for the day :
"Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze."
Elinor Glyn

Apologies to all, somewhere along the line I double posted Sept. 23's On This Day.
DRAT!

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

Very likely not. There is more than a little "flight of fancy" here. Sometimes the just barely possible imaginary historical sequences are simply the most gratifying.

I remember reading that Cromwell's early regiment contained a large fraction of returning Puritans from the colonies who then acted as training cadre for what later became New Model Army doctrine. (Ten - fifteen years ago read a lot on the English Civil War.) The Protectorate was popular but not universally, shall we say. Anyway, it is hard to see how the Puritan spirit could have tolerated a Catholic king. Remember how close in time we are here to the Gunpowder Plot, to Elizabeth's Act of Supremacy and to Francis Walsingham' spy networks, secret police, torturers, and prisons. (A fascinating time and character.)

On the other hand, James Graham, 5th Earl of Montrose, came close enough to defeating the Roundheads that they feared and hated him. Treasonous Campbells, anyway!

Momentous events so finely balanced,and as my fascination with war is fascination with Statecraft (as well as strategy and tactics) I try to pick apart the historical tangled threads, contemplating long ago decisions and personalities, the trends in ideas. "Why did he or she do this and not that?"

How about Walsingham's two favorite aphorisms, "there is less danger in fearing too much than too little", and "there is nothing more dangerous than security".

The Andrews Cross on the Stars and Stripes is 99% whimsy. A reminder that history turns on small details. Since this is so, every minute is a time for optimism.