HMS Serapis and the Battle of Flamborough Head

HMS Serapis was a Royal Navy fifth-rate warship built at Deptford Dockyard and launched in March 1779. She is best known for her fierce engagement with the American warship USS Bonhomme Richard during the American War of Independence, a battle that became legendary in naval history and marked a turning point in the conflict at sea.

A Roebuck-class Warship

Serapis was a two-decked fifth-rate of the Roebuck class, a standard design for the Royal Navy of the period. She left the stocks armed with 44 guns, comprising twenty 18-pounders, twenty 9-pounders, and four 6-pounders. By the time she saw action, her armament had grown to 46 guns with the addition of two more 6-pounders. The ship was commissioned in June 1779 under Captain Richard Pearson, an experienced officer who would soon face one of the most celebrated naval duels of the era.

The Battle of Flamborough Head

On 23 September 1779, Serapis encountered USS Bonhomme Richard off Flamborough Head in the North Sea. The American vessel was commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, a Scottish-born officer fighting for the Continental Navy. Although Serapis carried superior firepower, the American ship was larger and carried a considerably greater crew.

The two vessels exchanged heavy cannon fire for hours. Bonhomme Richard suffered severe damage and lost most of her guns’ effectiveness, yet Jones refused to yield. When Pearson called for the American ship to surrender, Jones responded with the defiant words, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Jones then lashed the two ships together, closing the distance and negating much of Serapis’s advantage in gunnery. The American crew raked Serapis’s deck with musket and cannon fire while the vessels remained locked together. After three hours of brutal combat, USS Alliance, a frigate in Jones’s squadron, began firing at both ships indiscriminately. Unable to manoeuvre his guns toward the frigate because his ship was bound to Jones’s vessel, Pearson surrendered. Serapis passed into American hands.

Capture and Transfer to France

Jones sailed his prize to the neutral Dutch Republic, but diplomatic complications arose because Dutch authorities did not recognize American independence. To avoid charges of piracy, an improvised Serapis flag was secretly entered into Dutch records. Both Serapis and her consort, the hired armed ship Countess of Scarborough, were later declared as French captures. Despite losing the battle, the British captains had protected a valuable convoy, and both received rewards for their service.

The French Royal Navy commissioned Serapis and loaned her to a civilian master named Roche, who intended to use her as a privateer against British shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Loss and Discovery of HMS Serapis

On 31 July 1781, Serapis lay at Madagascar engaged in trade, exchanging spirits and arak for rice. A catastrophic accident unfolded when the load master, lieutenant de frégate L’Héritier, removed candles from their fire-proof lanterns. The exposed flames ignited alcohol vapour in the hull. The crew battled the fire for two and a half hours, but the flames eventually breached the walls of the spirit locker and reached a powder magazine. The resulting explosion tore off the ship’s stern and sank her. Eight men died in the disaster, though 215 people survived and were rescued by the privateer Daliram, which carried them to Île Sainte-Marie.

In November 1999, American nautical archaeologists Richard Swete and Michael Tuttle located the wreck of Serapis at Île Sainte-Marie, more than two centuries after her loss. The discovery allowed historians to study the remains of a ship that had played a role in one of the most famous naval actions of the American Revolution.

Understanding Fifth-rates and Naval Gunnery

A fifth-rate was a classification used by the Royal Navy to denote a smaller warship, typically carrying 32 to 50 guns. These vessels served as cruisers and convoy escorts rather than ships of the line. An 18-pounder refers to a cannon that fired a solid iron ball weighing 18 pounds, the heaviest guns Serapis carried. The term privateer describes a privately owned vessel licensed by a government to attack enemy shipping during wartime. Raking was a devastating naval tactic in which a ship fired along the length of an enemy vessel, causing maximum casualties and structural damage.

Further Reading

Wikipedia and maritime archives hold extensive records of HMS Serapis, the Battle of Flamborough Head, and the American War of Independence at sea. The wreck itself, studied by underwater archaeologists, provides physical evidence of naval warfare and maritime trade in the late 18th century.