The 1779 battle between the Bonhomme Richard (center) and HMS Serapis left a shipwreck mystery that has led to at least two possible wreck locations.
Another Possible Location for the Bonhomme Richard?
"I have not yet begun to fight," the immortal words uttered by Captain John Paul Jones, have served as the model of grit and determination for generations of U.S. sailors.
Now, Jones' retort also can describe what is becoming a fight to prove which between competing claims is the actual location of his lost flagship, the Bonhomme Richard.
Academics, oceanographers, and naval historians have been following the search for the Continental Navy warship for years. Then, this past November, a small satellite imagery firm in England announced it had pinpointed the wreck's location just off the Yorkshire coast.
Combining data from historical accounts of the Bonhomme Richard's 3 September 1779 battle with HMS Serapis and publicly available satellite imagery and X-ray data, a team from Merlin Burrows is confident it has located the wreck of Jones' famed ship, said Bruce Blackburn, the firm's chief executive.