HMS Serapis

HMS Serapis was built in Rotherhithe by ship-builders, Randall & Brent and commissioned in March 1779 under Captain Richard Pearson. She was armed with 44 guns (twenty 18-pounders, twenty 9-pounders, and four 6-pounders). HMS Serapis was named after the god Serapis in Greek and Egyptian mythology.

On 1 September a convoy of approximately 70 merchant ships ladened with crucial supplies for the Royal Navy, HMS Seraphis, along with the Countess of Scarborough, set off from Elsinore (home of Shakespeare’s Hamlet).  By the time they reached the English coastline near Newcastle, there were just over 40 supply ships left in the convoy as the others had gone to various ports in the north with their supplies.

On 23 September the enemy squadron had been spotted heading north from Bridlington.  Captain Pearson directed all merchant ships to Scarborough Bay where they were protected by Scarborough Castle’s state-of-the-art gunnery.  HMS Serapis engaged the American ship, Bonhomme Richard, under the command of Captain John Paul Jones at Flamborough Head along with three other French-led ships in the enemy squadron.

The two vessels exchanged heavy fire and Bonhomme Richard lost most of her firepower; but by attaching the two ships together, Jones was able to overcome much of Pearson’s advantage of greater firepower, although the Bonhomme Richard was a larger ship with a considerably greater crew.

The battle raged on for three to four hours as the crew of Bonhomme Richard tenaciously fought the Serapis, raking her deck with gunfire. Eventually, USS Alliance, a frigate in Jones’s squadron, began firing at both the attached ships indiscriminately. Bonhomme Richard began to sink, but Captain Pearson, unable to aim his guns at the frigate because he was tied to Jones’s ship, and realising the convoy had been saved, decided to surrender handing the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough over to the Americans.

Jones escaped with the two ships to Texel in neutral Netherlands.  HMS Serapis was then transferred to the French, who commissioned her as a privateer. She was lost off Madagascar in 1781 to a fire.