We Have Yet Begun to Fight

They think they've won a war. They'll find out.

On this July 4, I take heart from the crew of the Bonhomme Richard and it’s captain, John Paul Jones.

The Bonhomme Richard, which Jones named after Benjamin Franklin,¹ was one of several ships in a French and American squadron interfering with British merchant ships as part of the American War of Independence. On September 23, 1779 the BR engaged HMS Serapis (captain Richard Pearson), a huge warship with 44 guns and an experienced crew that was escorting British merchant ships. The BR was smaller, had fewer guns, and a less experienced crew consisting of Americans, French, English, Maltese, Portuguese, and Malay sailors. Language barriers made coherent action challenging.

After a series of maneuvers the BR struck Serapis in the stern and was temporarily stuck to the larger ship. From the deck of the Serapis Pearson called, “Are you struck?” (disabled and therefore wish to surrender). Jones, replied, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

With the ships eventually starboard to starboard and tied together by a hawser to facilitate boarding by the British and with Serapis guns ripping through his ship, causing fires and a likely sinking, Jones ordered the release from below decks of 500 prisoners taken in two previous battles. One crawled through a porthole onto the Serapis and advised its captain that the BR was battling flames and taking on so much water that it was doomed. Captain Pearson again asked Captain Jones if he wished to surrender, but Jones replied, “No, sir. I will not. We have had but a small fight as yet.”

Although they were outgunned and getting blasted the crew of the BR were firing rifles so accurately that any Serapis crew member on deck was cut down. Serapis officers went below where their guns kept ripping the BR but the crew members, trained for routine, kept bringing ordnance topside for deck guns. Boxes of unused ordinance piled up and one BR crew member with an accurate arm threw a grenade that landed on the ordinance pile.

Boom! Twenty of the Serapis crew were killed instantly and fires spread topside. Pearson and his traumatized crew surrendered. Captain Jones took command of the Serapis. Good thing because the Bonhomme Richard did sink.

Naval battles of the time seem more like jousts between captains, too much for “honor” vs. practical goal attainment. The British merchant ships sailed away to complete their transport while the BH and Serapis battled.

But Jones’s reply to Pearson is an important part of our national history. It represents something about our self-image, even our actual history, of persistence in the face of formidable opposition, of the long battle for civil rights of African-Americans, women, gays and lesbians, native Americans, and immigrants who were despised for their faith, their language, their skin color, and their customs. Frequently, the slavers, robber barons, corporate elite, those to the manor born, and the wannabes who serve them have scored electoral victories, smashed unions, and used the police and courts to maintain an exploitative and oppressive social order.

But they can’t maintain their control for long without the consent of the exploited. As MLK said it (quoting William Cullen Bryant): “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” The oppressors, the exploiters are having another one of their moments. They would like us to feel defeated and hopeless. They invite surrender to the growing power of an imperial presidency and a captive Congress and Supreme Court.

Not gonna happen. They have sowed the wind and shall reap the whirlwind. No retreat baby, no surrender.

“Liking” a post by clicking the little heart icon at top or bottom of the post strikes a tiny blow against fascism and gives the post wider circulation

1. Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack was known in France as Les Maximes de Bonhomme Richard.