JOHN PAUL JONES AND THE BONHOMME RICHARD : A Reconstruction of the Ship and an Account of the Battle With H.M.S. Serapis

This copy is in as new, unmarked condition bound in blue cloth covered boards with bright gilt titling to the spine and the upper board. This copy is bright, tight, white and square. The unclipped dust wrapper is in as new condition. International postal rates are calculated on a book weighing 1 Kilo, in cases where the book weighs more than 1 Kilo increased postal rates will be quoted, where the book weighs less then postage will be reduced accordingly. Ever since the Bonhoome Richard sank ff Flamborough head after deeating H.M.S. Serapis in 1779, there has been speculation about her appearance. Contemporary paintings and engravings are inccurate, manuscript records are setchy, and the original plans have not surived. over the last 200 years the evidence has become dispersed and is now to be found in public and private collections in France, in England and in America. Because Bonhomme Richard was a French ship lent by Louis XVI to captain John Paul Jones of the young American Navy it required an unusual combination of talents to attempot the reconstruction; knowledge of where to look for the clues ; access to both French and English- language archives, a knowledge of the ships of the French East India Company; the ability to represent the evidence visually, in a style which is both clear and interesting; and a historian's skill to weigh facts which are sometimes conflicting and place them within the context of the late 18th century. In this book Jean Boudriot has called on the talents of many people, from both sides of the atlantic to ahieve the goal which he had set: nothing less than bringing to life the wreck of a ship that lies in the deep waters of the North sea, reconstructing it timber by timber in a sucession of drawings and showing us for the first time in more than two hundred years the true appearance of the Bonhomme Richard on that fateful day in September 1779. Ref DDD 1.…