The fighting at sea that memorable year of doubt was of a like import,—full of daring and stubborn courage, planned and carried through with singular initiative and genius, quick with adventure, bright with every individual achievement, but of necessity without permanent consequence. Late in July, 1779, Captain Paul Jones had sailed from a port of France in command of a little squadron, half American, half French, with which the energy of Mr. Franklin had supplied him. His flag-ship, the _Bon Homme Richard_, was a worn-out French East Indiaman, fitted with forty guns, many of which were unserviceable; his French consorts were light craft, lightly armed; only one ship of the squadron was fully fit for the adventures he promised himself, having come fresh from the stocks in America, and she was intrusted to the command of a French captain who obeyed orders or not, as he pleased. But Jones was a man to work with what he had, and made even that improvised fleet suffice. With it he cruised the whole length of the western coast of Ireland and circled Scotland. Off Flamborough Head he fell in with the _Serapis_, 44, and the _Countess of Scarborough_, 20, the convoy of a fleet of merchantmen, and himself took the larger ship almost unassisted in a desperate fight after sunset, in the first watch of the night of the 23d of September. Neither ship survived the encounter forty-eight hours, so completely had they shot each other to pieces, and no man who followed the sea was likely to forget what he heard of that close grapple in the gathering night in the North Sea. “If I fall in with him again, I will make a lord of him,” Jones exclaimed, when he heard that the King had knighted Captain Pearson, of the _Serapis_, for the gallant fight. [Illustration: JOHN PAUL JONES] [Illustration: THE FIGHT BETWEEN BON HOMME RICHARD AND SERAPIS] For a little, in the autumn, it looked as if the naval aid for which General Washington waited had come at last. The Count d’Estaing was in the West Indies with a strong fleet, from an encounter with which the English commander in those waters had drawn off to port again to refit. The count was willing, while his hands were free, to co-operate in an attack upon the southern coast at Savannah. A portion of Washington’s army was sent south to join General Lincoln in South Carolina for the attempt. Count d’Estaing put six thousand troops aboard his fleet, and by the 16th of September was within the harbor. But he did not strike quickly or boldly enough, took the slow way of siege to reduce the place, suffered the English commander to make good both the rally of his scattered force and the fortification of his position, and had done nothing when it was high time for him to be back in the Indies to guard the possessions of his own king against the English. A last assault (October 9th) failed and he withdrew.