It was not until seven o’clock in the evening that the _Bonhomme Richard_ came within gunshot of the larger ship which turned out to be the _Serapis_, Captain Richard Pearson, of 50 guns, 18 of which were 18-pounders. She carried 320 men. There then ensued the most remarkable duel in naval history. Jones was left unsupported by his accompanying subordinates, and he went into action short sixteen of his best men and a lieutenant, Lunt, who had been sent to secure a prize. The story of this remarkable battle must of necessity here be short; the full details must be sought elsewhere. But short as it must be, there is enough of it, however baldly told, to stir the blood. Jones closed with his antagonist early in the action, and as they came in contact the two ships were lashed together by Jones, the stern of the _Serapis_ being at the bow of the _Bonhomme Richard_. The latter’s main deck battery of 12-pounders was silenced, two of the old six 18-pounders on the lower deck had burst, killing nearly all the guns’ crews. Only three 9-pounders on the quarter deck could be used, and one of these had to be shifted from the off side. The guns of the _Serapis_ were still active, but her upper deck had been cleared by the musketry fire from the tops of the _Bonhomme Richard_. The latter’s prisoners (some 200) were released without orders, and in their fright that the ship was sinking, willingly worked the pumps; both ships were frequently afire. The men in the _Bonhomme Richard’s_ tops crawled along the yards into the tops of the _Serapis_ and dropped hand grenades whenever any one appeared on deck; these grenades, at times going down the hatches and exploding on the lower deck, finally brought about an explosion of cartridges below which ran from gun to gun. This went far toward determining the battle. Meantime the erratic Landais fired three broad-sides, chiefly to the damage of the _Bonhomme Richard_, as the shot holes were found in the latter’s unengaged side. There can be little question that he hoped this ship would surrender when, with his own unharmed, he would capture both. Jones’s doggedness won the day: at half-past ten Captain Pearson, influenced no doubt somewhat by the presence of the _Alliance_, surrendered. He stated that an incomplete list of his killed and wounded were forty-nine of the former and sixty-eight of the latter, or more than a third of the whole 320. Jones estimated his loss at about 150, without stating the proportions. While this action was going on, the _Pallas_, 30, Captain Cottineau, had engaged and taken the _Countess of Scarborough_, of 20 guns. The Baltic fleet under convoy was not attacked, as it should have been by the _Alliance_ or the _Vengeance_, a curious instance of inertia and incapacity or worse, so long as neither chose to take part in the main action.