A brief statement of the comparative strength of the two ships is essential. The _Bonhomme Richard_ entered the fight with forty-two guns, which could throw 557 pounds of projectiles at a discharge; the _Serapis_ carried fifty, throwing 600 pounds. After the first broadside the _Bonhomme Richard_ had no eighteen-pounders in action, while the _Serapis_ had twenty. The crew of the American ship had been reduced to 304 by the drafts made in manning prizes, and of these no more than one-third were Americans. The _Serapis_ carried 320, chiefly picked men. So effective had been the work of the crew of the _Serapis_ that at the end of an hour any ordinary man would have surrendered the _Bonhomme Richard_; but John Paul Jones was of different character from ordinary men. With a tenacity of purpose that has never been surpassed, he continued the fight and won. The number of killed on each ship was forty-nine. The _Serapis_ had sixty-eight wounded and the _Bonhomme Richard_ sixty-seven, among whom were John Paul Jones himself and Richard Dale. Jones was hit in the head, and the wound afterwards seriously affected his eyes, but he said nothing about it in his report. Dale was wounded by a splinter during the fight, but did not even know it until after the fight was over. While sitting on the binnacle of the _Serapis_ and giving orders to get her under way, he found she did not move when her sails were full. He did not then know she was anchored. Jumping up to see what was the matter, he fell at full length on the deck. His blood had cooled by this time, and the wound disabled him then. [Illustration: Signature of Richard Dale. _From a letter at the Lenox Library._] The smaller British ship that was protecting the convoy, the _Countess of Scarborough_, is lost to sight during the remarkable conflict between the _Serapis_ and the _Bonhomme Richard_, but she was forced into battle by the gallant Captain Piercy of the _Pallas_, and for two hours she maintained it. Then she surrendered. The _Pallas_ was superior to her in guns and crew, but, on the whole, not to the extent that British historians would have their readers believe, for the _Pallas_ was a merchant ship modelled to carry cargo only, while the _Countess of Scarborough_ was built as a man-of-war.