A most remarkable vessel was this that was transferred to the use of the American commander. On reaching L’Orient, where she was lying, he found her a huge, wall-sided merchantman that had ended her usefulness as an India trader, and was now to be transferred to another use, just as worn-out ships in these days become coal barges in the Atlantic coasting trade. She had an enormously high poop and an enormously high forecastle. Her masts were short, her sails were squat, and her bows and stern were as blunt as those of an Erie Canal boat. But, worst of all, she was so old that the life was out of all of her timbers, and some of them were wholly rotten. Nevertheless, this energetic sailorman set about fitting her for a warship where a man of ordinary enthusiasm would have hesitated about trusting himself afloat offshore in her. What labor fitting her for sea implied may be inferred from the fact that, after a look at her, “he hastened to Bordeaux to order the casting of the cannon.” As an Indiaman the ship had carried guns on her main deck. The guns had been removed, and Jones went to Bordeaux to get eighteen-pounders to put there, but finding it would take too long to provide them, he was forced to content himself with twelve-pounders. On the forecastle and the quarterdeck he mounted nine-pounders--four forward and four aft. Then, as the ship stood high out of water, he went down on the deck below the main and had six ports cut through on each side, and for these he procured six eighteen-pounders, which were installed, three on each side, leaving three empty ports on each side--ports which, though empty, served the purpose of making the enemy think his ship more powerful than it really was. As the event showed, it was not even as powerful as Jones supposed it was. But, worst of all among the perils of such a voyage as was proposed (had Jones been a man to calculate perils), was that found in the heterogeneous character of his crew when shipped. American naval ships have since had as curious mixtures as this one did, but it is worth noting that, besides Americans, it contained men from England, Ireland, and Scotland; from Norway, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and the Portuguese Islands; from Africa, India, and the Malayan Peninsula. With such a crew as this, and short-handed at that, Captain Jones had to go to sea; but, as will be told further on, he got some recruits of a stamp worth having. Meantime, while fitting out the _Bonhomme Richard_, he was joined by Master’s Mate Richard Dale, who had escaped from the terrors of the British prison. Dale shipped with Jones as master’s mate, but he was what would be called in the slang of these days a “hustler,” and before the ship sailed the discriminating eye of the master had picked him out for first lieutenant. Next to Jones, the credit of the great fight that followed was due to the unwearied zeal and the undaunted courage of this man.