JONES’ GRENADE THROWER

                John Paul Jones was famously losing the battle with the HMS Serapis when he uttered his famous response to a surrender demand:  “I have not yet begun to fight!”  At the time, this seemed an act of false bravado and the statement would have been forgotten if Jones had gone on to lose the battle.  And he should have lost.  With the ships lashed together, the Bonhomme Richard was taking a beating.  Jones needed a miracle and it was provided by a sailor named William Hamilton.  Hamilton climbed into the ship’s rigging with a heavy bucket of grenades and a slow match between his teeth.  High above the deck of the Serapis, he started lobbing grenades down on the British ship.  One of them bounced down a hatch where it exploded.  Another landed in a ammunition causing a huge explosion.  At least twenty of the enemy were killed and others with clothes on fire jumped overboard.  The British were stunned and soon after, their captain surrendered.

–  Whitcomb 67