The executive committee of the Naval History Society having decided to publish for its initial volume the logs of the three ships commanded by John Paul Jones during the years 1779 and 1780, the owner has consented to edit this publication, with a description of the book itself, together with its history, so far as it can be ascertained, believing that it will add something of interest to the voluminous records and the literature relating to the life and services of the distinguished hero of our Revolutionary navy.

Besides these logs of the Serapis, Alliance, and Ariel, there are, in the Library of the Navy Department, copies of the log of the Ranger, beginning November 26, 1777, and ending May 18, 1778; also of the log of the Bon Homme Richard, beginning at L'Orient May 18, 1779, and ending September 24, 1779.

The original log-books, as shown by notes and a copy of a letter accompanying and attached to them, are stated to have been purchased by Captain Boyd, of Greenock, from a person of the name of Harding, a baker, in New York, in 1824; and to have been presented to Lady Isabella Helen Douglas, daughter of the fifth Earl of Selkirk, by William John, ninth Lord Napier, on March 17, 1830; they are now supposed to rest among the manuscripts of the Selkirk family.

Had the editor known of the existence of this log of the Bon Homme Richard, covering the period of her commissioning and cruise prior to the engagement with the Serapis, he would have deemed it proper to have included it in this publication. The information came to him too late to have it fully transcribed and prepared for the printer. A few excerpts from it are placed in the Appendix.[1]

The log-book now published is one of the few relics known to exist of the engagement between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, as most of the records and official papers of both ships were lost when the Bon Homme Richard sank, or following the confusion on the Serapis after her capture.

The book is fourteen inches tall, nine and one quarter inches wide, bound in old vellum, stained, warped, worn with age and hard usage on land and sea. The paper is rough, greenish in color, the hand-made linen paper of the period, with a watermark showing it to be of English manufacture.

Upon the exterior of both covers are numerous scribblings: "R. D. June 2d, 1779"—"R. D. June 26, 1779"—"Richard Dales book"—"September the 3d—1780—This book belongs to Mr. Henry Lunt, Lieutenant of the Ship of War, the (Ariel)." Richard Dale's name is also found in several places on the pages of the book.

It was first used to enter the names of the officers and crew of the Bon Homme Richard, giving their rank, rating, and the dates and places of their enlistment.[2] It evidently constituted the muster-roll of that ship when Robert Robinson was the first lieutenant, and, after the dismissal of that officer by sentence of court martial for "negligence of duty," it passed into the keeping of Richard Dale, who succeeded Robinson as first lieutenant, he entering therein, on the pages immediately following the muster-roll: "A List of The Men Names that has Desarted from The Bone Homme Richard, Lorient July, 19th. 1779"[3]

When the Richard sank off Flamborough Head, the muster-roll was saved and taken on board the Serapis, as constituting the official list of those entitled to prize money—then as now the great incentive to naval enlistment and activity.

As may well be imagined, a blank-book suitable for a log was not available at that moment of supreme confusion, so that the muster-roll book of the Richard, with only a few of its pages in use, was seized upon and used to enter the daily transactions on board the Serapis, from the time of her capture until, as a result of the political situation between Holland and England, she was turned over to the French, and, under the command of Captain Cottineau, hoisted the French colors in the Texel Roads.

The book was reversed, and the log of the Serapis begun at the other end, preceded by a brief memorandum—"Some Remarkable Occurrences that happened on the 23d day of September, 1779,"—which briefly records the capture of the Serapis.

No other or more circumstantial account of the fight existed in the book when it came into the possession of its later owners, but a close examination showed that, besides minor mutilations, two leaves, immediately preceding that containing the statement of "Some Remarkable Occurrences," had, at some time, been torn out. In order to incorporate into the book a clearer and more circumstantial account of the fight, a former owner caused to be copied

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