On September 23, 1779, John Paul Jones fought a battle so stubborn that his own ship sank beneath him while his ally fired into it, yet he still forced a Royal Navy captain to surrender. This episode pieces together ship’s logs, eyewitness accounts, and diplomatic correspondence to explore that chaotic night off Flamborough Head.

We look at Jones’s borrowed squadron and the rotting Bonhomme Richard, his rivalry with Captain Pierre Landais of the Alliance, and his clash with Captain Richard Pearson and the HMS Serapis while guarding a Baltic convoy. Then we follow the aftermath, from a diplomatic standoff in the Netherlands to Pearson’s surprising knighthood.

• Why the Bonhomme Richard, a converted French merchant ship, was badly outmatched by the Serapis
• How bursting cannons and relentless broadsides left Jones fighting a seemingly unwinnable battle
• The story behind the famous line I have not yet begun to fight and debates over his exact words
• How lashing the ships together, sharpshooters in the rigging, and a grenade down a hatch turned the battle
• How the Dutch reflagged the captured ships as French and why Pearson was knighted for saving the convoy