ASA in the News

Indeed, new software is being used to find the location of the Bon Homme Richard, the flagship of Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones, known for the quote above.

The Bon Homme Richard sank after Jones and his crew captured a British frigate in an epic battle on Sept. 23, 1779. The Richard was so badly damaged that Jones and crew had to move to the captured ship.

Now new software will be used with remote-sensing equipment aboard the Lia, a survey vessel that will lead the latest search for Jones' ship, which is somewhere off the east coast of Britain. The expedition begins on July 17. If need be, and if funding lasts, it will continue through September. The effort is organized by the nonprofit Ocean Technology Foundation (OTF) in Groton, Conn., and the Naval Historical Center (NHC) in Washington, D.C.

The effort has received $150,000 in grants and donations as well as $100,000 in in-kind services. The groups say they must raise another $150,000 to continue through September. And these are just the costs to find the wreck. The project's budget for next year, for classification and recovery, is roughly $750,000.

This is the first time software of this type will be used to try to find any 18th century wreck, says Rick Fernandes, a naval graphics expert aiding the project.

Records say Jones' badly damaged ship drifted for 36 hours after the battle before sinking. The software will recreate the conditions of the time and try to pinpoint the wreck.

"It's a drift simulation model," Fernandes said. "The software uses physical laws, as well as tidal and wind data from the period and times and locations given by eyewitnesses," to plot the ship's final resting place.

The software comes from privately held Applied Science Associates of Narragansett, R.I., a marine science consulting firm that develops software for marine and underwater uses. "It's a custom hybrid, developed from two software programs they already had," Fernandes said. The Bon Homme Richard is one of the last major shipwrecks from the nation's naval past yet to be found.

Jones' surprise defeat of the H.M.S. Serapis in that 1779 battle helped force Britain to recognize U.S. independence. It also convinced France to step up support for the American cause. The ship's name (in French) honors "Poor Richard's Almanac," published by Benjamin Franklin, the U.S. envoy to France who helped Jones get his command. At one point, with things looking bad for the U.S., the British urged Jones to surrender. From his burning deck, Jones reportedly replied: "I have not yet begun to fight!"

Jones survived, but more than half of his crew of 322 were killed or wounded in the 3 1/2-hour battle. Artifacts from the wreck might shed more light on those times. "The search focuses not only on John Paul Jones, but also on the men who fought with him," said Joseph Callo, author of "John Paul Jones, America's First Sea Warrior" and a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Naval Reserve. "The Bon Homme Richard's crew suffered over 50% casualties. The neglected part of the story is what those men achieved under the most horrific combat conditions."

Thanks to better technology, searchers over the years have found the wrecks of the Civil War ironclad U.S.S. Monitor and the Confederate submarine Hunley, among others. Clive Cussler, a best-selling novelist who financed the successful search for the Hunley, has been among those who've hunted for the Bon Homme Richard for decades.

Melissa Ryan, the OTF's project manager for the expedition, said of the software used in the search, "As far as we know, no one has ever attempted to input as much historical data before." Fernandes says the data include details given by people who witnessed the battle from afar and by sailors on both the U.S. and British sides of the fight. The battle took place off a spit of land named Flamborough Head and was seen by hundreds on shore.

Jones' orders were to disrupt British shipping as the U.S. sought to take its Revolutionary War fight to Britain. Fernandes said the software generates a "probability matrix" from the huge amounts of data it processes. Users will see a chart of the search area and the tracks of a drifting object representing Jones' ship. Based on the tracks, the survey vessel will be able to sweep the probable area where the Bon Homme Richard lies. The OTF and NHC have set up a Web site, bonhommerichard.org, that provides more details.

The groups plan to spin off science and education activities from the expedition, developing lessons for high school students and providing virtual field trips and online teacher workshops. Will they find the wreckage? There will be challenges. Experts say the Bon Homme Richard was nearly shot in half as it traded broadsides with the Serapis at point-blank range.

It isn't known how much of the ship lies intact on the sea floor. But if the wreck can be salvaged, says Peter Reavley, a British expert on the battle, it would be great if they could retrieve one of the Bon Homme Richard's 42 guns and place it alongside Jones' tomb at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

"That," said author Callo, "would be very fitting."