Explorer seeks Bonhomme Richard, the lost ship of John Paul Jones
By Warner M. Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

George Bell (l) congratulates Graham Van Schaik for being inducted into the Explorers Club. Photo by Warner Montgomery

George C. Bell, an underwater archaeologist who holds three U.S. records for free- diving, explained to the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club last Friday his plan to locate and recover John Paul Jones'

ship, the Bonhomme

Richard. Bell was involved

in the recovery of the H.L.

Hunley and the CSS

Alabama, was the consulting scholar for the Normandy Project (D- Day Invasion), and headed up the 1812 Battle of New Orleans Project.

On his Web site, Bell has written, "September 23, 1779, one of the fiercest battles of the Revolutionary War took place off the coast of Flamborough Head, England, between

Bonhomme Richard and

H.M.S. Serapis. Bonhomme

Richard was captained by John Paul Jones who is often considered the father of the US Navy. The battle between the two ships took place at point- blank range and lasted almost three and a half hours.

"John Paul Jones emerged from the battle victorious and captured

Serapis as his prize. Thirty- six hours after taking

command of Serapis,

John Paul Jones watched

his beloved Bonhomme

Richard sink into the North Sea. It was during this battle that John Paul Jones' legendary words, "I have not yet begun to fight!" were recorded in American history." (www.oceantechnology. org/BHR.htm)

The project team is headed by Ocean Technology Foundation and includes the Naval Historical Center, the US. Navy Supervisor of Salvage, the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, the Royal Navy, the University of New Hampshire Center for Ocean and Coastal Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center, and the US Coast Guard. They have examined historical records, weather records,

and the Bonhomme

Richard's damage assessment. During on- site expeditions in 2006 and 2007, they have located potential sites of the wreckage. They plan to dive on the wreck in 2008.

Graham W.W. Van Schaik was inducted into the Explorers Club as a student member. Van Schaik is a rising senior at Spring Valley High School where he ranks #1 in a class of 463. He has won many awards in science and engineering at the state and national levels. He is also a champion sculler having participated in the largest regatta in the world in 2004.

For information on the Explorers Club, contact Nena Powell Rice, 803-777- 8170 or nrice@sc.edu.