Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 12 text:

ie Uzdgiaaf M.. :Dm your 9 aaa sm BON HOMME RICHARD was immortalized by her captain, John Paul Jones and his words I have not yet begun to fight which he spoke minutes before the ship and her dead went to a watery grave. This has been a symbol of inspiration to every seagoing American warrior for the last two hundred years. The determined spirit of its predecessor is personified inthe success of CVA-31, the new BON HOMME RICHARD. I The original ship was a high poop-deck Indiaman built in 1776 by the East India Company to serve as a merchant ship between France and ports in China and India. John Paul Jones, together with King Louis XVI and Benjamin Franklin, who was the Colonies Commissioner to France at the time, made plans for an American squadron to prey upon British commerce and aid in the fight for independence from Great Britain. These plans culminated in Franklin buying the India- man, then named the DUC DE DURAS, during the Revolutionary War. Jones supervised her conversion from a merchant vessel to a man-of-war, including the addition of 42 guns provided by the French, and made her ready to lead a combined French and American force. The frigate was renamed BON HOMME RICHARD, which was the French idiom for Franklin's book, Poor Richardis Almanac. Jones, in redesigning the frigate into a two-deck war- ship, had little with which to work. She was notoriously slow, old, weak, and her brine-soaked hulk had been condemned by insurance companies. Beside the fact that her sails were rotton, her hull barnacled, and her deck blistered, the guns were museum pieces with cannon balls so small that oakum wads were wrapped around them. A This 152 foot continental frigate sailed from La Orient, France, on June 19, 1779, with Jones as her captain, leading a seven-ship squadron toward the coast of the British Isles. Enroute they encountered fierce gales which wreaked havoc on the ships. Further, a conflict of interests with the captain of the ALLIANCE, also an American frigate, resulted in a collision of the two ships and the BON HOMME RICHARD losing her jibboom. Ultimately, the squadron came across the Baltic Merchant Fleet which Jones had been eagerly seeking to engage. The combat, which began at dark was BON HOMME RICHARD,s last and most famous battle. BON HOMME and HMS SERAPIS, commanded by Captain Richard Pearson, simultaneously ex- changed broadsides with more powerful SERAPIS inflicting severe damage to the BON HOMME RICHARD. The SERAPIS gave another broadside, again riddling the BON HOMME. The ALLIANCE, failing to recognize Jones' ship in the moonlight, fired on both ships, almost sink- ing the BON HOMME RICHARD. Finally a favorable wind allowed Jones to ram the SERAPIS, and with heavy hawsers his men lashed the enemy's bowsprit to the BON HOMME RICHARD's shrouds. Pearson, seeing Jones' ship riddled from stem to stern and fires raging close to the maga- zines, asked Jones if he wanted quarter. In view of the naval axiom that no ship is lost until her captain thinks it so, Jones replied with his famous words that have been immortalized in United States Naval History ever since. The battle turned swiftly. Jones' marines, acting as snipers from the rigging, had cleared the SERAPIS' gun decks. Accurately tossed granades had detonated her powder in a huge burst of flame and smoke carrying away the mainmast and taking many lives. Jones' boarders swarmed over the rails onto the SERAPIS and attacked with pike and cutlass. Captain Pearson had seen enough bloodshed and personally struck his colors. Captain John Paul Jones then transferred his command to the SERAPIS and cut away what was left of his former ship, which soon settled by the bow with her stern lifting high out of the water. The American flag was the last part of the proud BON HOMME RICHARD seen, the l21Sf SyII1b0l Of the ship which started out a tramp, became a wreck, and was enshrouded with glory lilly her crews' performance in the last big engagement fought overseas by the American Continental avy.

Page 11 text:

eaaleala Pfgsidgnt ............................ Chief of Naval Operations -------- Commanders Naval Air Pacific ------ Captains ............................. Execg .............................. Visiting Di gnitaries - - DEPARTMENTS Administrative ---.---- 145, ................. Communications ------ Dental ............ Engineering ----.- Gunnery . . R .... . Medical ----- Navigation- - Opeyations ........................... . . . .............................. . . . CARRIER AIR GROUP NINETEEN 1112.191 ......,............. A ,..........,.... V,4.19 2 ....,........,...................... 1111.19 3 ...... 144.19 5 ........... 114-195 ...,......... VAI-I-4 Det E -'--- VAW-11 Det E Hu-1, Det Ev Home Port ------ Good Byes ....... Headed Home ------

Page 13 text:

de zeaem! Ewzzging 'Me 'fzaaldtdoa into 'Me anime History began for the second USS BON HOMME RICHARD on November 26, 1944, with her commissioning at the New York Navy Yard. Soon afterwards she answered the call of the sea to battle and began making a trail which would see the name BON HOMME RICHARD heralded on the sea, in the air, on two oceans, and in two wars. After training excercises and a shakedown cruise off Trinidad, the ship proceeded to the Bay- onne Navy Yard for post-shakedown repairs before becoming a part of the Pacific Fleet on March 24, 1945. Shortly thereafter, BON HOMME RICHARD was ordered to San Diego to load aircraft and personnel for transportation to Pearl Harbor. Thirty-three and one-half hours later, on April 1, 1945, she departed San Diego arriving at Pearl Harbor on April 5, 1945. While conducting training operations in the Pacific, a night air group was assigned, making her a night aircraft carrier. This was shortly after the ENTERPRISE, which was then the only night carrier with the Fast Carrier Task Force, was damaged during operations in support of the Okinawa Campaign. Having joined Task Force 38 at sea the BONNIE DICK flew combat air patrol and launched day and night strikes against Okino and Daito Jima. With Task Force 38, the ship proceeded to the Philippine Islands, and from there participated in operations consisting of air and surface activities against enemy installations. In general, these air strikes and surface bombardments were on Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, culminat- ing in the cessation of hostilities on August 15, and the formal surrender by the Japanese nation on September 2, 1945. Through September 15, the ship operated off the southern and eastern coast of Honshu, flying Combat Air Patrol, airfield reconnaissance flights, prisoner of war camp reconnaissance flights, and supply drop missions to P.O.W.,s. On September 16, after being continuously underway for 78 highly eventful days, she entered Tokyo Bay and dropped anchor, ending her World War II activities which had given the BONNIE DICK the reputation of being the Black Phantom for repeated night raids by her Night Carrier Air Group. For the remainder of 1945 the ship shuttled between Pacific Island ports transporting passengers for discharge on 'Magic Carpet' duty. By July 31, 1946, she had steamed 92,245 miles since com- missioning and was at that time decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. BON HOMME's days of rest were numbered evepn as she was sealing her last porthole, for Communist aggression was at that very time on the move. Shortly after the Communist invasion of South Korea in June of 1950, the carrier was called out of the reserve. RecommissionedJanuary15, 1951, the ship began strikes against targets in Korea following training operations off California. Throughout the Korean conflict, the 'BONNIE DICK, and her air groups tallied an impressive record of strikes against enemy railroads, hydroelectric projects, industrial areas, aircraft, and other war materials. Following the Korean Conflict, the BON HOMME RICHARD was once again decommissioned on May 15, 1953, and this time went to San Francisco Naval Shipyard to receive a major conversion. San Francisco saw the recommissioning two years later, of the BONNIE DICK with a 'new look.' She now boasted such salient features as an angled flight deck, enclosed hurricane bow, larger capacity elevators, steam catapults, and the latest radar equipment and armament. After 27 months, and having undergone the largest and longest conversion job ever attempted in the yards at Hunteris Point, California, the BONNIE DICK became one of the Navy's most modern carriers. During the years since major reconversion, the BON HOMME RICHARD has logged many firsts as man overboard, general quarters, practice flights, air defense, replenishing and refueling drills have been held. Underway training, timely periods at sea, minor and major missions, fleet reviews, fleet activity participation, and ambassador of good will to the peoples of the world are a part of her peacetime purpose. The title Ready Ambassadors for Peace has been earned by the men of this ship which is active in the President's People-to-People program, and makes her crew proud to be part of 21 great ship, the USS BON HOMME RICHARD, CVA-31.