The Tempest and John Paul Jones
7-12 OCTOBER 1780
THE TEMPEST AND JOHN PAUL JONES
On this date in 1780, John Paul Jones took the Continental Navy corvette ARIEL, 26, out of Groix Roads, France, and headed south. Though he would have preferred more exciting orders, he was transporting sorely needed military supplies to the Colonies. However, his fully laden warship hadn’t cleared the coast before the wind whipped around from the southwest and blew up a storm.
Jones ordered the topsails reefed, then double-reefed, as the storm built. The gale worsened through the next day, and Jones further shortened canvas. He continued to reach for the Penmarque Peninsula, hoping to clear this dangerous reef along the Brittany coast and gain some sea room, but ARIEL continued falling off to leeward, toward the shore. A fourth time he shortened sail and further reduced windage aloft by sending down the topgallant yards and striking the topgallant masts. By evening of the 8th, ARIEL was making way on the barest sail, having furled all but the double-reefed foresail. Despite his best efforts to claw along the French coast it was clear that ARIEL would not weather the Penmarque reef. Now in the worst storm of his life, he ordered the guns stowed on the centerline to stabilize ARIEL’s center of gravity, then battened down to ride out the tempest.
His ship continued to be pushed leeward through the next day, directly toward the Penmarque rocks. Mountainous seas began washing completely over the fully loaded corvette. Her seams loosened. That night one of the main pumps failed. The leadline revealed further shoreward movement. The waves became unmanageable with ARIEL’s yardarms now dipping into the water, and on one of her rolls the mainmast kicked off its step. Finally, ARIEL rolled to windward onto her beam ends and would not right.
Out went her anchors in a fruitless effort to bring her head-to-the-wind! In desperation Jones ordered the foremast cut away and similarly sacrificed the mainmast that rattled dangerously off its step. But before the crew could lay axes to the shrouds, the lee chainplate tore free and the mainmast fell over the windward quarter, taking the mizzen with it! Unlabored of her masts, ARIEL righted and headed up.
For two more days Jones and his crew rode out the storm, less than two miles from the reef that would have claimed them all. On the 11th they jury-rigged a mizzen mast and limped back to port. They arrived to a scene of utter destruction. Hundreds of broken ships testified to what had been the worst storm in recorded history. The locals became duly impressed with Jones, as much a master mariner as a fearless fighter. It is little wonder we remember him today as a “Father of the American Navy.”
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11-12 OCT 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Gilkerson, William. The Ships of John Paul Jones. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1987, pp. 59-61.
Miller, Nathan. Sea of Glory: The Continental Navy Fights for Independence 1775-1783. New York, NY: David McKay & Co., 1974, p. 440.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1959, pp. 304-06.
