The Battle of Flamborough Head, an eye witness account of the battle of Flamborough Head by John Paul Jones's Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning of Conneticut (part o)

There Captain Jones desired me not to get on board of her but to take three hands and return on board of the Good Man Richard: for said he, I have left in such a part of her cabin, sundry valuable papers, and you must go back and get them, even at the risque of your life.  I therefore made sail upon my little bark doubting within myself what would be the result.  The wind then blew a fresh gale, and there was at the time a pretty bad sea running.     Arriving alongside of the Good Man Richard, under her guns, we found her lying nearly head to the wind, with her topsails aback, and the water running in and out at her lower deck ports.  We shot along under her stern, where we were becalmed.  She was on the point of sinking; this somewhat staggered me, and I ordered my men who were with me to pull at the oars with all their might.  Finding our situation very dangerous, we got off about four rods from her, when she fetched a heavy pitch into a sea and a heavy roll, and disappeared.  The suction occasioned by this, together with the agitation of the waters, was so great that it was perhaps a minute before we could be certain whether we were above or under the water, and if our little barque had not been decked I too would have met the fate of the Good Man Richard.