Description

BONHOMME RICHARD TALL SHIP WITH SAILS

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY MUSEUM QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Dimension approx.: 31.50L x 7W x 31.50H (inches)
The model is already built. THIS IS NOT A MODEL SHIP KIT

Few ship names in American naval history carry the same blend of myth, grit, and symbolism as Bonhomme Richard. Born first in the age of wooden frigates and reborn centuries later as a modern amphibious assault ship, the name ties together two eras of American sea power—and honors the wit and resilience of Benjamin Franklin, whose Poor Richard’s Almanac inspired the French title Bonhomme Richard.

The 18th‑Century Frigate

The story begins not in an American shipyard, but in France. Built in 1766 as the merchant vessel Duc de Duras, the ship was gifted to John Paul Jones by King Louis XVI in 1779, a gesture of French support for the struggling Continental Navy. Jones renamed her Bonhomme Richard, a tribute to Franklin and a signal of the Franco‑American alliance that would help turn the tide of the Revolution.

Refitted as a warship, she sailed from L’Orient with a multinational crew—Americans, French volunteers, Scots, Irishmen, even a few former British sailors. Jones struggled with mutiny and insubordination, but his iron discipline held the crew together as they raided British shipping in the North Atlantic. By late summer, the squadron had captured 16 merchantmen, a blow to British commerce.

Then came 23 September 1779, the night that would etch Bonhomme Richard into legend. Off the coast of Ireland, Jones engaged the British frigate HMS Serapis in a brutal, close‑quarters battle. Outgunned and badly damaged, Bonhomme Richard caught fire, her hull splintering under the Serapis’ heavier guns. When asked if he wished to surrender, Jones delivered the line that would echo through American naval history: “I have not yet begun to fight.”

The battle raged for hours. Jones lashed the two ships together, turning the fight into a deadly brawl of muskets, grenades, and boarding pikes. In the end, Serapis struck her colors. Bonhomme Richard, mortally wounded, sank two days later—but her victory became a symbol of American defiance and naval courage.

The Modern USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD‑6)

More than two centuries later, the name returned to the fleet with the commissioning of USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD‑6) on 15 August 1998. A Wasp‑class amphibious assault ship, she embodied the modern Navy–Marine Corps team: a floating airbase, command center, and amphibious platform capable of projecting power ashore anywhere in the world.

Her service was wide‑ranging:

1999–2000: Participated in Kernel Blitz ’99 and the first LHD‑based amphibious mine countermeasures operations.
2003: Carried the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom, launching helicopters, landing craft, and Marines into combat zones.
2012–2018: Forward‑deployed to Sasebo, Japan, she became a key presence in the Western Pacific, supporting multiple Marine Expeditionary Units and humanitarian missions.
2018: Returned to San Diego after years of high‑tempo operations.

For two decades, she served as a cornerstone of U.S. amphibious capability—versatile, powerful, and globally deployed.

On 12 July 2020, while moored in San Diego, a fire broke out aboard the ship. Despite days of firefighting, the blaze gutted her interior and destroyed critical systems. The damage was too severe to repair. On 15 April 2021, she was formally decommissioned, and later sold for scrap—a somber end to a ship that had carried Marines, aircraft, and American resolve across the world’s oceans.

Yet the name endures.

From John Paul Jones’ battered frigate to the modern amphibious assault ship, Bonhomme Richard represents a lineage of determination, ingenuity, and the refusal to yield. Rooted in Franklin’s humble pseudonym, the name has come to symbolize something larger: the spirit of a nation that fights on, even when the odds seem impossible.

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