The fierce battle has taken a grim toll. Lashed to a British man-of-war, the fledging Continental Navy’s Bonhomme Richard is sinking and half its crew is lost. English demand surrender. “I have not yet begun to fight!” the colonial commander replies. Indeed he has not. Because – for the first time in naval warfare – he sends brave Marines into the rigging to hurl grenades into the rival ship’s hold…and the battle turns.
Robert Stack