drunken man. Foreseeing the danger of its either breaking off below the gun-deck or going through the ship's bottom, Jones ordered it to be cut away, but, before this could be done, the chain plates gave way, and the mainmast breaking off by the gun-deck carried with it the mizzenmast, and the mizzenmast carried away the quarter-gallery; two additional cables were spliced and veered out. In that situation the Ariel rode in the open ocean to windward of perhaps the most dangerous ledge of rocks in the world, for two days and two nights, in a tempest that covered the shore with wrecks and dead bodies, and that drove ships ashore from their anchors, even in the port of L'Orient.[16]
This terrible gale was felt nearly all over Europe. In the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1780, it is stated that "this dreadful hurricane was one of those tremendous tempests of which two or three occur in an age." In England it occurred on the night of Sunday, October 8th, and did immense damage by sea and land. It is a singular coincidence that, while Jones was experiencing this dreadful hurricane on the French coast, his opponent of a twelvemonth before equally felt its effects on the English coast.
In a letter to the Admiralty, dated on board the Alarm, at Plymouth, October 10, 1780, Sir Richard Pearson states as follows:
I arrived here on the evening of the 8th, it blowing very hard at S. E.; the next morning the wind shifted suddenly to W. N. W. and blew a gale all yesterday from that to W. S. W. and S. W. and continued until one or two o'clock this morning; in which I had the misfortune to part my two Bowers and Sheet Cable, and was reduced to my spare anchor, which I had providentially got two cables on, which brought me up at eleven o'clock last night, when I found myself under the necessity of cutting away all my masts for the preservation of his Majesty's ship and the lives of my people. I am now in the same distressing situation as I was last night.[17]
The storm continuing until the morning of the 10th, notwithstanding the heavy sea Jones succeeded on that and the following day in getting up jury, fore, and mizzen masts, and on the 11th, at noon, cut the cable, got under way, and anchored the Ariel on the 13th of October in the harbor of L'Orient.
The journal of the Ariel ends on the 14th of October. She remained at L'Orient until the 18th of December, when she again sailed, and arrived safely in the United States, having encountered an enemy's ship, supposed by Jones to be named the Triumph, which, after a short resistance, struck her colors, and a few minutes afterward (according to Jones) her captain had the baseness to fill his sails and run away. This voyage in the Ariel was the last service at sea performed by John Paul Jones under the American flag. He arrived in Philadelphia on February 18, 1781, having been absent from the United States three years, three months, and eighteen days.
Following the last entry of the Ariel's log, several leaves have been torn out. The book was reversed again, and immediately following "A List of The Men Names that has Desarted from The Bone Homme Richard, Lorient July, 19th. 1779" we find, in the identical handwriting of the logs of the Serapis, Alliance, and Ariel, "A List of Officers, & Men, belonging to the American Continental Ship of War, Ariel, Commanded, by the Honble, John Paul Jones." A comparison of this list with the muster-roll of the Bon Homme Richard shows that most of the officers and many of the crew of the former still followed the fortunes of Jones.
Upon several pages are also inscribed the following receipts:[18]
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