Volume 48, Number 1 (1995) Winter

The essential question that navies resolve in wartime- according to Frank Uhlig,Jr., Editor Emeritus of this journal and author of the article "How Navies Fight, and Why," in this issue- is which belligerent's shipping shall flow and which shall not. The engagement portrayed on this issue's cover resulted from an attack upon a British convoy off the cast coast of England by the Continental frigate Bonhomme Richrard, John Paul Jones commanding, and the frigates Alliance and Pallas. Two Royal Navy escorts, the frigate HMS Serapis and sloop-of-war Countess of Scarborough, disputed the attempt. In the end, both Royal Navy ships surrendered, but Jones's frigate sank with 150 dead - and the merchantmen escaped safely.