Pierre Landais
Pierre Landais was a French naval officer who sailed in the flotilla led by the indomitable John Paul Jones during its encounter with HMS Serapis, when Jones supposedly uttered the famous words, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Landais was an experienced seaman, having accompanied Bougainville during a three year circumnavigation of the globe in the late 1760s.
Unemployed in France in 1777 he was awarded a Captain’s commission in the Continental Navy by Silas Deane, and sailed a merchantman loaded with war materials to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, arriving in December 1777. The following year he was given command of the new Continental frigate Alliance, and in early 1779 he sailed that vessel to France, carrying Lafayette on a diplomatic mission to his homeland.
Jones was in France in 1779 arming and preparing BonHomme Richard for sea. Benjamin Franklin wrote orders assigning Landais and Alliance to Jones’s squadron, although they were ambiguous regarding which of the two naval officers – who loathed each other – was to be in overall command. When the squadron sailed Landais repeatedly ignored signals from Jones and when the American squadron encountered Serapis and its escorts Landais deliberately hung back from the close action.
Not until BonHomme Richard was locked together with Serapis did Landais approach, firing into both ships and doing as much damage to the Americans as to the British. After the action the squadron returned to France, where Franklin assigned Jones to captain Alliance. Landais disputed Franklin’s authority to remove him from command and when Arthur Lee overrode Franklin’s order, Alliance returned to America with Landais commanding.
Alliance captured several prizes during its tenure as an American ship of war, and Landais spent a good portion of the rest of his life importuning Congress to pay him for the prizes and his services. At the same time he endured a written campaign by the outraged Jones labeling him a coward and a fool. Jones immortality was secured by his victory over the Serapis, while Landais gradually fell into obscurity. His remaining days at sea were marked by several mutinies by his crews and eventual lack of employment. Eventually he became an admiral in the navy of revolutionary France but the rest of his career passed without distinction, despite the numerous naval engagements between France and Great Britain. He died, broke and obscure, in New York in 1820.