Alliance Fires into the Locked Ships

Captain Landais, who unlike Jones had extensive formal training in naval leadership and tactics and knew the latest French battle plans, had decided on his own plan. Although Bonhomme Richard was clearly showing agreed lantern signals, Landais sailed round the "safe" sides of the locked ships, firing broadsides aimed in his theory at both bow and stern of Serapis. Shots from the Countess of Scarborough might also have struck Serapis, or Serapis' massive 18-pound shots could accidentally have hit the Countess of Scarborough.