I suppose it was unfair of me to characterize Capt. Pearson as a "sore loser." War is not a contact sport and he had no reason to feel pleased about losing his greatly superior ship to a make-shift man-of-war. The Richard was an old cargo ship that was converted to a man-of-war and should have been no match for the new Serapis. In addition the Richard's broadside totaled 237 lbs verus 300 lbs for the Serapis; however, two of the Richard's largest cannons were so old that they exploded when first fired killing their gun crews and reducing further her effective fire power.

It's also true that it was a normal experience in the British Navy that if a cvaptain lost his ship he would be subject to a court martial inquiry and Pearson was, indeed, exonerated.

Charley Noble