Note 21 — FOREWORD

There has always been some difficulty in finding a correct muster-roll of the Bon Homme Richard.[21] The list published by Sherburne he states is made from "official sources," and is shown by the correspondence on the subject to have been made from "a certified copy of a copy." This is undoubtedly the document now in the Congressional Library, being a copy, written by a Frenchman, of the muster-roll filed by Jones in the French prize courts and certified to by him as correct. As this list corresponds with great exactness to the muster-roll of the officers and crew of the Bon Homme Richard, making due allowances for desertions, men sent away in prizes, and possibly new enlistments, it seems evident that the original basis of the lists was that contained in the log-book. The names of the French volunteers and marines were not entered in the muster-roll, but were probably ascertained by Jones in France, and added to the copy filed by him.