The Serapis is best known for being the opponent of the Bonhomme Richard under the command of John Paul Jones. Her story did not end with the famous words "I have not yet begun to fight" however. Starting her life as a fifth rate Roebuck class ship in the British Navy, she went on to be John Paul Jones's next ship, before being transferred to the French Navy. She would end her life off of the coast of Madagascar, engulfed in flames due to a particularly stupid mistake.
Ship Name: HMS Serapis
Ship Type: Roebuck Class Fifth Rate
Built: 1779
Tonnage: 880
Sank: Ile Sainte-Marie, Madagascar
Year Sank: 1781
Sources:
https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/whoi-ship-hunts-for-revolutionary-war-wreck/
https://mua.apps.uri.edu/project_journals/serapis08/report.pdf
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-30-02-0366
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45011/45011-h/45011-h.htm
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_458176
Shipwrecks of Madagascar By Pierre Van den Boogaerde
