On April 15 archeologist Michael Tuttle returned to Madagascar to prove that he has discovered the HMS Serapis, captured in 1779 by John Paul Jones. We’ve asked him to keep in touch as he dives the wreck. The project is in search of funding.

Jones captured the newly built 44-gun Serapis in the Bonhomme Richard off the coast of Great Britain. Ironically, it was his own ship that sank within sight of witnesses on the coast. Jones and his crew sailed the Serapis under the American flag to port of Texel in Holland. Although the British tried to reclaim the Serapis, the Dutch handed it over to the French instead. There years later a French commander lost the ship in an accidental onboard fire off the coast of Africa.

"We’re positive we have the Serapis – one hundred percent," Tuttle told SeacoastNH.com recently during a phone call from Tennessee.

Tuttle says that his underwater archeology team has brought up parts of the copper sheeting from the bottom of a ship near where records says the Serapis was lost. No other copper-bottomed ship from that era Is known to have sailed to this area, he says.

In a next one-month search Tuttle hopes to bring up wooden samples for testing. He crew includes a conservator that will allow them to bring up fabrics and other articles that might otherwise deteriorate. Divers will take more video and look for details that will confirm that this is indeed the Serapis. And our readers will learn about it here. – JDR

VISIT: Our John Paul Jones section
MORE: On the Serapis and the Bonhomme