![[John Paul Jones]](jones.gif)
John Paul Jones was born on July 6,
1747, in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. He was the son of a Scottish gardener
and was originally named John Paul. At the age of 12 he entered the British
merchant marine and went to sea for the first time, as a cabin boy. He
sailed aboard merchantmen and slavers, becoming a first mate on a slaver
brigantine by 1766 and receiving his first command in 1769. In 1773, as
the commander of a merchant vessel, he killed a mutinous crewman at Tobago
in the West Indies and, rather than stay in prison and wait for trial,
he fled to North America. From that point the British considered him to
be a pirate. A fugitive from British justice, he attempted to conceal his
identity by adding the surname of Jones.
At the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, John Paul Jones went to Philadelphia, and, with the help of two friendly members of the Continental Congress, obtained a lieutenant's commission in the Continental Navy. The following year he became captain of the sloop Providence. In his first adventure aboard the Providence he destroyed the British fisheries in Nova Scotia and captured 16 British prize ships.
In 1777 he took command of the sloop Ranger. Sailing to France in 1778, Jones received from the French the first salute given to the new American flag by a foreign warship. During the spring he terrorized the coastal population of Scotland and England by making daring raids ashore and destroying many British vessels.
His reputation in Paris greatly enhanced, Jones received from the French government a converted French merchantman, the Duras, which he renamed Bonhomme Richard (Good Man Richard) in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
Jones was then promoted to commodore and placed in command of a mixed fleet of American and French ships. Setting sail at the head of this small squadron on Aug. 14, 1779, he captured 17 merchantmen off the British coast and, on September 23, fell in with a convoy of British merchant vessels escorted by H.M.S. Serapis and Countess of Scarborough. Challenging Serapis, Jones deftly maneuvered Bonhomme Richard alongside the larger British vessel and lashed the two ships together. With the muzzles of their guns touching, the two warships fired into each other's insides. Although his smaller vessel was on fire and sinking, Jones rejected the British demand for surrender; "I have not yet begun to fight," he replied. More than three hours after the bloody battle began, Serapis surrendered, and Jones took command of it.
Although hailed as a hero in both Paris and Philadelphia, Jones encountered such stiff political rivalry at home that he never again held a major American command at sea. In 1788, Russian Empress Catherine II (The Great) appointed him rear admiral in the Russian navy. He took a leading part in the Black Sea campaign against the Ottoman Turks. Jealousy and political intrigue among his Russian rivals prevented him from receiving proper credit for his successes and resulted in his discharge. In 1790 he retired and went to live in Paris. In 1792 Jones was appointed U.S. Consul to Algiers, but on July 18 of that year he died before the commision arrived. He was buried in Paris, but in 1905 his remains were removed from his long-forgotton grave and brought to the United States where, in 1913, they were finally interred in the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel at Anapolis, Maryland.
