John Paul Jones (DDG 32) - Naval Cruise Book

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su . iv, , f ommoclore pau! 90085 john Paul jones, greatest of American naval heroes, was born John Paul, July 6, 1747, in the parish of Kirkbean, Scotland. At the age of twelve he became a shipmaster's apprentice, and at seventeen he shipped as second mate. The following year, as first mate, he made voyages to Jamaicaand the-Guinea coast. Becoming dissatisfied with this employment, he returned to England. The captain and first mate of the brigantine in which he sailed died of fever en- route and, taking command, John Paul brought the ship safely home. The grateful owners then gave him a command, and he made several voy- ages to America. About 1770 he settled in Amer- ica andrsubsequently took the surname of Jones. lVhen war broke out between England and the Colonies, John Paul Jones was commissioned as a first lieutenant by the Continental Congress. He was ordered as first lieutenant to the Alfred, the first flagship of the Navy, then lying off Philadelphia in the Delaware River. On De- cember 3, 1775, he was given the honor of hoist- ing with his own hands our first national flag, the Grand Union Flag. This event marked the first time it had been flown for the Colonies, and preceded by one month the hoisting of this flag by Washington at his headquarters during the siege of Boston. - Later, as commander of the Providence and then the Alfred, he inflicted much damage on British shipping. ln 1776 he was promoted to captain and, in 1777, he sailed in the- sloop-of- war Ranger to France, announcing the surrender of Burgoyne. The first official recognition of the American flag fthe first Stars and Stripesnj by a foreign government occurred in Quiberon Bay, France on February 14, 1778, when Ad- miral LaMotte Picquet, Commander of the French Fleet, returned the Ranger's salute of thirteen guns with nine guns. Following this, Jones conceived a bold plan for an invasion of England and raids on the coasts in order to bring the war home to the British. He hoped that by this means their naval forces off the North American shores would be withdrawn, thus relieving the pressure against Washington's sea supply lines. He sailed for Whitehaven in the Ranger, surprised the garrisons of the fort and spiked their guns. Four days later he met and captured the British sloop of-war Drake and took her to Brest. He there upon became a great hero to the French, who gave him a squadron of five ships. In his flagship, renamed the Bon Homme Richard as a compliment to Benjamin Franklin prizes despite the desertion of three of his men of-war. Cn the 23rd of September 1779, he met the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough convoying a fleet of 41 merchant ships off Flam borough Head on the east coast of England. Jones engaged the Serapis, a greatly superior ship ' a brilliant and remarkable four-hour battle. Bon Homme Richard was in dire straits and in sinking condition when Jones, challenged to surrender by the captain of the Serapis, shouted his famous reply, 1 have not yet begun to fight. He boarded the Serapis and captured her, and with the aid of the Pallas of his fleet, captured also the Countess of Scarborough. John Paul Jones was made a Chevalier of France and given the Royal Order of Military Merit by Louis XVI in 1779. In 1787 he received a gold medal from Congress in 'recognition of his services. ' p The following year, with our government's permission, he entered the service of the Em- press Catherine of Russia as a Rear Admiral, maintaining his status as an American citizen. He was given the Order of St. Ann by the Em- press, and in 1790 returned to France. He died on the 18th of July 1792, and his body was in- terred in Paris. ln 1905 a fleet of American warships escorted his body to Annapolis' where it now rests in the crypt of the chapel at the U. S. Naval Academy. he continued to harass the English and take , in

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..,,-e-,1-. , N1 HAVE GT YET EGU 0 FIGHT Q' but coMMon0RE JOHN PAUL JONES 1747-1792 The first duty of a gentleman lS to lespect hzs own character. 4

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