Jones, John Paul (1747–92)

Revolutionary War Hero

John Paul Jones, a captain in the Continental Navy, became a hero of the American Revolution because of his eagerness to engage the enemy, his boldness in battle, and his tactical successes. Some histories of his exploits have exaggerated his role and left out personal failings. However, his wartime achievements and ideas about professionalism shaped the U.S. Navy for generations. Jones's early working life was marked by both success and scandal. John Paul (he only took the last name of Jones many years later) was born in Scotland in 1747 to a poor family. He was ambitious and, like a number of boys of the era, escaped poverty by going off to sea. At 13, he was apprenticed to a merchant mariner who traded in Virginia and the Caribbean. He served in a variety of capacities as a merchant sailor, including as third mate on a slaving ship—a trade he quickly abandoned. Through luck and skill, he became the master of a merchant ship by age 21.

However, his success was marred by scandal and a reputation for a violent temper. In one incident, John Paul had decided not to pay his sailors in the customary way when his ship arrived in the Caribbean island of Tobago. The crew mutinied and in a brawl that followed, John Paul killed the ringleader. To avoid arrest, he fled the island and remained in hiding for most of the next two years. When he resurfaced in Virginia in late 1774 (where his brother then resided), he began using the surname of Jones.

After the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, John Paul Jones was commissioned in December—the first lieutenant commissioned in the new Continental Navy; he sailed on board the Alfred. His ship was among several that crippled a British 20-gun vessel. In May 1776, he was rewarded for this feat with an appointment as captain of the Providence. As captain, he successfully captured several British merchant ships. He was also successful in outmaneuvering British warships, often escaping them with skilled seamanship.

In 1777, Jones sailed to France on the Ranger, carrying the news of the American victory at Saratoga. As Jones approached France in February 1778, the French Navy acknowledged Jones's salute (a naval courtesy extended between ships), thus making France the first foreign power to recognize the flag and sovereignty of the United States. Jones became captain of the Bonhomme Richard and, from France, successfully engaged the British frigate Serapis. Although fighting against a better-armed and faster vessel, Jones showed daring, courage, and tenacity in a struggle that became known as the battle off Flamborough Head (on the east coast of England). It was in this battle, fought at close quarters, that the British commander asked if Jones was ready to surrender, to which Jones supposedly responded with the now famous phrase: “I have not yet begun to fight.” While Jones probably did not utter these words (they do not appear in any account of the battle until more than 50 years later), all the eyewitness accounts indicate that Jones gave an emphatic refusal to surrender. The battle ended in an American victory and Congress passed a resolution of gratitude. Jones spent the remaining years of the war enjoying his fame in France and the United States and lobbying unsuccessfully for a promotion to rear admiral.

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