"I have not yet begun to
fight": The Story of John Paul Jones
Adapted from Lauren Pitre's article for SWONET
Related Source: 250th Anniversary of the
Birth of John Paul Jones
Today, the most recognizable name of a naval officer of the
American Revolutionary War is that of John Paul Jones. Historic sites
associated with his story attract tourists from around the world.
Jones was born John Paul on July 6, 1747, in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.
At 12 he entered the British merchant marine and went to sea for the
first time as a cabin boy.
Jones became first mate on a slaver brigantine in 1766 but soon
left that trade in disgust. He was appointed master in 1769. As master
of a merchant vessel, he killed the leader of his mutinous crew in
self-defense at Tobago in the West Indies in 1773.To avoid trial,
Jones fled to Virginia and was considered a fugitive by the British.
He concealed his identity by adding the surname Jones.
At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Jones went to
Philadelphia and entered the Continental Navy. In December he was
commissioned a lieutenant on the first American flagship, Alfred.
Jones was quickly promoted to captain in 1776 and given command of the
sloop Providence. While on his first cruise aboard the Providence,
he destroyed British fisheries in Nova Scotia and captured sixteen
prize British ships.
In command of Ranger in 1777 and 1778, he operated in
British home waters and made audacious raids on Englands shore. In
recognition of his exploits, he was placed in command of five French
and American vessels. Aboard his flagship, the Bonhomme Richard,
Jones led his small squadron in the capture of seven merchantmen off
of the Scottish coast. On September 23, 1779, Jones fought one of the
bloodiest engagements in naval history. Jones struggled with the
44-gun Royal Navy frigate Serapis, and although his own vessel
was burning and sinking, Jones would not accept the British demand for
surrender, replying, I have not yet begun to fight. More than
three hours later, Serapis surrendered and Jones took command.
According to some historians, Jones remained appealing as much for
his actions as for his personality. British chapbooks, an early form
of dime novels, pictured him as a ruthless marauding pirate akin to
Blackbeard. His attacks on British ships were often sudden and
sometimes bloody. The vision of a swarthy scalawag persisted even to
the writings of Rudyard Kipling a century later.
In person, however, Jones was another man. Thomas Jefferson and
others referred to him as little Jones and he may have been
55. Unlike other merchant seamen, he was well dressed, carried a
sword, and conducted himself with practiced decorum.. Add to that a
Scottish brogue, and light Celtic features. He was never an easy man
to get along with, intense about his honor and his duties, a harsh
military master. But he was surprisingly sociable. He was a prolific
poem and letter writer, spoke some French, and, though he never
married, was involved in many romances. Above all, no one questioned
his daring. In Britain, his naval actions against the mother country
certainly led to his presentation as a pirate.
In 1788, Russian Empress Catherine the Great appointed Jones rear
admiral in the Russian Navy, in which he saw action in the Liman
campaign in the Black Sea. He left the Russian service in 1789 and
moved to Paris. He was appointed U.S. Consul to Algiers but died
before the commission arrived. His body was buried in Paris, but in
1905, after a lengthy search, his remarkably preserved corpse was
discovered and removed from a gravesite in Paris and transported to
the United States. Through the intervention of President Theodore
Roosevelt, Jones remains were re-interred in an ornate tomb at the
Naval Academy Chapel at Annapolis, Maryland in 1913 when the tomb was
completed
