biography
| name: |
Jones, John Paul
|
| |
originally John Paul
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1747–92)
|
| biography:
| American naval officer and Revolutionary hero, born in Kirkbean, Dumfries and Galloway, SW Scotland, UK. He went to sea at age 12 and commanded merchant ships in the West Indies. No saint, he engaged in the slave trade and added ‘Jones’ to his name to avoid pursuit after the death of two sailors he had flogged. He went to Philadelphia at the start of the American Revolution and became a senior lieutenant in the Continental navy (1775). Successful in capturing ships while in command of the Providence, he was then given command of the Ranger. He sailed to France (1777) and captured the British Drake (1778), the first enemy warship to surrender to an American vessel. Sailing from France in the Bonhomme Richard (1779), a refitted merchant ship, he fought the British Serapis off Flamborough Head, England, in a legendary battle that included his defiant cry, ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’ Following his victory, he was made a chevalier of France and received the thanks of Congress (1781). He fought no more battles for America, but he did go to France and Denmark to negotiate for the return of US ships. He visited American for the last time in 1787 and served as a Russian rear-admiral (1788–9) before returning to Paris. His remains were returned to the USA in 1905 and placed in a chapel crypt at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. |
|
|
