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TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS 
 
 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
E Zo 
 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 MBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
John Paul Jones 
 " I have ever looked out fotr the honour of the American Flag. 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 BY 
 l/ FRANK TOOKER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1916 
 
 All rights restrved 
 

 Copyright, 1916, 
 Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 19x6. 
 
 He 
 
 
 NOV 23 1916 
 
 J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 ©CI.A445750 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGB 
 
 An Adventurous Boyhood i 
 
 CHAPTER 11 
 Some Early Victories . . . . • -14 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Preparing for Europe 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Saluting the Stars and Stripes .... 39 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Fights in the Irish Sea ; 51 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Trials of a Victor 74 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 In the Bay of Biscay 97 
 
 V 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Delays and Discouragements . . . . iii 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 "Going Into Harm's Way" . . . * .120 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 The Great Fight , • 131 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 The Little Man in Blue 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 The Enmity of Landais 160 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 Storm and Sunshine . . . . . .170 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 With the Russian Fleet 183 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 Friendships and Honors 206 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait of John Paul Jones . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Tablet on Badger's Island 48 ' 
 
 John Paul Jones. Statue 98 ' 
 
 Battle between the Sera pis and the Bon 
 Homme Richard 138 
 
 Medal awarded to John Paul Jones . . .186 
 
 The Chapel at Annapolis 208 ^ 
 
 vH 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 An Adventurous Boyhood 
 
 The Solway Firth, an arm of the Irish Sea, 
 drives a broad wedge of salt water between Scot- 
 land and England almost up to the Cheviot Hills. 
 Hills and firth formed the natural defenses of 
 Scotland in the old days when she fought with 
 England, and the raiders of both countries were 
 constantly crossing the border to lay waste and 
 harry. It is a region of romance and adventure, 
 and every yard of its soil has its story. From the 
 hills of Arbigland, on the Scottish side of the 
 firth, one can look across the blue waters to the 
 peaks of Skiddaw, Saddleback ; and Helvellyn, 
 Grasmere, Rydal, and Ambleside, names that the 
 Lake poets have made famous, lie just beyond. 
 To the east rise the Cheviot Hills. The sails of 
 fishing-boats dot the Solway, and from the larger 
 ports, like Whitehaven, on the English shore, 
 
2 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 ships go out to foreign lands. Every tradition of 
 the people and every prospect must call to a boy 
 of spirit to go forth on strange and perilous ad- 
 ventures. 
 
 With certainty they called to one boy who first 
 saw the light of day in a little stone cottage at 
 Arbigland on the 6th of July, 1747. John Paul 
 was his name. His father, a native of Leith, 
 shortly after his marriage to Jeannie MacDuff 
 had gone to Arbigland as gardener on the large 
 estate of a country squire of the name of Robert 
 Craik. His brother George occupied a similar 
 position at St. Mary's Isle, the adjoining estate 
 of the Earl of Selkirk. The latter estate bordered 
 the River Dee, on which the small seaport of 
 Kirkcudbright is situated, and here John Paul 
 passed much of his early boyhood with his uncle. 
 In Kirkcudbright and in Carsethorn, at the mouth 
 of the River Nith, he met many sailors and talked 
 with them, and learned to sail a boat well. It was 
 the beginning of his study in the great school of 
 adventure, and doubtless made a far greater im- 
 pression on his sensitive mind than did the work 
 of the parish school at Kirkbean, where, however, 
 he was said to be a good student. 
 
 But it was a time of adventure, and Great 
 Britain was busily colonizing the New World. 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD 3 
 
 John Paul's eldest brother, William, and his 
 cousin had already gone thither when at twelve 
 he, too, set sail for Virginia as an apprenticed 
 sailor on the Friendship, a vessel of Whitehaven 
 owned by a Mr. Younger. The Friendship sailed 
 for a port on the Rappahannock River not far 
 from Fredericksburg, where John Paul's brother 
 had settled, and with him the young sailor passed 
 most of his time while ashore, gaining his first 
 impression of the land that, as he said later in 
 life, had always been the goal of his dreams. 
 
 Little is known of his early life at sea beyond 
 the fact that he was a good seaman and gave 
 much time to the study of his profession. With 
 the growth of his knowledge his ambition appears 
 to have widened, for on losing his berth on the 
 Friendship, through the business failure of her 
 owner, he applied to the Duke of Queensberry 
 to assist him in entering the navy. In boyhood 
 he had met the duke at St. Mary's Isle, and upon 
 the latter's recommendation John Paul received 
 his appointment as midshipman in the royal navy. 
 There he remained long enough to see that merit 
 without influence was of httle avail in the matter 
 of advancement, and he resigned his position to 
 return to the merchant service. The short ex- 
 perience was undoubtedly of great value to him. 
 
4 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Too much cannot be expected of a mere midship- 
 man, but John Paul must have employed his brief 
 time in the navy to good purpose, for in the letters 
 that he afterward wrote to Joseph Hewes and 
 Robert Morris of the needs of the new navy his 
 suggestions were both wise and practical. He also, 
 at about this time, advocated the establishment of 
 a naval school not unHke the one that has since 
 won honor at Annapolis. 
 
 In that day of great colonizing adventures 
 men's thoughts turned specially to the golden 
 tropics. In the development of those fruitful 
 regions labor was urgently needed, and in a way 
 the constantly warring tribes of the west coast of 
 Africa stood ready to supply the demand. Along 
 the Bight of Benin, on the Gulf of Guinea, barra- 
 coons, or stockades, were everywhere built, 
 whither whole villages — men, women, and chil- 
 dren — were brought by their captors and con- 
 fined there until they could be transferred to the 
 slave-ships that plied their trade between this coast 
 and tropical America, the main dumping-ground 
 being the West Indies. In gangs the naked 
 negroes were taken aboard the slavers, to be 
 literally packed in the dark and noisome holds, 
 with no air beyond what could reach them through 
 the small grated hatchways. From heat in sum- 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD 5 
 
 mer and cold in winter, with insufficient food and 
 water, the captives died by the score on the long 
 voyage. Yet even with the great loss of life, the 
 trade paid enormous profits, and the foundations 
 of many great fortunes were laid at this time by 
 merchants and shipowners of cities like Glasgow, 
 Liverpool, and Bristol, who did not consider it 
 beneath either their principles or their dignity to 
 embark in the trade. 
 
 It was into this sorry branch of seafaring life 
 that John Paul now entered. He went out to the 
 slave coast as third mate of the King George, and 
 later he sailed as the first mate of the Two Friends. 
 
 For two years he remained in the trade, and 
 then, in 1768, left his vessel in the island of Ja- 
 maica, thoroughly sick of the horrors that he was 
 constantly forced to see. In a letter written by 
 John Philip Kemble it is stated that at this time, 
 while without employment, John Paul was for a 
 brief period a member of the company of John 
 Moody, a well-known Irish actor, who was then 
 in Jamaica, appearing in the part of young Bevil 
 in ''The Conscious Lover." Doubtless it was a 
 mere makeshift in an hour of need, for about this 
 time John Paul took passage for Kirkcudbright in 
 the John, a brigantine belonging to that port of 
 his boyhood. It was in a way a fortunate chance 
 
6 JOHN PAUL JONES . 
 
 that led him aboard the John, for on the home- i 
 ward voyage both captain and first mate died, ; 
 and upon John Paul fell the duty of navigating the \ 
 vessel to port. In reward of this, on her \ 
 next voyage to Jamaica he went out as her 
 master. 
 
 On his second voyage as captain, while unload- 
 ing at the island of Tobago, in the West Indies, he 
 was forced by the disorderly conduct of the men 
 to flog Mungo Maxwell, the ship's carpenter. It ; 
 was a frequent enough punishment on shipboard in ! 
 those days, but Maxwell went to James Simpson, J 
 a judge of the vice-admiralty court of the island, \ 
 and entered a complaint against the captain. , 
 After a personal examination of the alleged wounds, j 
 the judge dismissed the complaint, and six weeks \ 
 later Maxwell, in good health, left the island on a 
 vessel bound for Barcelona, Spain. It was not 
 until after he had returned to Scotland that John i 
 Paul learned that Maxwell had died on the way | 
 to Barcelona and that his death was attributed 
 by his friends to the flogging received in Tobago. ; 
 The two principals in the unfortunate affair were ! 
 from the same part of Scotland, and naturally '\ 
 the story came to the ears of John Paul's friends 
 and neighbors. His own family was of course dis- ! 
 tressed, and many in the neighborhood believed ^ 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD ^ 
 
 the tale, among them the Robert Craik on whose 
 estate John Paul had been born. 
 
 John Paul had left the command of the John in 
 April, 1 77 1, and doubtless the story worked 
 against him in his attempts to secure another 
 command in the same trade, for it is known that 
 for several months he sailed on the small coasting 
 vessels running between the Isle of Man and neigh- 
 boring ports in England and Scotland. Long 
 afterward, when his name had become a bug- 
 bear to the people of Great Britain, it was declared 
 that at this period he had really been engaged in 
 smuggling, though this John Paul indignantly 
 denied. The fact that the records of his clearance- 
 papers are preserved in the custom-house at 
 Douglas, in the Isle of Man, seem to prove his 
 point. A smuggler has small use for a custom- 
 house. 
 
 He was living under a cloud when, with grim 
 determination to prove his innocence, he again 
 set sail for Tobago. On his former voyage to the 
 island he had made friends with many of its best 
 people, and now both William Young, the gover- 
 nor, and James Simpson, the judge before whom 
 Maxwell had gone, came to his aid. Judge Simp- 
 son knew all the facts of the case and wholly freed 
 John Paul from blame. Not to leave anything un- 
 
8 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 done, John Paul even obtained another affidavit 
 from James Eastment, the master of the vessel on 
 which Maxwell set sail for Barcelona, in which he 
 declared that Maxwell had come aboard his vessel 
 in good health, but later, on the voyage, had died 
 of a fever. This document John Paul deposited 
 with the lord mayor of London on January 30, 
 
 1773. 
 
 He had been particularly hurt by the unfriend- 
 liness of Mr. Craik, his old patron, and in a feehng 
 letter to his family he sent a copy of Judge Simp- 
 son's affidavit to be given to Mr. Craik. Years 
 afterward John Paul's family declared that Mr. 
 Craik had been fully convinced of the falsity of 
 the story. But the young man had been deeply 
 hurt. He was sensitive and high-spirited, and 
 never again visited his old home. Indeed, he 
 never saw his family again, though he often wrote, 
 and aided his mother as much as was possible. 
 
 But freed at last from the injustice of the Max- 
 well affair, he was again able to take up seafaring 
 life with new energy. He succeeded in buying a 
 London vessel named the Betsey, and having 
 taken aboard a cargo at Cork, early in 1773 again 
 set sail for the West Indies, arriving at Tobago 
 in April. Having persuaded a planter named 
 Archibald Stuart to enter into partnership with 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD 9 
 
 him, he unloaded his cargo, and was taking aboard 
 a return cargo for Europe when a new and greater 
 misfortune overtook him and changed his whole 
 life. Yet here is a curious illustration of the 
 strange working of fate. If this untoward event 
 had not taken place, it is more than probable that 
 John Paul would have remained John Paul to the 
 end, a worthy Scottish mariner, but that is all. 
 But the affair that seemingly ruined him and 
 made him a wanderer set his feet by some strange 
 chance in the path that led to fame. 
 
 He paid off his officers, but probably being short 
 of funds, hoped to hold back the wages of his sea- 
 men until he reached Europe. It is more than 
 likely, too, that he feared to lose his men if their 
 wages were paid. But they demanded their 
 wages, and while hastening the loading of his 
 vessel he came aboard one morning only to face a 
 drunken and mutinous crew, already preparing to 
 desert. Naturally he protested, and in defending 
 himself against the murderous assault of the ring- 
 leader, he killed the man with his sword. 
 
 Now, the seafaring life was not a gentle calling 
 in that day, — indeed, it is not in this, — and 
 many a ship's master went brutally about enforc- 
 ing his orders with never a thought of retribution 
 overtaking him. Perhaps the main reason why 
 
to JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 John Paul was less fortunate lay in the fact that 
 the two mischances that brought him trouble 
 happened in port and not on the high seas. The 
 difference was vital. 
 
 Undoubtedly he was justified by every rule of 
 the sea, as well as by the right that a man has 
 either on sea or land to defend his own Hfe ; but 
 in this case he seems to have been poorly advised. 
 He now went to his old friend Judge Simpson and 
 offered to give himself up, but was told that that 
 would be unnecessary until his case came to trial, 
 and court was not in session at the time. Exactly 
 why he did what he now decided upon will never 
 be known, but leaving his vessel and her cargo in 
 the care of his partner, Archibald Stuart, with 
 the aid of friends, he secretly left the island. 
 From June, 1773, until the close of 1775 a cloud 
 of mystery surrounds him. Whether at any time 
 in this long period he really became a ''gentleman 
 of fortune," a mild name by which pirates are 
 wont to call themselves in fiction, no one can 
 prove. At that time the distinction between 
 pirates and privateers was very slight, and in the 
 English mind at least all the attributes of piracy 
 were conferred upon the numerous Spanish vessels 
 that at that period preyed upon British shipping 
 saiHng the Spanish Main. Long after this time 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD ii 
 
 there was printed privately the account of one 
 Thomas Chase of Martha's Vineyard in which it 
 was stated that, when Chase was a young man, a 
 small vessel once came to anchor in Holmes Hole 
 in the autumn of 1773. He said that she was well 
 armed and very fast. It was his fortune to meet 
 and talk with her captain, who gave his name as 
 Paul Jones. The crew, he declared, were a set 
 of Spanish and Portuguese desperadoes. Subse- 
 quently Chase shipped on an American privateer, 
 but, having been captured by a British man-of- 
 war, was for two years held as a prisoner in Ply- 
 mouth, England. On his release he again met, 
 this time in L'Orient, France, the Paul Jones of 
 the supposedly piratical craft, now Captain Paul 
 Jones of the American navy, and commander of 
 the Bon Homme Richard. Having shipped with 
 him, Chase was in the fight of the Bon Homme 
 Richard and the Serapis. Of course it is not 
 wholly impossible that, in his flight from Tobago, 
 John Paul had found his way aboard one of the 
 Spanish rovers that sailed the Spanish Main, 
 though one would hardly expect to find him so soon 
 the captain of one. 
 
 But wherever he may have been, or whatever 
 the sort of life that he had led in the interval, early 
 in the year 1775 he appears to have landed in 
 
12 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the port of Edenton, North Carolina. Tradition 
 states that he was now befriended by Willie Jones, 
 a man of wealth and position. With the well- 
 known hospitality of the South, John Paul was 
 received into Jones's house, and there had his first 
 opportunity to associate with people of culture 
 and refinement. The chance brought him, too, 
 the opportunity for which fate seemed preparing 
 him. The country was already seething with the 
 spirit that brought on the American Revolution, 
 and in this atmosphere John Paul's imagination 
 was fired for the cause of Hberty. It seems more 
 than mere chance, then, that he should here fall 
 in with Joseph Hewes, a man who was to remain 
 his lifelong friend and who was well able to start 
 him on the career for which he was best fitted. 
 Hewes was a shipbuilder, a member of the first 
 Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration 
 of Independence, and later a member of the first 
 naval committee appointed by Congress. When 
 Hewes, in May, 1775, went north to attend the 
 meeting of Congress, John Paul was impelled to 
 follow him. Tradition declares that, on leaving 
 the hospitable home of Willie Jones, John Paul 
 asked for, and received, the privilege of using the 
 name of Jones as his surname. If Thomas Clark's 
 account is true, John Paul had already used the 
 
AN ADVENTUROUS BOYHOOD 13 
 
 name as early as the autumn of 1773, when he 
 landed on Martha's Vineyard. However all this 
 may be explained, he appeared at the doors of 
 Congress as John Paul Jones, and under that 
 name began the career that was to enroll him 
 among the naval heroes of a new nation. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Some Early Victories 
 
 Hewes and Paul Jones had gone to Philadelphia 
 in May, 1775, and although the question of form- 
 ing a navy had been discussed from time to time 
 during the summer, it was autumn before any 
 definite steps were taken. Then word came that 
 two unarmed transports, with valuable cargoes of 
 military suppHes for the British army, had left 
 England for Quebec ; and with the desire to in- 
 tercept and capture the vessels. Congress appointed 
 a committee of three men — Silas Deane of Con- 
 necticut, John Langdon of New Hampshire, and 
 Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina — to make 
 definite plans. 
 
 Upon the report of the committee, Washington, 
 now commander in chief of the army, was asked 
 to borrow two vessels belonging to Massachusetts 
 to be fitted out against the transports. However, 
 
 14 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 15 
 
 the members from Rhode Island had already recom- 
 mended to Congress the establishment of a national 
 fleet, and after a long and bitter debate, in which 
 the fear was expressed that the plan would bank- 
 rupt the Government, the Rhode Island sugges- 
 tion was carried, and the naval committee of three 
 men was instructed to look into the matter of 
 purchasing vessels. The committee made its re- 
 port, and on October 13 a resolution was passed 
 by Congress, ordering the committee to proceed 
 at once to purchase two fast vessels, one of ten 
 guns, the other of fourteen. In compliance with 
 the order, the Lexington and the Reprisal were 
 bought, these two thus becoming the distinguished 
 forerunners of the long line that was to become 
 famous through such names as the Bon Homme 
 Richard, the Constitution, the Kearsarge, and the 
 Monitor. A few days later, on October 30, the 
 naval committee was enlarged, John Adams of 
 Massachusetts, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, 
 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and Joseph Hewes 
 of North Carolina being the new members. On 
 the same day it having been ordered that two 
 larger vessels, one of thirty-six guns and one of 
 twenty, be purchased, the Alfred and the Colum- 
 bus were straightway added to the fleet. The 
 enthusiasm for a navy now rapidly grew, and on 
 
l6 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 December 13 Congress passed a resolution to add 
 thirteen new vessels to the navy and increased 
 the size of the naval committee to one member 
 from each colony. A few days later a commander 
 in chief of the navy, four captains, and several 
 lieutenants were appointed. Ezek Hopkins of 
 Rhode Island was the first commander in chief, 
 but the first name on the list of lieutenants was 
 that of John Paul Jones, who, owing to the fact 
 that he had come up to Philadelphia from Eden ton 
 in the train of Joseph Hewes and was nominated 
 by that gentleman, was called the lieutenant from 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Though this was the beginning of the American 
 navy as authorized by Congress, the honor of 
 being the first naval officer has long been a matter 
 of dispute. Washington, as commander in chief 
 of the army, at an earlier date had given commis- 
 sions to the captains of several small vessels to 
 cruise in the track of British transports bringing 
 army supplies to Boston, and Captain John Manly 
 had been the first of those thus commissioned. In 
 the Lee, in a cruise that began near the end of 
 November, he had succeeded in capturing and 
 bringing to port four transports. But the Lexing- 
 ton, the first ship purchased by Congress, was also 
 the first to sail under general orders from Congress, 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 17 
 
 and had put to sea under the command of Captain 
 John Barry, who had reached America in the Black 
 Prince, later purchased and renamed the Alfred. 
 The honor of being the first officer in the navy 
 seems to lie between these two men, therefore, 
 the relative value of a commission from Wash- 
 ington or Congress being the chief point of 
 debate. 
 
 At a later date John Paul Jones stated that 
 shortly after his appointment was received he had 
 been offered the command of the Providence and 
 then of the Fly, both small vessels, but he had 
 refused both offers for a lieutenancy on the Alfred, 
 on the ground of the greater opportunity for 
 activity on the flagship, and the benefit to be 
 derived from sailing under men of greater experi- 
 ence than he possessed. Both his reasons were in 
 time to prove disappointing. At the outset his 
 choice appeared a good one. Neither Hopkins 
 nor Dudley Saltonstall, the commander in chief 
 and the captain appointed to the Alfred, had yet 
 arrived in Philadelphia, and the task of fitting 
 out the flagship fell to Jones. He worked with 
 his usual speed and skill, and by the time Hopkins 
 arrived the ship was ready to sail. As a reward 
 for his activity, it is said that Hopkins promised 
 Jones the command of the ship; but Saltonstall 
 
i8 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 appearing shortly before the squadron sailed, he 
 retained the command. 
 
 It was January before the commander in chief 
 boarded the vessel, under orders from Congress to 
 sail at once in the attempt to destroy the fleet of 
 Lord Dunmore, which had been harrying the coast 
 of Virginia. By some strange mischance, no one 
 seems to have made a note of the exact date. It 
 was a cold, clear day, and all Philadelphia had 
 gathered to watch the sailing of the fleet of eight 
 vessels. Early in the morning a barge brought 
 Hopkins off to the Alfred. As he stepped over 
 the side, at a command from Captain Saltonstall, 
 Paul Jones ran up the first flag to float over an 
 American man-of-war. Of course the flag was 
 not the one we know to-day as the national ensign, 
 but a curious banner of yellow silk, bearing the 
 representation of a rattlesnake coiled at the foot of 
 a pine-tree, with the words, ''Don't tread on me." 
 
 There appears to have been Httle chance of any 
 one's doing so. The rattlesnake is not noted for 
 swiftness in putting itself into harm's way, and 
 in this respect at least the new squadron did not 
 depart from that characteristic of its symbol. 
 Hopkins lost so much valuable time in putting to 
 sea that he was caught in the ice, and it was not 
 until February was half gone that he was at last 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 19 
 
 fairly clear of the land. Though he had been 
 directed by Congress to go in pursuit of Lord Dun- 
 more, his orders had given him power to ignore 
 this direction of Congress if it conflicted with his 
 own better judgment. At the last moment it did 
 conflict, and leaving Lord Dunmore's fleet behind, 
 he headed his own squadron toward the Bahamas. 
 On nearing the islands, two small sloops were 
 captured, and learning from their crews that the 
 forts of New Providence held a large store of 
 powder, and were poorly garrisoned, Hopkins de- 
 termined to make an attack on the forts. Unfor- 
 tunately, he approached the coast in broad day- 
 light, and, having thus given warning of danger, 
 delayed his attack. He himself proposed to land 
 his attacking party on the west coast, but, as Paul 
 Jones pointed out, there was no anchorage there 
 for the ships and no road overland to Nassau ; 
 before the landing party could reach the town, 
 the governor would have ample time to prepare 
 an adequate defense. Jones himself advised that 
 the fleet sail around to the east coast and work in 
 behind a small island, where there was a good 
 harbor, with only a short distance to cover on 
 land. Hopkins agreed to this, but on his refusal 
 to permit the men of the captured sloops to pilot 
 the squadron up to its anchorage, Paul Jones him- 
 
20 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 self went aloft and brought the fleet safely in. 
 The landing party sailed up the eastern passage to 
 within four miles of Fort Montague, then marched 
 upon Nassau, and took possession of both town 
 and fort without the loss of a man. Early the 
 next morning the squadron sailed into the harbor 
 and seized a hundred cannon and a large quantity 
 of stores, but owing to their lack of care in ap- 
 proaching the island, the governor had had ample 
 time to load his vessels with powder and send 
 them away in the night. Even the modified 
 success was due wholly to Jones, and this was all 
 the more marked because it was the only success 
 of the cruise. Two weeks after the departure of 
 the squadron from the Bahamas it fell in with 
 the British man-of-war Glasgow, which cleverly 
 managed to escape after having inflicted more 
 damage than she received in the action. 
 
 It was a sorry beginning for the new navy, but 
 a beginning that might have been expected. The 
 ships were merely transformed merchantmen, and 
 their officers not only without experience, but 
 men who for the most part had received their 
 appointments through the influence of powerful 
 friends. Hopkins himself was a marked example 
 of the advantage of having a friend at court. A 
 brother of Governor Hopkins of Rhode Island, 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 21 
 
 the most influential member of the first naval 
 committee, he was merely an old sea captain with- 
 out any marked ability in his new calling. He had 
 the obstinacy and caution of the old ; and his 
 inabiHty to grasp the details of new conditions left 
 him bewildered and weak. 
 
 On the nth of April the fleet anchored in the 
 harbor of New London, and at once a storm of 
 criticism broke out against the stupidity that had 
 allowed the Glasgow to escape capture. Hopkins 
 was bitterly assailed, and Captain Whipple, his 
 brother-in-law, was court-martialed, but acquitted. 
 Smallpox had broken out among the crews on their 
 arrival in New London, at one time nearly two 
 hundred being in the hospital. In this dark hour 
 it was impossible to man the fleet, for many sailors 
 had joined Washington's army, and many more 
 had shipped on the numerous privateers that had 
 been fitted out to scour the Eastern waters in their 
 search for British merchantmen. 
 
 Though Hopkins was later to become the bitter 
 opponent of Paul Jones, it was he who was now 
 to be instrumental in giving him a separate com- 
 mand. On the back of his original commission 
 as lieutenant, Hopkins wrote out a new commis- 
 sion as captain, and gave him the command of the 
 Providence. The first task that fell to him was to 
 
22 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 take to New York the soldiers that Washington 
 had lent to the navy. Having picked up a few 
 sailors in the shipping-offices of that city, he re- 
 turned to New London, where he secured a few 
 more men who had been released from the small- 
 pox hospital and continued his voyage to Provi- 
 dence. Here he passed a short time in overhauKng 
 his vessel. The Fly was in port, loaded with 
 several heavy guns that were to be used in fortify- 
 ing New York, and to Paul Jones fell the task of 
 convoying her up the sound. Off Block Island 
 he had a sharp encounter with the British frigate 
 Cerberus, and not only succeeded in getting his 
 convoy away in safety, but later, in a second en- 
 gagement with the same frigate, delayed her long 
 enough to keep her from capturing the Hispaniola, 
 which was laden with stores for Washington's 
 army. As the Cerberus mounted thirty-two guns 
 and the Providence only twelve, both actions might 
 well be called brilliant achievements for the com- 
 mander of the little American vessel. Shortly 
 after he was ordered to Boston to convoy a num- 
 ber of merchantmen around Long Island and up 
 the Delaware, and though Lord Howe's fleet had 
 now arrived on the coast, he made the new venture 
 without encountering the ships of the enemy, and 
 by August I was again in Philadelphia. 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 23 
 
 Much had happened in the capital city since 
 he had sailed away from it in January. The 
 Declaration of Independence had been signed, the 
 colonies had definitely renounced all allegiance to 
 Great Britain, and the new Continental Congress 
 was now sitting. Jones set about obtaining a 
 congressional confirmation of the captain's com- 
 mission that Hopkins had given him in May. It 
 was speedily granted, and on August 8 was signed 
 by John Hancock, president of Congress. It is 
 interesting to know that this was the first naval 
 commission signed after the Declaration of In- 
 dependence. 
 
 The Eispaniola had by this time been purchased 
 by Congress, and renamed the Hampden; and 
 Joseph Hewes, once more in Philadelphia, per- 
 suaded the naval committee to give her over to 
 the command of Jones ; but Jones was unwilling 
 to give up his old ship. He had been in company 
 with the Eispaniola, and had then learned that 
 in the matter of speed she was inferior to the 
 Providence ; he was acute enough to see that, in 
 the sort of warfare that the weak American navy 
 could wage against the more powerful ships of 
 Great Britain, speed was a more necessary quaHty 
 than mere size. He stated his reasons for decHn- 
 ing the ofier with so much clearness that the com- 
 
24 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 mittee yielded to his wish. They did more. 
 Ignoring whatever plans the commander in chief 
 of the navy might have for his sterHng young 
 captain, of their own accord they granted him 
 liberty to cruise for six weeks or two months in 
 any direction and for any purpose that in his judg- 
 ment seemed best. No greater mark of confidence 
 could have been given to a young officer. 
 
 Leaving port on August 21, he laid his course 
 to the east, and speedily captured the Sea Nymphy 
 the Favorite, and the Britannia. All three prizes 
 he sent home in safety. On September i, when 
 nearing the coast of Bermuda, he sighted a fleet 
 of vessels, and, believing the largest to be merely 
 a merchantman, ran in close to cut her out. She 
 proved to be the British frigate Solebay, of twenty- 
 eight guns, and a fast sailer. Perceiving his dan- 
 ger at last, Jones put about, with the frigate close 
 at his heels. As she began firing, Jones hoisted 
 his colors and returned the fire. At that the 
 Englishman ran up the American ensign ; but the 
 deception was too palpable, and Jones continued 
 his flight, with the Englishman following and occa- 
 sionally firing a shot. Under favoring conditions 
 the frigate was speedier, and within four hours 
 had come within musket-shot of the Providence. 
 It was a critical moment, but Paul Jones was 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 25 
 
 ready to meet it. Letting his own vessel gradually 
 fall off from her windward course, he waited until 
 the Solehay was well upon his windward quarter, 
 and then suddenly put his own helm hard up, 
 and was off before the wind before the Solehay 
 could bring her guns to bear. With a fair wind 
 the Httle Providence was more than a match for 
 the enemy, and when darkness fell she was well 
 out of danger. Yet it was a narrow escape, and 
 the capture of Paul Jones at that moment would 
 have deprived American naval history of one of 
 its greatest glories. One does not care to think 
 that on the 23d of September, 1779, Paul Jones 
 might have been idly passing the day in the naval 
 prison at Portsmouth, England, instead of winning 
 one of the greatest naval engagements in history. 
 
 After his escape from the Solehay, he directed 
 his course to the north, and by the middle of Sep- 
 tember was off the coast of Nova Scotia. On the 
 morning of the 2 2d, entering the harbor of Canso, 
 he recruited several sailors, sank one EngHsh 
 fishing- vessel, burned another, and, capturing a 
 third, completed her cargo with the fish he had 
 taken from the others, and sent her home with a 
 prize crew aboard. In Canso, learning that several 
 other EngHsh fishing-vessels were in the neighbor- 
 hood, he crossed the bay and ultimately captured 
 
26 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 twelve. With a humanity that may seem incredible 
 to-day, he left two of the vessels to the three hun- 
 dred fishermen that he had captured in order that 
 they might not be without means to reach Eng- 
 land. In less than seven weeks he was back in 
 Providence, in that brief period manning and send- 
 ing home six captured brigantines, one ship, and 
 one sloop, besides destroying eight other vessels. 
 
 It was indeed a successful voyage, and served 
 greatly to strengthen his reputation for efficiency. 
 He found Hopkins still in port, vainly struggling 
 to man his idle little fleet. In his desperation he 
 had called upon the Rhode Island Assembly and 
 even upon Congress itself to prohibit the fitting 
 out of privateers ; but to no avail. The pay of the 
 Continental seamen was small, and the promise of 
 a share in the prize-money received from vessels 
 captured by the privateers was a strong lure to men 
 to serve on the latter. 
 
 But to the navy it was a serious handicap, as 
 Paul Jones himself was to learn when Hopkins, 
 putting him in charge of the Alfred, the Provi- 
 dence, and the Hampden, ordered him to sail north 
 to the rescue of a hundred American prisoners who 
 had been put to work in the coal mines of Isle 
 Royale, Nova Scotia. He could not find the men 
 to man his Httle fleet, and at last set out with only 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 27 
 
 the Alfred and the Hampden, only to be compelled 
 to return at the very beginning of the voyage 
 through the carelessness of Captain Hacker, who 
 ran the Hampden on the rocks just outside the 
 harbor. 
 
 After a short delay he was again at sea, now 
 with the Alfred and the Providence, with the same 
 captain in charge of the Providence who had come 
 to grief in the Hampden. Again he failed Jones 
 by timorously returning to Newport under cover 
 of a fog. This time Jones did not turn back. 
 The Alfred was insufficiently manned, and her crew 
 was ill clad, but she kept on, only to find the harbor 
 at Isle Royale already frozen over when at last 
 she reached the mouth. With too few men to 
 venture on a land attack, Jones dared not attempt 
 the rescue of the prisoners. 
 
 Thus the main purpose of the expedition was 
 defeated, though Paul Jones was not to return 
 without compensation for his disappointment. 
 He had the quality of a great commander in that 
 out of defeat he frequently built a ladder to new 
 victory. He was dehghted with his crew, and 
 they were devoted to him, and, though half clad, 
 were eager for any venture. Off the coast of Nova 
 Scotia he had captured a Liverpool ship, and 
 shortly after he made a prize of the Mellish, a large 
 
28 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 armed vessel with a number of marines and land 
 troops aboard. She was bringing to America a 
 thousand complete suits of uniforms for the British 
 army, and these proved a boon to the half-clothed 
 troops of Washington's army. Jones burned a 
 British transport that had run ashore on the coast, 
 and also burned the oil warehouses in the neighbor- 
 hood. Off Isle Roy ale he captured three trans- 
 ports and a fourth vessel loaded with oil and furs, 
 and the following day captured a Liverpool priva- 
 teer. His originally small crew having now been 
 dangerously depleted by the men that he had 
 transferred to his prizes, he laid his course for 
 Boston. Shortly before reaching that city he 
 encountered the British frigate Milford. Night 
 was approaching when she drew near, but run- 
 ning in between the frigate and his prizes, Jones 
 lured her away from the latter by displaying a 
 hght, and in the darkness of a stormy night escaped, 
 reaching Boston the next day. All of his prizes 
 except one small vessel came safely to port. 
 
 It was the middle of December when Jones 
 reached Boston, only to find that his successes 
 were to go for naught before the resentment and 
 jealousy of his superior ofiicer. Commodore Hop- 
 kins, who had at last become an open enemy. He 
 ordered Jones to give up the Alfred and to go 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 29 
 
 back to the Providence, a much smaller vessel. To 
 add to Jones's sense of the injustice of this order, 
 he was soon to learn that the naval committee of 
 Congress had made out a new list of appointments, 
 and had placed him eighteenth on the list, though 
 by order of appointment he should have been 
 fifth at least. The list had been made out in 
 October, while he was away on his first Northern 
 cruise, and consequently before the news of his 
 capable conduct of the expedition had come to 
 the knowledge of the committee. Nevertheless, 
 the ranking was unjust, though in fairness to the 
 committee it should be said that Jones had at that 
 time displayed none of his remarkable ability; 
 and in the clash between the rival interests of the 
 South and New England for position in the navy, 
 the naval committee, hampered by want of means, 
 had felt itself compelled to yield to the demands 
 of those who had influence. Men who, like Jones, 
 had no strong friends at the seat of government, 
 fell by the way. 
 
 Now that he had returned from his second 
 Northern cruise with new successes to his credit, 
 the naval committee in a way tried to atone for 
 their previous indifference. Though they did not 
 feel it in their power again to change the list, they 
 now issued orders for him to take command of 
 
30 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Hopkins's fleet, and, proceeding with it to Pen- 
 sacola, to make an attack upon that town, which 
 was in the hands of the EngHsh. After that, he 
 was told, he might visit different ports in the 
 Southern colonies for the purpose of arousing the 
 interest of the South in the navy and recruiting 
 his ships with volunteers. However, they wrote, 
 if in his judgment the time spent in visiting the 
 Southern colonies might be better used in con- 
 ducting an expedition to the coast of Africa with 
 a part of the fleet, they granted him that liberty. 
 
 It was an extraordinary order to give to a cap- 
 tain who stood eighteenth on the naval list, for in 
 effect it was to make Jones the head of the navy. 
 Unhappily, it was to come to naught, for Hopkins 
 refused to carry it out. Having himself received 
 the same order, he immediately sent three of his 
 best ships to sea, and thereupon informed Jones 
 that, in the absence of those important vessels, it 
 would be impossible to comply with the wishes of 
 Congress. In his irritation and disappointment, 
 Jones at once set out for Philadelphia to bring 
 the case before the committee. 
 
 He did so, but the ships were already away, and 
 the plan fell through. Hopkins, meanwhile, had 
 about run his course. His imprudence and dis- 
 obedience at last compelled Congress to remove 
 
SOME EARLY VICTORIES 31 
 
 him from his command, though he kept it long 
 enough to vent his spite on Paul Jones once more 
 before the latter was to sail for Europe and to 
 gain his greatest glory. 
 
 Upon a man like Paul Jones, keenly aware of 
 his own ability and eager to exercise it in the 
 cause of his adopted country, the effect of all these 
 disappointments and heartburnings was unhappy. 
 He became a man with an acute sense of having 
 been unjustly treated. It colored his thoughts, 
 and constantly cropped out in the letters that 
 later he wrote to Morris, Hewes, and Franklin. 
 Yet the main trouble lay not so much in the open 
 hostility of any one person or in the indifference 
 of the naval committee of Congress as in the 
 chaotic state of all measures for prosecuting the 
 war. 
 
 Yet in all his turmoil of spirit and disappoint- 
 ment over hopes .that ever fled from him, Paul 
 Jones was not idle. He wrote frequently to Morris 
 on the condition of the navy and the steps that 
 should be taken to make it efficient, and always 
 wrote wisely. It was at this period that he ad- 
 vised the establishment of a naval academy ; and 
 though that part of his plan was long delayed, 
 many other recommendations of his were sooner 
 adopted, and speedily proved his wisdom. 
 
CHAPTER in 
 
 Preparing for Europe 
 
 Though Paul Joneses visit to Philadelphia had 
 not brought back to his command the scattered 
 Eastern fleet, the visit had been of advantage to 
 him. His plan for the reorganization of the navy- 
 had been laid before the naval committee, and 
 had undoubtedly increased his prestige with that 
 body. It had already ordered that three vessels 
 for the navy should be purchased in Boston, and 
 on Jones's departure from Philadelphia in the 
 spring of 1777 he carried with him the promise of 
 the committee that he might command whichever 
 vessel of the three he preferred. On his arrival in 
 Boston he found that the hesitating marine board 
 of Massachusetts had not yet purchased a ship. 
 He spent several weeks in a vain attempt to hasten 
 action in the matter, and at last wrote to the naval 
 committee, suggesting that his prize, the Mellish, 
 be fitted out for the service and turned over to 
 
 32 
 
PREPARING FOR EUROPE 33 
 
 him. Nothing was done in the matter, but on 
 May 9 he received a letter from Congress, order- 
 ing him to sail for Europe in the Amphitrite and 
 take command of the Indien, a fine new frigate 
 that was being built in Amsterdam under the 
 direction of Silas Deane, at that time one of the 
 American commissioners in Paris. Accompanying 
 his orders, the naval committee sent the following 
 recommendation to the commissioners : 
 
 Philadelphia, 9th May, 1777. 
 
 Honourable Gentlemen: — 
 
 This letter is intended to be delivered to you by John Paul 
 Jones, Esq., an active and brave commander in our Navy, 
 who has already performed signal services in vessels of Httle 
 force ; and in reward for his zeal, we have directed him to 
 go on board the Amphitrite, a French ship of twenty guns 
 . . . and with her to repair to France. He takes with 
 him his commission, some officers and men, so that we 
 hope he will, under that sanction, make some good prizes 
 with the Amphitrite; but our design of sending him is 
 (with the approbation of Congress) that you may purchase 
 one of those fine frigates that Mr. Deane writes us you can 
 get, and invest him with the command thereof as soon as 
 possible. We hope you may not delay this business one 
 moment, but purchase, in such port or place in Europe as 
 it can be done with most convenience and dispatch, a fine, 
 fast sailing frigate or larger ship. Direct Captain Jones 
 where he must repair to, and he will take with him his 
 officers and men towards manning her. . . . 
 
 D 
 
34 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 If you have any plan of service to be performed in Eu- 
 rope by such a ship, that you think will be more for the 
 interest and honour of the States than sending her out 
 directly, Captain Jones is instructed to obey your orders; 
 and, to save repetition, let him lay before you the instruc- 
 tions we have given him, and furnish you with a copy thereof. 
 You can then judge what it will be necessary to direct him 
 in, and whatever you do will be approved, as it will un- 
 doubtedly tend to promote the public service of this country. 
 
 You will see by this step how much dependence Con- 
 gress places on your advices ; and you must make it a point 
 not to disappoint Captain Jones' wishes and expectations 
 on this occasion. 
 
 We are &c. 
 [Signed] 
 Robert Morris, 
 Richard Henry Lee, 
 The Honourable Benjamin Frank- Wm. Whipple, 
 
 Un, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, Phil Livingston. 
 
 Esquires, Commissioners, &c. 
 
 It was a generous letter, and showed the dis- 
 position of Congress to atone to Paul Jones for 
 the many disappointments to which he had been 
 subjected. Jones was naturally delighted, and 
 by letter gave expression to his gratitude in the 
 warmest terms. Immediately upon the receipt 
 of the letter he set about collecting the men that 
 he had been directed to take with him on the 
 Amphitrite. He speedily got together a number 
 
PREPARING FOR EUROPE 35 
 
 of his former crew on the Providence, now eager to 
 serve with him again; but his old enemy, Hop- 
 kins, not yet dismissed from his position as com- 
 mander in chief of the navy, for the last time inter- 
 fered with his commands. With an audacious dis- 
 regard of the will of Congress that seems incredible, 
 he now forced the recruits that Jones had col- 
 lected to serve aboard the Warren, a vessel com- 
 manded by his son. 
 
 The loss of the men proved immaterial, for on 
 Jones's arrival in Portsmouth, where the Amphi- 
 trite lay, her French captain refused to receive 
 him aboard except as a mere passenger. Jones 
 immediately wrote to the naval committee for 
 further instructions in the matter. Though the 
 orders of the committee had been vague, Jones 
 had clearly understood that he was to command 
 the Amphitrite on her voyage back to France. 
 However, it was plain that the committee had no 
 power to make him her captain. She had been 
 sent to America with a valuable cargo of ammu- 
 nition and stores for the colonies. 
 
 The matter was at a standstill, therefore, with 
 Paul Jones still in Portsmouth, when Colonel 
 Langdon of that port suggested to him that he 
 get the authorities in Congress to offer him the 
 command of the ship-of-war Ranger, which Colonel 
 
36 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Langdon was at the time building. It was done, 
 and after the delay of a few weeks the naval com- 
 mittee decided to take over the vessel and to 
 place Jones in command. The resolution of Con- 
 gress appointing Paul Jones to the command of 
 the Ranger was passed on the 14th of June, 1777, 
 and on the same day Congress also passed the 
 following resolution: 
 
 ^^ Resolved: that the flag of the thirteen United 
 States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, 
 that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue 
 field, representing a new constellation." 
 
 The Ranger had good lines that indicated speed, 
 and Paul Jones, delighted with her, entered 
 eagerly upon the task of getting her ready for sea. 
 She had been designed to carry twenty-six guns, 
 but as that, in his opinion, was too many for a 
 vessel of her size, she was finally equipped with 
 eighteen six-pounders, as he advised. 
 
 Early in July he wrote to friends in Providence 
 and New Bedford to assist him in getting together 
 a satisfactory crew, and July was half gone and 
 the crew still lacking when he returned to Ports- 
 mouth from Boston, whither he had gone to meet 
 other officers of the service to decide on a uniform 
 for the navy. Sailors were unwilling to sign the 
 articles for more than a single cruise, as was usual 
 
PREPARING FOR EUROPE 37 
 
 in the mercantile trade ; but this was an unsatis- 
 factory method in a service where special training 
 and discipline were needed, and the success of a 
 ship in a long war depended largely on the stability 
 of her crew. Congress had promised an advance 
 of twenty dollars to all sailors signing the articles 
 only on the condition that they signed for a longer 
 period than one voyage ; but this being no lure to 
 seamen, to hasten the completion of his crew, 
 Captain Jones now not only agreed to pay the 
 advance himself, but also arranged to leave in 
 Boston a sum of money sufficient to permit the 
 famines of the men to draw half their monthly 
 wages during their absence. It was not only a 
 generous and patriotic act, but it was wise in that 
 sort of wisdom that knows human nature. It 
 counted on the contentment that comes to a man 
 who knows that his family is being looked after 
 however long he may be away. 
 
 While busily engaged in getting his crew and 
 equipping his ship, yet harassed in mind by delay 
 after delay, Jones still found time to write to 
 Robert Morris his well-worked-out ideas of the 
 best methods of carrying on naval operations 
 against England. Finding that the small navy of 
 the country was wholly inadequate to protect the 
 American coast, he advocated the plan of striking 
 
38 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 at the defenseless parts of England. The English 
 were subject to panic, he wrote, and he took an 
 almost boyish delight in the thought of stirring 
 all England by laying her ports under contribution 
 and destroying the shipping in the harbors. It 
 was the idea that he subsequently carried out, and 
 all the world may read with what surprised rage 
 England viewed the experiment. A taste of that 
 sort of warfare was not relished in the land that 
 had employed it most extensively, and in English 
 histories and traditions Paul Jones is still the 
 supreme pirate. 
 
 The 2d of November saw the Ranger ready for 
 sea, and on that day, with the new stars and 
 stripes over her, Paul Jones left the port, sailing 
 for France. It has often been written that he 
 was the first man to hoist the new national ensign 
 on an American vessel, but this is a tradition that 
 seems doubtful. Certainly he never made the 
 claim for himself, and he was hardly the man to 
 omit to mention so interesting a fact had it been 
 true. It seems quite enough to say that he was 
 shortly to make that flag glorious. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 Saluting the Stars and Stripes 
 
 John Paul Jones was a month in making the 
 voyage to France. The Ranger proved a great 
 disappointment, being both slow and cranky. 
 In addition to this cause for discouragement, her 
 alert captain had much to bear from the incom- 
 petence of his crew, and having to bear most from 
 a quarter where he had reason to expect his chief 
 aid and reliance. For Simpson, his first oJB&cer, 
 was not only inefficient, but insubordinate, and 
 these unhappy qualities reacted upon the crew. 
 
 In the way of business the voyage was not 
 wholly without incident, for on the way over, when 
 nearing the coast, the ship secured two prizes, 
 brigantines from Malaga carrying wine and fruit; 
 and nearing the French coast, she fell in with a 
 fleet of ten vessels under the convoy of the In- 
 vincible, a British line-of-battle ship of seventy-four 
 
 39 
 
40 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 guns. Naturally, she was invincible enough for 
 the Httle Ranger, with only eighteen guns of small 
 caliber and too short in the barrel for effective 
 work; yet for two days Captain Jones followed 
 the fleet in the hope of cutting out one of the 
 merchantmen at least. They kept so close to the 
 Invincible, however, that the chance of securing a 
 prize never came; so the chase was abandoned, 
 and Jones sailed for the coast of France. On 
 November 29 the ship ran into heavy weather, 
 and in the Bay of Biscay hove to ; but the gale 
 soon passed, and shortly after they sighted land, 
 and the next day came to anchor in the river 
 Loire, at the little port of Paimboeuf, not far 
 from the city of Nantes. The next day they sailed 
 up to Nantes, and on the following day, which 
 was the 4th of December, Captain Jones wrote to 
 the American commissioners in Paris, announcing 
 his arrival and his eagerness for service. He 
 wrote in detail of his plan to attack the defenseless 
 places on the English coast, and sent a confirma- 
 tion of the news of the capture of Burgoyne and 
 his army that John Loring Austin had carried to 
 the commissioners on November 30. This victory 
 had materially moved the hesitating French 
 Government to make an alKance with the revolt- 
 ing colonies in America. 
 
SALUTING THE STARS AND STRIPES 41 
 
 While waiting for word from the commissioners, 
 Captain Jones busied himself in remedying the 
 defects in the Ranger. He took on a large quantity 
 of lead, and otherwise altered her trim by re- 
 arranging her ballast ; he also shortened her lower 
 masts by several feet, thereby greatly increasing 
 her power and speed. His practical seamanship 
 was of a high order, and he could always be trusted 
 to make the most of the possibiHties of a ship. 
 
 It was probably not until January, or at least 
 late in December, that the commissioners sum- 
 moned him to Paris to explain more clearly all his 
 plans for making a descent on the English coast. 
 Something of the sort had already been tried by 
 daring American commanders, and though they 
 had been successful in destroying the enemy's 
 shipping, they had not attacked towns, and all in 
 a way had come to grief in the end. Captain 
 Lambert Wickes, who had brought Franklin to 
 Europe in the Reprisal, had sailed her around 
 Great Britain and taken many prizes. Later, 
 Captain H. Johnston had joined him with the 
 Lexington, and for a season they had cruised 
 together with success; but Wilkes had not been 
 allowed to enter French ports with his prizes, and 
 finally the commissioners had ordered him home, 
 only to be lost at sea on his way. Gustavus 
 
42 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Conyingham had almost equaled the later fame of 
 Jones in the daring attacks that he made upon 
 EngHsh vessels in their own waters. His last 
 exploit had been the capture of the packet that 
 sailed between Harwich, in England, and Holland. 
 Unhappily, he had been foolhardy enough to take 
 his prize into the open port of Dunkirk, and in 
 consequence had been thrown into prison. Hav- 
 ing been released, he had sailed in another adven- 
 ture, but had again been captured, and had been 
 imprisoned in England. 
 
 But Paul Jones's idea had gone further. In his 
 opinion far more damage could be done to an 
 enemy's shipping by attacking it in the home ports 
 than by haphazard cruising along the broad paths 
 of the sea that the enemy's ships might be sup- 
 posed to take. That he succeeded in stirring the 
 serenity of England as it had never been stirred 
 before every one knows. It was one' of the things 
 he predicted. 
 
 On reaching Paris, the long list of his disap- 
 pointments was to be added to, for, as has already 
 been related, he had confidently expected, on 
 arrival in France, to be placed in command of the 
 Indien, the large ship-of-war then building in 
 Amsterdam. The plan had been kept secret, for 
 though England and France were drifting toward 
 
SALUTING THE STARS AND STRIPES 43 \ 
 
 war, they were yet nominally at peace, and France | 
 was still delaying to enter into an alliance with 
 
 America. By chance, it was said, the British am- | 
 
 bassador at The Hague had learned of the secret | 
 
 destination of the Indien from the chance view of j 
 
 papers on the desk of the American agents in \ 
 
 Amsterdam. To prevent her seizure by the ; 
 
 British, it was thought necessary to transfer her j 
 
 to the French Government at once. Thus the | 
 
 old plan came to an end, and Paul Jones lost his i 
 
 coveted ship. He did not give up all hope, but | 
 
 he knew that nothing could be done at that time ; \ 
 
 therefore he hastened back to the Ranger. How | 
 well and manfully he accepted his disappointment 
 
 may be read in his note to the commissioners I 
 
 when the first rumors of the loss of the Indien j 
 
 came to him in Nantes, before setting out for j 
 Paris. He generously wrote : 
 
 ''I understand that the commissioners had i 
 provided for me one of the finest ships that ever 
 
 was built, but were under the necessity of giving \ 
 
 her up. My unfeigned thanks are equally due for ! 
 
 the intention as for the act." ' 
 
 Flis disappointment in losing the Indien was \ 
 not to end here, however, for, like most disap- 
 pointments, it acted in more than one direction. 
 
 Simpson, his first officer, had been promised the i 
 
44 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 command of the Ranger when Jones took com- 
 mand of the Indien; and now, finding Jones re- 
 turned to the Ranger and his own hopes blasted, 
 Simpson became embittered. Never a good officer, 
 he now became a worse one, and as long as he 
 remained with Jones he was always an active 
 agent of disobedience and contention. 
 
 It was one of the striking qualities of Paul 
 Jones that forced inaction always seemed to stir 
 his keen intellect into new channels of activity. 
 He never moped ; he simply turned to new schemes. 
 Shortly after his return to Nantes, while still wait- 
 ing for the changes in the Ranger to be made, 
 he learned from a Nantucket privateer enough 
 about the inferiority of Lord Howe's fleet in 
 America to lead him to beHeve that a strong fleet 
 from France might easily surprise and capture it. 
 The fleet was then operating in the Delaware. 
 That captured, he wrote to the commissioners, the 
 French fleet might then sail for New York, and 
 there entrap Admiral Byron's fleet when it arrived. 
 France thus might, with a single blow, bring Great 
 Britain to her feet, thereafter *'to abandon her 
 boast of being Mistress of the Seas." 
 
 When the Comte d'OrvilHers, the admiral of 
 the great French fleet in Brest, later learned of the 
 plan from Jones, he gave it his emphatic approval, 
 
SALUTING THE STARS AND STRIPES 45 
 
 and in a letter to the French minister of marine 
 advised that the project be adopted at once. 
 But the French delayed, and when finally they 
 moved in the matter, the fleet in Toulon, under the 
 command of Admiral Comte d'Estaing, was sent, 
 instead of the nearer fleet at Brest, and long before 
 it reached America, Lord Howe had learned of the 
 expedition. He evacuated Philadelphia and left 
 the Delaware River only a few days before the 
 arrival of the French fleet at the mouth of the 
 river. D'Estaing followed him to New York. 
 Washington had sent Hamilton and Laurens out 
 to Sandy Hook to consult with the admiral and 
 urge him to attack Howe, but neither the pilots 
 with Hamilton nor those Comte d'Estaing had 
 brought from the Delaware would venture to take 
 the larger ships across the bar. It is said that the 
 count jumped into a small boat and tried to find 
 the channel himself, but failed. Had the fleet 
 gone to America when the plan was first proposed, 
 the war might then and there have been brought 
 to an end. But the glory of the plan belongs to 
 Paul Jones. The pity is that so skillful a captain 
 of fleets was forever doomed to small enterprises 
 and a few poorly manned and equipped ships. 
 
 Meanwhile, he had not neglected his one small 
 vessel, and fully overhauled, she sailed from 
 
46 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Nantes on February 12, 1778, and arrived at 
 Quiberon the next morning. She had convoyed 
 a number of American trading- vessels to Quiberon, 
 where many had gathered to be under the protec- 
 tion of the large squadron of the French navy that 
 lay at that port and would convoy them past 
 Cape Finisterre on their way to America. It was 
 blowing heavily when the Ranger hove to off the 
 harbor, but instead of keeping on to the anchorage, 
 Jones sent a boat ashore with a letter to the Ameri- 
 can agent in the town, who was asked to inform 
 La Motte Piquet, admiral of the French fleet, of 
 Jones's intention of saluting the French fleet on 
 his entering the harbor the next morning, and 
 requested that the salute be returned. 
 
 To this communication Admiral La Motte 
 Piquet courteously replied that he would return 
 the salute, but with four guns fewer than he re- 
 ceived, as that was the custom in the French navy 
 in returning the salute of vessels of a republic. 
 Thereupon Jones replied, addressing his letter to 
 the American agent: 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am extremely sorry to give you fresh trouble, but I 
 think the admiral's answer of yesterday requires an expla- 
 nation. The haughty English return gun for gun to foreign 
 officers of equal rank, and two less only to captains by flag 
 
SALUTING THE STARS AND STRIPES 47 
 
 officers. It is true, my command at present is not impor- 
 tant, yet, as the senior American officer at present in Europe, 
 it is my duty to claim an equal return of respect to the flag 
 of the United States that would be shown to any other flag 
 whatever. 
 
 I therefore take the liberty of inclosing an appointment, 
 perhaps as respectable as any which the French admiral 
 can produce ; besides which, I have others in my possession. 
 
 If, however, he persists in refusing to return an equal 
 salute, I will accept of two guns less, as I have not the rank 
 of admiral. 
 
 It is my opinion that he would return four less to a 
 privateer or a merchant ship; therefore, as I have been 
 honoured oftener than once with a chief command of ships 
 of war, I cannot in honour accept of the same terms of 
 respect. 
 
 You wiU singularly oblige me by waiting upon the ad- 
 miral ; and I ardently hope you will succeed in the applica- 
 tion, else I shall be under a necessity of departing without 
 coming into the bay. 
 
 I have the honour to be, etc. 
 To William Carmichael, Esq. 
 
 N.B. — Though thirteen guns is your greatest salute in 
 America, yet if the French admiral should prefer a greater 
 number he has his choice on conditions. 
 
 It was a nice point of naval etiquette, he felt, 
 and on such points Paul Jones was the sort of man 
 to uphold his own dignity and with it the dignity 
 of his adopted country; but later in the day, 
 however, learning that the French admiral was 
 
48 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 right as to the custom of France in such cases, he 
 wisely yielded his point, clearly seeing that the 
 salute was the main thing rather than a specific 
 number of guns. In either case it would be a 
 notable recognition of a new nation. In the late 
 afternoon of the 14th of February, therefore, the 
 Ranger got under way and beat into the harbor. 
 When she drew abreast of the huge French flag- 
 ship, in the dusky close of the day, Captain Jones 
 backed his main-topsail and fired a salute of thir- 
 teen guns, which the French commander imme- 
 diately returned with the promised salute of nine. 
 It was the first salute ever fired in honor of the 
 Stars and Stripes, and, indeed, the first official 
 recognition of American independence by a for- 
 eign country. A year before the Dutch governor 
 of St. Eustatius had saluted an American ensign, 
 — not of course, the Stars and Stripes, — but he 
 had been recalled for the act, and his salute had 
 been repudiated. But now there was to be no 
 disavowal. That the light of the deed should not 
 be hidden under a bushel, as it were, Jones sent 
 word to La Motte Piquet that as he had entered 
 the harbor so late at night, it was his intention 
 on the following day to pass through his whole 
 fleet with the brig Independence, a privateer tem- 
 porarily attached to his command, and repeat the 
 
Tablet on Badger's Island 
 
 This fine tablet, on Badger's Island, near Portsmouth, N. H., com- 
 memorates John Paul Jones and his famous Uttle ship Ranger. 
 
SALUTING THE STARS AND STRIPES 49 
 
 salute. With great good humor and courtesy, La 
 Motte Piquet replied that he would respond. It 
 was done, and in a way it was the announcement 
 that a new nation had taken its place among the 
 naval powers of the world. There was something 
 almost boy like in Paul Jones's exultation, which 
 crops out in the letter, written a week later, to 
 the marine committee of Congress in which he 
 relates the story of the deed. In another place, 
 with outspoken commendation of the courage shown 
 by La Motte Piquet for his share in the action, 
 Jones declares that at the time neither he nor the 
 French admiral had been aware that the long- 
 discussed treaty of alliance between France and 
 the United States had been signed. It had really 
 been signed only six days before. 
 
 Having placed his convoy in the charge of the 
 French admiral, Jones proceeded to Brest, where 
 he had the pleasure of receiving the salute of the 
 Bretagne, the flagship of Comte d'Orvilliers's great 
 fleet. Here he had the opportunity to interest the 
 admiral in his proposed expedition against Lord 
 Howe's fleet, of which the admiral thought highly. 
 Indeed, he was so greatly impressed with Paul 
 Jones that, upon learning of his disappointment in 
 the Indien affair, he offered to procure Jones a 
 commission as captain in the French navy, and 
 
50 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 promised to assign him to a large frigate. It was 
 a great opportunity for the commander of the 
 little Ranger, and had he been the mere ''gentle- 
 man of fortune" that the British long angrily 
 declared, no one can question that he would have 
 accepted at once ; for the French fleet was then 
 powerful, and with the influence of the Comte 
 d'Orvilliers behind him, his own great ability would 
 undoubtedly have carried him far. Of this ability 
 Paul Jones himself had never been doubtful, nor was 
 he less keen in seeing the advantage of powerful 
 influence ; yet now, to his great honor, he decisively 
 refused to consider the offer. His loyalty to the 
 convictions that had led him to cast in his lot 
 with the struggHng colonies cannot be questioned. 
 D'Orvilliers remained constantly his friend. 
 He not only introduced him to M. de Sartine, the 
 French minister of marine, and gave him every 
 assurance that M. de Sartine would yet turn over 
 the Indien to him, but he assured him that in that 
 case he himself would secure four hundred French 
 sailors to make up his crew. In the matter of 
 saluting he generously returned eleven guns in- 
 stead of the nine La Motte Piquet had returned. 
 It was therefore with high hopes and courage that 
 Paul Jones at last, on April lo, set out from Brest 
 on the first descent on the English coast. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Fights in the Irish Sea 
 
 He sailed on April lo, and on the 14th, some- 
 where between Cape Clear and the Scilly Islands, 
 he captured a brigantine bound from Ireland to 
 Ostend with a cargo of flaxseed. As neither vessel 
 nor cargo was of value, he burned them. Three 
 days later he took the ship Lord Chatham, loaded 
 with porter and general cargo, and sent her into 
 Brest. On the next day, while off the Isle of Man, 
 the wind being favorable and the day clear, he 
 laid his course for Whitehaven, the port from which, 
 when a boy of twelve, he had first set out on his 
 seafaring. He has often been criticized for his 
 attacks upon what was virtually his home port, 
 though the criticism is unjust. No ties held him 
 to the place, and doubtless he based his reason 
 for making his descent there on the sensible one 
 that he knew the harbor and its unprotected state. 
 He approached the town after nightfall, and had 
 already manned his boats to go in, when, at eleven, 
 
 SI 
 
52 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the wind suddenly shifted and blew hard toward 
 the shore, not only making a landing for his boats 
 difficult, but bringing his vessel into danger through 
 his nearness to a lee shore. There was nothing 
 for him -to do but to swing his boats aboard again 
 and crowd on sail to escape being driven ashore. 
 
 Off the Mull of Galloway the next morning he 
 captured and sank a schooner loaded with barley. 
 Learning from the crew of the schooner that ten 
 or twelve large vessels, with only a small tender 
 for protector, lay at that time at Loughryan, in 
 Scotland, Jones ran for the port; but again the 
 wind shifted, and a sharp squall drove him back. 
 He fell in with an Irish fishing-boat or so, and from 
 the captured fishermen learned that the ship 
 that he could see at anchor in Belfast Lough was 
 the British sloop-of-war Drake, of twenty guns. 
 That was game more to his liking, and he at once 
 planned her capture in a manner both daring and 
 brilliant. Beating back and forth offshore until 
 darkness fell, he then ran into the harbor, mean- 
 ing to lay the Ranger squarely across the bow of 
 the Drake, drop his own anchor, and then capture 
 the Drake by boarding her over the bow. 
 
 It was blowing hard when the Ranger, under 
 shortened sail, entered the harbor and drew close 
 to the Drake. The crew had been mustered to 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 53 
 
 their stations, the boarding party with pikes, cut- 
 lasses, and pistols, and the best shots of the crew 
 stationed with muskets to sweep the deck of the 
 Drake with gun-fire, when Jones with masterly- 
 skill brought the Ranger in exactly the right posi- 
 tion and gave the order to let go the anchor. 
 Through the stupidity of a drunken boatswain, 
 it is said, the anchor was not let go soon enough, 
 and the Ranger, dropping back swiftly in the gale 
 that was blowing, did not come up on her cable 
 until she had passed the Drake's quarter, where 
 she lay exposed to the broadside of the English- 
 man, but unable to fire in return. Fortunately 
 for the Ranger, Captain Burdon of the Drake 
 was far from being alert as well as exceedingly 
 careless. The Ranger bore no warHke appearance 
 and had given no alarm, of course, and in the dark- 
 ness of a windy night was mistaken for a clumsy 
 merchantman. ^'AU this," as Jones afterward 
 wrote, ''determined me to cut immediately, which 
 might appear as if the cable had parted, and at 
 the same time enabling me, after making attack 
 out of the Lough, to return, with the same pros- 
 pect of advantage which I had at the first." 
 
 However, though the cable was thus cut with- 
 out suspicion, and the Ranger dropped away in 
 the friendly darkness, the plan to return came to 
 
54 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 naught; for the wind increasing to a gale, the 
 Ranger was with difficuhy saved from drifting 
 upon the rocks by the Hghthouse. For two days 
 the gale continued, with high seas, and when it 
 broke, on the 2 2d, and the weather came fair 
 again, the three kingdoms, as Paul Jones wrote, 
 ''as far as the eye could reach were covered with 
 snow." 
 
 After escaping from Belfast, the Ranger beat 
 across to Scotland, to ride out the gale under the 
 lee of the land; but when on the 2 2d the day 
 broke clear, Whitehaven once more called to Paul 
 Jones. The wind was fair, and squaring his 
 yards. Captain Jones laid his course for that town. 
 But the wind did not hold, and it was not until 
 midnight that he anchored off the harbor, and his 
 boats were lowered for the expedition. Thirty- 
 one men manned the two boats, with Jones in 
 charge of one and Lieutenant Wallingford of the 
 other. Simpson and the second Heu tenant had 
 remained on the Ranger, giving illness and fatigue 
 as their reason for not taking part in the foray. 
 The tide was running out, and against its strong 
 ebb the boats made slow headway ; dawn had 
 almost come when they at last gained the inner 
 harbor, divided at that time into two parts by 
 a long stone pier. On the north side of the pier 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 55 
 
 lay from seventy to a hundred vessels, and on the 
 south side perhaps twice as many, ranging in size 
 from two hundred to four hundred tons. The tide 
 was low, and the vessels lay high and dry on the 
 beach, closely grouped. 
 
 Ordering Lieutenant Wallingford to set fire to 
 the shipping on the north side of the pier, Jones 
 with his boat-crew marched on the fort that 
 defended the entrance to the harbor. The fort 
 was old, and was manned by only a few men. As 
 the morning was raw and cold, the sentry, in his 
 blissful trust that sentry-duty in peaceful England 
 was wholly unnecessary, had retired to the sentry- 
 box, and probably to sleep, for no one gave the 
 alarm at the approach of the party. When they 
 came to the walls of the fort, Jones, climbing to 
 the shoulders of one of his men, pulled himself to 
 the rampart, and the others followed. The small 
 garrison was completely surprised and surrendered 
 without striking a blow. The guns were then 
 spiked. Day was now coming, and the need of 
 haste imperative, so ordering the prisoners to 
 be taken to the boats, Jones, with a lieutenant 
 named Green, walked half a mile to a second small 
 fort, and without opposition spiked its few guns 
 and then hastened back to the landing. 
 
 It was with great surprise and disappointment 
 
56 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 that Jones, returning, saw no sign of fire among 
 the vessels on the beach. He found Walhngford 
 and his boat-crew back at their boat, and to his 
 sharp question Walhngford explained his failure 
 by sa3dng that his lights had gone out. There 
 were of course no matches at that time, and lan- 
 terns, with candles, had been carried ashore with 
 which to start the fire on the vessels. The candles 
 of the other boat-crew had also gone out. Wall- 
 ingford tried to lighten the gloom of the situation, 
 at least, by naively declaring that, anyway, he 
 could not see what good there was in burning the 
 property of poor people ! 
 
 Now Paul Jones saw his brilliantly planned 
 enterprise, despite its promising opening, doomed 
 to failure. Full day had come at last, and a regard 
 for the safety of the party demanded an immediate 
 return to the Ranger. Yet he was unwilHng to 
 retire wholly defeated. Leaving a guard for the 
 boats, he sent messengers to a neighboring house 
 for a light. When they returned with glowing 
 embers, with his own hand he started a blaze 
 in one of the largest vessels on the beach, about 
 which lay huddled a number of other vessels. 
 A barrel of tar, found on another vessel, was fed 
 to the flames. 
 
 One of the landing-party had been an EngHsh- 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 57 
 
 man named David Freeman. In the confusion 
 about the boats he had managed to escape from 
 the party, and had given a warning to the towns- 
 people. Now as the fire on the one vessel gath- 
 ered headway, the inhabitants began to appear. 
 Jones ordered his men to the boats, but that the 
 fire might not be put out until all hope of sav- 
 ing the one vessel was gone, he himself, with a 
 drawn pistol in his hand, ordered the oncoming 
 crowd back. It obeyed. Only when he saw that 
 the fired ship could not be saved did he retire. 
 Though he had failed through the fault of others 
 to destroy the shipping while it lay waiting to his 
 hand, his exploit created the greatest consterna- 
 tion in England. England had slept secure for 
 ages ; with the loss of that sense of security arose 
 a mighty clamor for the capture of the man who 
 had brought war to the shores of England. As he 
 stood there facing the crowd in Whitehaven har- 
 bor, alone, calm, and indomitable, he was in a 
 way a heroic figure. He has written up his thoughts 
 at that moment and later : 
 
 " After all my people had embarked, I stood alone 
 upon the pier for a considerable time, yet no per- 
 son advanced. I saw all the eminences around the 
 town covered with the amazed inhabitants. When 
 we had rowed to a considerable distance from the 
 
58 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 shore, the English began to run in vast numbers 
 to their forts. Their disappointment may easily 
 be imagined when they found at least thirty 
 heavy cannon, the instruments of their vengeance, 
 rendered useless. At length, however, they began 
 to fire, having, as I apprehend, either brought 
 down ship's guns or used one or two cannon which 
 lay on the beach and which had not been spiked. 
 They fired with no direction, and the shot, fall- 
 ing short of the boats, instead of doing us any 
 damage, afforded some diversion, which my people 
 could not help showing by discharging their pistols, 
 etc., in return of the salute. Had it been possible 
 to have landed a few hours sooner, my success 
 would have been complete. Not a single ship 
 out of more than two hundred could possibly 
 have escaped, and all the world would not have 
 been able to save the town. What was done, how- 
 ever, is sufficient to show that not all their boasted 
 navy can protect their own coast, and that the 
 scenes of distress which they have occasioned to 
 America may be soon brought home to their own 
 door." 
 
 From Whitehaven the Ranger ran across the 
 Solway to St. Mary's Isle, the seat of the Earl 
 of Selkirk, where Jones had passed many hours 
 of his boyhood. His purpose was not the destruc- 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 59 
 
 tion of property, but to capture the earl himself. 
 The wretched condition of Americans in British 
 prisons had long stirred his pity, and he thought 
 that if by any chance he could capture some 
 prominent Englishman, the British might be led 
 to consider the question of exchange, which they 
 had thus far resolutely refused to do. That he 
 had another more personal reason for making the 
 raid, as some of his biographers have argued, has 
 certainly not been proved by them. 
 
 Anchoring off St. Mary's Isle, Captain Jones 
 sent two boats ashore. Lieutenants Simpson and 
 Hall, now miraculously recovered from the ill- 
 ness that had detained them aboard the Ranger 
 during its more perilous attack on Whitehaven, 
 had charge of the boats, with Jones himself in 
 command of the whole party. Before going to 
 the hall, Jones learned that Lord Selkirk was 
 absent, and thereupon expressed his intention 
 of returning at once to his ship. His men muti- 
 nously protested, and demanded that they be al- 
 lowed to secure whatever plunder might be found. 
 It was a difficult situation. Jones knew by what 
 a slender thread he held the men of the crew, and 
 that mutiny always lay just below the surface. 
 He had had no opportunity to choose his own 
 ofhcers, and poor as most of them were, he saw no 
 
6o JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 way to obtain better. Eager to serve his country, 
 harass England, and gain fame for himself, he now 
 felt the need of holding his men together as best 
 he could or give up his chances for success. He 
 finally yielded to their demands, therefore, and 
 agreed to permit them to demand the family sil- 
 ver, though this he did with the intention of re- 
 purchasing the silver and returning it to Lord 
 Selkirk when the prize was disposed of. By 
 Jones's orders, only Simpson and Hall were to enter 
 the house. 
 
 The two lieutenants were ushered into the pres- 
 ence of Lady Selkirk, made their demands for 
 the silver, and, having secured it, departed without 
 taking other plunder and without harming any 
 one. Shortly after their return to the ship, the 
 Ranger departed. 
 
 Standing away from the Scottish coast, she laid 
 her course toward Ireland again, and late in the 
 afternoon came in sight of Carrickfergus, where 
 her old enemy, the Drake, lay at anchor. The 
 captain of the Drake had been warned of the pres- 
 ence of Paul Jones, and when the Ranger drew 
 near to the harbor. Captain Burdon, with what 
 seems incredible folly, dispatched a lieutenant 
 and a boat toward the Ranger to investigate the 
 stranger and bring back a report. Meanwhile 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 6i 
 
 the Drake was got under way and her decks cleared 
 for action. To add to the folly of her commander, 
 the lieutenant who had been sent out with the 
 boat went alongside the Ranger, and quite naturally 
 then and there ended his investigation by being 
 captured. As the Drake was weighing anchor, 
 Lieutenant Dobbs, who had been recruiting in 
 the neighborhood, boarded her with several volun- 
 teers, though whether with ten or forty is not 
 certain. 
 
 The Drake usually carried one hundred and 
 fifty officers and men ; but Lieutenant Dobbs's 
 party had raised this number somewhat, though a 
 lieutenant and a boat's crew had been lost through 
 a foolish curiosity. The Drake carried two more 
 guns than the Ranger, but as they were only four- 
 pounders, the difference was not material. At a 
 court-martial that was held several months later 
 it was said of the Drake that she lacked her full 
 number of officers and seamen, that her powder 
 was bad, her matches were poor, her cartridges 
 not filled, and her guns badly mounted. Yet the 
 two ships were probably as well matched as one 
 could expect in ships meeting by chance. Cer- 
 tainly the quality of the crew of the Drake could 
 not have been worse than that of the crew of the 
 Ranger. Jones has recorded in his journal that 
 
62 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 he stood in peril of his Hfe, as his crew, under the 
 leadership of Simpson, was mutinous at the thought 
 of fighting a battle with a real man-of-war. Their 
 ideal of war was the capture of merchantmen, 
 with subsequent prizes for a balm. However, he 
 got them to their quarters at last by the wonder- 
 ful power that he possessed at such times, and 
 once there, and the fight fairly on, they appear 
 to have acquitted themselves well. 
 
 The wind was blowing on shore, and the Drake 
 was long in beating to sea. While Jones awaited 
 her coming, he ordered his guns to be run in, giving 
 his ship much the appearance of a merchantman. 
 The Ranger had hoisted the English flag at the 
 approach of the Drake's boat, and her too-trusting 
 officer had reached the deck of the Ranger before 
 he suspected her nature, so cleverly had Jones 
 played his assumed part. It was always a great 
 joy to him, this assumption of a false role in the 
 preliminary moments of a battle. 
 
 The tide was against her as well as the wind, 
 so the Drake worked out slowly; but at last 
 she weathered a point and drew near to mid-chan- 
 nel. When she was well away from the land, 
 Jones saw that the moment to fight had arrived, 
 and so waited her coming. It was late in the 
 afternoon when the Drake neared the Ranger, and 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 63 
 
 a moment later, when well within hailing distance, 
 she hoisted English colors, and immediately after 
 the American ensign was displayed on the Ranger. 
 ''I expected that preface had now been at an end," 
 Jones wrote, in describing the battle, ''but the 
 enemy soon after hailed, demanding what ship 
 it was. I directed the master to answer, 'The 
 American Continental ship Ranger; that we waited 
 for them and desired that they would come on; 
 the §un was now a little more than an hour from 
 setting, and it was therefore time to begin.'" 
 
 Jones was often rhetorical, and this reply seems 
 amusingly formal and studied, but doubtless it 
 served its purpose to bring the Drake nearer to the 
 position Jones wished her to take before opening 
 fire. As though the right moment had come, 
 while the Drake was now astern of the Ranger^ 
 Jones ordered his helm hard up, and as the Ranger 
 swung across the bow of the Drake, she raked the 
 Englishman with a broadside at short range. It 
 was the first blow and a severe one. The English 
 captain tried to cross the stern of the Ranger, but 
 without success, and the fight then became a series 
 of broadsides, with the two ships saiHng side by 
 side, but gradually drawing nearer. 
 
 The fight lasted for an hour and four minutes, 
 when the EngHsh ship called for quarter, being 
 
64 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 virtually a wreck. Her sails and rigging were 
 wholly cut to pieces ; and her hull was much dam- 
 aged. Both the captain and first officer had been 
 killed. Forty- two men in all had been killed, 
 according to Jones's statement, though the English 
 accounts of the fight gave the number as twenty- 
 five. Only two men had been killed on the Ranger y 
 though a wounded man died later. The Lieutenant 
 Wallingford who had failed in firing the shipping 
 of Whitehaven was one of the dead. 
 
 From the first it was Jones's victory. What- 
 ever lack of preparedness there may have been on 
 the Drake, as was claimed in the subsequent court- 
 martial of her survivors, was fully offset by serious 
 defects on the Ranger, whose guns were too short 
 in the barrel, while both Simpson and Hall, her first 
 and second Ueutenants, were serving for the first 
 time on a ship-of-war. The quality of the crew, 
 also, was bad, and that through no fault of her 
 commander. 
 
 Yet it was a spectacular victory. An open 
 fight on the enemy's coast, in full view of thousands 
 of watchers, at the close of a spring day, it had all 
 the qualities of a perfect setting. Its effect on 
 England was tremendous. Residents on the coast 
 prepared to remove their belongings to places of 
 greater security, and bankers packed up their 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 65 
 
 gold and withdrew to the interior. England was 
 soon dotted with militia-camps, and when ParHa- 
 ment closed in June, members hastened not to 
 their country pleasures, but to their regiments. 
 "Camps everywhere," Walpole wrote, "and the 
 ladies in the uniform of their husbands. All the 
 world are poHticians or soldiers or both ; servants 
 are learning to fire all day long." It was not all 
 in consternation, of course, though the first cause 
 had been that; it became later a fashionable 
 amusement. 
 
 But a sense of insecurity had come to the Eng- 
 lish people. The American war had never been 
 popular with the nation. An incapable ministry 
 and a dull king had brought that about, but the 
 people had either disapproved or treated with 
 more or less indifference a contest, remote and 
 trivial, that seemed merely the vain uprising of a 
 few farmers, easily to be put down and forgotten. 
 But now that the Englishman saw that the ship- 
 ping in his ports could be fired, his invincible ships 
 of war beaten in home waters, and even the peers 
 of the realm in danger in their sacred homes, an 
 unreasonable panic seized him. This terror passed, 
 of course, and a lighter spirit followed, but the 
 great cause of it all, Paul Jones, was long to remain 
 the bugbear of English tradition. Chap-books 
 
66 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 and broadsides pictured him in absurd scenes — 
 a wild piratical creature, coarse and ferocious, 
 with cutlass in hand, and with his belt stuck full 
 of pistols, raging about a bloody deck. 
 
 Had the war ended differently, Paul Jones 
 might have been hanged as a rebel, as Washington 
 and Hamilton and Jefferson might have been 
 hanged; but a victory that brought Washington, 
 Hamilton, and Jefferson both a dignified respect 
 and honor brought no change in regard to Jones 
 in the EngKsh mind. That he was a fully commis- 
 sioned officer in the naval service of the United 
 States when he made his descent upon England 
 made no difference. He had shocked the age-long 
 sense of English security at home ; that could not 
 be pardoned. 
 
 Night had fallen when the fight ended, and 
 as the weather continued favorable, the two vessels 
 were hove to where they lay. The crew of the 
 Ranger spent the night and a part of the next day 
 in refitting the Drake and repairing what small 
 damage had been done to their own vessel. The 
 work was not interfered with, as no hostile ship 
 was in the neighborhood. Late in the afternoon 
 a Whitehaven brigantine, moved by an unhappy 
 curiosity, approached the two ships too closely, 
 was brought to by a shot from the Drake, and was 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 67 
 
 captured. That was the only incident of the 
 delay. 
 
 Jones had intended to return to Brest through 
 St. George's Channel, the way he had come, but 
 the wind changing for the worse by the time his 
 repairs were completed, he headed for the north, 
 meaning to skirt Ireland. By sunset on the day 
 following the battle he was again off Belfast Lough, 
 where, on the 21st, he had captured the crew of 
 an Irish fisherman. Now being near their home, 
 he again showed that quality of mercy to his 
 prisoners that had always distinguished him. He 
 gave them a boat belonging to the Drake, with 
 money sufficient to buy anew all that had been 
 lost, and sent them ashore. They carried with 
 them, by his wish, one of the sails of the Drake 
 as a proof of their story of what they had seen. 
 As they passed under the stern of the Ranger, the 
 happy fishermen left him with three hearty cheers 
 of gratitude. 
 
 The Drake was towed around Ireland by the 
 Ranger. Simpson had been put in charge of her, 
 and had received instructions from Jones that 
 when under his own sail he was to keep close to 
 the Ranger, and be ready to render assistance in 
 case any British war-ships appeared; but should 
 any unavoidable separation come about, to pro- 
 
68 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 ceed at once to Brest. All was uneventful until 
 off Ushant, near Brest, on May 5, a sail was 
 sighted. Casting off the tow-line of the Drake, 
 Jones went in pursuit. Finding the stranger to 
 be only a Swedish vessel, the Ranger turned back 
 to regain the Drake, but, in disobedience of Jones's 
 orders to keep in touch with him, Simpson had 
 borne away to the south, and when the Ranger 
 turned back, the Drake was already hull down to 
 the southward. 
 
 Owing to this disobedience, Jones was unable 
 to chase several large merchant ships that went 
 past up the channel, but was obliged to follow the 
 Drake, which, despite his signals, continued her 
 course to the south. Toward noon the Ranger 
 hauled up nearly abreast of the Drake, but then 
 the wind shifted, and again the Drake bore away. 
 When morning came, Jones gave chase to a dis- 
 tant sail, and, at last drawing near, saw that it 
 was the Drake. Angered by this crowning act 
 of disobedience, he suspended Simpson and put 
 Hall in charge of the Drake. Simpson had seen, 
 Jones afterward learned, his signals of recall, and 
 had simply ignored them. 
 
 It was the 8th of May when the two ships finally 
 reached Brest and anchored off the harbor. On 
 the day of his arrival he dispatched his famous 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 69 
 
 letter to the Countess of Selkirk, probably the 
 most extraordinary epistle ever penned by a naval 
 hero. It was a sequel to the Selkirk raid, and 
 deserves to be given in full. It ran as follows : 
 
 Ranger, Brest, May 8, 1778. 
 The Right Hon. the Countess of Selkirk. 
 
 Madam: It cannot be too much lamented that, in the 
 profession of arms, the officer of fine feeHngs, and real 
 sensibility, should be under the necessity of winking at any 
 action of persons under his command, which his heart 
 cannot approve; but the reflection is doubly severe when 
 he finds himself obliged, in appearance, to countenance 
 such actions by his authority. This hard case was mine, 
 when, on the 23d of April last, I landed on St. Mary's Isle. 
 Knowing Lord Selkirk's interest with his king, and esteem- 
 ing as I do his private character, I wished to make him the 
 happy instrument of alleviating the horrors of hopeless 
 captivity, when the brave are overpowered and made prison- 
 ers of war. It was perhaps fortunate for you, madam, that 
 he was from home, for it was my intention to have taken 
 him on board the Ranger and detained him until, through 
 his means, a general and fair exchange of prisoners, as well 
 in Europe, as in America, had been effected. 
 
 When I was informed, by some men whom I met at land- 
 ing that his lordship was absent, I walked back to my boat, 
 determined to leave the island. By the way, however, 
 some officers who were with me could not forbear express- 
 ing their discontent, observing that in America no delicacy 
 was shown by the English, who took away all sorts of mov- 
 able property, setting fire not only to towns and to the 
 
70 JOHN PAUL JONES \ 
 
 houses of the rich, without distinction, but not even spar- { 
 
 ing the wretched hamlets and milch cows of the poor and ; 
 
 helpless, at the approach of an inclement winter. That i 
 
 party had been with me the same morning at Whitehaven ; ' 
 
 some complaisance, therefore, was their due. I had but '■ 
 
 a moment to think how I might gratify them, and at the \ 
 
 same time do your ladyship the least injury. I charged j 
 
 the ofi&cers to permit none of the seamen to enter the house, ] 
 
 or to hurt anything about it; to treat you, madam, with i 
 the utmost respect; to accept of the plate which was 
 oJSered, and to come away without making a search or 
 demanding anything else. I am induced to believe that 
 
 I was punctually obeyed, since I am informed that the \ 
 
 plate which they brought away is far short of the quantity : 
 
 expressed in the inventory which accompanied it. I have ; 
 
 gratified my men, and when the plate is sold I shall become | 
 
 the purchaser, and will gratify my own feelings by restoring ' 
 
 it to you by such conveyance as you shall please to direct. : 
 
 Had the earl been on board the Ranger the following ; 
 
 evening, he would have seen the awful pomp and dreadful ' 
 
 carnage of a sea engagement, both affording ample subject ; 
 
 for the pencil, as well as melancholy reflection for the con- ] 
 
 templative mind. Humanity starts back from such scenes ] 
 
 of horror, and cannot sufficiently execrate the vile promoters ■ 
 
 of this detestable war. \ 
 
 i 
 
 "For they, 't was they unsheathed the ruthless blade, 
 
 And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made." ; 
 
 ■1 
 
 The British ship of war Drake, mounting twenty guns, ' 
 
 with more than her full complement of officers and men, | 
 was our opponent. The ships met, and the advantage 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 71 
 
 was disputed with great fortitude on each side for an hour 
 and four minutes, when the gallant commander of the 
 Drake fell, and Victory declared m favor of the Ranger. 
 The amiable lieutenant lay mortally wounded, besides 
 near forty of the inferior officers and crew killed and wounded 
 — a melancholy demonstration of the uncertainty of 
 human prospects and of the sad reverses of fortune which 
 an hour can produce. I buried them in a spacious grave, 
 with the honors due to the memory of the brave. 
 
 Though I have drawn my sword in the present generous 
 struggle for the right of men, yet I am not in arms as an 
 American, nor am I in pursuit of riches. My fortune is 
 liberal enough, having no wife and family, and having lived 
 long enough to know that riches cannot secure happiness. 
 I profess myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered 
 by the Httle mean distinctions of climates or of country, 
 which diminish the benevolence of the heart and set bounds 
 to philanthropy. Before this war was begun, I had, at 
 an early time in life, withdrawn from sea service in favor 
 of " calm contemplation and poetic ease." I have sacri- 
 ficed not only my favorite schemes of life, but the eager 
 affections of the heart, and my prospects of domestic hap- 
 piness, and I am ready to sacrifice my life also with cheer- 
 fulness, if that forfeiture could restore peace among man- 
 kind. 
 
 As the feehngs of your gentle bosom cannot but be con- 
 genial with mine, let me entreat you, madam, to use your 
 persuasive art with your husband, to endeavor to stop this 
 cruel and destructive war, in which Britain can never suc- 
 ceed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and 
 unmanly practice of the Britons in America, which savages 
 would blush at, and which, if not discontinued, will soon be 
 
"jl JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 retaliated in Britain by a justly enraged people. Should 
 you fail in this, and I am persuaded you will attempt it 
 (and who can resist the power of such an advocate ?), your 
 endeavour to effect a general exchange of prisoners will be 
 an act of humanity, which will afford you golden feelings 
 on your death-bed. 
 
 I hope this cruel contest will soon be closed ; but, should 
 it continue, I wage no war with the fair. I acknowledge 
 their force, and bend before it with submission. Let not, 
 therefore, the amiable Countess of Selkirk regard me as 
 an enemy; I am ambitious of her esteem and friendship, 
 and would do anything, consistent with my duty, to merit 
 it. The honor of a line from your hand, in answer to this, 
 will lay me under a singular obligation, and if I can render 
 you any acceptable service in France or elsewhere I hope 
 you see into my character so far as to command me, with- 
 out the least grain of reserve. I wish to know the exact 
 behaviour of my people, as I am determined to punish them 
 if they have exceeded their liberty. 
 
 I have the honor to be, with much esteem and profound 
 respect, Madam, etc. 
 
 John Paul Jones. 
 
 Certainly an extraordinary letter, but one must 
 remember that the times are at fault for a differ- 
 ence of tone between our period and that of Paul 
 Jones. Indeed, it reads like a chapter from an 
 eighteenth-century novel. 
 
 Naturally, the Countess of Selkirk never replied 
 to it. It may be well to state here, however, 
 
FIGHTS IN THE IRISH SEA 73 
 
 that a year later Jones really bought the Selkirk 
 silver through the prize court, and paid an extraor- 
 dinary price for it. The war between England 
 and France long delayed its delivery, though Jones 
 made every possible effort to restore it. It was 
 not until 1784, six years later, after the return of 
 peace, that it was restored to its original owners. 
 It is said that it was returned in exactly the same 
 state that it was in when taken, even the tea- 
 leaves being still in the teapot. Lord Selkirk 
 acknowledged its receipt in a letter to Jones, but 
 not, however, until August 4, 1789. In his letter 
 Lord Selkirk speaks highly of the good conduct 
 and civil behavior of the officers and men of the 
 Ranger while ashore on St. Mary's Isle. In every 
 respect they complied with Jones's orders as to 
 their conduct. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Trials of a Victor 
 
 When, on May 8, the Ranger sailed into the 
 harbor of Brest with her prize, the fortunes of 
 the struggHng colonies had already begun to 
 brighten. The secret alHance between France 
 and the United States had been signed in February, 
 and the American plenipotentiaries had been 
 received by the king on March 23. Early in April 
 the fleet of Comte d'Estaing sailed from Toulon 
 for America. The scheme that Jones had planned 
 to capture Lord Howe's fleet was at last adopted, 
 though It was to prove unsuccessful. 
 
 Paul Jones's own victory aroused the greatest 
 enthusiasm. The prizes the Ranger had captured, 
 and the hardihood of her commander in entering 
 the home waters of Great Britain with so small a 
 vessel, astonished Europe; but the brilliance of 
 his victory over the Drake was the crowning wonder 
 of France. And terror had been roused in Eng- 
 
 74 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 75 
 
 land — a terror that had slept in peace since the 
 far-off days of the Armada. The American prison- 
 ers in England at once felt the effect of his victory 
 through their better treatment by the authorities. 
 In France, Jones was the hero of the hour. 
 
 When the news of his victory reached America, 
 it was received with great joy ; but meanwhile 
 the hero was in Brest without a cent in his pocket. 
 He had brought in two hundred prisoners with 
 him, and his first desire was to effect an exchange 
 of these for an equal number from among those 
 Americans who lay in English prisons. His first 
 act on reaching port was to consult with the Comte 
 d'Orvilliers as to the best plan to follow in order 
 to gain his desire. 
 
 The count advised him to fit out the Drake at 
 once, and send his prisoners in her to America 
 before any difficulty could be brought to bear upon 
 his plan. It had been the custom of American 
 commanders in Europe to release their prisoners 
 on parole, and wholly without any assurances 
 that they would be exchanged, and this poKcy 
 had rendered useless all Franklin's efforts to free 
 American prisoners in England. They had fol- 
 lowed the plan because of lack of funds to care 
 for their captives. Now Jones was determined 
 to follow other methods. His first letter to the 
 
76 JOHN PAUL JONES ! 
 
 commissioners in Paris was written immediately : 
 after his visit to Comte d'Orvilliers. He wrote : i 
 
 Ranger, Brest, May 9, 1778. \ 
 
 Gentlemen : ] 
 
 I have the honour to acquaint you that I arrived here \ 
 
 last night and brought/ in with me the British ship of war j 
 Drake, of 20 guns, with English colours inverted under the 
 
 American stars. I shall soon give you the particulars of '■ 
 
 my cruise; in the meantime you will see some account of ' 
 
 it in a letter of this date from Comte d'Orvilliers to Mon- , 
 
 seigneur de Sartine. I have brought in two hundred prison- ; 
 
 ers, and as Comte d'OrviUiers is apprehensive that as war ; 
 with England is not yet declared, they may perhaps be 
 
 given up without exchange, I have resolved to equip the i 
 
 Drake with all possible expedition at Cammeret, and to ' 
 send the prisoners in her to America, so fully am I convinced 
 
 of the bad policy of releasing prisoners, especially seamen, i 
 
 without an exchange, that I am determined never to do it \ 
 
 while there remains any alternative. I should not, however, t\ 
 
 have taken a resolution of such importance without con- \ 
 suiting with you, had not Comte d'Orvilliers told me that 
 the return of a letter from the minister might perhaps put 
 
 it out of my power, and therefore recommended me that ; 
 
 I should lose no time. i 
 
 Notwithstanding this, you will perhaps find it expedient 
 
 to endeavour to effect an exchange of those prisoners in , 
 
 Europe, and should the minister agree to hold them avow- • 
 
 edly as prisoners of war, you will of course inform me ' 
 thereof per express, so as to reach me if possible before the 
 departure of the Drake. 
 
 I have suspended and confined Lieutenant Simpson for 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 77 
 
 disobedience of orders. I have only time at present to add 
 that I have the honour to be, with much esteem and respect, 
 Gentlemen, 
 Your very obliged, very obedient, very humble servant, 
 
 John Paul Jones. 
 
 Meanwhile, while he waited to hear from the 
 commissioners, he was in the direst straits. His 
 sailors had not received their wages, had received 
 nothing, indeed, beyond the advance-money that 
 Jones had paid out of his own pocket. His own 
 resources had always been drawn upon for the 
 benefit of the service and his crews, but now they 
 were exhausted. The stock of provisions was 
 gone. In this extremity his own crew and his 
 two hundred prisoners were wholly dependent 
 upon him ; and he had nothing. 
 
 When he first came to France the commissioners 
 had authorized him to draw upon them for neces- 
 sary expenses to the extent of twelve thousand 
 livres, or about twenty-five hundred dollars ; but 
 at the same time they had cautioned him to be as 
 sparing as possible of the money. Indeed, he had 
 exercised so great a restraint and so strict an 
 economy that he had made no draft on the com- 
 missioners whatever. Now, returning to Brest, 
 with his needs most pressing, he made drafts 
 upon the commissioners for double the original 
 
78 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 sum, believing that the lapse of time since the first 
 order was given, with the added burden on his 
 shoulders, fully justified his demand. The drafts 
 were not paid. In this extremity Jones turned 
 to the naval authorities at Brest through Comte 
 d'Orvilliers, always his warm friend and upholder. 
 Through the generosity of the French authorities, 
 therefore, his crew and prisoners were cared for 
 through this harassing period. 
 
 It is of course true that the commissioners them- 
 selves were well-nigh distracted by their lack of 
 funds, but this seemed a matter of national honor, 
 and should have been given attention. For some 
 unaccountable reason that never has been made 
 clear, no report from Jones of his cruise had ap- 
 peared at Passy, nor had any account of expendi- 
 tures been received. The first communication 
 that Jones, in turn, received from the commissioners 
 after his triumphant return to Brest was from the 
 hand of Arthur Lee. In its hostility of tone one 
 may readily see that the ungracious spirit of Lee 
 was for the moment the supreme voice in the board 
 of commissioners. Thus it ran : 
 
 To Captain Paul Jones. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 We have heard of your arrival at Brest with a prize, 
 and are surprised that you have not given us an account 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 79 
 
 of that, and of your other proceedings. We desire that 
 you will not take any measures relative to the prize and 
 the prisoners you may have made, except in assuring them, 
 nor incur any considerable expense without our orders. 
 
 Upon receipt of this, you will immediately send us an 
 account of what you have done upon your cruise ; of what 
 your prizes consist of ; what repairs you want ; and what 
 further measures you propose to pursue. Upon all these 
 subjects you will wait, our directions. Lieutenant Simp- 
 son has stated to us your having put him under arrest for 
 disobeying orders. As a court-martial must by order of 
 Congress consist of three captains, three lieutenants and 
 three captains of marines, and these cannot be had here, 
 it is our desire that he may have a passage procured for 
 him by the first opportunity to America, allowing him what- 
 ever may be necessary for his defense. As the consequences 
 of an arrest in foreign countries are thus extremely trouble- 
 some, they should be well considered before they are made. 
 
 Four days later, on May 27, Jones forwarded 
 a letter to the commissioners. Here is an extract : 
 
 Could I suppose that my letters of the 9th and i6th 
 current (the first advising you of my arrival and giving 
 reference to the events of my expedition ; the last advising 
 you of my draft in favour of Monsieur Bersolle, for twenty- 
 four thousand livres, and assigning reasons for the demand) 
 had not made due appearance, I would hereafter, as I do 
 now, inclose copies. Three posts have already arrived 
 here since Comte d'Orvilliers showed me the answer he 
 received from the minister to the letter which inclosed mine 
 to you. Yet you remain silent. M. Bersolle has this 
 
8o JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 moment informed me of the fate of my bills; the more 
 extraordinary as I have not yet made use of your letter 
 of credit of the loth of January last, whereby I then seemed 
 entitled to call for half the amount of my last draft, and 
 I did not expect to be thought extravagant when, on the 
 i6th current, I doubled that demand. Could this indignity 
 be kept secret I should disregard it ; and, though it is already 
 public in Brest and in the fleet, as it affects only my private 
 credit I will not complain. I cannot, however, be silent 
 when I find the pubHc credit involved in the same disgrace. 
 I conceive that might have been prevented. To make me 
 completely wretched, Monsieur Bersolle has now told me 
 that he now stops his hand, not only of the necessary articles 
 to refit the ship, but also of the daily provisions. I know 
 not where to find to-morrow's dinner for the great number 
 of mouths that depend on me for food. Are then the 
 Continental ships of war to depend on the sale of their 
 prizes for a daily dinner for their men? "Publish it not in 
 Gath!" 
 
 My ofiEicers, as well as my men, want clothes, and the 
 prizes are precluded of being sold before farther orders 
 arrive from the minister. I will ask you, gentlemen, if I 
 have deserved all this. Whoever calls himself an American 
 ought to be protected here. I am unwilling to think that 
 you have intentionally involved me in this dilemma at a 
 time when I ought to expect some enjoyment. 
 
 Therefore, I have, as formerly, the honour to be, with due 
 esteem and respect, gentlemen, yours, etc., 
 
 Hampered as he was at this period by this 
 astonishing disregard of his necessities shown by 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 8i 
 
 the commissioners in Paris, yet he fed his crew 
 and his prisoners, cured his wounded, and refitted 
 for sea both the Ranger and the Drake by giving 
 his personal pledge to the French naval authorities 
 to repay all obligations. Some of the burden he 
 could have thrown off by turning over his prisoners 
 to France, but as France was still a neutral na- 
 tion, in name at least, she would have been com- 
 pelled to release the prisoners at England's de- 
 mand. That would have made impossible the 
 exchange of prisoners Jones desired and Franklin 
 had fought for since his arrival in France. The 
 English Government had long before permitted 
 the exchange of captured soldiers, but had refused 
 a like privilege to captured sailors. American 
 seamen in English prisons had been treated with 
 great harshness, and when, in his humane desire 
 to relieve the suffering of some of them at least, 
 Franklin had written to the British ambassador. 
 Lord Stormant, and offered to exchange a hundred 
 men captured by Captain Lambert Wilkes in the 
 Reprisal for an equal number of American sailors 
 imprisoned in England, no reply was made to 
 his request. A second letter brought this short 
 note: 
 
 "The King's ambassador receives no application from 
 rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty's mercy." 
 
 G 
 
82 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 To this offensive communication Franklin sent , 
 the following dignified and deserved rebuke : 
 
 " In answer to a letter which concerns some of the 
 
 material interests of humanity, and of the two nations, ' 
 
 Great Britain and the United States of America, now at ' 
 
 war, we received the inclosed indecent paper, as coming from i 
 
 your lordship, which we return for your lordship's more , 
 
 mature consideration." | 
 
 But the persistence of Franklin finally brought ! 
 
 about a general recognition of the principle of i 
 
 exchange. By holding his prisoners through those ^ 
 
 evil days when he appeared to be deserted even ! 
 
 by Franklin himself, Jones displayed the highest j 
 
 quality of patriotism. i 
 
 In his unfriendly crew, naturally discontented ; 
 
 by the want of even proper food and clothing and | 
 impatient at the slow coming of their wages and 
 prize-money, Simpson was a constant inciter of 
 
 mutinous feeling, and was finally placed on a | 
 
 French guard-ship. Here he was well treated | 
 and allowed the freedom of the deck; but his 
 
 behavior was so outrageous and his language so i 
 offensive that Comte d'OrviUiers sent him to 
 
 the port prison. All his expenses ' were of j 
 course paid by Jones, who had no capacity for 
 resentment. Malcontent as Simpson had been, 
 
 Jones in the end readily agreed to accept his 
 
 i 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 83 
 
 apologies and release him on parole on con- 
 dition that he would not again serve in the navy 
 until he had been tried by court-martial. He 
 even offered to give up to him the command of 
 the Ranger in order that he might sail for America 
 to stand trial. 
 
 While this business was in process of settlement, 
 the commissioners gave Simpson unconditional 
 command of the Ranger. The king of France had 
 asked the commissioners to permit Jones to serve 
 in a naval enterprise that the French Government 
 had in hand, and they had consented, so the loss 
 of the ship was no concern to Jones ; but he felt 
 a great resentment that Simpson should go wholly 
 unpunished and even receive the Ranger as a re- 
 ward for his disobedience. He felt that the un- 
 wise action was not only an injury to the service, 
 but an affront to him, though the latter was far 
 from the commissioners' thought, as they declared. 
 In the end Simpson took the Ranger to America. 
 Soon after his return he was relieved of his 
 command, and was never after employed in the 
 service. Long after, when word came back to 
 France that Simpson had spread the report that 
 Jones had been dismissed from the Ranger, 
 the commissioners sent the following letter to 
 Jones : 
 
§4 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Passy, February lo, 1779. 
 Sir: — 
 
 As your separation from the Ranger and the appointment 
 of Lieutenant Simpson to the command of her will be liable 
 to misinterpretations by persons who are unacquainted 
 with the real cause of those facts, we hereby certify that 
 your leaving the Ranger was by our consent, at the express 
 request of his Excellency Monsieur de Sartine, who informed 
 us that he had occasion to employ you in some public 
 service; that Lieutenant Simpson was appointed of the 
 Ranger with your consent, after having consented to release 
 him from an arrest under which you had put him. 
 
 That your leaving the Ranger, in our opinion, ought 
 not, and cannot, be an injury to your rank or character in 
 the service of the United States ; and that your commission 
 in their navy continues in full force. 
 
 We have the honour to be, etc. 
 
 B. Franklin. 
 John Adams. 
 
 Meanwhile Jones had been hopefully waiting 
 at Brest for more definite word of the service for 
 which he was desired by France. He had much 
 to contend with besides the tedium of waiting. 
 Simpson and his crew were gone, but his prisoners 
 were still a great burden. Captain Whipple had 
 allowed several to escape and without Jones's 
 knowledge had released others on parole, and one 
 day Jones learned by chance from a French officer 
 that the guard of French soldiers that Comte d'Or- 
 villiers had graciously placed over them had been 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 85 
 
 taken away, and all might escape. Jones wrote 
 at once to the commissioners, but, without wait- 
 ing for a reply, obtained a new guard of marines 
 from the French officer of marines in Brest. His 
 prize, the Lord Chatham was sold without his 
 knowledge, and the Drake, then in Brest, was 
 ransacked and plundered of everything movable. 
 Of the first enterprise for which he was pro- 
 posed as commander Franklin wrote to him in the 
 following brief note : 
 
 " The Jersey privateers do us a great deal of mischief by 
 interrupting our supplies. It has been mentioned to me 
 that your small vessel, commanded by as brave an officer, 
 might render great service by following them where greater 
 ships dare not venture their bottoms ; or being accompanied 
 and supported by some frigates from Brest, at the proper 
 distance, might draw them out and then take them. I wish 
 you to consider of this, as it comes from high authority." 
 
 This proposal had come before the saiHng of 
 the Ranger, and though it was hardly what Jones 
 could have wished, he was willing to consent, 
 being a man to whom action of any sort was far 
 more agreeable than waiting for possible better 
 things. But nothing came of it. The possibility 
 of his obtaining the Indien again came to the sur- 
 face, but that, too, went for naught. Franklin 
 wrote to him that it might be well for him to go 
 
86 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 up to Versailles and present his plans in person, 
 and Jones went. In consultation with the com- 
 missioners and the French ministry he discussed 
 the question of the exchange of prisoners and pro- 
 posed several plans in which his services might 
 be used to advantage. As usual, the plans showed 
 his daring and intrepidity. He suggested another 
 expedition against Whitehaven, and proposed to 
 burn the shipping in the Clyde. He suggested 
 that, by cutting off the supplies of coal from New- 
 castle, London might be greatly injured. He also 
 proposed attacks upon the merchantmen saiHng 
 from the West Indies, the Baltic, and Hudson 
 Bay. 
 
 M. de Sartine, the minister of marine, gave 
 flattering attention to all he said, and Jones went 
 away in high hopes. It is probably true that M. 
 de Sartine desired to use him to harass England 
 before France had declared war upon England, 
 but now that war was actually begun, his aid had 
 become less material. Even if a command could 
 have been found for him, the reluctance of French 
 officers to serve under a foreigner might have 
 meant failure. How serious this disinclination 
 might be was afterward shown when Jones ob- 
 tained the ship that was to become world-famous, 
 the Bon Homme Richard^ and sailed in company 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 87 
 
 with French vessels commanded by Frenchmen. 
 It was a point that had to be seriously considered. 
 
 But inaction was making Jones desperate. 
 With his proud nature he could not return to 
 America and humbly ask for a command after 
 having sent, by the Ranger, a letter to Congress 
 that stated that no command need be reserved 
 for him since the king of France had asked that 
 he might enter his service. Now that war was 
 declared and the king had no further need of his 
 services, Jones overwhelmed with a flood of letters 
 every one who might by any possibihty aid him. 
 Franklin in his way did all that was possible. He 
 obtained the minister's order to Comte d'Orvil- 
 liers to take Jones out with his fleet when it put 
 to sea to meet the English fleet under the command 
 of Admiral Keppel, and Jones was eager for the 
 chance, feeling how great an advantage it would 
 be to acquire a knowledge of the art of handling 
 a great fleet. To the great regret of Admiral 
 d'OrviUiers, who had always been friendly to 
 Jones and seems to have held his high abiUty in 
 the greatest esteem, the order was too late, for 
 the fleet had sailed before it arrived. It was said 
 that the order was intentionally delayed by the 
 jealousy of men in the French naval service. 
 
 By the nth of September Jones wrote to a 
 
88 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 friend that if the next post brought him nothing 
 definite he would send to M. de Sartine ''a round 
 unvarnished tale." Two days later he wrote it. 
 Here it is : 
 
 Brest, September 13, 1778. j 
 Honoured Sir: i 
 
 When his Excellency Doctor Franklin informed me that | 
 you had condescended to think me worthy of your notice, 
 I took such pleasure in reflecting on the happy alHance ; 
 between France and America that I was really flattered, 
 and entertained the most grateful sense of the honour which 1 
 you proposed for me, as well as the favour which the King 1 
 proposed for America, by putting so fine a ship as the ' 
 Indien under my command, and under its flag, with un- I 
 limited orders. 
 
 In obedience to your desire, I came to Versailles, and 
 was taught to believe that my intended ship was in deep \ 
 water, and ready for sea ; but when the Prince [de Nassau] 
 returned I received from him a different account; I was 
 told that the Indien could not be got afloat within a shorter 
 period than three months at the approaching equinox. ; 
 
 To employ this interval usefully, I first offered to go i 
 from Brest with Comte d'Orvilliers as a volunteer, which 
 you thought fit to reject. I had then the satisfaction to ; 
 find that you had approved in general of a variety of hints \ 
 for private enterprises which I had drawn up for your' con- 
 sideration, and I was flattered with assurances from Mon- ; 
 sieurs de Chaumont and Baudouin that three of the finest \ 
 frigates in France, with two tenders and a number of troops, , 
 would be immediately put under my command; and that ! 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 89 
 
 I should have unlimited orders, and be at free liberty to 
 pursue such of my own projects as I thought proper. But 
 this plan fell to nothing in the moment when I was taught 
 to think that nothing was wanting but the King's signature. 
 
 Another much inferior armament from L'Orient was pro- 
 posed to be put under my command, which was by no means 
 equal to the services that were expected from it ; for speed 
 and force, though both requisite, were both wanting. Hap- 
 pily for me, this also failed, and I was thereby saved from 
 a dreadful prospect of ruin and dishonour. 
 
 I had so entire a reliance that you would desire nothing 
 of me inconsistent with my honour and rank, that the moment 
 you required me to come down here, in order to proceed 
 round St. Malo, though I had received no written orders, 
 and neither knew your intention respecting my destina- 
 tion or command, I obeyed with such haste, that although 
 my curiosity led me to look at the armament at L'Orient, 
 yet I was but three days from Passy till I reached Brest. 
 Here, too, I drew a blank; but when I saw the Lively it 
 was no disappointment, as that ship, both in sailing and 
 equipment, is far inferior to the Ranger. 
 
 My only disappointment here was my being precluded 
 from embarking in pursuit of marine knowledge with Comte 
 d'Orvilliers, who did not sail till seven days after my return. 
 He is my friend, and expressed his wishes for my company ; 
 I accompanied him out of the road when the fleet sailed, 
 and he always lamented that neither himself nor any per- 
 son in authority in Brest had received from you any order 
 that mentioned my name. I am astonished therefore to be 
 informed that you attribute my not being in the fleet to 
 my stay at L'Orient. 
 
 I am not a mere adventurer of fortune. Stimulated by 
 
90 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 principles of reason and philanthropy, I laid aside my en- 
 joyments in private life, and embarked under the flag of 
 liberty when it was first displayed. In that line my desire 
 of fame is infinite, and I must not now so far forget my own 
 honour, and what I owe to my friends and America, as to 
 remain inactive. 
 
 My rank knows no superior in the American marine. 
 I have long since been appointed to command an expedition 
 with five of its ships, and I can receive orders from no junior 
 or inferior officer whatever. 
 
 I have been here in the most tormenting suspense for 
 more than a month since my return ; and, agreeable to your 
 desire, as mentioned to me by Monsieur Chaumont, a 
 lieutenant has been appointed, and is with me, who speaks 
 the French as well as the English. Circular letters have 
 been written, and sent the 8th of last month from the 
 EngHsh admiralty, because they expected me to pay another 
 visit with four ships. Therefore I trust that, if the Iiidien 
 is not to be got out, you will not, at the approaching season, 
 substitute a force that is not at least equal both in strength 
 and saiHng to any of the enemy's cruising ships. 
 
 I do not wish to interfere with the harmony of the French 
 marine ; but, if I am still thought worthy of your attention, 
 I shall hope for a separate command, with liberal orders. 
 If, on the contrary, you should now have no further occa- 
 sion for my services, the only favor I can ask is that you 
 will bestow on me the Alert, with a few seamen, and permit 
 me to return, and carry with me your good opinion in that 
 small vessel, before the winter, to America. 
 
 I am happy to hear that the frigates from St. Malo 
 have been successful near Shetland. Had Count d'Estaing 
 arrived in the Delaware a few days sooner, he must have 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 91 
 
 made a most glorious and easy conquest. Many other 
 successful projects may be adopted from the hints which I 
 had the honour to draw up ; and if I can still furnish, or 
 execute, any of those already furnished so as to distress 
 and humble the common enemy it will afford me the truest 
 satisfaction. 
 
 I am ambitious to merit the honour of your friendship 
 and favour ; and being fully persuaded that I now address a 
 noble-minded man who will not be offended with the honest 
 freedom which has always marked my correspondence, I 
 am with great esteem and profound respect, 
 
 Honoured Sir, 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 John Paul Jones. 
 Monseigneur de Sartine. 
 
 The French fleet returned to Brest, bringing in 
 the Fox, an English frigate of twenty-four guns, 
 and Jones, knowing that she was fast, at once asked 
 Franklin to obtain her for him, with the Alert 
 as a tender. He also wrote to the Due de Chartres 
 to use his influence to the same end. Dr. Bancroft, 
 meanwhile, had persuaded M. de Chaumont to 
 see M. de Sartine in the matter, and he now wrote 
 to Jones that the minister had consented to let 
 him have the Fox, but this letter was soon con- 
 tradicted by another that stated that the minister 
 of marine had broken his promise, and had given 
 the Fox to a French Keutenant. Men often fail 
 in patience toward those whom they have injured. 
 
92 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 and M. de Sartine had now reached this point. 
 He wrote to Comte d'Orvilliers that it was his 
 intention to send the persistent American home in 
 a bonne voiture — easy coach. Plainly, he wished 
 to be rid of him. Aroused, Jones now gave his 
 opinion of M. de Sartine 's treatment of him to the 
 Due de la Rochefoucauld, who met Jones in Brest 
 and proved a sympathetic hearer. To the duke 
 he now wrote : 
 
 Brest, 9th Octo. 1778. 
 Honoured Sir: 
 
 The 2 1 St ult. I wrote a particular account of my situation 
 here to his royal Highness the Due de Chartres. But 
 that brave prince has himself, I understand, met with un- 
 merited trouble and of course has not yet had leisure to 
 remove my suspense. 
 
 The minister's behaviour towards me has been and is 
 really astonishing. 
 
 At his request (for I sought not the connection) I gave 
 up absolute certainties and far more flattering prospects 
 than any of those which he proposed. What inducement 
 could I have for this but gratitude to France for having 
 first recognized our independence ? 
 
 And having given my word to stay for some time in 
 Europe, I have been, and I am, unwilling to take it back, 
 especially after having commimicated the circumstances 
 to Congress. 
 
 The minister, to my infinite mortification, after possess- 
 ing himself of my schemes and ideas, has treated me like 
 a child five times successively, by leading me on from great 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 93 
 
 to Kttle and from little to less. Does such conduct do honour 
 either to his head or to his heart ? 
 
 He has not to this moment offered me the least apology 
 for any of these five deceptions, nor has he, I beheve, 
 assigned any good reason to that venerable and great char- 
 acter, his Excellency Doctor Franklin, whom he has made 
 the instrument to entrap me in this cruel state of inaction 
 and suspense. 
 
 The minister has lately written a letter to Comte d'Orvil- 
 liers proposing to send me home in "une bonne voiture." 
 This is absolutely adding insult to injury. And it is the 
 proposition of a man whose veracity I have not experienced 
 in former cases. 
 
 I could in the summer with the Ranger, joined by the 
 two other American frigates, have given the enemy sufl&cient 
 foundation for their fears in Britain as well as in Ireland. 
 And I could since have been assisting Count d'Estaing or 
 acting separately with an American squadron. Instead 
 of this I am chained down to a shameful inactivity here 
 after having written to Congress to reserve no command 
 for me in America. 
 
 Convinced as I am that your noble and generous breast 
 will feel for my unmerited treatment I must beseech you 
 to interest yourself with the Due de Chartres, that the 
 king may be made acquainted with my situation. 
 
 I have been taught to believe that I have been detained 
 in France with his Majesty's knowledge and approbation, 
 and I am sure he is too good a prince to detain me for my 
 hurt or dishonour. M. de Sartine may think as he pleases, 
 but Congress will not thank him for having thus treated 
 an officer who has always been honoured with their favour 
 and friendship. 
 
94 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 I entertained some hopes of his honourable intentions till 
 he gave the command of the Fox to a lieutenant after my 
 friends had asked for me only that ship with the Alert, 
 cutter. He was the asker at the beginning and ought to be 
 so now. He has to my certain knowledge ships unbe- 
 stowed. And he is bound in honour to give me the Indien 
 as he proposed at the first, or an equivalent command imme- 
 diately. I should very much esteem the honour of a line 
 from your hand and shall always be happy in opportunities 
 to merit your favour and friendship, being with profound 
 esteem and respect, 
 
 Honoured Sir, 
 Yours &c. 
 
 John Paul Jones. 
 Monseig. le Due de Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Jones's friends at Passy shared his indignation 
 over the bad faith of the minister of marine. On 
 the loth of October Dr. Bancroft wrote that he 
 had made a strong appeal to M. Baudouine to 
 make M. Sartine come to the point. He wrote, 
 thereupon, that Sartine was ashamed and felt 
 that Jones had suffered an injustice. He said that 
 he had been prevented from acting by the opposi- 
 tion of French naval officers. Now, Sartine de- 
 clared, he would give Jones a ship if he had to 
 purchase one. FrankHn was deeply stirred ; he de- 
 clared through Bancroft that if no move was made 
 in a few days he would show his resentment, and 
 advised Jones to have patience for that short time. 
 
THE TRIALS OF A VICTOR 95 
 
 M. de Chaumont also wrote. He asserted 
 that M. de Sartine had sworn that Jones should 
 have a ship ; but as if he rather doubted the oath 
 of the minister, he now offered Jones the command 
 of a privateer that he himself owned; but Jones 
 declined the offer. As a servant of the United 
 States, he declared, he would not on his own author- 
 ity or inclination serve either himself or his best 
 friend in any private enterprise unless the honor 
 and interest of America was the first object. Fully 
 aroused now, he declared his intention of appealing 
 from the minister to the king. 
 
 He did write to the king, and an excellent letter 
 it was ; he also wrote to the Duchesse de Chartres, 
 asking her to give his letter to the king in person, 
 but neither the king nor the duchess ever saw their 
 letters. Jones had sent the letters to Franklin 
 first, as was always his rule in matters of so great 
 importance ; but before they arrived, M. de Sar- 
 tine had sent to the commissioners a formal prom- 
 ise to give Jones a ship. With his usual caution 
 and great good sense, Franklin now advised Jones 
 to withhold the letters since Sartine had formally 
 promised him a ship. Any expression of his doubt 
 that Sartine would keep his promise Franklin 
 thought would be unwise. And Jones consented. 
 The letters, therefore, remained with FrankHn. 
 
96 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Even then it was long before he received his 
 ship. After six weeks of waiting he received an 
 order from M. de Chaumont to visit certain vessels 
 in Brest, with a view to their fitness, and Jones, 
 doing so, reported them unsuited for his purpose. 
 "I wish to have no connection with any ships which 
 do not sail fast," he wrote, "as I intend to go in 
 harm's way." From Brest to different ports he 
 traveled, looking at various ships. At L'Orient, 
 midway between Nantes and Brest, he inspected 
 a large, old-fashioned merchant vessel that had 
 been fourteen years in the India trade, but was 
 now dismantled and much out of repair. She was 
 called the Due de Duras. The next day, which 
 was the 7th of December, he wrote to M. de Chau- 
 mont that he beheved she might answer. To his 
 report no reply came for two weeks, when the 
 owner, having received other offers for the vessel, 
 gave Jones the refusal of her for ten days. He 
 wrote again, emphasizing the need of haste. 
 A favorable letter arrived, but before the Duras 
 could be purchased, Jones received a letter from 
 M. de Chaumont involving further delay. Jones, 
 naturally, became impatient. He set out for Paris 
 to finish the business once and for all. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 In the Bay of Biscay 
 
 In the journal that in 1786 he wrote for Louis 
 XVI, in which he related the story of his naval 
 career, Jones stated that his decision to go per- 
 sonally to Paris at that time came about through 
 his reading by chance in FrankHn's *' Maxims of 
 Poor Richard" this saying, *'lf you would have 
 your business done, go yourself; if not, send." 
 In memory of the chance reading and of the author, 
 whom he loved ''as a son does a father," as he 
 once said, he thereupon resolved that if he received 
 the ship, he would change her name from the Due 
 de Duras to the Bon Homme Richard. 
 
 His journey was eminently successful. M. de 
 Sartine received him amiably and promised that 
 he should have the ship. He would see to it that 
 she was purchased at once. For the agent of the 
 king in the matter, M. de Sartine appointed M. de 
 Chaumont. With considerable influence at court, 
 M. de Chaumont had been the devoted friend and 
 counselor of the American commissioners and of 
 H 97 
 
98 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Paul Jones himself. He was to purchase the 
 Duras and would see to the refitting of the vessel 
 and of the others of the squadron. It was in a 
 house on his estate at Passy that Franklin made 
 his headquarters through his long residence in 
 France, and for this house M. de Chaumont would 
 receive no rental. In many other ways he was a 
 generous friend to America and her representatives. 
 M. de Sartine continued most friendly. He gave 
 Jones sole command of the fleet, and not only pro- 
 posed to give him in addition a large ship of war, the 
 Marechal de Broglie, of sixty-four guns, with three 
 or four smaller frigates and two or three cutters, but 
 suggested that he take with him five hundred men 
 from Walsh's Irish regiments to aid in the land 
 attacks. But since he was to recruit no French 
 seamen, Jones was obliged to refuse the Broglie in 
 the absence of men to fill out her necessary crew. 
 
 On the 4th of February M. de Sartine sent him 
 the king's formal presentation of the ship, with the 
 announcement that he was at liberty to change her 
 name, as he wished. Jones's reply to Sartine 
 shows the marked change of feeling that the pros- 
 pects of action had brought to him. The past was 
 quickly forgotten; indeed, it was true of him 
 always that to hold resentment was impossible. 
 Now he wrote: 
 
John Paul Jones 
 
 The statue by Charles Henry Niehaus. It may be 
 seen in the City of Washington, at the entrance to 
 Potomac Park. 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY 99 
 
 Passy, Feb. 6th, 1779. 
 
 M. DE Sartine, Minister of Marine, Versailles. 
 
 My Lord : 
 
 I have the honour to receive your Excellency's letter dated 
 the ist, by the hands of M. Gamier. I take the earUest 
 opportunity to offer you my sincere and gratified thanks 
 for so singular and honourable a mark of your confidence and 
 approbation. 
 
 It shall be my duty to represent in the strongest terms 
 to Congress, the generous and voluntary resolution which 
 their great ally, the protector of the rights of human nature, 
 and the best of kings, has taken to promote the honour of 
 their flag, and I beseech you to assure his Majesty that my 
 heart is impressed with the deepest sense of the obligation 
 which I owe his condescending favor and good opinion and 
 which it shall be my highest ambition to merit, by rendering 
 every service in my power to the common cause ; I cannot 
 ensure success, but I will endeavor to deserve it. . . . 
 
 It has always been my custom to treat my people and 
 prisoners with hospitality and kindness, and you may be 
 assured that I shall ever take pleasure in promoting the 
 happiness of every person under my command. 
 
 Your having permitted me to alter the name of the ship 
 has given me a pleasing opportunity of pa}dng a well-merited 
 compliment to a great and good man to whom I am under 
 obhgations, and who honours me with his friendship. 
 
 I am, in the fullness and grateful affection of my heart, 
 and with perfect esteem and respect. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 John Paul Jones. 
 
lOO JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 M. de Sartine had introduced Jones to Count 
 Garnier, whom Jones was to consult in all his plans 
 for his expedition, and soon after Jones reached 
 L'Orient, where the vessels of his squadron had 
 assembled, he wrote to the count, asking him to 
 beg Franklin to allow the American frigate Alli- 
 ance to be added to his fleet. The Alliance was 
 one of the fastest ships of her time, and had just 
 brought Lafayette to France, under the command 
 of Pierre Landais, an ex-officer of the French navy. 
 As a compliment to Lafayette, and with a natural 
 wish to please an important ally, the American 
 naval committee had appointed Landais to the 
 command of the frigate, but in total ignorance of 
 the fact that he had been dismissed from the French 
 service for disobedience and incompetence. Frank- 
 lin now granted Jones's request to add the Alliance 
 to his fleet. Both were to Hve to regret bitterly 
 that it was done. 
 
 In his letter to Count Garnier, Jones had said 
 that he was having difficulty in finding the proper 
 cannon for the Bon Homme Richard, and feared that 
 he must search for them himself ; and having sent 
 Lieutenant Amiel and other officers that he had 
 found at Nantes to recruit sailors for his ship, he 
 started on his search. He in time discovered 
 a foundry in which they might be made, and on 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY lOi 
 
 his way back was met at Nantes by a message 
 summoning him to Paris for an important confer- 
 ence. On his arrival he learned that Lafayette, on 
 hearing of his plan to attack the coast of England, 
 had expressed the wish to join him in the expedi- 
 tion. His proposal was cordially received by 
 Franklin and the French minister, and Jones wel- 
 comed the addition with pleasure. In the plans 
 Lafayette was to have the command of seven 
 hundred picked men for land attacks, and a larger 
 naval force was given to Jones. 
 
 Shortly after Jones's return to L'Orient to hasten 
 the preparations for sea, he received this letter 
 from Franklin : 
 
 27th of April. 
 My dear Sir : 
 
 I have at the request of M. de Sartine postponed the 
 sending of the Alliance to America, and have ordered her to 
 proceed immediately from Nantes to L'Orient, where she 
 is to be furnished with her complement of men, join your 
 little squadron, and act under your command. 
 
 The Marquis de La Fayette will be with you soon. It 
 has been observed that joint expeditions of land and sea 
 forces often miscarry through jealousies and misunder- 
 standings between the officers of the different corps. This 
 must happen where there are little minds, actuated more by 
 personal views or profit or honour to themselves, than by 
 the warm and sincere desire of good to their country. 
 Knowing you both, as I do, and your just manner of think- 
 
I02 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 ing on these occasions, I am confident nothing of the kind 
 can happen between you, and that it is unnecessary for me 
 to recommend to either of you, that condescension, mutual 
 good will, and harmony, which contribute so much of success 
 in such undertakings. I look upon this expedition as an 
 introduction only to greater trusts and more extensive com- 
 mands, and as a kind of trial of both your abilities, and of 
 your fitness in temper and disposition for acting in concert 
 with others. I flatter myself, therefore, that nothing will 
 happen that may give impressions to the disadvantage of 
 either of you, when greater affairs shall come under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 As this is understood to be an American expedition, 
 under the Congress commissioners and colors, the marquis, 
 who is a major general in that service, has of course the 
 step in point of rank, and he must have the command of the 
 land forces, which are committed by the King to his care, 
 but the command of the ships will be entirely in you, in 
 which I am persuaded that whatever authority his rank 
 might in strictness give him, he will not have the least desire 
 to interfere with you. There is honour enough to be got for 
 both of you, if the expedition is conducted with a prudent 
 unanimity. The circumstance is indeed a Httle unusual; 
 for there is not only a junction of land and sea forces, but 
 there is also a junction of Frenchmen and Americans, which 
 increases the difficulty of maintaining a good understanding ; 
 a cool prudent conduct in the chiefs is therefore the more 
 necessary, and I trust neither of you will in that respect 
 be deficient. With my best wishes for your success, 
 health and honour, I remain, dear Sir, your affectionate and 
 
 most obedient servant, 
 
 B. Franklin. 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY 103 
 
 The plans of this joint expedition had not been 
 told to M. de Chaumont, and Jones was displeased 
 when he learned that M. de Chaumont had in 
 some manner learned of them. Lafayette seem- 
 ingly shared his feeling, for he wrote that he con- 
 sidered it unwise to place any of the military part 
 of the expedition on, the Alliance, as he feared Cap- 
 tain Landais would have trouble with his of&cers. 
 He had come from America with Landais and had 
 learned something of his quality for mischief. 
 
 The matter of getting recruits for the small 
 squadron was beset with difficulties . The re- 
 cruits from Nantes were unfit and were returned. 
 From among some American prisoners in L'Orient 
 Jones had secured thirty able seamen, but to make 
 up his full crew he had to depend on a number of 
 untrained French peasants gathered from the 
 surrounding country. In the belief that La- 
 fayette's soldiers would be able to keep them in 
 order, he took a number of English prisoners from 
 Brest and St. Malo. It was the best he could do, 
 but all in all, it was, as Jones declared, ^'as bad a 
 crew as was ever embarked on any vessel." The 
 cannon ordered for the Bon Homme Richard had 
 not arrived, so he equipped her with an old battery, 
 placing twenty-eight nine- and twelve-pounders 
 on the main-deck, and six old eighteen-pounders 
 
104 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 on the gun-deck. This top-heavy arrangement 
 would cause the ship to roll dangerously in heavy 
 weather, but as Jones said he expected to find 
 smooth water in harbors where he proposed to go, 
 the matter seemed well settled. With the cannon 
 on the quarter-deck and the forecastle-deck, her 
 armament was raised to forty-two guns. 
 
 M. de Chaumont had purchased a merchantman 
 named the Pallas, and fitted her out with thirty- 
 two twelve-pounders. The Vengeance, a brig, 
 mounted twelve three-pounders. The Alliance, 
 of thirty-six guns, and the CerJ, a fast cutter be- 
 longing to the royal marine, completed the squad- 
 ron. The Alliance and the Cerf, each in her own 
 way, were the only members that were actually fit 
 for real service. 
 
 The soldiers had all embarked, and Jones was 
 waiting for Lafayette, when a letter from him 
 announced that, owing to the fact that the secret 
 character of the expedition had been disclosed to 
 M. de Chaumont, the minister had ordered La- 
 fayette to return to his regiment and refused to 
 let his troops sail. The original aim of the expedi- 
 tion had been the laying of Liverpool under con- 
 tribution, together with other plans that Jones 
 had secretly perfected with Count Gamier. Now 
 Count Garnier, as adviser of the expedition on 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY 105 
 
 behalf of the French minister of marine, was su- 
 perseded by M. de Chaumont. As the direct 
 representative of the count, the latter assumed 
 not only full charge of the equipping of the fleet, 
 but took upon himself the direction of the whole 
 squadron. 
 
 It was a task for which he was ill fitted, and with 
 the rashness of ignorance he at once proceeded to 
 prove his lack of fitness by issuing orders that de- 
 stroyed the value of the fleet as a unit. He sent 
 to Jones written orders that he must not demand 
 any services from the other ships of the squadron 
 that conflicted with the designs of their respec- 
 tive commanders. Cotteneau of the Pallas, Ricot 
 of the Vengeance, Varage of the Cerf, and Landais 
 of the Alliance, who had been placed on their 
 vessels by the orders of M. de Chaumont, therefore 
 felt at liberty to follow their own ideas without 
 reference to Jones or his plans. Furthermore, M. 
 de Chaumont, by emphasizing the idea that he, 
 as the agent of the king, was the absolute manager 
 of the expedition, increased the impression in the 
 fleet that it was wholly a French expedition and the 
 ostensible commander of it was a foreigner and 
 therefore open to suspicion. 
 
 All possibility of unity and harmonious action 
 was now lost; yet, despite all this, Jones made 
 
lo6 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 every attempt to keep his self-control and establish 
 pleasant relations with his captains. Owing to 
 difficulties with Landais, two of the best officers of 
 the Alliance deserted before the squadron put to sea, 
 and in the hope of keeping harmony on the best 
 ship in the fleet, Jones allowed the matter to pass. 
 
 The change in the plan had really come about 
 through the expectation of Spain's joining in the 
 war against Great Britain, and the forming of a new 
 great invasion of England by the combined fleets of 
 France and Spain. The idea came to nothing, but 
 it destroyed the hopes of Jones's little fleet to 
 sail in a similar attempt to harass England. In the 
 new invasion Lafayette was to have command of 
 the troops used in landing. ** I dare say," he wrote 
 to Jones, ''that you will be very sorry to hear that 
 our plans have been quite altered. I can only tell 
 you how sorry I feel not to be a witness of your 
 success, abilities, and glory." 
 
 Jones was to be sorry for more reasons than one, 
 for with the withdrawal of the soldiers of Lafayette, 
 Jones's abiUty to control his nondescript crews, 
 with the English prisoners as their chief menace, 
 seemed doubtful indeed. But he now had no 
 choice, and trusting that all might go well, he 
 awaited Franklin's orders. They came in due 
 season. Franklin wrote that M. de Sartine wished 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY 107 
 
 him, before directing his course toward England, 
 to make a preliminary cruise to the south, con- 
 voying some merchant vessels from L'Orient to 
 Bordeaux and afterward freeing the Bay of Biscay 
 of the ships of the enemy. It was not what Jones 
 had planned, and was far from his liking ; but it 
 was action of a sort, and with the cheerfulness and 
 alacrity that he always displayed when actually 
 employed, on the 19th of June he set out. 
 
 On the night of the very next day his troubles 
 with Landais began. The Alliance came into 
 colKsion with the Bon Homme Richard through 
 Landais's not yielding the right of way to the 
 Bon Homme Richard, to whom it belonged. Both 
 vessels were injured. Landais displayed the most 
 abject cowardice at the moment of action. With 
 no attempt to assist in extricating the vessels from 
 their dangerous position, and giving no orders, he 
 ran below, and in terror or anger, it can never be 
 known which, proceeded to load his pistols. Jones 
 was below at the time, but hurrying to the deck, by 
 prompt action saved the ships from more serious 
 disaster. With justice to Landais it should be 
 said that the officer of the watch on the Bon 
 Homme Richard could not have been wholly free 
 from blame, for he was afterward court-martialed 
 for his lack of efficiency in the collision. 
 
Io8 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Patching up their injuries as best they could with 
 what resources were at hand, the vessels continued 
 on to Bordeaux. In engaging later in the second 
 part of the task assigned to him on this voyage, to 
 drive all English vessels from the bay, Jones, to his 
 disappointment, found that the Bon Homme Rich- 
 ard was hopelessly slow. Trouble with the Eng- 
 lish prisoners also broke out, for they formed a 
 plot to seize his ship; but this was uncovered in 
 time to avert disaster, and the ringleaders were 
 put in irons. One thing the voyage disclosed, and 
 that was his capacity to command. Despite a 
 serious accident and a formidable plot to take the 
 ship, he at once set about increasing the efficiency 
 of his officers. Where weaker men would have 
 despaired and given up all effort, he doubled his 
 activity. No matter how inferior his crew, how 
 inefficient his officers, or how ill fitted his ships, — 
 and it was his misfortune never to have fit ships, — 
 time and time again he made the weak strong, the 
 inefficient capable, and brought a miracle of vic- 
 tory to his cause. An entry in the log-book of 
 the Bon Homme Richard throws light on his 
 method. It reads : 
 
 *'3oth June. At half past 7 p.m. saw two sails 
 bearing down upon us, one with a flag at each mast- 
 head. Hove about and stood from them to get in 
 
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY 109 
 
 readiness for action, then hove mizzen- topsail to 
 the mast, down all stay-sails and up mizzen-sail. 
 Then they hove about and stood from us. Imme- 
 diately we tacked ship and stood after them. 
 
 ''After which they wore ship and stood for us. 
 Captain Jones [It must be remembered here that 
 the first officer, not the captain, "wrote up" the 
 log-book], gentleman-like, called all his officers, 
 and consulted them whether they were willing to 
 see them. They all said. Yes. Made sail after 
 them ; but they being better sailers than we, got 
 from us. At I A.M. tacked ship." 
 
 A written appreciation of his officers and crew on 
 this occasion shows similar evidence of his method 
 of gaining the best possible service from them. 
 Here it is : 
 
 ''It is with singular satisfaction that the captain 
 returns his thanks to the officers and men for the 
 noble ardor and martial spirit which they mani- 
 fested last night when in chase of two ships pf 
 war, which appeared to be enemies, whom we 
 expected every moment to engage. 
 
 "But who saved themselves by their superior 
 swiftness of sailing and by a most shameful flight. 
 
 "The ship is now bound into port for a few days, 
 after which we shall depart better fitted ; and it 
 shall be the captain's endeavour to search after a 
 
no JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 fortune equal to the merit of every man, of every 
 
 free American and brave volunteer whom he has 
 
 the honour to command. 
 
 Given on board the American 
 
 ship of war, the Bon Homme Richard 
 
 off Port Louis, the 30th 
 
 of June, 1779." 
 
 It is interesting to know that among those he 
 commended were even the English prisoners who 
 had been in the plot to seize the ship. Seeing his 
 ability, and inspired by his example in action, as 
 his seamen always seemed to be inspired, they 
 fought so bravely and well that Jones specially 
 singled them out for praise in the account of the 
 cruise that he drew up for Sartine and Franklin 
 on his arrival at Croix, near L'Orient, the next 
 day. Of such stuff are great commanders made. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Delays and Discouragements 
 
 The Bon Homme Richard's lack of speed had 
 been disappointing to Jones, and his disappointment 
 was now further increased when he learned that 
 her timbers were too old and rotten to permit him 
 to make certain changes in her. On his arrival 
 in Croix he had been met by an order from Franklin 
 to proceed at once on a new cruise about Great 
 Britain in search of British ships. Further orders, 
 he was told, would meet him in the Texel, in Hol- 
 land, where he was to go at the end of the ex- 
 pedition, about the 15th of August. 
 
 Jones reported his disappointment to Franklin, 
 and again asked for the Indien. He also suggested 
 a change in the proposed cruise, and Franklin 
 replied that that could not now be changed, but, 
 as an encouragement to Jones, added that he 
 thought the Texel had been chosen as the point 
 where the cruise was to end in order that Jones 
 might then take over the Indien. 
 
112 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Jones had been long in getting a ship, and it 
 was with no good grace that he received this 
 message from Frankhn. His ship was the slowest 
 of all his Httle squadron, and most of his guns had 
 been condemned by the French Government; his 
 desire of ''going into harm's way," as he had de- 
 clared, was not likely to prove fortunate with the 
 Bon Homme Richard as the only instrument to 
 meet it. Yet he proceeded in all haste to repair his 
 ships, only to suffer from new delays; for M. de 
 Chaumont now sent the Pallas and the Vengeance 
 out on a cruise for privateers. Any accident to 
 them in the interval, he felt, might delay the whole 
 squadron in its saiKng. Another annoyance fol- 
 lowed, for M. de Chaumont, learning of the destina- 
 tion of the cruise, had told the secret in L'Orient. 
 ''This is a strange infatuation," Jones wrote to 
 Franklin, "and it is much to be lamented that one 
 of the best hearts in the world should be connected 
 with a mistaken head, whose errors may effect the 
 ruin and dishonor of the man whom he esteems 
 and loves." Certainly it was most unwise to 
 disclose plans the success of which might depend 
 on their not being known to the enemy. 
 
 There were other matters to take his thoughts 
 from the task of repairing his ship, for court- 
 martials were held to try the two ringleaders of 
 
DELAYS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS 113 
 
 the plot to seize the Bon Homme Richard. They 
 were condemned to death; but to the reHef of 
 Jones, who was always on the side of merciful 
 treatment, the sentence was changed to severe 
 flogging with the cat-o'-nine tails. The Heutenant 
 of the Richard, who had been in charge of the watch 
 at the time of the collision with the Alliance ^ 
 was also court-martialed and dismissed from the 
 service. 
 
 M. de Sartine, through these mishaps, had formed 
 a low opinion of the squadron and particularly of 
 the Bon Homme Richard, which added to Jones's 
 anxiety. Doubtlessly Sartine felt that as Jones 
 had reported favorably on the ship, he alone should 
 be blamed, and it may easily be imagined that he 
 looked upon Jones as a nuisance. Jones must have 
 felt this, and the numerous delays must have 
 galled his spirit. Only by some decisive action 
 could he prove his worth. 
 
 But the delay was an advantage in the end. 
 Thinking it well to have a force on the ship that 
 could control the dangerous element in the crew, 
 Sartine sent a body of marines under the charge 
 of two officers recommended by Lafayette. A 
 hundred and thirty-seven Portuguese sailors who 
 had lately come to L' Orient on a French ship were 
 added to the crew, and when Jones learned that 
 I 
 
114 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 some exchanged American prisoners had reached 
 Nantes, he sent his master, Cutting Lunt, to that 
 port to get recruits among them. Many of these 
 men joined the ship, and Jones was thus enabled 
 to weed out many of the disorderly members of his 
 crew. These new men came to be the real back- 
 bone of his force. Many had suffered the horrors 
 of EngHsh prisons, and therefore were eager for 
 revenge. The most notable addition to this group 
 was young Richard Dale, only twenty- three at 
 the time. He had been captured on the Lexington 
 and had been confined in the mill prison at Ports- 
 mouth for two years. He had now come to France 
 after a daring and romantic escape from the prison, 
 in which he had been aided by an unknown woman. 
 To the day of his death Dale refused to reveal 
 either her name or the circumstances of their ac- 
 quaintance. Jones, recognizing in Dale both char- 
 acter and efficiency, gave him a commission as 
 first officer of the Bon Homme Richard. It was 
 one of the few happy chances that life brought to 
 Paul Jones. Next to Jones himself, it was Dale 
 who brought success to the Bon Homme Richard, 
 an aid, indeed, that Jones never undervalued. 
 Between the two men sprang up a warm and last- 
 ing friendship. 
 
 The full number needed for the ship was thus 
 
DELAYS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS 115 
 
 completed, and now amounted to three hundred 
 and eighty men. Among the officers of all ranks 
 there were eight Americans, two French, and six 
 British, which included the commodore and the 
 two surgeon's mates. Dale was first lieutenant, 
 Henry Lunt second. Cutting Lunt third ; Lieu- 
 tenants Stack, McCarty, and O'Kelly, of Walsh's 
 Irish Brigade, were officers of the marines under 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Chamillard and Colonel Wei- 
 bert. Thomas Potter and Nathaniel Fanning, 
 with about seventy other Americans, were enrolled 
 as midshipmen and seamen, and the remainder 
 were Portuguese, Malays, and Swedes, with nearly 
 a hundred of the English prisoners. Though Jones 
 had been loath to retain these Englishmen, it had 
 been necessary in order to make up the needed 
 number. 
 
 Jones did not leave the whole task of recruiting 
 to his officers, and spared neither time nor money 
 to persuade any likely sailor that he met to join 
 him. 
 
 Such persuasion was probably necessary in 
 L'Orient, for few Americans were there, of course, 
 and good seamen of neutral countries would fight 
 shy of the service. So beyond the French marines, 
 who were trained soldiers, and the Americans, 
 who might be supposed to be heart and soul in 
 
ii6 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the cause, the crew was a motley collection of 
 adventurers and prisoners who would always be 
 a menace. Only a man Uke Jones could have 
 welded such a strange horde into a disciplined body 
 of fighters. Yet under his rule they became trained 
 sailors and as ready a crew as ever fought a ship. 
 It takes genius for organization to accompHsh a 
 task like that. 
 
 Six weeks had now been passed in port, and the 
 fleet was once more ready for sea. Franklin had 
 lengthened the time at its disposal, and now set 
 the end of September as the time when it should 
 return. Then M. de Chaumont appeared. With 
 him he brought his famous "Concordat," the most 
 extraordinary paper ever written for dispelling 
 any actual hope of success in an expedition. The 
 orders that Chaumont had given when Jones first 
 sailed with the fleet, that he must require no serv- 
 ice from the ships of his fleet that would conflict 
 with the orders of their respective commanders, 
 were now fixed and confirmed in the Concordat by 
 the French minister himself. The captains of the 
 vessels were required to yield obedience to the 
 head of the fleet only so far as it suited their 
 pleasure. Other articles provided that all prizes 
 should be sent to agents chosen by M. de Chau- 
 mont because he had furnished the funds for 
 
DELAYS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS 117 
 
 fitting out the expedition. Every member of the 
 fleet, therefore, would have to apply to M. de 
 Chaumont for his share of the prize-money, pro- 
 vided, of course, there should be any. 
 
 This wonderful document came to Jones's hand 
 when he was on the point of sailing, and as M. de 
 Chaumont declared that he represented M. de 
 Sartine, the minister of marine, and was em- 
 powered to remove Jones from the command of 
 the fleet if he refused to sign, Jones therefore 
 signed the Concordat. "Under any other cir- 
 cumstances," he wrote to the king, "I should have 
 rejected this proposal with disdain. I saw all 
 the dangers that I was incurring, but as I had 
 announced in America that I had remained in 
 Europe at the request of the French court, I de- 
 cided to risk them all." 
 
 Surely no such strangely planned expedition had 
 ever before sailed the seas with the expectation of 
 winning battles. But it did win. The genius of 
 one man was not to be thwarted. Possibly the 
 absurdity of his present situation did more to 
 strengthen Jones's character than any other one 
 cause. Naturally impatient, he was now found 
 to be patient. He had shown courage before, 
 audacity, and an indomitable persistence. Now, 
 having no authority, he patiently strove to re- 
 
Ii8 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 place authority by personal power. He held 
 repeated consultations, and by kindness, tact, and 
 wisdom endeavored to obtain the largest measure of 
 concerted action that was possible. Two volunteer 
 privateers had now joined his fleet, and with the 
 seven ships he was at last ready to sail. 
 
 Three days before sailing he wrote to M. de 
 Sartine, explaining that the trouble on his ship had 
 been caused solely by the unguarded English 
 prisoners, and gently reminded him that his re- 
 moval of marines from the ship at the last moment 
 before leaving L'Orient might, therefore, receive 
 the blame for all later trouble. Now that Sartine 
 had furnished him with a new body of marines, he 
 assured the minister that he had no further fear of 
 trouble. He promised to send him direct reports of 
 his progress. Two days later he wrote to Franklin : 
 
 The little squadron appeared to be unanimous, and I be- 
 lieve if that good understanding should continue, that they 
 would be able to perform essential services. ... I shall 
 certainly sail at daybreak and I hope shortly to find oppor- 
 tunity to testify my gratitude to our great and good ally for 
 the honour he had conferred on the American flag and on 
 myself, and I look foward with flattering expectation and an 
 ardent desire to merit your friendship and that of America. 
 
 He wrote to Lafayette an affectionate letter in 
 which he declared his eager wish at some future 
 
DELAYS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS 119 
 
 time to make an expedition in his company. The 
 next day he sailed. 
 
 It was the 14th of August, 1779, when, with 
 cannon booming and flags waving everywhere, the 
 little squadron dropped down the roads. One 
 after the other the sails on the broad yards of the 
 old Indiaman fell and were then sheeted home as 
 Paul Jones stood on the high, old-fashioned poop- 
 deck and surveyed the scene with a happy heart. 
 He was at sea again, and going "into harm's 
 way." His ship was old, poorly equipped, and 
 slow ; his crew was a mixed lot, few of whom had 
 any real heart in the cause that sent him eagerly 
 forth ; he was the commander of a squadron, yet 
 lacked the first and last essential of a squadron — 
 supreme authority. Measured by any ordinary 
 standard of human responsibiHty, he might well 
 have sailed that day with a heavy heart. But 
 he was happy. And well he might be. He was 
 sailing forth to his last great adventure, but it 
 was to be one of the supreme adventures of his- 
 tory, a revelation of the spirit of unconquerable 
 man, who, when conquered, refuses to accept de- 
 feat, and in refusing wins. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 "Going into Harm's Way" 
 
 The squadron had sailed at daybreak on the 14th 
 of August, and four days later, while off the en- 
 trance to the EngHsh Channel, it captured a large 
 Dutch vessel called the Verwagting, which only a 
 few days before had been taken by an English 
 privateer, and was therefore a lawful prize for the 
 squadron. The two privateers that had joined the 
 squadron at the last moment, the Monsieur and the 
 Grandville, had desired to sign the Concordat and 
 join the fleet on equal terms with the other ships, 
 but M. de Chaumont had refused to consent. 
 "This arrogant conduct," Jones afterward wrote, 
 "caused general belief among the Americans, 
 particularly on board of the Alliance, that the 
 squadron belonged neither to the king nor to Con- 
 gress, but to the individuals who had supplied 
 the armament of the vessels, and who were partners 
 with M. de Chaumont in the expected profits of 
 the expedition." In short, the expedition appeared 
 120 
 
"GOING INTO HARM^S WAY" 121 
 
 to be merely an unusually large privateering enter- 
 prise. 
 
 The privateers, therefore, had been bound to 
 the others only by their voluntary agreement, and 
 now, at the very first chance of securing a prize, 
 broke this agreement to be governed by Jones's 
 orders. The captain of the Monsieur, which had 
 sent aboard the captured ship the boarding party, 
 took for his own benefit several valuable articles 
 from the Verwagting, and then manned her with a 
 crew from his own vessel and attempted to send 
 her into Ostend under his own orders. Before 
 she could get well away, however, Jones over- 
 hauled her, and manning her with his own men, 
 sent her to L'Orient with a letter to M. de Chau- 
 mont. For twenty-four hours the captain of the 
 Monsieur sulked in the rear, and then under cover 
 of darkness left the squadron and never returned. 
 
 On the 2ist, off the southwest coast of Ireland, 
 the brig Mayflower, freighted with butter, was 
 captured and sent back to France. Two days 
 later, off Cape Clear, the southwest point of Ire- 
 land, they sighted another vessel. What happened, 
 Jones wrote in his official record : 
 
 ''That afternoon being calm, I sent some armed 
 boats to take a brigantine that appeared in the 
 new quarter. Soon after, in the evening, it be- 
 
122 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 came necessary to have a boat ahead of the ships to 
 tow, as the helm <;:ould not prevent her from laying 
 across the tide of flood, which would have driven 
 us into a deep and dangerous bay situated between 
 the rocks on the south called the Shallocks, and 
 on the north called the Blaskets. The ship's boat 
 being absent, I sent my own barge ahead to tow 
 the ship. The boats took the brigantine [she was 
 called the Fortune] which was bound with a cargo 
 of oil blubber and staves from New Foundland for 
 Bristol. This vessel I ordered to proceed imme- 
 diately for Nantes or St. Malo. Soon after sunset 
 the villains who towed the ship cut the rope and 
 decamped with my barge. Sundry shots were 
 fired to bring them to, without effect. In the 
 meantime the master of the Bon Homme Richard, 
 without orders, manned one of the ship's boats, 
 and with four soldiers pursued the barge in order 
 to stop the deserters. The evening was clear and 
 serene, but the zeal of that officer, Mr. Cutting 
 Lunt, induced him to pursue too far, and a fog 
 which came soon afterward prevented the boats 
 from rejoining the ship, although I caused signal 
 guns to be frequently fired. The fog and calm 
 continued the next day till towards evening. In 
 the afternoon Captain Landais came on board the 
 Bon Homme Richard and behaved towards me with 
 
"GOING INTO HARM'S WAY" 123 
 
 great disrespect, affirming in the most indelicate 
 manner and language that I had lost my boat and 
 people through my imprudence in sending boats 
 to take a prize. He persisted in his reproaches, 
 though he was assured by Messrs. de Weibert and 
 Chamillard that the barge was towing the ship 
 at the top of the elopement, and that she had not 
 been sent in pursuit of the prize. He was affronted 
 because I would not, on the day before, suffer him 
 to chase without my orders, and to approach the 
 dangerous shore I have already mentioned, where 
 he v/as an entire stranger, and when there was not 
 sufficient wind to govern a ship. He told me he was 
 the only American in the squadron and was deter- 
 mined to follow his own opinion in chasing, when 
 and where he thought proper, and in every other 
 matter that concerned the service, and that if we 
 continued in that situation three days longer the 
 squadron would be taken." 
 
 This was the first of Landais's many outbreaks. 
 Colonel Weibert has left an account of it that bears 
 witness to Landais's unmanageable character and 
 Jones's self-control under the attack. One can 
 well understand Jones's feelings at the time, but 
 the Concordat had bound him hand and foot. 
 Long afterward Landais's strange actions developed 
 into the insanity which properly explained his con- 
 
124 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 duct. It would have been well for Paul Jones if the 
 disease of mind had shown itself before the two met. 
 Thus early in the cruise appeared the second 
 result of the pernicious Concordat. The third 
 revealed itself immediately after, when Jones was 
 actually compelled to consult with his captains 
 and obtain the consent of his commander before 
 he could send the Cerf, the fast-sailing cutter of 
 the fleet, to coast along the shore in search of the 
 two missing boats. Lunt, who had evidently over- 
 taken the deserters, saw the cutter approach, and 
 began to pull toward her; but the Cerf hoisted 
 EngHsh colors, and Lunt, believing he was in error 
 as to her identity, retreated to the shore, and, 
 being captured, was recommitted to an English 
 prison. He had only recently been freed from one ; 
 from the second he was released by death. By this 
 misadventure the Bon Homme Richard lost an officer 
 and twenty-two men. To add to this misfortune, 
 the Cerf, losing sight of the fleet as night came on, 
 sailed back to France, and while Jones continued 
 to wait on the coast in the hope that she would 
 yet appear with the missing boats, the other priva- 
 teer in the squadron, the Grandville, having made a 
 capture, took advantage of the absence of authority 
 in the fleet and her distance from the guns of the 
 Bon Homme Richard to sail off with the prize. 
 
"GOING INTO HARM'S WAY" 125 
 
 Thus only four ships of the squadron remained, 
 and Jones, unwilling to lose any more time, de- 
 cided to cruise off the west coast of Ireland, near 
 the harbor of Limerick, to intercept a fleet of 
 Indiamen that were about due. These vessels 
 bore valuable cargoes and could have been cap- 
 tured with ease, but Landais refused to accompany 
 him, and under cover of the darkness abandoned 
 the fleet. So the plan of waiting oft* Limerick was 
 given up, and Jones took his course round Ireland, 
 taking several prizes on the way. A gale had 
 sprung up on August 26, and the tiller of the 
 Pallas giving way in the night, morning found 
 the Bon Homme Richard and the Vengeance alone. 
 The gale having dropped, in a leisurely way the 
 two ships continued their course to the north. On 
 August 31, while Jones was chasing the Union, a 
 vessel loaded with ship supplies, the Alliance bore 
 in sight, with a valuable prize, the West Indian 
 Betsey, in her wake. The next day the Bon Homme 
 Richard had come up with the Union and brought 
 her to ; but before her boats were called away 
 and the Union manned, Landais sent a message to 
 Jones, asking if the Alliance should send a prize- 
 crew aboard. If so, he added, he would allow no 
 man from the Richard to board her. With in- 
 credible patience Jones permitted the Alliance to 
 
126 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 place a prize-crew on the Union while he himself 
 received the prisoners on his own ship. It is 
 of interest to know that Landais, ignoring Jones's 
 explicit orders, sent the Betsey and the Union to 
 Bergen, where, on the demand of the British min- 
 ister, they were immediately released by the Gov- 
 ernment and sent to England. Their value was 
 given at forty thousand pounds sterling. 
 
 Jones had now taken many prizes, but he was 
 anxious to do more, and on the evening of the 4th 
 of September he summoned the captains of the 
 Alliance J Vengeance, and Pallas to the flagship. 
 Twice since joining the fleet Landais had either 
 refused to obey orders or had wholly disregarded 
 signals, and now again he refused obedience. To 
 Mr. Mease, Jones's purser, who now went aboard 
 the Alliance, Landais abused his commander, 
 declaring that he had the lowest opinion of Jones, 
 and would meet him on shore, where one or the 
 other would forfeit his life. To Captain Cottineau 
 and Colonel Chamillard, who now went to reason 
 with him, he had the same answer. Indeed, he 
 was now wholly insane, and the only wonder is 
 that his associates did not recognize the fact and 
 take measures to restrain him. Fortunately for 
 the commodore, whose patience had reached its 
 limit, the Alliance immediately after again aban- 
 
"GOING INTO HARM'S WAY" 127 
 
 doned the squadron and did not rejoin it until 
 the 23d of September. His return was of course 
 a greater harm, as events were to prove. 
 
 Another storm came up on September 5, and it 
 blew hard for a week or more. The fleet had been 
 working to the south, and on the 14th arrived near 
 the east coast of Scotland off the Firth of Forth. 
 Here they captured a ship and a brigantine loaded 
 with coal, and learning from the prisoners that the 
 naval force in the harbor of Leith consisted of 
 one twenty-one-gun ship and three or four cutters, 
 his old idea of laying the British towns under con- 
 tribution again recurred to Jones, with Leith and 
 Edinburgh as his objective points. His purpose, 
 he wrote, "was to teach the enemy humanity by 
 some exemplary stroke of retaliation," to cause 
 the release of Americans still imprisoned in Eng- 
 land, and to make a diversion in the north that 
 would weaken the British naval force in the south 
 against the expected coming of the great fleets of 
 France and Spain. Indeed, the great fleet under 
 the command of Comte d'OrvilHers, which France 
 with high hopes had plainly been preparing for 
 years, had anchored in Brest on the same day that 
 Jones appeared off Leith. It had been driven back 
 by contrary winds when near the English coast. 
 Now, in company with the Spanish fleet, it lay in 
 
128 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the harbor of Brest in a pitiable condition. Ex- 
 posed to untold hardships, half starved, and 
 scourged by sickness, the fleet had been betrayed 
 by the minister of marine, M. de Sartine, through 
 the carelessness or ignorance with which he had 
 equipped it. 
 
 Having agreed with the captain of one of the 
 coasting-vessels he had taken to restore his craft 
 to him if he would pilot the Richard into the 
 Firth of Forth, Jones sailed back to meet the 
 Pallas and the Vengeance, which had lagged in the 
 rear. Summoning their captains aboard the flag- 
 ship, he made known his plan, but found them with 
 small heart for the venture. Although finally 
 obtaining their consent, it required the whole 
 night to obtain it, and then only by appeaHng to 
 their cupidity. The lure of the plunder to be 
 gained won them over. But action at sea does 
 not stand in with long debates, and the favorable 
 wind had shifted when the conference was at last 
 finished. Jones did not abandon his purpose, 
 however, and worked back and forth ofl the mouth 
 of the harbor while he waited for a favoring wind. 
 On the afternoon of the 17 th the squadron could 
 be plainly seen from Edinburgh Castle, and the 
 report of his presence caused the wildest alarm. 
 Arms were distributed, and an attempt to erect 
 
"GOING INTO HARM'S WAY" 129 
 
 batteries at Leith was made. On the fleet every 
 necessary preparation for the descent had been 
 completed, and Jones had even busied himself in 
 moments of leisure with the task of drawing up 
 articles of capitulation, which he intended the 
 magistrates of Leith to sign, when suddenly the 
 wind, which was prone to fail him in most of his 
 attacks on his native land, broke in a severe squall, 
 obliging him to run out of the Forth. So great 
 were the waves that one of his prizes foundered. 
 
 With the country now thoroughly aroused, 
 there was no longer any hope of success in that 
 quarter, and Jones's ready mind turned to a new 
 project, a Hke attempt a little farther south, on 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne. But his associate captains 
 had already had too long a stay in the territory 
 of the enemy, and longed to sail for the Texel; 
 they declared that they would sail alone if Jones 
 tarried longer. He thought of carrying out his 
 project with a single ship, but at last gave up the 
 thought. ''Nothing prevented me," he afterward 
 wrote, "from pursuing my design but the reproach 
 that would have been cast upon my character as 
 a man of prudence had the enterprise miscarried." 
 
 The word "prudence" was new in the vocab- 
 ulary of Paul Jones. That much the divided 
 authority of the expedition had brought him — 
 
130 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 prudence. Now deserted by most of his ships 
 and at odds with the captains who remained, he 
 followed the line of least resistance, and laid his 
 course for Flamborough Head, a Kttle farther south, 
 the last appointed rendezvous of the squadron before 
 crossing the North Sea and entering the Texel. 
 It lay close to the usual track of ships on the coast, 
 and was therefore an excellent cruising-ground. 
 
 Taking several prizes on the way south, they 
 came by the 21st of September to Flamborough 
 Head, where they cruised for two days. Early on 
 the morning of the 23d, Jones chased two ships 
 that daybreak showed to be the Pallas and the 
 long-absent Alliance. During the morning Jones 
 had pursued a brigantine close under the land south 
 of the head, until, about noon, sighting a large 
 ship to the north, he sent Henry Lunt with a party 
 of fifteen to cut out the brigantine while he him- 
 self sailed out to meet the new-comer. An hour 
 later a great fleet of forty-one sail came into view 
 around the headland, and Jones knew at once 
 that the long-expected Baltic fleet had arrived. 
 In the van of the fleet came two large ships of 
 war, the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. 
 Calling back Lunt and setting a signal for a gene- 
 ral chase, Jones laid his course toward the two 
 war-ships. . 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Great Fight 
 
 To Jones's signal, as usual, Landais paid no heed, 
 but ran off toward the Pallas, which had tacked 
 to follow the Bon Homme Richard, with the Ven- 
 geance coming up far in the rear, where she re- 
 mained throughout the fight, and therefore no 
 longer to be considered. Meanwhile, in the hear- 
 ing of both crews, Landais had called out to Cap- 
 tain Cottineau of the Pallas that if the oncoming 
 fleet was convoyed by a ship of more than forty 
 guns there was nothing left them but flight. 
 With the two ships uncertainly beating about in 
 the rear, Jones pluckily proceeded alone. 
 
 Early that morning Captain Pearson of the Sera- 
 pis had been informed that a hostile fleet had 
 been seen in the neighborhood, and signaHng to 
 the great fleet that he convoyed to continue its 
 course out to sea, he ran to the windward, to place 
 himself between the enemy and his convoy. Dis- 
 regarding his signal, however, his convoy had kept 
 
 131 
 
132 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 on its course in the hope of passing Flamborough 
 Head before the enemy appeared from the north ; 
 but when Jones's squadron came in sight to the 
 south of the head, in a wild flight of terror the 
 convoy ran for the port of Scarborough. The 
 Serapis and the Bon Homme Richard had been 
 saiKng along the opposite sides of the headland in 
 such manner that, without changing their courses, 
 they would meet at a point about six miles from 
 shore. At half-past five, the wind being light, 
 the Countess of Scarborough had come up with 
 her consort, and half an hour later the two ships 
 went about in order to keep their position between 
 the convoy and the enemy. Jones also tacked at 
 the same moment, so that he gained the weather- 
 gauge and a position between the shore and the 
 English ships. The wind was light and blowing 
 off the land, and it was seven o'clock before the 
 slow Richard came within hailing distance of the 
 Serapis. The Pallas and the Vengeance were near 
 the Countess of Scarborough and away to leeward ; 
 the Alliance, to windward, was out of gun-shot. 
 
 Alone with the Serapis, the Bon Homme Richard 
 appeared at a disadvantage. Old, slow, and with 
 the lighter construction of a merchantman, she 
 carried six eighteen-pounders on the gun-deck, 
 fourteen twelve- and fourteen-pounders on the 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 133 
 
 main-deck, with eight six-pounders on the upper- 
 decks, and after the first broadside had only those 
 of the main-deck and three on the quarter-deck 
 with which to fight. At the best she could throw 
 only a hundred and seventy-five pounds of shot 
 
 against the Ser apises three hundred pounds. On j 
 
 her high poop-deck Jones stationed Colonel Cha- \ 
 
 millard with a body of French marines ; on her 1 
 
 fortunately broad tops he had stationed a large i 
 force of riflemen, who were under the charge of 
 Lieutenant Stack of the Irish regiment. His 
 
 original complement of three hundred and eighty ■ 
 
 men had been lowered to about three hundred I 
 by those sent out to man various prizes and by 
 
 the loss of the second and third lieutenants, the I 
 
 two Lunts, and their companies, ' 
 
 The Serapis was a brand-new ship of about 1 
 
 eight hundred tons burden. Built for war, she i 
 
 was of course more heavily constructed than the : 
 
 Richard. A double-banked frigate, she carried ] 
 
 guns on one uncovered and two covered decks. | 
 
 On the lower, or main, deck she mounted twenty j 
 
 eigh teen-pounders ; on the gun-deck, twenty nine- | 
 
 pounders, and on the spar-deck, ten six-pounders, I 
 
 a total of fifty guns, or twenty-five in a broadside, ; 
 
 throwing three hundred pounds of shot. She '\ 
 
 had a picked crew of three hundred and twenty j 
 
134 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 English to contend with the Richard's motley 
 collection of about the same number. Captain 
 Pearson was a man of well-known ability and 
 courage. 
 
 Slowly the two ships came nearer in the fading 
 light of a beautiful autumn day. The moon had 
 risen, and was casting its pale Hght over the slightly 
 ruffled sea. In the west the light in the Flambor- 
 ough Head lighthouse glov/ed yellow against the 
 darkening sky. On the hills and on the decks 
 of the great fleet anchored under the guns of Scar- 
 borough Castle thousands of spectators were 
 gathered. Ahead of the Bon Homme Richard lay 
 the Serapis, with courses triced up and topsails 
 aback and light streaming forth from her opened 
 ports. Then in that deep, waiting hush a figure 
 sprang to the rail of the British ship, and a voice 
 called over the water : 
 
 "What ship is that?" 
 
 Jones had kept his ship end-on to the Serapis, 
 and now with a quick motion to the quartermaster 
 below him, he gave the signal to put the helm 
 hard to starboard. As the Richard slowly turned 
 to port, bringing her broadside to view, Jones 
 parried for another moment of time. Jumping 
 up to the taffrail and supporting himself with the 
 backstay, he shouted : 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 135 
 
 "I can't hear you." 
 
 On the Englishman the lighted ports of the Bon 
 Homme Richard could now be seen, and the muzzled 
 guns projecting from them. Quick and near came 
 their hail : 
 
 "What ship is that? Answer at once or I shall 
 fire." 
 
 The Richard had now swung broadside to, but 
 little ahead of the Englishman, and Jones gave a 
 quick command. A Hne of fire shot out into the 
 dusk from one of the twelve-pounders, and the 
 next instant the whole broadside of the Bon 
 Homme Richard thundered. At the same instant 
 the broadside of the Serapis had answered. Then 
 another light flashed out on the night ; two of the 
 old eighteen-pounders on the Richard's gun-deck 
 exploded at the first fire, kilHng nearly every man 
 in the station, shattering the main-deck above the 
 guns, and blowing a hole through the hull. A 
 smaller man would have recognized defeat then; 
 Jones ordered the ports to be closed and the sur- 
 vivors to be recalled, and dismissed the disaster 
 from his mind. 
 
 It was about quarter past seven, and enveloped 
 in smoke, side by side, the ships sailed on. The 
 Serapis now uncovered a lower battery, showing 
 the men of his enemy a new superiority. The 
 
136 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Richard had run a trifle ahead of the enemy, and 
 Jones swung in toward her, hoping to cross her 
 bows and rake her, but with her superior speed the 
 Serapis now forged ahead, and the broadsides 
 continued. Jones, knowing that he was dealing 
 with an opponent of greatly superior force, now 
 backed his topsails and allowed the Serapis to 
 run ahead, meaning to run down upon her and 
 board her ; but with some of her braces shot away, 
 the slow Richard struck the port quarter of the 
 Serapis, and though it was an unfavorable point 
 for boarding, Jones mustered his boarders on the 
 forecastle, with himself in the lead ; but the 
 EngHshmen appeared in such force on the deck 
 of the Serapis that Jones gave over the attempt 
 as the grappKng-irons thrown out lost their hold 
 and fell overboard. 
 
 For a moment the two ships hung together, 
 and then the Serapis forged ahead, with the Bon 
 Homme Richard in Hne with her and just astern. 
 Captain Pearson now backed his topsails to come 
 abreast again. On every count the Bon Homme 
 Richard was now hopelessly beaten. Nearly every 
 marine on the poop-deck had been killed ; the 
 entire battery of twenty-eight twelve and nine- 
 pounders on the main-deck, with a picked company 
 of Americans and marines under Dale and Weibert, 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 137 
 
 had been silenced; the hole in the side made by 
 the exploding guns on the lower deck had been so 
 greatly enlarged by the terrific bombardment 
 of the eighteen-pounders of the Serapis that in a 
 wide space abaft the mainmast the main-deck lay 
 exposed. Only one hope remained — the small 
 hope of getting a slow and almost hopelessly dam- 
 aged ship in a position for boarding. 
 
 At this moment of great tension, while Pearson 
 was dropping back to get his broadside again in 
 play on the enemy, the Richard, by passing close 
 and thus taking the wind out of the sails of the 
 Serapis, slowly forged ahead. Then suddenly a 
 flaw of wind filled the sails of the Bon Homme 
 Richard, the helm was put hard up, and the Richard 
 shot ahead, bringing the Serapis^ s jib-boom between 
 her mizzen-shrouds. 
 
 ''Well done, my brave lads! We have got her 
 now," Jones called. Instantly the Serapis let 
 go her anchor, thinking that the Bon Homme 
 Richard's headway would carry her free; but 
 Jones himself had already made her fast. He 
 ordered Samuel Stacy, the master, to bring a 
 hawser, and as the sailing master began to over- 
 haul the hawser, lying in a tangle on the deck, 
 he broke into an oath of impatience. ''Don't 
 swear," Jones quietly said. "In another moment 
 
138 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 we may be in eternity ; but let us do our duty." 
 Then he made the jib-boom of the Serapis fast to 
 his own mizzenmast. The two ships were thus 
 bound together. The wind in the after-sails of 
 the Serapis forced her around, breaking off her 
 bowsprit, but an anchor on her bow caught in the 
 chains of the Richard's mizzen-rigging, and held 
 her fast. Thus they lay with their starboard 
 sides touching, but heading in opposite directions. 
 The captain of the Serapis now ordered his gun- 
 ners to the starboard batteries, which had not 
 yet been brought into action. The ships were so 
 close that the port-Hds could not be opened; so 
 they were blown off with the first discharge of 
 the guns; Dale afterward said that spongers 
 and rammers had to be thrust through the ports 
 of the enemy in order to serve the guns. Purser 
 Mease, who had commanded the guns on the 
 quarter-deck, being dangerously wounded, Jones 
 took his place, bringing over from the port side 
 an extra gun, so that three were now available on 
 the deck. The mainmast of the Serapis, in the 
 bright Kght, stood out clearly to view, and against 
 it Jones himself directed the fire of one of the guns. 
 Below decks matters had gone badly on his ship, 
 but the fire from his tops had been well sustained 
 throughout the action, and now the soldiers and 
 

 
THE GREAT FIGHT 139 
 
 marines on the deck, being constantly reenforced 
 by men sent from below as their guns were put 
 out of commission, by degrees cleared the deck of 
 the Serapis. The yards were interlaced, too, and 
 the American top-men crossed over and took 
 possession of the main- top. On his own ship, 
 Pearson, on the quarter-deck, stood virtually 
 alone. Hearing at this moment that both Jones 
 and Dale had been killed, the master-at-arms, 
 beheving that he was now in command, rushed 
 up from below, with a carpenter and a gunner, to 
 haul the flag down. Happily, the flag and its 
 staff had been shot away, and the three called for 
 quarter. 
 
 ''What scoundrels are these?" Jones cried, and 
 threw both his pistols at the head of the gunner, 
 felling him as he fled. The master-at-arms and 
 the carpenter also fled to their posts. But Pearson, 
 on the Serapis^ had heard the cry for quarter, and 
 shouted to Jones, asking if he had struck. 
 
 "/ have not yet begun to fight,'''' flashed back the 
 immortal answer. Any other man might have 
 accepted defeat. Driven from the deck of their 
 ship by the accurate musket-fire of Dale and the 
 marines and the top-men, the whole force of the 
 enemy was now below, pouring a deadly fire from 
 their eighteen-pounders into the hull of the Richard. 
 
• 
 
 I40 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 But the main deck of the ship was now abandoned, 
 and the sides so riddled that the shot passed 
 through and fell into the sea. If their gunners 
 had had the presence of mind to lower the muzzles 
 of their guns and blown her bottom out, the tale 
 might have been different. But they did not, 
 and Jones yet had his chance, and knew it. At 
 this point, when alone on his deck, Pearson had 
 called a party from below in an attempt to board 
 the Richard, but a superior force under Jones 
 himself beat it off. 
 
 Now for a time there came a lull in the fighting, 
 for both ships were afire, and all hands on both 
 ships were needed to put out the flames. The 
 Serapis was blazing in at least twelve places, and 
 the Bon Homme Richard^ old and thoroughly 
 soaked with tar, blazed on despite all the water 
 that was cast on the flames. The sails and rigging 
 of both ships now caught, and even the main- 
 mast of the Richard began to burn; the tub of 
 water placed in the top was ineffective to quench 
 it. Fanning relates how the top-men finally 
 extinguished it with their coats and jackets. 
 
 With the fires at last subdued, the fight again 
 broke out. The motley crew of the Richard^ 
 inspired by the indomitable will of their captain 
 and by the thirst for blood that comes to all 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 141 
 
 in the face of carnage, fired through the smoke 
 into the faces of the enemy, and with pikes and 
 lances and muskets struck at them through the 
 port-holes. And the enemy struck back. Hat- 
 less and stained with powder, Jones stood at his 
 guns, urging his crew on with his carrying voice. 
 
 For an hour the fight had gone on when near 
 the Richard a shape appeared out of the night. 
 It was the Alliance. 
 
 "1 thought now that the battle was at an end," 
 Jones said, ''but to my utter surprise he discharged 
 a broadside full into the Bon Homme Richard. 
 We called to him ... to stop firing into the Bon 
 Homme Richard. There was no possibility of 
 his mistaking the enemy's ship for the Bon Homme 
 Richard, there being the most essential difference 
 in their appearance and construction; besides 
 it was full moonlight, and the sides of the Bon 
 Homme Richard being all black, and the sides of 
 the prize was yellow, yet for the greater security 
 I showed the signal of our reconnaissance by putting 
 out three lanterns, one at the head, another at 
 the stern, and the third in the middle, in a 
 horizontal line. Every tongue cried out that 
 he was firing into the wrong ship, but nothing 
 availed." 
 
 A few moments later the Alliance ^ passing to 
 
142 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 leeward across the bow of the Richard, disappeared 
 in the night. Then another danger threatened. 
 Released by the treacherous master-at-arms, the 
 hundreds of maddened English prisoners now 
 rushed up from below, crying that the ship was 
 sinking. It was the most critical moment in 
 the engagement, and the man was there to meet 
 it. With audacity and presence of mind he or- 
 dered them to the pumps and told them that the 
 Serapis also was sinking, and the lives of all de- 
 pended upon them. Dale was there to second 
 him and to beat them back. It seems incredi- 
 ble, but they went to the pumps, and there 
 remained, with only Dale to guard them, while 
 they kept the ship afloat long enough to help 
 the man-tamer Jones defeat their own coun- 
 trymen. Only one of the prisoners got away, 
 the captain of the Union. He slipped across to 
 the Serapis and told Pearson of the desperate 
 condition of the Richard. Encouraged now, Pear- 
 son ordered all hands below for what he supposed 
 would be the last broadside needed, and remained 
 alone on the deck. But it was not to be as the 
 cap^tain of the Serapis thought. An American 
 sailor, creeping in on the main-yard of the Serapis, 
 threw a hand-grenade down the main-hatchway. 
 It fell on a line of cartridges that had been care- 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 143 
 
 lessly laid in the exposed position by the powder- 
 boys. Some of the cartridges were broken, and 
 the scattered powder, taking fire, blazed through 
 the line all the way aft. The explosion was terrific. 
 *'More than twenty men were blown to pieces," 
 Dale wrote, ^'and many stood with only the collars 
 of their shirts upon their bodies." 
 
 It was the turning-point in this most dramatic 
 of sea-fights. Panic had seized the Englishmen, 
 and it was increased by the second appearance of 
 the Alliance. She sailed close under the stern 
 of the Richard, and poured a scattering fire of 
 grape-shot into both ships, then passed around 
 the port side of the Richard, still firing. She killed 
 several men on the ship, including Mr. Caswell, 
 whose station was on the forecastle. Caswell 
 was a midshipman. 
 
 Possibly the second appearance of the Alliance 
 hastened Pearson's decision to surrender, for the 
 Alliance could now destroy him. As a matter of 
 truth, the fire from the Alliance had done more 
 injury to the Richard, and many of the Americans 
 wished to yield; but Jones, as he said, ''would 
 not, however, give up the point." He was still 
 directing the fire of his gun toward the mainmast 
 of the Serapis, which had at last begun to shake. 
 His practiced ear told him that the enemy's fire 
 
144 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 had slackened, and he cheered his men on to new 
 efforts. Their fire increased. 
 
 The crews had done all that was in the power of 
 men; the issue now lay with the two captains. 
 Which had the greater endurance? Captain 
 Pearson settled the matter, answered the ques- 
 tion. He had beaten his enemy, but his enemy 
 would not perceive it. In the face of such deter- 
 mination, his own firmness faltered. To the flag- 
 staff drooping over the stern of his ship he had 
 nailed his flag. He now walked aft to the taffrail 
 and tore it loose from the staff. 
 
 ''They have struck their flag!" cried Jones, 
 who had seen the act. 'Xease firing!" It was 
 then half -past ten. 
 
 The shouts that the EngHshman had struck 
 ran through both ships, but the gunners on the 
 Serapis, on the lower deck, still continued to fire. 
 Dale, meanwhile, with the permission of Jones, 
 went aboard the Serapis, followed by Midshipman 
 Mayrant and a party of men. Mayrant was 
 wounded by a pike, the wielder not having been 
 informed of the surrender. Dale relates what 
 happened : 
 
 ''I found Captain Pearson standing on the lee- 
 ward side of the quarter-deck, and addressing 
 myself to him said, ' Sir, I have orders to send you 
 
THE GREAT FIGHT 145 
 
 on board the ship alongside.' The first lieutenant 
 of the Serapis, coming up at this moment, inquired 
 of Captain Pearson whether the ship alongside 
 had struck to him. To which I replied, 'No 
 sir, the contrary ; she has struck to us.' The 
 lieutenant, renewing the inquiry, 'Have you 
 struck, sir?' was answered, 'Yes, I have.' The 
 lieutenant replied, 'I have nothing more to say,' 
 and was about to return below when I informed 
 him he must accompany Captain Pearson on 
 board the ship alongside. He said, 'If you will 
 permit me to go below I will silence the firing of 
 the lower-deck guns.' This request was refused, 
 and with Captain Pearson he was passed over to 
 the deck of the Bon Homme Richard. Orders 
 being sent below to cease firing, the engagement 
 terminated after a most obstinate contest of three 
 hours and a half." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Little Man in Blue 
 
 On the quarter-deck of the Bon Homme Richard 
 the English officers found themselves in the pres- 
 ence of a Httle man clothed in a blue uniform 
 that had been torn in the action. He wore no 
 hat ; his dark face was grimy with powder. Blood 
 from a slight wound on his forehead had dried 
 on his cheek, but his dark eyes still flashed with 
 his indomitable spirit. As Captain Pearson, after 
 a few preliminary words, surrendered his sword 
 to the man of battle, he said haughtily : 
 
 "It is painful to me that I must resign this to 
 a man who has fought with a halter around his 
 neck." 
 
 Whatever may be said of this speech, all Ameri- 
 cans may be proud of Paul Jones's generous reply : 
 
 "Sir, you have fought like a hero, and I make 
 no doubt that your sovereign will reward you in 
 a most ample manner," he said. 
 
 There was no time to lose. The battle was 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 147 
 
 over, but both ships were in desperate condition. 
 The dead and wounded lay everywhere. The 
 smoldering timbers of the Richard had again 
 burst out in flames. With only half his crew Jones 
 had to man both ships, force the English prisoners 
 back into the hold, and secure the crew of the 
 Serapis. He placed Dale in command of that 
 ship, with a generous number of his own men, and 
 the lashings that bound the two vessels were 
 loosed. As the ships drifted apart, the mainmast 
 of the Serapis, which only the interlocking yards 
 of the Bon Homme Richard had upheld, went over- 
 board, carrying the mizzen- topmast with it. The 
 Richard at once began to draw past the Serapis, 
 and Dale gave orders to fill the head-sails and, 
 wearing ship, come up in the wake of the Richard. 
 But the ship did not respond to the helm, and 
 jumping from the binnacle, where he had been 
 sitting, to investigate the reason, Dale fell to the 
 deck. A splinter from one of the guns had badly 
 wounded his leg, but until that moment he had 
 been unaware of the fact The sailing-master 
 of the Serapis now came aft to inform him that ' 
 he judged by Dale's orders that he was unaware 
 that the Serapis had anchored at the beginning 
 of the engagement. Henry Lunt now made 
 his appearance aboard the prize, and Dale sent 
 
148 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 him forward to cut the cable, and then turned over 
 the command to him while he was carried aboard 
 the Richard to have his wound dressed. Lunt 
 had come aboard, reporting that he had not thought 
 it prudent to come while the battle was on. Prob- 
 ably he lived to regret such prudence. 
 
 After a careful examination of his ship, Paul 
 Jones was convinced that she could not be saved. 
 Her rudder had been shot away, and the rotten 
 timbers in many places were shown to be merely 
 pulp. The Pallas had sent a part of her crew 
 aboard, and they worked faithfully at the pumps, 
 but it was a vain task. The 25th was spent in 
 transferring the wounded to the Serapis. Early 
 in the morning of the next day the removal of 
 the prisoners was begun. Realizing that they 
 far outnumbered the Americans, they made a 
 dash to capture the ship ; they actually succeeded 
 in turning her head to the land. But they were 
 unarmed, and after a brief struggle, in which two 
 were shot, they submitted, though a few succeeded 
 in escaping in a boat. But the Bon Homme Richard 
 was doomed. At nine o'clock she was abandoned ; 
 at ten she rolled heavily, then settling by the bows 
 went down, and the next instant, as Jones wrote, 
 "I saw with inexpressible grief the last gHmpse of 
 the Bon Homme Richard.'* 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 149 
 
 Of the other captains of the fleet, Cottineau of 
 the Pallas alone showed courage and professional 
 skill ; by his admirable handHng of the slow, trans- 
 formed merchant vessel he captured the Countess 
 of Scarborough after an hour's fighting. The 
 Vengeance took absolutely no part. Something 
 of Landais's treachery and cowardice has already 
 been told; later he approached the Pallas^ and 
 found that she had captured the Countess. Cot- 
 tineau asked him if he would take charge of the 
 prize or go to the assistance of Jones, and finally 
 Landais had sailed off, though not to help Jones. 
 
 His reasons for his conduct are clear. He wished 
 to sink the Bon Homme Richard, and then take 
 the Serapis, already beaten by the Richard. Even 
 after the battle was over he refused to go to the 
 assistance of Jones. An investigation of his 
 conduct later brought on his ruin. But it is idle 
 to discuss his conduct; at that time he must 
 have been insane. 
 
 In the matter of loss on the several vessels, 
 neither the Vengeance nor the Alliance had any 
 casualties. On the Countess of Scarborough four 
 men were killed and twenty were wounded; the 
 loss on the Pallas was slight. Jones reported the 
 loss on the Bon Homme Richard to be forty-nine 
 killed and sixty-seven wounded; he stated that 
 
I50 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the wounded on the Serapis numbered more than 
 a hundred, and that the killed probably numbered 
 as many more. As the guardian of the ship's 
 crew after the victory, he was in a position to know 
 more of the facts in the case than Captain Pear- 
 son, who, while giving through his surgeon a 
 smaller number in both Hsts, confessed that there 
 were many for whom he could not account. 
 
 During the time that the ships remained on the 
 scene of battle after the Serapis struck her flag, 
 a jury rig was improvised for her ; and this being 
 at last completed, the squadron bore away for 
 Dunkirk, France. It was necessary to make port 
 as quickly as possible, for Jones had five hundred 
 prisoners aboard, including Captain Pearson and 
 ' Captain Piercy and their officers, and the moment 
 for bringing about his long-desired exchange of 
 prisoners seemed now at hand. But the Texel 
 had been the port that Franklin in his orders to 
 Jones had named as the destination of the fleet. 
 The entirely unexpected results of the cruise had 
 brought about a new situation, however, and Jones 
 had excellent reasons for preferring to enter a 
 French port. The difficulties that afterward 
 arose concerning the exchange of prisoners and the 
 sale of the prizes would have been avoided. 
 
 For a week the fleet had contrary winds, and 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 151 
 
 the French captains naturally grew nervous at 
 the failure to reach port, for it was certain that 
 a large fleet of British warships were hunting 
 the audacious invaders of English waters. At 
 last they refused to obey orders, and in a body 
 deserted the Serapis and turned their ships toward 
 the Texel. In view of the conditions of the Con- 
 cordat, there was nothing left to Jones but to 
 follow the fleet. On the 3d of October the squadron 
 entered the Texel. 
 
 Through the difflculties that now crowded 
 upon him Jones displayed both judgment and 
 courage. The instant that he appeared. Sir 
 Joseph Yorke, the English minister at The Hague, 
 made a demand upon the States- General to deHver 
 the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough to 
 him, to release the prisoners held by Jones, and 
 to order the American '^ pirate" to leave the Texel 
 at once. As the British squadron that had been 
 pursuing him had arrived off the harbor shortly 
 after his arrival, his forced departure would of 
 course have resulted in the capture of his small 
 fleet. 
 
 By the terms of their treaties. Sir Joseph argued, 
 Holland had agreed to return to the British all 
 ships in her ports that had been captured by com- 
 manders of hostile ships who bore the commissions 
 
152 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 of unrecognized powers. Paul Jones bore the 
 commission of the United States. If the States- 
 General complied with the terms of the treaties, 
 England would get her ships back, and Jones 
 into the bargain ; if it did not comply, permitting 
 Jones to remain, it would imply that Holland 
 recognized Jones's commission as one issued by a 
 sovereign power. This would mean a recognition 
 of the United States as an independent power. 
 
 The States- General tried to avoid the dilemma. 
 It refused to give up the ships, but ordered Jones 
 to leave the harbor, declaring at the same time 
 that it had no intention of recognizing the American 
 colonies. In truth, Holland was divided. Jones 
 was popular with the people, who favored the 
 recognition of America, and protested against any 
 unfriendly act toward Jones, while the aristo- 
 cratic party was opposed to him and to the col- 
 onies. Whenever Jones appeared on the streets, 
 he received a popular ovation, for the Dutch were 
 deUghted with the humihation that he had brought 
 upon England. Recognizing, however, the inse- 
 curity of his position, he hastened the work of 
 refitting his ships. He also went to The Hague 
 to plead his own cause, and obtained the privilege 
 of landing the most dangerously wounded among 
 his prisoners and crew. A fort on the Texel was 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 153 
 
 given up to the purpose, and Weibert was placed 
 in command. 
 
 Captain Pearson had added to his annoyances 
 by protesting against his confinement, and when 
 Jones offered to forward to him all his plate, linen, 
 and property that had been on board the Serapis, 
 Pearson refused to accept it from his hand, but 
 added that he would consent to receive it from 
 Captain Cottineau. With his usual superiority 
 to all pettiness, Jones returned the property 
 through Cottineau. Eventually, before leaving 
 the Texel, Jones succeeded in exchanging Pearson 
 for Captain Gustavus Conyngham. On Pearson's 
 return to England he was knighted for ''his gallant 
 defense of the Serapis against a greatly superior 
 force!" When Jones heard of the knighting, he 
 is reported to have said, "He has done well; 
 and if he gets another ship and I fall in with him 
 again, I will make a duke of him." 
 
 The charges against Landais had been made 
 out and signed and sent to Paris, whereupon Frank- 
 lin, with the consent of the French ministry, 
 ordered him to give up the command of the Alli- 
 ance and return to Paris. He did not return 
 before fighting a duel with Captain Cottineau, 
 whom he wounded severely. Then Landais chal- 
 lenged Jones, and Jones sent men to arrest him; 
 
154 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 but Landais, getting word of the matter, hastened 
 to Paris. 
 
 Sir Joseph Yorke, meanwhile, continued to press 
 his views upon the Dutch Government, which 
 pressed them upon Jones, who quietly turned the 
 matter over to the French ambassador and Frank- 
 hn. At last the French Government acted. With 
 FrankHn's consent, it ordered that the command 
 of the Serapis be turned over to Captain Cottineau, 
 and that all the vessels of the fleet except the 
 Alliance hoist the French colors. The Alliance, 
 as an American ship, it turned over to Jones. 
 Thus in one moment Jones was deprived of his 
 command and his prizes. Sir Joseph Yorke had 
 no possible reason for demanding the return of 
 French vessels, and therefore dropped the matter. 
 Shortly after, the French ships and the prizes 
 sailed for France under a Dutch convoy and 
 arrived safely. Sir Joseph Yorke redoubled his 
 efforts to force the Alliance to put to sea. But 
 Jones was not to be hurried. A large fleet of 
 Dutch ships, under the command of Admiral 
 Rhynst, was on hand to hasten Jones's going, while 
 outside a constantly increasing force of British 
 ships waited for him. But he had found the Alli- 
 ance in a frightfully bad condition, and until she 
 was fit he stubbornly refused to move. 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 155 
 
 When the French ships of his old squadron 
 had sailed with their prizes and prisoners, the 
 wounded prisoners in the fort on the Texel were 
 of course left behind. These, having now recov- 
 ered, Jones, despite all orders and protests, sent 
 aboard the Alliance, together with the recovered 
 members of the Bon Homme Richard's old crew. 
 As he was now preparing to sail, Jones received 
 from M. de Sartine, through the French ambassador 
 at The Hague, a French commission, or naval 
 letter of marque. This would have protected 
 him on his homeward voyage, perhaps, and would 
 certainly have removed all objection to his lin- 
 gering on in the Texel, but with his usual appre- 
 ciation of his dignity as an officer in the American 
 navy, he refused to accept any security that came 
 to him through his acceptance of the status of 
 a mere privateer sman. 
 
 To the almost daily commands of the Dutch 
 admiral that he leave the port at once or display 
 the French flag he retorted that he had no author- 
 ity to hoist any flag but the American colors, or 
 made no answer at all. The French commissary 
 of marine at Amsterdam, having seen Vice- Admiral 
 Rhynst's communication, suggested that he might 
 forego the point, and display the French ensign 
 on his ship without committing himself in any 
 
156 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 way, but even this he refused to do. But his most 
 determined stand was to state to the vice-admiral's 
 staff-captain that he was tired of the daily threats 
 and insults, and would receive no further communi- 
 cations from the vice-admiral. Then he added 
 that the staff-captain might say for him that if 
 the vice-admiral's flagship, which mounted sixty- 
 four guns, were at sea with the Alliance, the 
 vice-admiral's attitude would not be borne for 
 a moment. A doughty little man was Paul Jones. 
 The vice-admiral sent no more messages. 
 
 At last, being ready, on the night of the 27th 
 of December, he hoisted his anchor and dropped 
 down to the mouth of the Texel, and early next 
 morning, in a heavy gale from the east, he made a 
 dash for the sea. It is said that forty sail were 
 waiting for him in the English Channel, and be- 
 sides those sent out for that purpose, other ships 
 and at least two large fleets were at anchor under 
 the land. Perhaps no single vessel has ever been 
 more numerously watched. His most likely cou 'se 
 in flight would be up through the North Sea and 
 around Scotland and Ireland, and few could have 
 supposed that he would dare pass down through 
 the narrow channel. That being the most unlikely 
 course, because the most dangerous, that was 
 therefore the course that he, being Jones, would 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 157 
 
 naturally take. He passed down the channel ! 
 The same gale that had given him his chance 
 to leave harbor had driven the blockading English- 
 men to the north, and hugging the Flemish coast 
 with skill and boldness, he passed them all. Stag- 
 gering under a great press of canvas, the Alliance 
 then ran for the middle of the English Channel. 
 The next day she passed through the Strait of 
 Dover, running in close to the Goodwin Sands, 
 with a large English fleet that had anchored in 
 the Downs in full view only three miles away. 
 The next day she ran close to the Isle of Wight, 
 with another clear look at a fleet anchored at 
 Spithead. 
 
 By the first of January the Alliance was out of 
 the channel. At different times in her wild flight 
 several British ships of the line had been almost 
 in range of her with their guns — almost ; never 
 more. And never once had she lowered the Ameri- 
 can flag! It was a wild and splendid piece of 
 daring. It was not recklessness, but daring — 
 the daring of a man who could calculate chances 
 and the natural inferences of less subtle minds 
 than his own. 
 
 The Alliance herself was in a bad way. Landais 
 had nearly ruined her. His stowing of ballast 
 had strained her and lessened her great speed. 
 
158 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 She was much overmanned, and carried a hundred 
 prisoners as well, and she had on board two sets 
 of officers, those who had come out from America 
 with Landais, and those who had been on the Bon 
 Homme Richard with Jones. Naturally there 
 were jealousies and quarrels. The men of the 
 Richard could neither forgive nor forget the con- 
 duct of the others in the fight off Flamborough 
 Head. Manlike, the others met contempt with 
 contempt. It was the wish of all except Jones 
 and a few more to reach France at once; but 
 Jones wished more prizes. In a gale he ran into 
 Corunna, Spain. There the ship was careened 
 and her bottom scraped, and on January 28 was 
 to sail again, but the crew refused to weigh anchor 
 till they received a portion at least of their wages 
 and prize-money. They had been paid nothing 
 from the time the Alliance and the Richard had 
 been put in commission till they reached the Texel. 
 Here Jones had received a small sum of money, 
 and from this he had advanced five ducats to 
 each of the officers and one to each seaman. Some 
 in their anger had thrown the paltry sum over- 
 board. Their discontent was natural. 
 
 Finally persuaded to weigh anchor through 
 the promise of Jones to sail direct for L'Orient, 
 the men waited with what patience they could. 
 
THE LITTLE MAN IN BLUE 159 
 
 Fairly at sea, Jones broke his promise. Calling 
 a conference of the officers in the cabin, he tried 
 to persuade them to cruise for two or three weeks, 
 but they bluntly refused. In a rage Jones dis- 
 missed them with angry contempt, determined to 
 go his own way. It is the period of his Hfe that 
 one cares least to recall. But the quarreling and 
 discontent became too great even for his stubborn 
 will to contend with, and on falling in with the 
 American ship Livingstone, he gave over the thought 
 of prizes, finding in the task of convoying her 
 into L'Orient a sort of plausible reason for return- 
 ing to a port where his own promise to his men 
 should long before have carried him. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Enmity of Landais 
 
 The truth is that Jones was an ill man when 
 he reached L'Orient. The long mental strain to 
 which he had been subjected, the subsequent 
 hard cruising and fighting, and the recent exposure 
 in severe winter weather, with officers and crew 
 disaffected to the point of mutiny, had left him 
 broken in health, and possibly explain some of 
 the actions of these days that one regrets to find 
 in him. On reaching port he had gone ashore 
 for a needed rest, but learning that the Alliance 
 had been selected to carry to America a large 
 supply of military stores that had been purchased 
 for the army, he set about overhauling his ship 
 for the voyage. 
 
 Near the Alliance lay the SerapiSj and the beauty 
 and strength of the ship, as well as an entirely 
 natural feehng of sentiment, awakened in Jones 
 a strong desire to command her. He wrote to 
 Franklin, asking if she might not be purchased 
 1 60 
 
THE ENMITY OF LANDAIS i6i 
 
 and turned over to him. He expressed the hope 
 that the French Government would pay for the 
 repairs of the Alliance, and suggested that it 
 might also give him the Serapis. Neither could 
 be done, Franklin wrote in reply, and he begged 
 Jones to be as economical as possible in refitting 
 the. Alliance. 
 
 Despite this warning, Jones made the repairs and 
 changes that his experience and judgment dictated, 
 to the great advantage of the Alliance, but with 
 a correspondingly great distress on the part of 
 Franklin when he saw the bills. However, he 
 paid them. Possibly Jones had been for the mo- 
 ment reckless of expense. His disheartening ex- 
 periences with inadequate ships and equipments 
 may have brought him to the point of revolt on 
 this occasion, and though, unhappily, he was not 
 now to receive the benefit of his careful outfitting 
 of the Alliance, the ship herself was the better for 
 it. For her size she had no superior afloat, and 
 under Captain John Barry she had a brilliant 
 career. 
 
 Meanwhile the wages of the ship's people had not 
 been paid. Early in April, Jones went up to 
 Paris to hasten the sale of his prizes, leaving his 
 discontented crew on the Alliance; and at this 
 poiiit Arthur Lee appeared in L'Orient. His 
 
i62 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 career in Paris as a commissioner had not been 
 brilliant. Incompetent, prejudiced, and head- 
 strong, he had injured the American cause. At 
 odds with Franklin and Congress, he now came 
 to L'Orient to return to America in the Alliance , 
 much to the disgust of Jones. On the departure 
 of Jones to Paris, Landais also appeared in L'Orient, 
 probably at the suggestion of Lee, who had con- 
 tinued to assert, in his hatred of Jones and his 
 equally strong desire to oppose Franklin, that 
 Landais was still the legal commander of the Alli- 
 ance. Landais now sent a demand to Franklin 
 to restore his command to him, an illogical act 
 for one who denied Franklin's power to remove 
 him. 
 
 In Paris a brilliant reception had been given to 
 Jones. To the people he was the great hero who 
 had lowered the pride of hated England. The 
 king and the queen gave him audience, and the 
 king promised him a magnificent gold-mounted 
 sword, to be inscribed with the motto, " Vindicati 
 maris Ludovicus XVI remunerator strenuo vindicV^ 
 C^ouis XVI, the rewarder, to the mighty deliverer, 
 for the freedom of the sea"). He also declared 
 his intention, should Congress permit, to bestow 
 upon Jones the cross of the Order of MiHtary 
 Merit, a distinction never before granted to any 
 
THE ENMITY OF LANDAIS 163 
 
 but a subject of France. Great men sought his 
 company, and the ladies of the court were proud 
 to receive his attention. Naturally Jones was 
 delighted, though he bore himself with modesty 
 and ease. 
 
 Meanwhile Jones had not neglected the business 
 that brought him to Paris, and when, on the last 
 day of May, he departed for L'Orient, he bore 
 with him the positive assurance that his prizes 
 would be sold at once and the distribution made. 
 He also carried with him a letter of commendation 
 from Franklin and another from M. de Sartine, 
 both addressed to the president of Congress. M. 
 de Sartine spoke in the highest praise of Jones, 
 and also declared the intention of the king to 
 bestow upon Jones the sword and, with the per- 
 mission of Congress, the Order of Military Merit. 
 
 During all this time, however, Franklin had 
 been troubled with the affairs of the Alliance. 
 He had paid the crew twenty-four thousand 
 livres, and had told them that everything was being 
 done to hasten the sale of the prizes; but on 
 May 29, Landais had repeated his demand to be 
 restored to the command of the ship, and had 
 inclosed a letter signed by a hundred and fifteen 
 of the crew who declared that they would not 
 hoist an anchor or sail till they had received six 
 
l64 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 months' wages and the whole of their prize-money, 
 and "until their legal captain, P. Landais, is 
 restored to us." The last phrase Landais had 
 added. With this letter was another communi- 
 cation from fourteen of the original officers of the 
 Alliance, stating that the crew was in favor of 
 Landais. As these officers had been blamed in 
 part for the conduct of the Alliance in the fight 
 with the Serapis, the cause of their dislike for Jones 
 is evident. They had spread through the crew 
 the statement that Jones had received the prize- 
 money, and was enjoying himself at their expense. 
 
 In replying to the letter of the officers, after 
 expressing his surprise that the very men who had 
 testified against Landais were now anxious to be 
 placed under his command, Franklin wrote : 
 
 "I have related exactly to Congress the manner 
 of his [Landais's] leaving the ship, and though I 
 declined any judgment of his manoeuvers in the 
 fight, I have given it as my opinion, after examining 
 the affair, that it was not at all likely either that 
 he should have given orders to fire into the Bon 
 Homme Richard, or that his officers should have 
 obeyed such an order should it have been given 
 them. Thus I have taken what care I could of 
 your honour in that particular. You will, there- 
 fore, excuse me if I am a Kttle concerned for it 
 
THE ENMITY OF LANDAIS 165 
 
 in another. If it should come to be publicly known 
 that you had the strongest aversion to Captain 
 Landais, who has used you basely, and that it is 
 only since the last year's cruise, and the appoint- 
 ment of Commodore Jones to the command, that 
 you request to be again under your old captain, 
 I fear suspicions and reflections may be thrown 
 upon you by the world, as if this change of senti- 
 ment may have arisen from your observation 
 during the cruise, that Captain Jones loved close 
 fighting, but that Captain Landais was skilful in 
 keeping out of harm's way; and that you, there- 
 fore, thought yourself safer with the latter. For 
 myself, I believe you to be brave men and lovers 
 of your country and its glorious cause ; and I am 
 persuaded you have only been ill advised and mis- 
 led by the artful and malicious representations of 
 some persons I guess at. Take in good part this 
 counsel from an old man who is your friend. Go 
 home peaceably with your ship. Do your duty 
 faithfully and cheerfully. Behave respectfully to 
 your commander, and I am persuaded he will 
 do the same to you. Thus you will not only be 
 happier in your voyage, but recommend yourselves 
 to the future favors of Congress and your country.'' 
 Franklin also directed Landais not to meddle 
 with the men or create any disturbance on the 
 
i66 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 ship at his peril. Jones had now arrived in 
 L' Orient, and Franklin informed him by letter 
 of what he had done. He also sent an imperative 
 order to the authorities to arrest Landais, who was 
 to be tried for his life for emigrating without the 
 king's permission. 
 
 On the 13 th of June, having learned of the mu- 
 tinous letters of the crew and the officers, and 
 received Franklin's letters, Jones mustered the 
 crew and had his commission from Franklin to 
 take charge of the vessel read to them. He 
 pointed out the consequences of a refusal to obey 
 his orders, and asked if any one desired to make a 
 complaint against him. No reply being received, 
 he dismissed them. Then Jones went ashore. 
 Landais, knowing the situation, at once sent a 
 letter to Degges, the first officer, ordering him to 
 take command of the ship and hold it until Landais 
 received a reply from Franklin to his demand to 
 be restored to the command. He said that he 
 would come aboard and assume command on the 
 receipt of Franklin's order. 
 
 Degges mustered the crew and read the letter, 
 and they declared for Landais, and Landais, being 
 apprised of this, at once came aboard and assumed 
 command. Jones's old officers on the Bon Homme 
 Richard were below at dinner during this last 
 
THE ENMITY OF LANDAIS 167 
 
 act, and learning of Landais's coming from the 
 cheering on deck, came up and protested against 
 the assumption of the command by Landais, and 
 were immediately put ashore. Lee must have 
 known, indeed, must have suggested, this action 
 on the part of Landais, for without his approval 
 Landais would not have had the courage to move 
 in the matter. 
 
 Jones, meanwhile, had hurried to Paris. On 
 arriving he learned that dispatches had been sent 
 to L'Orient to detain the Alliance by force, and 
 repeating the order to arrest Landais. On the 
 20th of June, Jones again reached L'Orient. The 
 Alliance had been warped out of the harbor into 
 a narrow strait called Port Louis, which was com- 
 manded by batteries that the ship would have to 
 pass. Franklin's orders to stop the ship had not 
 arrived, but under earlier orders the commandant 
 of the port had stretched a barrier across the en- 
 trance and had ordered the forts to sink the Alli- 
 ance should she attempt to sail. On Jones's 
 arrival, a boat was sent off to the ship with the 
 king's order to arrest Landais, but he refused to 
 give himself up. 
 
 If Jones had now given the order to fire on the 
 ship, it would have been done; but he did not. 
 Instead, he requested the commandant to let the 
 
l68 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 ship go. In the absence of the last positive orders 
 from FrankHn, this was done. Jones afterward 
 stated that he could not bear the thought of France, 
 the powerful ally of America, opening fire on an 
 American ship, and by that act forcibly endanger- 
 ing the friendly relations of the two countries. 
 Though this had a certain air of plausibility, no 
 break of harmony could possibly have come through 
 keeping the Alliance from sailing by holding the 
 port closed by the barrier. Had Jones been pa- 
 tient, all would in the end have gone well; but 
 patience was a quality in which he was lacking. 
 Altogether, he was blameworthy. No doubt he 
 was tired of the ship, and dreaded the thought of 
 taking her home with her hateful officers and crew 
 and the still more hateful passenger, Lee. Prob- 
 ably, too, he still longed for the Serapis. The 
 hidden springs of his action are not clear. 
 
 At all events, he had now lost his ship, and until 
 Landais sailed, he deluged him with orders that 
 Landais treated with contempt. His personal 
 property, which Landais finally sent ashore, came 
 to him in a disgraceful condition, with trunks 
 broken open, papers scattered, and much miss- 
 ing. Finally the ship sailed, with many of the old 
 crew of the Bon Homme Richard in irons. They 
 were still loyal to Jones, and had refused to assist 
 
THE ENMITY OF LANDAIS 169 
 
 Landais in working the vessel. To close the 
 matter, it may be said that the Alliance reached 
 Boston in August. Landais's queer actions had 
 so frightened the officers and endangered the vessel 
 that Lee, meddlesome to the end, advised that he 
 be closely confined until he reached America as 
 a dangerously insane person. It was done. On 
 his arrival in America he was tried by court-mar- 
 tial and dismissed from the service, certainly a 
 light sentence. Both he and his officers deserved 
 far more. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Storm and Sunshine 
 
 The sword that the king had promised to Jones 
 was received early in July. He was delighted with 
 its beauty, and frequently spoke with pride of its 
 cost, which was said to be twenty-four hundred 
 dollars. The Ariel, of twenty guns, had been 
 loaned to Franklin to help the Alliance to convey 
 to Philadelphia the military stores that had been 
 purchased for the American army, and July was 
 passed by Jones in preparing the ship for the 
 voyage. He still longed for the Serapis, however, 
 and dreaming of returning home with this visible 
 proof of his glorious victory, he again deluged his 
 friends with requests to aid him in procuring her. 
 But the French Government was unresponsive, 
 and Franklin, still vexed with him for letting the 
 Alliance slip through his fingers, gave no assistance ; 
 so, on October 7, at two in the afternoon, he sailed 
 in the Ariel, convoying three merchantmen. The 
 day was pleasant and mild, the wind fair. 
 
 170 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE 171 
 
 In the morning the wind changed, blowing fresh 
 from the south. The ship was not yet clear from 
 the land, for the island of Groix lay only fifteen 
 miles to leeward, and soon the wind was a gale, 
 with a mist obscuring the sea — "dirty weather," 
 as sailors call it. The heavy square-rigger of 
 those days was ill fitted to '^claw" off the land, and 
 the Ariel was soon sagging to leeward, with the 
 Penmarque Rocks dangerously near. Under close- 
 reefed mainsail and foresail the ship was headed 
 northwest in the hope that she might reach clear 
 of the rocks ; but the gale increased to hurricane 
 force, and even a storm-sail could not be carried. 
 The sea was tremendous ; at every roll the ship 
 dipped her yard-arms under. Then the water 
 began to shoal, and they knew that the rocks were 
 near. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock in the morning when they 
 let their big anchor go, with thirty fathoms of 
 cabl^. The great anchor might have been a 
 feather, for all the good it did; it did not even 
 bring the ship's head to the wind. Two more 
 cables were bent on the first, but without effect, 
 and the Ariel swept on toward the reef, with the 
 wild discord of the gale shrieking and roaring 
 through her rigging. Drifting broadside to the 
 sea, from stem to stern she was swept clean of 
 
172 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 every movable object. At last, with the thought 
 of bringing her head to the wind and bringing her 
 up on her anchor, Jones ordered the weather 
 shrouds of the foremast to be cut. Under the force 
 of the wind the foremast at once fell to leeward, 
 carrying away the other anchor and smashing up 
 the bow badly. 
 
 Like a weather-vane, she now swung head to the 
 wind on the pivot of her anchor, since the greater 
 resistance to the wind was now farther aft; but 
 the drift was not wholly checked. Then her main- 
 mast also fell, carrying down with it the mizzen- 
 mast, and wrecking the after part of the vessel. 
 As well as they could they cleared the ship of the 
 wreckage, and then waited. There was nothing 
 more that man could do. The breakers could 
 now be seen on the rocks close under their lee. 
 Once there, no power could save a soul on the ship. 
 
 They never reached that point, for suddenly the 
 anchor held, and for three nights and two days it 
 continued to hold. For the greater part of that 
 time the motion of the ship was so tremendous 
 that no man of all on board could keep his feet on 
 deck. Thus passively they waited for the end. 
 
 It was the 12 th of October when the hurricane 
 abated, and the crew could again work about on 
 the vessel. They fitted her with a jury, or tem- 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE 173 
 
 porary, rig, and hove in on the cable ; but when it 
 was short, — that is, straight up and down, — 
 they could not break out the anchor from the 
 bottom. It had caught in the rocks, and this 
 lucky chance was all that had saved them. So 
 cutting the cable, they bore away for L'Orient 
 again, which they reached the next day, so near 
 had they been to their port of departure. The 
 three merchantmen that had left port with them 
 were lost, as well as hundreds of other vessels. 
 The coast was strewn with bodies and with wreck- 
 age. In the memory of man no severer gale had 
 swept the shores of stormy Brittany. Long after- 
 ward Richard Dale wrote : 
 
 ''Never saw I such coolness and readiness in 
 such frightful circumstances as Paul Jones showed 
 in the nights and days when we lay off the Pen- 
 marques, expecting every moment to be lost ; and 
 the danger was greater even than we were in when 
 the Bon Homme Richard fought the Serapis.^' 
 
 Two months passed before the Ariel was again 
 ready for sea. In the interval of waiting, Thomas 
 Truxtun, later a distinguished officer of the Ameri- 
 can navy, but at that time the captain of a priva- 
 teer, entered L'Orient, flying a pennant that an 
 act of Congress had restricted to commissioned 
 vessels of war. Jones ordered him to haul down 
 
174 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 the pennant, and Truxtun refused; but when 
 Jones sent Richard Dale with two boat-crews of 
 armed men from the Ariel, Truxtun saw a new 
 light and hauled down the flag. 
 
 All the arms for the American navy with which 
 the Ariel had first set out having been ruined by 
 water, a new cargo was taken aboard, and on the 
 8th of December she sailed again. Jones took the 
 southern passage, as his cargo was valuable and 
 his ship not of great force, and the chance of meet- 
 ing powerful ships of the enemy was less likely on 
 this route than on the more northerly one. When 
 two thirds the way over, however, the Ariel was 
 chased by a vessel that at first appeared to be a 
 large frigate, and Jones crowded on sail in the 
 endeavor to escape; but the stranger was faster, 
 and though night fell before she came up, morning 
 found her nearer. There was little wind through 
 the day, but when late in the afternoon the wind 
 freshened and the stranger drew up on the Ariel, 
 Jones saw that she was less to be feared then he had 
 thought, and confidently made ready for action. 
 While still giving an appearance of trying to escape, 
 he sent his men to their stations. Both ships 
 were flying the English colors. As his pursuer 
 ranged up abreast of him, Jones, with the inten- 
 tion of hauling down the EngHsh flag and hoisting 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE 175 
 
 his own colors, and then crossing the stranger's 
 bow and pouring in a broadside, had given the 
 order to change the colors. Carelessly allowing 
 one end of the halliards to escape his hold, however, 
 the quartermaster spoiled the plan, and the right 
 moment passed. Vessels of war at that time 
 might sail under false colors in manoeuvering for 
 position, but they made it a point of honor to fly 
 their own flags when the time came to fight. 
 
 The contest, from beginning to end, now rapidly 
 developed into roaring farce. Jones hailed the 
 ship, and learned from her captain that his name 
 was John Pindar, his ship the Triumph, of twenty 
 guns, and he himself an Englishman. Jones there- 
 upon ordered him to lower a boat and bring 
 his commission aboard in proof of the last state- 
 ment, and when he refused, Jones, with his watch in 
 his hand, declared that he would give him five 
 minutes to obey the order or take the consequences 
 of refusing. But Pindar would not ; and backing 
 his ship on the weather quarter of the Triumph, 
 Jones put his helm up, crossed her stern, and poured 
 in a broadside. Then ranging alongside, for ten 
 minutes he fought vigorously. The Triumph had 
 replied with spirit at first, but gradually with 
 lessening force, and at the end of ten minutes her 
 flag was hauled down. The Ariel's men thereupon 
 
176 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 left their stations to cheer. If Captain Pindar, 
 like Wearyworld in "The Little Minister," had a 
 weakness for conversation, he had also, like Weary- 
 world, a great disinclination to remain in an un- 
 comfortable situation. His ship, with her greater 
 speed, had gradually forged ahead of the Ariel, 
 and now putting up his helm, Pindar suddenly ran 
 off before the wind before the guileless, rejoicing 
 Americans could get back to their guns. The 
 Triumph escaped. Jones expressed his natural 
 resentment of Pindar's action as follows : 
 
 "The English captain may properly be called a 
 knave, because, after he surrendered his ship, 
 begged for and obtained quarter, he basely ran 
 away, contrary to the laws of naval war and the 
 practice of civilized nations." 
 
 A few days later, on February 17, 1781, the Ariel 
 let go her anchor in the river at Philadelphia. 
 
 On reaching Philadelphia, Jones was summoned 
 before the board of admiralty to explain the delay 
 in bringing the military stores purchased in France 
 to America, but the summons was dismissed before 
 he could appear, and instead he was asked to reply 
 to a series of questions in regard to his actions after 
 his arrival in L'Orient the year before. Mean- 
 while, while preparing his replies, Jones sent to 
 the president of Congress the letters he bore from 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE 177 
 
 Franklin and Sartine. On February 27, Congress 
 adopted this resolution : 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That the Congress entertain a high 
 sense of the distinguished bravery and military 
 conduct of John Paul Jones, Esq., captain in the 
 navy of the United States, and particularly in his 
 victory over the British frigate Serapis, on the 
 coast of England, which was attended with cir- 
 cumstances so brilliant as to excite general applause 
 and admiration. 
 
 ''That the Minister Plenipotentiary of these 
 United States at the Court of Versailles communi- 
 cate to his Most Christian Majesty the high satis- 
 faction Congress has received from the conduct 
 and gallant behavior of Captain John Paul Jones, 
 which has merited the attention and approbation 
 of his Most Christian Majesty, and that his Maj- 
 esty's offer of adorning Captain Jones with a Cross 
 of Military Merit is highly acceptable to Congress." 
 
 Shortly after this consent was given, therefore, 
 the French minister gave an entertainment to 
 which the members of Congress and many citizens 
 of Philadelphia were invited, and there Paul 
 Jones was invested with the cross of the Order of 
 Military Merit. He was shortly to receive an- 
 other high honor. Having carefully considered his 
 answers to their questions, the board of admiralty 
 
178 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 expressed itself as satisfied that neither Jones nor 
 Franklin was the cause of the delay in sending the 
 stores, and in an enthusiastic message to Congress 
 declared that Jones deserved some distinguished 
 token of approbation. In accordance with this 
 suggestion, on April 14, Congress passed the follow- 
 ing resolution : 
 
 ^'Resolved, That the thanks of the United States, 
 in Congress assembled, be given to Captain John 
 Paul Jones, for the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity 
 with which he hath supported the honor of the 
 American flag; for his bold and successful enter- 
 prises, to redeem from captivity the citizens of 
 the States, who had fallen under the power of the 
 enemy ; and, in general, for the good conduct and 
 eminent services by which he has added lustre 
 to his character and to the American arms. 
 
 "That the thanks of the United States, in Con- 
 gress assembled, be also given to the officers and 
 men who have faithfully served under him from 
 time to time, for their steady affection to the cause 
 of their country, and the bravery and perseverance 
 they have manifested therein." 
 
 The thanks of Congress, the highest honor in the 
 gift of the nation to an officer, were given to only 
 five other officers in the Revolution, Washing- 
 ton, Gates, Wayne, Morgan, and Greene. Jones, 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE 179 
 
 therefore, had good cause to be happy. A month 
 later his pleasure was further increased by the 
 receipt of a gracious and appreciative letter from 
 Washington himself. Congress, too, about this 
 time, considered a proposition to promote him to 
 the rank of rear-admiral, and though the suggestion 
 finally came to naught, owing to the opposition of 
 certain other officers in the navy, the question of 
 relative rank was settled in another way that was 
 quite as satisfactory. The America, a splendid 
 new ship of the hne, was at that time nearing 
 completion at Portsmouth, and Congress, in 
 selecting a captain for her by ballot, unanimously 
 chose Jones, thus in effect placing him at the head 
 of the navy-list, as the America was the most im- 
 portant command in the navy. In his journal, 
 with admirable good sense, Jones thus commented 
 on the honor : 
 
 *'Thus Congress took a delicate method to avoid 
 cabal and to do justice. It was more agreeable to 
 Captain Jones to be so honourably elected captain 
 of the line than to have been, as was proposed by 
 the committee, raised at once to the rank of rear- 
 admiral, because Congress had not then the means 
 of giving a command suitable to that rank." 
 
 The board of admiralty being now abolished and 
 Robert Morris made minister of marine, Jones was 
 
i8o JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 directed by him to present his accounts to Congress. 
 Since his entrance into the service he had received 
 no pay and only a small part of the prize-money due 
 him, and had advanced large sums from his own 
 purse for the benefit of his officers and crews. 
 The Government now owed him twenty-seven 
 thousand dollars, and in the absence of the pay- 
 ment of this, he was obliged to ask for an advance 
 of two thousand dollars for current expenses before 
 he set out for Portsmouth to take charge of the 
 America. He found her still on the stocks, and 
 at once set to work to hasten her launching. 
 
 But the work went slowly. Cornwallis sur- 
 rendered, and the autumn passed, and the winter, 
 and summer was again upon him with the ship still 
 unlaunched. Yet in the fit tie seaport, surrounded 
 by congenial friends, he passed one of the happiest 
 periods of a life that had had too httle of happiness. 
 Then once more a bitter disappointment fell upon 
 him. The ship was nearly ready to take the water 
 when the Marquis de Vaudreuil, with a squadron 
 of French ships, entered the harbor of Boston, but 
 lost the Magnifique on entering. As a recompense 
 for the lost ship. Congress with that munificence 
 that the poor at times display toward the rich, 
 presented the America to the king of France, and 
 Morris with sadness informed Jones. Jones's 
 
STORM AND SUNSHINE i8i 
 
 high-minded letter in reply made so strong an 
 impression on Morris that he submitted the letter 
 to Congress. 
 
 After the America was launched, Jones returned 
 to Philadelphia. By a curious chance, the frigate 
 Indien, long sought by Jones, was then in that city, 
 and Morris, always his friend, and now doubly an- 
 xious to serve him because of the loss of the 
 America, tried to obtain her for Jones; but the 
 plan falHng through, Jones obtained the per- 
 mission of Congress to sail with the Marquis de 
 Vaudreuil in an expedition against Jamaica. The 
 expedition achieved nothing, and on April 4, 
 1783, at Porto Cabello, Jones, having learned of 
 the signing of the treaty of peace between the 
 United States and Great Britain, and being ill 
 at the time with fever, returned to Philadelphia. 
 
 His future course was now uncertain, for he 
 was still too ill for active service at sea, and, more- 
 over, the United States was now virtually without 
 any navy. He tarried for a while at Bethlehem, 
 Pennsylvania, until his health was much improved. 
 Yet even ill health did not lessen the activity of 
 his mind, for while he was yet at Bethlehem he 
 again busied himself with plans for organizing a 
 navy for the country. Many of his suggestions 
 were adopted when at last the nation saw its way 
 
i82 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 clear to establish that branch of national service. 
 The idea of settling down on land, always a dream 
 of the sailor, and "marrying some fair daughter 
 of liberty,'' also appears to have been in his 
 thoughts at this period, and he even wrote to 
 friends concerning an estate near Newark, New 
 Jersey, that he desired to purchase. But the dream 
 of a home came to naught, and when early in 
 November of that year of freedom he was appointed 
 by Congress to act as a special commissioner to 
 obtain from France the money due from the prizes 
 taken by the Bon Homme Richard and her sister 
 ships in his squadron, he at once sailed for France 
 to take up the task. He was obliged to give bonds 
 to the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, and 
 his high reputation for integrity may be easily 
 read in the fact that even in that day of far differ- 
 ent values, and in a country made poor by war, 
 he had no difficulty in securing bondsmen. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 With the Russian Fleet 
 
 Jones had sailed for Europe in the packet 
 Washington. The ship had touched at Plymouth, 
 and for the first time in many years, except as an 
 enemy, Jones was again on EngKsh soil. He went 
 up to London to consult with John Adams, then 
 minister, but was soon again in France, where he 
 was cordially welcomed by the king and queen and 
 by the new minister of marine, the Marechal de 
 Castries. Society also again received him most 
 graciously. Against all the attempts of the 
 French Government to reduce the amount of the 
 prize-money due him and his companions he fought 
 long and successfully, and at last it was paid. One 
 hundred and eighty-one thousand livres, or nearly 
 forty thousand dollars, was the exact sum. He 
 made no charge for collecting the sum, but his 
 expenses were set at forty-eight thousand livres. 
 His own share of the money was thirteen thousand 
 livres. Certainly the amount used for living ex- 
 
 183 
 
184 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 penses was extravagantly high, though surely not 
 improperly so in his own estimation. He had 
 always been indifferent to money, though not to 
 the things it might procure, and he had a high 
 appreciation of his own dignity and of the dignity 
 of the nation he represented. The French court 
 was extravagant, and he held his place in it as an 
 equal, and no question of economy was likely to 
 disturb him in such surroundings. Certainly we 
 have now no reason to blame him if Congress did 
 not, for his expenditures were approved by that 
 body. 
 
 It was during this long stay in France that he 
 gave one more proof of his activity of mind in 
 circumstances where most men would have given 
 themselves up to the pleasures of the hour and the 
 set tasks that came to their hands. He busied 
 himself with many projects, the most notable one 
 being to engage in the fur trade in the Pacific. 
 His companion in this scheme was the explorer 
 Ledyard, who had sailed round the world with 
 Captain Cook, and the plan was finally dropped 
 because of a lack of money to carry it through. 
 But the keen business instinct of the man who first 
 conceived the idea is clearly seen when one recalls 
 the enormous fortunes that were afterwards made 
 in this trade. 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 185 
 
 Early in 1787, Jefferson suggested to him that 
 he go to Denmark to push through a claim for 
 indemnity for the loss of the prizes that his 
 squadron had sent to Bergen, and which were there 
 given up to the British. He had reached Brussels 
 on his journey when the lack of necessary funds 
 decided him to return first to America, where the 
 auditors of the United States Treasury were dis- 
 puting his large claims for personal expenses in 
 collecting the prize-money from France. On 
 reaching America, his personal explanation of the 
 matter at least satisfied Congress, as has already 
 been stated, and, in addition, that body took the 
 occasion to pass the following resolutions : 
 
 ^^ Resolved J That a medal of gold be struck, 
 and presented to the Chevalier Paul Jones in com- 
 memoration of the valor and brilHant service of 
 that officer in the command of a squadron of Ameri- 
 can and French ships under the flag and commission 
 of the United States, off the coast of Great Britain, 
 in the late war ; and that the Honourable Mr. Jef- 
 ferson, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United 
 States at the Court of Versailles, have the same 
 executed with the proper devices." 
 
 On October 25, Congress passed resolutions on 
 the failure of Denmark to pay the prize claim al- 
 ready mentioned, and instructed Jefferson, now 
 
i86 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 minister to France, to dispatch the Chevalier Paul 
 Jones to prosecute the claim at the court of Den- 
 mark. A few days later Jones sailed for Europe. 
 On reaching Paris, Jefferson informed him that 
 the question of asking him to enter the ser\ace of 
 the Empress Catharine II of Russia had been 
 seriously discussed by the Russian ambassador in 
 his absence. Russia was at that time engaged in 
 war with Turkey, and certain reverses to the fleet 
 in the Black Sea had caused much concern in 
 the court at St. Petersburg. At the moment 
 when Jones was about to leave Paris for Copen- 
 hagen, the Russian ambassador told him that he 
 had brought the matter to the attention of the 
 empress and she had been favorably impressed 
 with the suggestion. 
 
 Jones therefore set out for Copenhagen in high 
 hopes of again seeing active service. He reached 
 the capital on the 4th of March, and received a 
 most cordial welcome from the king and queen 
 and the leading people of the country, but the 
 matter of his business there went less well. The 
 Government evaded the question, and taking ad- 
 vantage of the unfortunate clause in the resolution 
 of Congress that all action should be referred back 
 to Jefferson in Paris, finally declared that it was 
 impossible to act through an agent. Receiving 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 187 
 
 at this stage a definite summons to come to Russia, 
 Jones put the business of collecting the prize-money 
 in the hands of Jefferson, which was all that he 
 could do in any case, and made ready for his 
 departure. It may be interesting to know that 
 Denmark never paid the money. For over sixty 
 years the negotiations dragged on, and in 1847 
 Denmark finally denied all accountability for the 
 claim. A year later Congress provided for the 
 payment of the prize-money concerned in the case 
 to the heirs of Paul Jones and others entitled to 
 share in it. 
 
 At the moment of leaving, Paul Jones wrote to 
 Jefferson : 
 
 While I express in the warm effusion of a grateful heart, 
 the deep sense I feel of my eternal obligation to you as the 
 author of the honourable prospect that is now before me, I 
 must rely on your friendship to justify to the United States 
 the important step I now take, conformable to your advice. 
 You know I had no idea of this new fortune when I found 
 that you had put it in train, before my last return to Paris from 
 America. I have not forsaken a country that has had many 
 disinterested and difficult proofs of my steady affection, and 
 I can never renounce the glorious title of a,. citizen of the 
 United States. 
 
 In his negotiations with her Majesty's agent, the 
 only conditions he made before agreeing to enter 
 her service were that he should never be expected 
 
i88 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 to bear arms against the United States or France, 
 that he should at all times be subject to recall by 
 Congress, and that he should not entertain the 
 thought of giving up citizenship in America. 
 
 About the middle of April, 1788, he set out for 
 Russia by way of Stockholm and Gresholm. The 
 ice was still heavy in the Gulf of Bothnia, so hiring 
 an open thirty-foot boat and a small tender, he 
 determined to cross the Baltic Sea, concealing from 
 his boatmen, in view of the almost winter weather, 
 his destination. A strong east wind had driven 
 the ice toward the Swedish coast. Nearing Stock- 
 holm by night, his crew, alarmed for their safety, 
 determined, in defiance of orders, to run for 
 shelter ; but Jones, drawing his pistols and seizing 
 the helm, commanded them to beat to sea. Others 
 had learned that when on the deck of a ship he was 
 not one to trifle with, and they obeyed. Through 
 a driving snow-storm, though the wind had changed 
 to the west, they ran through floating ice with only 
 Jones's pocket compass and a lantern from his 
 carriage to direct them in their course. The second 
 night was worse than the first. Their tender 
 was crushed in the ice, and their own boat narrowly 
 escaped. Between the cold and the storm and the 
 grim little figure who seemed neither to rest nor 
 sleep, the men were well-nigh helpless with terror. 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 189 
 
 But, thanks to Paul Jones's seamanship and grim 
 courage, they came through in safety, and four 
 days later landed at Reval, on the south shore of 
 the Gulf of Finland. They had sailed five hundred 
 miles, and those who had known of his sailing at 
 the time supposed he had perished. But nothing 
 ever daunted him when he was at sea; there his 
 audacity was superb. It was not foolhardiness, 
 however. He knew the sea and ships; he had 
 also the grim determination that delights in ob- 
 stacles for the sheer joy of overcoming them. Now 
 he paid his boatmen for the loss of their tender and 
 for their unwilling services also, and set out for 
 the Russian court. 
 
 On the 6th of May the empress received him 
 most graciously and made him a rear-admiral, to 
 his great delight. He said, in writing of the meet- 
 ing, that he had asked only one favor, — that 
 he might never be condemned unheard. It was 
 the one thing that he was not to get in Russia, 
 though all that lay in the future. For the moment 
 everything was delightful. He was entertained 
 royally by all the notables of the city, with the 
 single exception of the Enghsh. There were many 
 of them in the service of the empress, and with 
 one voice they cried out against him as a mere 
 smuggler and pirate. It is more than possible 
 
igo JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 that Jones was rather proud of the anger and 
 affected contempt of the British. The reason was 
 plain enough, and not likely to hurt the pride of a 
 man who had a high notion of his own merits. 
 
 On May i8, Jones set out for the headquarters 
 of Potemkin, who had charge of the military opera- 
 tions in the south. Against his protest, he was to 
 be under the orders of Potemkin, who received him 
 most graciously. The world has never fully de- 
 cided whether Potemkin was genius or madman; 
 he had all the quaHfications of both. He had been 
 a favorite of the empress, and he had held great 
 power. Under his definite orders Jones now en- 
 tered a campaign that was doomed to fail, for 
 Jones was not a good subordinate. Jones was 
 further curbed by being associated in some un- 
 defined way with Prince Otto of Nassau-Siegen. 
 They had already met. Nassau had asked to 
 serve under Jones in the Indien when Jones had 
 expected to command that ship, but afterward had 
 treated Jones with discourtesy. He had never 
 succeeded in any undertaking, and now he was to 
 be associated with Jones. 
 
 The object of their campaign was to capture the 
 city of Otchakoff. It lay on the Turkish frontier 
 (on the Liman, an estuary at the mouth of the 
 Dneiper River), not far from Odessa, and so long 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 191 
 
 as it remained in the hands of the Turks menaced 
 Russian communications. It was strongly fortified 
 and garrisoned, and had in addition a fleet of a 
 hundred and twenty armed vessels of all sizes, 
 under the command of a distinguished admiral. 
 Leaving Potemkin, in company with one of his 
 staff -officers, Jones proceeded to Kherson, the 
 principal Russian naval station in that region. 
 Here the chief of admiralty treated him with in- 
 difference, and though he had been ordered by 
 Potemkin to give Jones all the particulars of the 
 situation, he really told nothing. On arriving at 
 Glubora the next day Jones had a new disappoint- 
 ment. His fleet consisted of fifteen vessels, and 
 all were badly built and wholly unsuitable. At 
 anchor with the fleet was a large flotilla of gunboats, 
 each carrying a single heavy gun and often smaller 
 pieces, manned by thirty or forty men, and pro- 
 pelled mainly by oars. This flotilla Nassau com- 
 manded, and though Jones had been told that he 
 was to have charge of all naval operations in the 
 campaign, he now found that Nassau's command 
 was independent. He was simply cooperating with 
 Jones, which might mean anything or nothing. It 
 was, as he saw at once clearly, an unlikely path to 
 glorious achievements. 
 
 Jones went at once aboard the Wolodimer, his 
 
192 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 flagship. The squadron had been previously 
 under the command of a Greek named Alexiano, 
 and Jones found that he had attempted to persuade 
 the captains of the fleet to refuse to recognize his 
 authority. They would not agree, and Alexiano 
 submitted with very ill grace. On the same even- 
 ing, June 6, 1788, Jones hoisted his rear-admiral's 
 flag. General Suvoroff was in command of a 
 strong fortress at Kinburn, on the bank of the 
 Liman opposite Otchakoff , but it lay too far inland 
 to be really effective. Jones had gone to view the 
 situation of the town on the day of his arrival, and 
 his keen military sense at once saw the necessity of 
 placing a strong battery at the end of ELinburn 
 Point. He told Suvoroff, and Suvoroff imme- 
 diately acted upon his advice, and generously gave 
 Jones all the credit, though his own neglect to 
 place a battery there was a reflection on his own 
 skill. Before the guns were placed, the Turkish 
 admiral, with twenty-one frigates and sloops of 
 war and a few smaller crafts, took up his position 
 in the Liman, off Otchakoff. A flotilla of gun- 
 boats about equal in number to the Russian flotilla 
 followed him. Larger Turkish vessels, unable to 
 enter the shoal waters of the Liman, lay to the west 
 of the city, and took no -part in' the action. 
 
 On the 9th of June, the squadron, having re- 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 193 
 
 ceived on board a strong reinforcement of soldiers, 
 took up its position near the entrance to the Liman, 
 forming a long line that would enable it to pour a 
 cross fire on ships approaching from Otchakoff. 
 Thus stationed, it commanded the approach from 
 the sea, protected the naval station at Kherson, 
 and would be able to support Potemkin's troops 
 when they advanced to the attack of Otchakoff. 
 Near the squadron lay the Russian flotilla, under 
 the command of Nassau. On the afternoon of 
 June 18, the Turkish flotilla advanced in two divi- 
 sions against the Russian flotilla on its right flank, 
 which almost at once gave ground. On account of 
 shoal water, the squadron had not been able to 
 enter into the action, but Jones left his flagship and 
 went to Nassau's galley, being unable to stand idly 
 by when fighting was under way. He found 
 Nassau completely unstrung and bent on retreat, 
 but Jones protested, and, Nassau not objecting, 
 he proceeded to take command. Bringing up the 
 unengaged part of the flotilla in such fashion 
 that he was likely to bring the Turkish fleet be- 
 tween two fires and cut off its retreat, Jones brought 
 about the instant flight of the enemy. Two of 
 their gunboats were captured. 
 
 As the engagement had been fought by the flo- 
 tilla alone, Nassau insolently reported its success 
 
194 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 to Potemkin as due to himself solely, and in 
 contemptuous silence Jones let the claim pass un- 
 disputed. 
 
 A few days later the Russian army advanced to 
 besiege the city, and as a counter-movement the 
 Turkish commander of the fleet began operations 
 against Jones's squadron. The wind was fair for 
 him, and as his squadron bore down upon the 
 Russians, Nassau's courage again vanished and 
 he clamored to retreat; but Jones, paying no 
 heed to him, weighed anchor and waited for the 
 Turks to draw near. Shortly after midday, how- 
 ever, the Turkish flagship grounded on the shoals 
 off the south bank of the Liman, and the advance 
 was immediately arrested, with the whole Turkish 
 squadron anchoring about the flagship. 
 
 A council was called aboard the Wolodimer, and 
 Jones finally persuaded his Russian captains to 
 attack the Turks. During the night the wind 
 had shifted about, now giving the Russians the 
 fair wind, and at daybreak on the 29th of June 
 their squadron bore down on the Turks, with the 
 Wolodimer in the lead. The flagship of the Turks 
 had been floated, but their ships were unskillfully 
 grouped together, and as Jones led his ships down 
 at an angle that permitted his whole fleet to get 
 into action and surround the huddled ships of the 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 195 
 
 enemy, taken by surprise by the audacity of the 
 approach, the Turks were thrown into confusion, 
 and the flagship and the ship of the second Turkish 
 officer went aground. Neither could make any 
 return of the heavy fire that was now centered upon 
 them, and both struck their colors, and were aban- 
 doned by their crews. The other ships of the 
 squadron fled back to Otchakoff. As the Wolo- 
 dimer neared the stranded flagship of the Turks, 
 Alexiano, the Greek who had formerly commanded 
 the Wolodimer and was now serving under Jones, 
 let go her anchor. Jones was ignorant of the 
 action until his ship stopped. 
 
 The Turkish commander, who was certainly 
 no coward, had hoisted his flag in the meanwhile 
 on one of the gunboats of the flotilla, and now 
 returned to the fight, pouring in a vigorous fire 
 upon the right wing of the Russian squadron. 
 With their flagship anchored, the Russian squadron 
 was now in great peril. One of its frigates, the 
 Little Alexander, was set on fire and blown up. 
 The deep-draft ships of the squadron could not 
 approach the Turkish flotilla, which kept in shoal 
 water, and their light guns were ineffective against 
 the heavier guns of the flotilla. The heavy guns 
 of the Russian flotilla were now desperately needed, 
 but they had loitered behind in a disorderly for- 
 
196 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 mation, and to Jones's dispatch to Nassau to come 
 up, no attention whatever was paid. 
 
 Again, therefore, was Jones forced to take him- 
 self on board Nassau's galley. He found him far 
 in the rear, well out of harm's way, and set on 
 attacking the two stranded ships, now of course 
 defenseless, as they lay heeled over on the shoals. 
 Unable to get him to act, Jones appealed to his 
 second in command. Brigadier Corsakoff, and he, 
 with more courage, brought the flotilla into action, 
 and after a desperate fight drove off the Turkish 
 flotilla with great loss to the latter. Jones had 
 returned to the Wolodimer, — both trips were made 
 through a furious fire, — but before he got under 
 way, Nassau, with a few of his gunboats, had 
 surrounded the two stranded ships and set fire 
 to them with bombs. It was an unpardonable 
 act; it was a childish destruction of property. 
 The two ships were in the power of the squadron, 
 and would have been valuable additions to it. 
 With the destruction of the two ships, no trophy 
 of a decided victory remained in the hands of the 
 victors but the flag of the Turkish admiral. 
 
 It was now late in the afternoon, but Jones gave 
 orders to move on Otchakoff and strike a final 
 blow at the Turkish fleet before it could recover. 
 Now, however, Nassau preferred to remain where 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 197 
 
 he was. Disregarding him as usual, Jones pro- 
 ceeded with the squadron as near to Otchakoff 
 as the shallow water permitted, and then anchored 
 his ships across the channel. Turkish ships 
 attempting to escape would find it necessary to 
 pass under the guns of the squadron and of the 
 battery on Kinburn Point, which, by the way, 
 as has already been related, was placed in that 
 position by the advice of Jones. Nassau's flotilla 
 in the end came up, and massed itself on the right 
 flank of the squadron. The Turkish squadron and 
 flotilla lay under cover of the Otchakofif fortifica- 
 tions. There was nothing, therefore, for Jones to 
 do but to wait. 
 
 But he was not one to wait in idleness. In 
 order to get a more certain knowledge of the lay of 
 the land, just before sunset he passed along the 
 whole Turkish line in a small boat, taking soundings 
 of the depth of the water. It was both impudent 
 and reckless. He was well within range of the 
 guns of the forts and the fleet, yet not a gun was 
 fired. 
 
 That night the Turkish commander attempted to 
 work out of the harbor and escape. Trying to 
 avoid both the ships of Jones's squadron and the 
 battery on Kinburn Point, nine of his largest 
 ships ran aground. A few of the fleet passed 
 
igS JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 safely and the others returned to the protection 
 of the forts of the city. Morning disclosed the 
 plight of the nine ships that had grounded. Gen- 
 eral Suvoroff, who had in person commanded the 
 battery on ELinburn Point that night, signaled to 
 Jones to take possession of them ; but when he 
 was about to send a light-draft frigate for that 
 purpose, Alexiano informed him that the ebb tide 
 at the place where the ships had grounded ran like 
 a mill-race, and was therefore dangerous for a 
 sailing vessel, Jones, upon the advice of his cap- 
 tains, turned over the task of taking possession of 
 the ships to the flotilla. With the consent of 
 Jones, Alexiano went in with Nassau. 
 
 When they came within range, the gunboats of 
 the flotilla opened fire, but the Turks made no 
 reply ; for, heeled over on the shoals as they were, 
 the ships could not bring their guns to bear. There 
 was nothing for them to do but surrender, and this 
 they did. Nassau paid no attention. He con- 
 tinued his fire ; and when he realized the helpless 
 state of the stranded ships, he drew nearer, and 
 resorted to bombs, firing the ships. Imploring 
 mercy, the wretched Turks knelt on the decks 
 and even made the sign of the cross in their efforts 
 to touch the hearts of their foes. It was all in 
 vain. They were in the power of ruthless bullies 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 199 
 
 and cowards ; in a galley, at a safe distance in 
 the rear of the attacking gunboats, Nassau and 
 Alexiano, who had ordered the butchery, sat and 
 rejoiced in the awful spectacle. Seven ships were 
 burned and three thousand Turks were wantonly 
 murdered. Two ships alone escaped, and were 
 later added to the squadron. Immediately after 
 the destruction of the vessels, Nassau forwarded 
 a report of their operations to Potemkin, claiming 
 that the flotilla — their flotilla — had burned nine 
 ships of the line and captured two. 
 
 Jones had viewed the scene with horror and 
 wonder. He could fight to the last against brave 
 men who fought back, but when the fight was 
 over, and the enemy in his power, he was the most 
 merciful of men. It was the turning-point with 
 Jones. At the beginning he appears to have tried 
 to work in harmony with Nassau, but Nassau's 
 inefficiency, his lack of character, his cowardice, 
 his utter inabihty to perform the most ordinary 
 maneuvers with his flotilla, almost at once stirred 
 Jones's impatience and scorn. And now this 
 heartless cruelty ! He could no longer conceal 
 his scorn and contempt. He was soon to have 
 added to all this an acute sense of injustice. 
 
 For Potemkin, who at this time was fond of 
 Nassau, gave him the whole credit of the successes 
 
200 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 that were due to Jones, and to Jones alone. Such 
 was the report that he dispatched to the empress, 
 in his regard for Nassau suppressing all reference 
 to the wholesale destruction of the ships which 
 would have been a valuable addition to the Black 
 Sea squadron. With a perverted sense of fairness 
 and justice, he said in his report that Jones had 
 also done his duty. 
 
 For ten days the fleet remained inactive while it 
 waited for Potemkin to invest Otchakoff. On the 
 night of the 8th of July, being at last ready to move, 
 he sent orders to Nassau to destroy the Turkish 
 flotilla under the walls of the city. Jones received 
 orders to give all possible assistance. For a few 
 days the weather made action impossible, but on 
 the night of the 12th the advance was begun. It 
 was impossible to use his ships in the shoal water, 
 but Jones manned his boats, to be used in towing 
 the gunboats. 
 
 At daybreak the Russian gunboats opened fire. 
 After towing those in his charge to a favorable 
 position, Jones led the boats of the Wolodimer 
 against five of the Turkish galleys that lay within 
 the range of the fort built at the extreme point 
 below the city called Fort Hassan. The galleys 
 lay between the fire of Fort Hassan and the Russian 
 flotilla, and were covered by the guns of the Turkish 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 201 
 
 flotilla and those of the citadel of Otchakoff . An 
 attack on them, therefore, was a hazardous venture. 
 Jones was far in advance of the flotilla, which, 
 with Nassau in command, showed their usual re- 
 luctance to go into danger. Despite a hot fire, 
 Jones made for the nearest galley, and captured 
 it by boarding after a furious hand-to-hand fight. 
 Turning the captured galley over to a Heutenant, 
 with orders to tow her to safety, Jones moved 
 against the next galley, which by chance was the 
 galley of the admiral of the Turkish squadron. 
 The boat lay near the fort and was desperately 
 defended by its crew, but nothing could withstand 
 the inspiring leadership of Jones in battle, and the 
 galley was presently surrendered. Her cable was 
 cut without orders, and she grounded under the 
 walls of Fort Hassan, the object of a withering fire. 
 Being eager to bring her out as a prize, Jones 
 lightened her as much as possible and sent to the 
 flagship for a kedge, a small anchor, with which to 
 haul her off the shoal. While waiting for this, he 
 manned the boats and tried to bring up the Russian 
 flotilla. Partly succeeding, three other galleys of 
 the enemy struck their flags, and the rest of the 
 Turkish flotilla retreated with heavy loss. The 
 kedge had now been brought, but before anything 
 could be done in the matter of hauling off the 
 
202 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 captured galley, fire was seen breaking out on the 
 two gunboats that Jones had previously captured. 
 Alexiano had again been at work ; he had ordered 
 them to be fired. The three other captured gun- 
 boats shared the same fate. On the five galleys 
 only fifty-two prisoners, whom Jones himself 
 brought off in his own boats, were saved. These 
 galleys were propelled by oars, and the rowers 
 were slaves and most probably captive Christians. 
 They perished with the Turks that remained on 
 board after the surrender. Two ships were 
 burned under the walls of Fort Hassan. The re- 
 mainder of the flotilla did nothing. 
 
 Thus ended Jones's naval adventures with the 
 Russian fleet. In three weeks he had fought four 
 engagements, all personally directed by him. With 
 fifteen ships against twenty-one, he had yet des- 
 troyed thirteen of the Turkish squadron and many 
 galleys. A few ships had escaped ; a few had 
 sought shelter in the harbor. The Turkish naval 
 force in the Liman was virtually crushed. Eleven 
 ships might have been prizes had it not been for 
 Nassau, who in his cowardice turned only to 
 destruction. Everything had been done by Jones. 
 Nassau had always skulked until fighting was 
 well over, and then had been quick to destroy the 
 fruit of the victory of others. Yet now he and 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 203 
 
 Alexiano hastened to Potemkin with their per- 
 verted reports, and Potemkin received them with 
 favor. Jones had been ignorant of their going, 
 and he took no steps to set matters right. In due 
 time he made his own report of the battle in the 
 accustomed way. His report was suppressed. It 
 is doubtful if the empress ever knew the truth 
 of the matter. 
 
 Two day later Alexiano returned to the flagship, 
 and on July 19 he died, stricken with fever. On 
 the day of his death the empress granted him a 
 large estate. At the same time Nassau received 
 from her hand a valuable estate, with thousands 
 of serfs, and the military order of St. George. The 
 empress also directed him to hoist a vice-admiral's 
 flag on the surrender of Otchakoff. Paul Jones 
 received the minor order of St. Anne, and nothing 
 more. So things were ordered in Russia at the 
 close of the eighteenth century. 
 
 There is little more to relate concerning the cam- 
 paign. It is clear that the failure to give Jones 
 his due lay at the door of Potemkin. There was 
 nothing to draw the two together, for Potemkin 
 was difficult, and Jones no courtier. Potemkin 
 preferred Nassau, and though he shortly dismissed 
 him from his command, it was not to Jones's gain. 
 Littlepage, the American, who had accepted the 
 
204 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 command of one of the ships of the squadron, 
 unable to endure a situation that was intolerable, 
 threw up his command and departed. On leaving 
 he wrote to Jones : 
 
 ''Farewell, my dear Admiral ; take care of your- 
 self, and look to whom you trust. Remember that 
 you have rather to play the part of a politician than 
 a warrior — more of a courtier than a soldier." 
 
 It was a part Paul Jones was ill fitted to play. 
 The situation between him and Potemkin grew 
 more and more strained. Their correspondence 
 took on a caustic tone; Potemkin wrote an un- 
 pudent letter at last, and Jones replied hotly. On 
 the 28 th of October, Potemkin relieved him from 
 his command. The letter advising him of this 
 stated that the empress desired his service in 
 Northern waters, but this was merely a pretext. 
 
 It is not pleasant to dwell upon Jones's career in 
 Russia. He had shown anew his valor and his 
 power to inspire his men with something of his own 
 spirit ; he had displayed the highest order of skill 
 and genius to direct large movements : but in the 
 Russia of that time it had all gone for naught. 
 One turns from the story with rehef . He returned 
 to St. Petersburg from the Liman, but there his 
 old popularity had waned. Potemkin was se- 
 cretly against him ; Nassau and the English of the 
 
WITH THE RUSSIAN FLEET 205 
 
 court circle were openly against him; and the 
 empress would not receive him. Through a 
 letter from Jefferson he now became aware that 
 all his correspondence since he had been in the 
 Russian service had been intercepted. Examining 
 the official records, he learned that the reports of 
 his actions on the Liman had been falsified. Now 
 once more in St. Petersburg, he was to be vilely 
 slandered, and though in the end he was to be 
 fully vindicated (mainly through the untiring zeal 
 and devotion of M. de Segur, the French ambas- 
 sador to St. Petersburg), and the empress was to 
 receive him graciously before his departure and 
 declare that she was granting him permission to 
 absent himself for a brief time only, he was never 
 to be called back to her service. Journeying slowly, 
 he stopped for a while at Warsaw, visited Vienna 
 and London, and in May he was back in Paris. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Friendships and Honors 
 
 The dark shadow of the cloud that was to deluge 
 all France with woe had already crept over the 
 dear city where he had passed some of the happiest 
 years of his Hfe, and with all his broken hopes and 
 keen disappointments, and now, too, with the 
 shadow of failing health darkening his spirit, he 
 took his quiet place in the troubled and broken Ufa 
 of the city. Yet the time for him was not wholly 
 unhappy. His needs were simple now in this 
 simpler period, and he had enough to provide for 
 them. He busied himself with his journals and in 
 arranging his papers, and as ever he continued his 
 loved correspondence. At times he visited the 
 Sorbonne for pleasant talk with congenial scholars. 
 He lived in a comfortable house in the rue de Tour- 
 non, and his physician, the physician of the queen, 
 by the way, was one of the best in France. Gouv- 
 erneur Morris, then the American minister to 
 France, was his warm friend ; he had other warm 
 friends as well. 
 
 so6 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND HONORS 207 
 
 He was now to learn at first hand of a new kind 
 of liberty — a liberty that for him had no appeal. 
 In a general way his sympathies had always gone 
 out to struggling humanity, but in truth he was a 
 born ruler both in instinct and through a lifelong 
 practice of absolute control on the quarter-deck 
 of a ship. The training of years as a commander 
 had strengthened an instinct for authority and 
 order and discipline in Paul Jones. With sad 
 foreboding he saw France falling into unbridled 
 license in her struggle for a kind of liberty that 
 made no appeal to his nature. So little by little 
 he drifted away from the troubled life about him, 
 more and more taken up with his own alarming 
 condition. 
 
 The disease, which had been rapidly spreading 
 through his body, grew more threatening in July, 
 and on the afternoon of the i8th, Gouverneur 
 Morris himself drew up his will. His intimate 
 friends were the witnesses, and when he signed the 
 document it was not as the commodore or the 
 chevalier or the admiral, titles long dear to his 
 fame-loving heart, but as "John Paul Jones, a 
 citizen of the United States." His property, thirty 
 thousand dollars in value, he devised to his two 
 surviving sisters and their children. 
 
 Early that same evening his friends left him, 
 
2o8 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 still seated in an arm-chair in his drawing-room. 
 A little later his physician called. He found the 
 chair empty. The door of the bedroom adjoining 
 was open, and he walked into the room. Prone on 
 the bed the great warrior-sailor, at the age of forty- 
 five, lay dead. 
 
 The place of his burial had long been forgotten 
 when General Horace Porter entered upon his du- 
 ties as American ambassador to France. Moved, 
 as he said, by a deep sense of humiliation that 
 America's first and most fascinating naval hero lay 
 in an unknown and forgotten spot, General Porter 
 began in 1899 the patriotic task of locating it. 
 The certificate of burial had been registered; but 
 the certificate, with other records, had been burned 
 by the Commune in 187 1. Fortunately, however, 
 Mr. Charles Read, an archaeologist and author of 
 note, being also interested in the matter, before the 
 destruction of the certificate had made a copy of 
 it, and further researches by him had led him to 
 believe that the burial had been in the Protestant 
 cemetery of St. Louis, long since abandoned and 
 built over. It is unnecessary to go into details, 
 but after a long search by General Porter the body 
 was found and brought home, to lie at last in the 
 chapel of the Naval Academy at Annapolis as the 
 most fitting place for it to rest. 
 
The Chapel at Annapolis 
 
 In this beautiful chapel, in the grounds of our great Naval Academy, 
 the body of Admiral John Paul Jones now rests. 
 
FRIENDSHIPS AND HONORS 209 
 
 Physically, Paul Jones was by no means a com- 
 manding figure. He was slender in frame and only 
 five feet and five inches in height, and even this 
 inconsiderable stature was lessened by a slight 
 stoop of his shoulders. But his brow was broad 
 and full, his eyes were dark and piercing, with a look 
 of high courage and an honest directness of gaze. 
 His nose was prominent, well shaped, and sensitive, 
 and his cheek-bones were high. His mouth was 
 large, but well modeled, and his chin was strong. 
 Though his shoulders stooped slightly, he carried 
 his head high. But mere size alone does not in- 
 fluence followers, and in the fury of battle no more 
 commanding figure than Paul Jones ever swayed 
 men to his will. The personification of courage and 
 relentless determination at such moments, some 
 rare quahty in his personality then welded the 
 skulkers, the disaffected, and the brave into a 
 harmonious whole that became in a way the em- 
 bodiment of his own spirit. 
 
 In bearing he was graceful and wholly at ease. 
 He carried himself with dignity in any society, 
 and by a lifelong and diligent cultivation of his 
 mind he was always able to give in full value the 
 equivalent of all that he received. He did not, 
 therefore, hold his place in social life merely as 
 the lion of the hour, but because of his fitness for it. 
 
210 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 In a time when the sailor or the warrior was 
 supposed to use strange oaths and plain speech, 
 Paul Jones was both clean-mouthed and clean- 
 hearted. His letters disclose the same quality of 
 cleanness. He made friends with the great, and 
 kept them. If he also made enemies, he had also 
 the generous quaHties of forgiveness and for- 
 bearance. He did not hold anger or hatred. 
 
 As a commander of single ships he was remark- 
 able. He never acknowledged defeat, and con- 
 tinued to fight on with his poor ships and poorer 
 crews ; and in the end, victory, worn down by his 
 persistency, came to him. But he was more than 
 this, more than mere fighter; he was even 
 greater as an adroit and skillful commander. And 
 even beyond these great qualities he had the splen- 
 did ability that could mold principles and policies 
 for the betterment of his high calling. All in all, 
 he was both a great sailor and a great man. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
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 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS 
 
 New Illustrated Biographies for Young People 
 
 THOMAS A. EDISON By Francis Rolt=Wheeler 
 
 Thomas Alva Edison is the typical American. From boy- 
 hood to ripest manhood he has been keen to see an opportu- 
 nity, and quick to turn that opportunity to a practical use. 
 His genius is peculiar because it is so American. It is not as 
 a scientist that Edison is great, it is not even as an inventor, 
 it is as the master of the practical use of everything he touches 
 that he appears a giant mind of modern times. 
 
 Illustrated. $.50 
 
 ROBERT FULTON By Alice C. SutcUffe 
 
 The life of Robert Fulton makes good reading. The story 
 of his belief in and work upon a submarine and his journeys 
 to France and England to lay his plans before the British 
 Government — his steamboat, and the years of study and labor 
 which went toward perfecting it — his paintings — his travels 
 in foreign lands in days when American travelers were few — 
 combine to make one of the most interesting and inspiring 
 books of the series. 
 
 "The story is full of interest, and the style fascinating. 
 Few of the 'heroes of peace' attract the youthful reader more 
 than the one chosen by this writer." — Christian Standard. 
 
 Illustrated. $.50 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN By E. Lawrence Dudley 
 
 As a statesman, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, and man of 
 letters, Benjamin Franklin was the foremost American of his 
 time. The story of his life is an inspiring and stimulating 
 narrative, with all the fascination and interest of Colonial and 
 Revolutionary America, Mr. Dudley has written a book that 
 will find favor with every right-minded boy or girl. 
 
 Illustrated. $.50 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
 •RD-23 2 ** 
 
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