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Biographical Notes
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John Paul Jones
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In May 1776, Jones was once again offered command of the Providence and this time he accepted. Most of his responsibilities during the summer of 1776 was escort duty in and around Long Island Sound, New York. That fall he was ordered to sea to attack British shipping. The subsequent cruise netted sixteen prizes and was one of very few naval successes for the revolutionaries up to that time. In November he was given command of the Alfred and Providence with the mission of freeing American prisoners being held in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. During this cruise he managed to capture a few additional prizes before learning that the American prisoners had joined the British navy to escape confinement. He returned to Boston in December 1776 where he was threatened with arrest by the local sheriff and a lawyer representing the captain of a privateer from which Jones had impressed two seamen that he accused of running away from service aboard the Alfred. Jones drew his sword and refused to be arrested. A few days later he countersued the privateer for luring sailors away from their duty. The case was eventually thrown out of court. On October 10, 1776, the newly formed Marine Commission promulgated a list of seniority for all naval captains. Jones was listed eighteenth near the bottom of the list. This infuriated him and he quickly made his feelings known to all and sundry. He was developing something of a reputation for being a trouble maker.
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In the Spring of 1777 Jones was given command of the newly built armed sloop Ranger and ordered to France where he was to take command of a new frigate, the Indien being built in Holland. On arrival in France he learned that the promised frigate had been sold to the French at the insistence of the British. He spent several months in France plotting with the French the best way to attack the British. One such plan called for an attack by the French on the British fleet off of the Delaware capes. Although this particular attack did not materialize it did presage the strategy that later saw the French fleet play a decisive role in the American revolution. It was typical of Jones' strategic thinking. In April 1778 Jones took the Ranger to sea with the intent to attack the British homeland. His crew was not enthusiastic and he had to face down a mutiny shortly after leaving France. On April 17 the Ranger sailed into the Firth of Solway, past the place of his birth, and into Whitehaven harbor with the intent to land a raiding party that would kidnap a prominent person and burn the town. Weather thwarted his plan and the next day he met and engaged the British revenue cutter Hussar. The Hussar escaped by sailing into shallow waters. That night Jones attempted to attack an armed British sloop, the HMS Drake, in Carrickfergus harbor near Dublin, but his crew botched the approach and he departed before the British ship was aware of the Ranger's presence. He then returned to Whitehaven and succeeded in landing with a small party of men. Although some of his crew broke into a tavern and got drunk Jones managed to spike the guns of the fort guarding the harbor and burn one ship.
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Immediately after his attack on Whitehaven, Jones sailed across the Firth of Solway with the intention of kidnapping the Earl of Selkirk. Unfortunately for Jones, but fortunately for the Earl, Selkirk was away. His wife, Lady Selkirk, was home and was made to part with her silver before Jones returned to his ship. An angry Lady Selkirk put two and two together and figured out that John Paul Jones was in reality John Paul, the son of the gardner at Arbigland and a "noted blackguard" fleeing from justice. Branded a pirate, Jones was now subject to being hanged if caught by the British. Undaunted, Jones headed right back to Carrickfergus harbor and attacked the Drake. In the ensuing battle, the Ranger prevailed and became the first American ship to have defeated a British ship of equal power. On his return to France, Jones and his crew were feted as heros. In England there was great consternation that the pirate John Paul had been able to elude the Royal Navy and directly attack the homeland. In France Jones was embarrassed by the theft of the Earl's silver and wrote to Lady Selkirk offering to return her plates and pots. Lord Selkirk responded to Jones' letter with disdain for his offer, but the British postmaster refused to forward it to the "rascal and rebel Jones."
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Although he had great difficulty in obtaining the resources necessary to take care of his crew, he was praised by Benjamin Franklin one of America's commissioners in Paris, and once again promised command of the new frigate Indien, now owned by France. He spent July 4, 1778, in Paris celebrating the second anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and became deeply involved in the intricacies of French-American relations. In Paris he befriended Franklin's secretary, Edward Bancroft, a British spy, who passed along most of Jones' plans to the British. At this point in the revolution the Continental Navy was not doing very well. Nine American frigates had been lost. The Ranger's actions had been the one bright spot in a very bleak picture. After suffering through a lot of bitter political infighting Jones lost the Indien, but was given command of an elderly merchantman, the Duc de Duras. It was fourteen years old and had sailed back and forth to China four times in fourteen years. Jones rechristened his new ship the Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin and took it to sea in August 1779 together with several other ships under his command, heading for Great Britain. He was to be a small part in a combined Spanish/French invasion of England. Small pox and typhus among the invasion forces aborted the plan, but Jones continued into "harm's way" (his phrase).
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