Jones, John Paul

Jones, John Paul (1747–1792), Continental navy officer.Born in Scotland, John Paul Jones signed on as a British merchantman at the age of thirteen. After sailing on several vessels in the West Indian trade, he became a captain in 1768. Discipline problems plagued his command. In 1770, one of his men died after a flogging, and he later killed another sailor during a mutiny. Fearing that he would be charged with murder, Jones fled to Virginia in 1774.

The American Revolutionary War offered him a second chance at command. Appointed first lieutenant in the Continental navy in 1775, Jones received the command of the eighteen‐gun sloop Ranger in 1777. Based in France, Jones captured the twenty‐gun HMS Drake and attacked the northern British port of Whitehaven during a cruise in 1778. The next year, he took command of the forty‐gun converted merchantman Bonhomme Richard. In September, he led the American assault on a British merchant squadron escorted by HMS Serapis. Jones's crew suffered heavy losses, but when the commander of the Serapis asked if he would surrender, he replied, “I have not yet begun to fight.” After a grenade caused a massive explosion aboard the Serapis, the British captain surrendered. The fight transformed Jones into America's first naval hero. It was to be his last action. Returning to the United States as commander of the captured British sloop Ariel, he was assigned to command the seventy‐four‐gun America, but it was not finished until the end of the war, and was then presented as a gift to France.
[See also Navy, U.S.: Overview.]

Bibliography

Samuel Eliot Morison , John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography, 1959.
James C. Bradford , John Paul Jones: Honor and Professionalism, in Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1775–1850, ed. James C. Bradford, 1985.

Jon T. Coleman