The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-22

fish frigate Scraps at that time is one of
the most renowned on record, and Jones
won his victory by sheer pluck, powers Of
command and good seamanship. No doubt
in the eyes of the conservative ruler OF the
| kings "navee" and those who sympathiZed
with him the Yankeeized Briton had some
ways that were peculiar, not to say unor-
| thodox.
For instance, after he had parted COM
pany with the sloop Ranger, with which
| he swept the English waters in IT'S, Old
! Fogyism would have held that he should
| find an easy-bottomed chair and sit down
| until "orders" reached him to go to work
| again. But Jones was built on a different
pattern, and one day while amusing him
| self with Poor Richards Almanac he hit
upon the motto, eff you want athing done
go and do it," and started at once TO get
the thing nearest his heart-a new vessel
with which to pummel British pride. He
went TO Paris, where money and friends
were at the command of the American
cause, and in a short time he had under
his orders an old Indiaman, reftted. a
ship-of-war, merchantmen, brig and a
cutter. The Indiaman had American Off
GERS and crew; in fact, the crew was
motley one The other vessels were
manned and differed by Frenchmen.
Jones christened his vessel Poor Richard
in recognition of the incident that took
him TO Paris, and this became in French
the Bon Homme Richard. He was made
commander-in-chief of the feet So far as
paper authority could guarantee his
rights, but he found out afterward that
French jealousy could and did evade the
rit faf ;nb
the armament sailed.
Among other original things for a naval
officer, Jones overhauled the Richard after
she was delivered to him ready for sea.
Her heaviest guns were 12-pounders, and
she was a single decked ship with but
twenty-eight ports for her twenty-eight
rs. Jones had eight 9-pounders mounted
on the open deck, and also cut twelve ports
below for six 1S-pounders to be fought on
either side. These of course could be used
only in favorable sea. The usual arma-
ment for first class vessels at that time was
1Spounders, and the valiant captain pro-
posed to fight anything afioat that bore the
British flag, hence his anxiety to have
some heavy guns.
After some weeks of adventure and the
beating up of many startling projects that
NST6 luNdFl6u ny Uuo cicIueuUS-Ou0 Oh
which was TO descend upon Leith, the sea-
port of Edinburgh, and demand a ransom
of e200, 600, Jones met a fleet on the 23d of
September, off Flamboro head, on the east
coast of England. under convoy of two
men-o'war.
The moment this feet appeared in sight
the brave commander knew what was be-
fore him, for he had previous knowledge Of
the vessels and their strength. His own
feet had been reduced to three vessels-the
Richard, the man-o'-war Alliance and the
merchantmen Pallas. Signals were at
once set upon the Richard for a chase. The
Alliance was the fastest vessel and shot
ahead, her captain saying to the captain of
the Pailas that if one of the strangers
proved TO be a ffty-gun vessel they tthe
Americans) had nothing to do but run
away. As soon as the Alliance had good
view of the Englishmen she hauled up and
stood for land. The Pallas, misunderstood
ing movement of the Richard, did the
same. The Richard alone moved on the
enemy, which proved to be the Scraps of !