Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
PAUL JONES' SERVICE.
STORY OF NAN WHO DID MUCH
FOR UNITED STATES.
Came From Scotland-Lived at Fred
ericksburg-was Mate Of Shaver,
Naval Career.

never been justified, surrounding his name
has sprung desire for knowledge OF Paul
Jones life, which has steadily grown, until
vague facts have been either strengthened
and Incorporated in histories or else. with
ar added shadow, woven into romance.
jaime Fenimore Cooper worked some of
the man into his novel, THE Pilot" and
that was the beginning.
Had he died in ITO he would still have
lived in the memory of every schoolboy as
the hero of the most terrific hand-to-hand
naval fight in American history.
What schoolboy, Ieciting his Friday af-
ternoon defamation, has not fancied the
school room platform the deck of the rotten
Bcnhomne Richard and the pupils before
him the Scraps boarders, as he piped
forth:
I have not yet begun to fight!' cried
the n-hearted commodore"
At the outset the historian is met with
moot point. Paul Jones' birthplace, how
ever, is generally given as Kircudbright-
shire, Scotland, and the date as July 6,
1747. His father was John Paul, gar
dener, and the name Jones was not as
Sumed until 1918, and why at all has never
been explained.
Paul Jones went to sea at twelve as an
apprentice and made his first voyage from
Whitehaven to Virginia, where he settled
for time in Fredericksburg with broth
two voyages as mate on SLAYER, Dut,
finding even his love of adventure quenched
by the revolving nature of the trade, left
the colonies in disgust in 1768 as pas
senger on brigantine bound for Scotland.
Master and mate died during the voyage,
and Jones' experience was a godsend. he
took the vessel into port and was rewarded
by the owners with the captaincy or
West Indian trader.
Adds Jones to Name.
Continuing in the trade, he had accumu-
lated a considerable fortune by personal
commercial speculation, when, in 1773 he
took charge of the Virginia plantation on
his brothers DEATH 1t was at this time
that he strangely added Jones to his name
although he continued to correspond with
his family. The monotony of a planters
life wore on him and at the outbreak of
hostilties with England in 1715 he offered
his services, and after aiding the naval
committee of Congress with his advice ana
serving on a commission for the purchase
of naval vessels for the new government
was made first lieutenant of the Alfred,
flagship of the first American squadron
which rendezvoused in Philadelphia harbor
for an attack on New Providence. On the
day of sailing Jones raised on the Alfred
what is said to have been the first American
flag unfurled a man-of-war. Its back
ground was white bearing pine tree with
a rattlesnake coiled at it's foot.
After a successful attack on New Provf-
dence and the capture of a British squad
ron, Jones was made captain of the sloop
Providence, armed only with four-pounders
on which ne made daredevil voyage
through West Indian waters in forty-seven
days, taking sixteen prizes and destroying
the fishery at Isle Madame. Transferred to
the Alfred in 1776, he swung to the north
destroyed the Cape Breton fisheries, cap
tured a number of British transports and
liberated 100 Americans who were confined
by the English at hard labor in the coal
mines.
Command of the Ranger.
When. early in 1777, Congress established
the relative rank of naval officers, Jones
felt that he had been unjustly dealt with
and demonstrated somewhat arrogantly.
His services to the newborn republic
were too valuable to be thrown away, even
for reasons political, and he received COM
mand of one of the new ships, the Ranger,
and general instructions to distress the
enemies of the United States by sea or
land" This was the sort of commission for
a fighter of Jones' temperament and he
set sail for the English channel late in 1777,
stopping in France to deliver to the Amer1-
can commissioners the official announce
ment of Burgoyne's surrender. And now
with his one vessel he began series of
exploits which the English have never for
given his memory. Marrying the channel
coast so that signal fires were kept alight
every night, telling the presence u the III
tie Ranger he captured prizes, swooped into
Whitehaven, where he tried to burn the
shipping, made an attempt to capture the
Earl of Selkirk, and capped everything
when off Carrickfergus he fell In with the
Drake, British man-of-war, of twenty guns.
which he captured after hand-to-hand
fight Most of the Rangers men were put
to man the prize and on this account Jones
was forced to drop down to Brest.
The French government, as pleased at
his exploits as the American, showed it's
gratitude by fitting out for him a squadron
of four vessels, the flagship of which, the
Bonhomme Richard, which he had named
in honor of DR.. Franklin, was rotten East
Indian which would have shivered before
good hard gale. His officers were either
Americans without experience, or FRENCH
men, who in the hour of need deserted him.
His crew was a motley crowd, many OF
them foreigners 1t was the best he could
do, however, and off he sailed on daring
mission to destroy the shipping at Lelth'
which was abandoned on account or gale
On September %, Jones sighted the two
British warships Scraps, forty-four guns,
and the Countess of Scarborough, twenty
eight guns, with a convoy Of forty mer-
chantmen.
The Pallas engaged the Countess of Scar
borough and the Bonhomme Richard and
Serapis after few broadsides, grappled.
Late into the night the fight went on. The
Alliance of Jones' fleet poured broadside
after broadside into the Bonhomme Rich
renee which has never been explained. Two
of Jones' 1S-pounders exploded at the first
fire. ripping her decks to shreds.
Whips Scraps.
The recoil of the heavy guns disjointed
the timbers of the old merchantmen; all
but few light guns on the spar deck were
rendered useless; the boat was afire in two
places and with half her men killed or
wounded. was beginning to sink when
Jones was called upon to surrender. In
stead. he dashed the Richard to the Scraps
to keep her afloat, and headed boarding
party. The Scraps struck her flag at half
past 10 and Jones, boarding her, cast off the
lashings and the Bonhomme Richard sank
with her dead into the hollows Of the North
sea.
For this Jones received q vote of thanks
from Congress and a decoration and gold
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