American colonies In the summer of 1775, Jones met
Joseph Hewes and other revolutionary leaders in Philadelphia. From that period, America became "the country of his fond election", as he afterwards expressed himself to Baron
Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society. He volunteered his services to the newly founded
Continental Navy; during this time, the Navy and
Marines were being formally established, and suitable ship officers and captains were in great demand. Jones's potential would likely have gone unrecognized were it not for the endorsement of
Richard Henry Lee, who knew of his abilities. With help from influential members of the
Continental Congress, Jones was appointed as a
first lieutenant of the newly converted 24-gun
frigate on December 7, 1775.
Revolutionary War command Early command Jones sailed from the
Delaware River in February 1776 aboard
Alfred on the Continental Navy's maiden cruise. It was aboard this vessel that Jones took the honour of hoisting the first U.S. ensign, the
Continental Union Flag, over a naval vessel. The fleet had been expected to cruise along the coast but was ordered instead by Commodore
Esek Hopkins to sail for The Bahamas, where
Nassau was raided for military supplies. The fleet had an
unsuccessful encounter with a British
packet ship on their return voyage. Jones was then assigned command of the
sloop . Congress had recently ordered the construction of 13 frigates for the Navy, one of which was to be commanded by Jones. In exchange for this prestigious command, Jones accepted his commission aboard the smaller
Providence. Over the summer of 1776, Jones performed various services for the Continental Navy and Congress. These services included the transport of troops, the movement of supplies, and the escort of convoys. Jones assisted a brig from
Hispaniola that was being chased by
HMS Cerberus and laden with military stores. The brig was then purchased by Congress and commissioned as . During a later six-week voyage to Nova Scotia, Jones captured 16
prizes and inflicted significant damage in the
Raid on Canso. Jones's next command came as a result of Commodore Hopkins's orders to liberate hundreds of American prisoners forced to labour in coal mines in Nova Scotia, and also to raid British shipping. On November 1, 1776, Jones set sail in command of
Alfred to carry out this mission. Winter conditions prevented freeing the prisoners, but the mission resulted in the capture of
Mellish, a vessel carrying a vital supply of winter clothing intended for General
John Burgoyne's troops in Canada.
Command of Ranger of John Paul Jones Despite his successes at sea, Jones' disagreements with those in authority reached a new level upon arrival in Boston on December 16, 1776. While at port, he began feuding with Hopkins, as Jones believed that Hopkins was hindering his advancement by talking down his campaign plans. As a result of this and other frustrations, Jones was assigned the smaller command of the newly constructed on June 14, 1777. After making the necessary preparations, Jones sailed for France on November 1 with orders to assist the American cause in any way possible. The American commissioners in France were Benjamin Franklin,
Silas Deane, and
Arthur Lee, and they listened to Jones's strategic recommendations. They promised him the command of , a vessel being constructed for America by the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Britain, however, was able to divert
Indien away from American hands by exerting pressure to ensure its sale to France instead (which had not yet allied with America). Jones was again left without a command. It is thought that during this time, Jones developed his close friendship with Franklin, whom he greatly admired. On February 6, 1778, France signed the
Treaty of Alliance with America, formally recognizing the independence of the new American republic. Eight days later, Captain Jones's
Ranger became the first American naval vessel to be formally
saluted by the French, with a nine-gun salute fired from Captain
La Motte-Piquet's flagship. Jones writes of the event: "I accepted his offer all the more for after all it was a recognition of our independence and in the nation". On April 10, Jones set sail from
Brest, France, for the western coasts of Great Britain.
Ranger attacks the British , on the northwest coast of
England, by Matthias Read completed between 1730 and 1735 receives a copy of the local newspaper from April 1778 from the
Whitehaven Harbour Commission chairman in June 2005 Jones had some early successes against British merchant shipping in the
Irish Sea. He persuaded his crew on April 17, 1778, to participate in an assault on
Whitehaven, the town where his maritime career had begun. Jones later wrote about the poor command qualities of his senior officers (having tactfully avoided such matters in his official report): "'Their object', they said, 'was gain not honor'. They were poor: instead of encouraging the morale of the crew, they excited them to disobedience; they persuaded them that they had the right to judge whether a measure that was proposed to them was good or bad". Contrary winds forced them to abandon the attempt and drive
Ranger towards Ireland, causing more trouble for British shipping on the way. On April 20, Jones learned from captured sailors that the Royal Navy sloop of war was anchored off
Carrickfergus, Ireland. According to the diary of
Rangers surgeon, Jones's first intention was to attack the vessel in broad daylight, but his sailors were "unwilling to undertake it", another incident omitted from the official report. Therefore, the attack took place just after midnight, but the mate responsible for dropping the anchor to halt
Ranger right alongside
Drake misjudged the timing in the dark (Jones claims in his memoirs that the man was drunk), so Jones had to cut his anchor cable and run. The wind shifted, and
Ranger recrossed the Irish Sea to make another attempt at raiding Whitehaven. Jones led the assault with two boats of 15 men just after midnight on April 23, hoping to set fire to and sink all of the ships anchored in Whitehaven's harbor, which numbered between 200 and 400 wooden vessels and consisted of a full merchant fleet and many coal transporters. They also hoped to terrorize the townspeople by lighting further fires. As it happened, the journey to shore was slowed by shifting winds and a strong ebb tide. They successfully
spiked the town's big defensive guns to prevent them from being fired, but lighting fires proved difficult as the lanterns in both boats had run out of fuel. To remedy this, some of the party were sent to raid a
public house on the quayside, but the temptation to stop for a quick drink led to a further delay. Dawn was breaking by the time they returned and began the arson attacks, so efforts were concentrated on the coal ship
Thompson in the hope that the flames would spread to adjacent vessels, all grounded by the low tide. However, in the twilight, one of the crew slipped away and alerted residents on a harbourside street. A fire alert was sounded, and large numbers of people ran to the quay, forcing the Americans to retreat and extinguishing the flames with the town's two fire engines. The townspeople's hopes of sinking Jones's boats with cannon fire were dashed because of the prudent spiking. Jones next crossed the
Solway Firth from Whitehaven to Scotland, hoping to hold for ransom
Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk, who lived on St Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright. Jones reasoned that Douglas could be exchanged for American sailors
impressed into the Royal Navy. Douglas was absent from his estate, so his wife entertained the officers and conducted the negotiations. Canadian historian
Peter C. Newman gives credit to the governess for protecting the young heir to the Earldom of Selkirk,
Thomas Douglas, and to the butler for filling a sack half with coal and topping it up with the family silver, in order to fob off the Americans. Jones claimed that he intended to return directly to his ship and continue seeking prizes elsewhere, but his crew wished to "pillage, burn, and plunder all they could". Ultimately, Jones allowed the crew to seize a silver plate set adorned with the family's emblem to placate their desires, but nothing else. Jones bought the plate when it was later sold off in France, and he returned it to Douglas after the war. The attacks on St Mary's Isle and Whitehaven resulted in no prizes or profits, which would normally be shared with the crew. Throughout the mission, the crew acted as if they were aboard a
privateer, not a warship, led by Lieutenant Thomas Simpson, Jones's second-in-command.
Return to Ireland Jones led
Ranger back across the Irish Sea, hoping to make another attempt at
Drake, still anchored off Carrickfergus. Late in the afternoon of April 24, the ships (roughly equal in firepower) engaged in combat. Earlier in the day, the Americans had captured the crew of a reconnaissance boat and learned that
Drake had taken on dozens of soldiers with the intention of grappling and
boarding Ranger, so Jones made sure that did not happen, capturing
Drake after an
hour-long gun battle in which British Captain George Burdon was killed. Simpson was given command of
Drake for the return journey to Brest. The ships separated during the return journey as
Ranger chased another prize, leading to a conflict between Simpson and Jones. Both ships arrived at port safely, but Jones filed for a
court-martial of Simpson, keeping him detained on the ship. Partly through the influence of
John Adams, who was serving as a commissioner in France, Simpson was cleared of the charges brought by Jones. Adams implies in his memoirs that the overwhelming majority of the evidence supported Simpson's claims. Adams seemed to believe Jones was hoping to monopolize the mission's glory, especially by detaining Simpson on board while he celebrated the capture with numerous important European dignitaries. Even with the wealth of perspectives, including the commander's, a merchant ship rebuilt and given to America by French shipping magnate
Jacques-Donatien Le Ray. On August 14, as a vast
French and Spanish invasion fleet approached England, he provided a diversion by heading for Ireland at the head of a five-ship squadron including the 36-gun , 32-gun USS
Pallas, 12-gun , and
Le Cerf, also accompanied by two privateers, and
Granville. When the squadron was only a few days out of
Groix,
Monsieur separated because of a disagreement between her captain and Jones. Several Royal Navy warships were sent towards Ireland in pursuit of Jones, but on this occasion, he continued right around the north of Scotland into the
North Sea. Jones's main problems, as on his previous voyage, resulted from insubordination, particularly by , captain of
Alliance. On September 23, the squadron met a large merchant convoy off the coast of
Flamborough Head,
East Yorkshire. The 44-gun British frigate and the 22-gun
hired armed ship placed themselves between the convoy and Jones's squadron, allowing the merchants to escape. Shortly after 7 p.m., the
Battle of Flamborough Head began.
Serapis engaged
Bonhomme Richard, and
Alliance fired from a considerable distance at
Countess. After sustaining significant damage from the Serapis and Alliance's bombardment, Jones quickly recognized that he could not win a battle of big guns, and with the wind dying he made every effort to lock
Richard and
Serapis together (his famous, albeit apocryphal, quotation, "I have not yet begun to fight!" was said to have been uttered in reply to a demand to surrender in this phase of the battle). After about an hour, he succeeded, and he began clearing the British decks with his deck guns and his
Marine marksmen in the rigging.
Alliance sailed past and fired a
broadside, doing at least as much damage to
Richard as to
Serapis. Meanwhile,
Countess of Scarborough had enticed
Pallas downwind of the main battle, beginning a separate engagement. When
Alliance approached this contest, about an hour after it had begun, the badly damaged
Countess surrendered. With
Bonhomme Richard burning and sinking, it seems that her
ensign was shot away; when one of the officers shouted a surrender, believing his captain to be dead, the British commander asked, seriously this time, if they had
struck their colors. Jones later remembered saying something like "I am determined to make you strike", but the words allegedly heard by crew members and reported in newspapers a few days later were more like: "I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike". An attempt by the British to board
Bonhomme Richard was thwarted, and a grenade thrown by an American sailor caused the explosion of a large quantity of gunpowder on
Serapis lower gun-deck.
Alliance returned to the main battle, firing two broadsides. Again, these did at least as much damage to
Richard as to
Serapis, but the tactic worked to the extent that
Serapis was unable to move. With
Alliance keeping well out of the line of his own great guns, Captain Pearson of
Serapis accepted that prolonging the battle could achieve nothing, so he surrendered. Most of
Bonhomme Richards crew transferred to other vessels, and after a day and a half of frantic repair efforts, it was decided that the ship could not be saved.
Bonhomme Richard was allowed to sink, and Jones took command of
Serapis for the trip to the island of
Texel in neutral (but American-sympathizing) Holland. In 1780 King
Louis XVI of France honored Jones with the title "
Chevalier". Jones accepted the honor and desired the title to be used thereafter: when the
Continental Congress in 1787 resolved that a medal of gold be struck in commemoration of his "valor and brilliant services" it was to be presented to "Chevalier John Paul Jones". He also received from Louis XVI a decoration of "l'Institution du Mérite Militaire" and a sword. By contrast, in Britain at this time, he was usually denigrated as a pirate. Jones was admitted as an original member of The
Society of the Cincinnati in Pennsylvania when it was established in 1783.
Russian service in
Greenwich, London In June 1782, Jones was appointed to command the 74-gun , but his command fell through when Congress decided to give
America to the French as a replacement for the wrecked
Le Magnifique. As a result, he was given an assignment in Europe in 1783 to collect prize money due his former hands. At length, this too expired and Jones was left without prospects for active employment, leading him on April 23, 1787, to enter into the service of the Empress
Catherine II of Russia, who placed great confidence in Jones, saying: "He will get to
Constantinople". He was granted the name as a French subject Павел де Жонес (
Pavel de Zhones, Paul de Jones). As a
rear admiral aboard the 24-gun flagship
Vladimir, he took part in the naval campaign in the
Dnieper-Bug Liman, an arm of the
Black Sea, into which the
Southern Bug and
Dnieper rivers flow, against the
Turks, in concert with the
Dnieper Flotilla commanded by Prince
Charles of Nassau-Siegen. Jones faced a considerably larger Turkish fleet, comprising over 100 vessels, including 18 ships of the line and 40 frigates. Jones' ships were poorly built, manned by impressed serfs, and were not fully armed. Additionally, he had to communicate with his fleet through a translator. He wanted to use a defensive strategy and bickered with Nassau-Siegen, who wanted to rush in and attack. Jones wanted to use a V shape with his fleet, placing it at the mouth of the Bug River to funnel the Turkish navy down the river into a killing field created by deadly crossfire, but the wind was against him. Still, he had his fleet create this formation by throwing their anchors out and dragging themselves into place. The strategy worked, and the larger Turkish navy was defeated. During the battle, Nassau-Siegen's flagship fled the battle to a safe position. But when the battle was won and the enemy flagship was trapped, grounded on a sandbar, Jones ordered his crew to approach and capture the flagship. Instead, his Russian captain pulled up short, anchored himself, and let Nassau-Siegen claim the prize. Despite Jones's successes and strategies, during this time, Russian commander Prince
Grigory Potemkin's letters to Empress Catherine credited Nassau-Siegen for preventing Jones from gathering power at court. When Jones confronted Potemkin and stated that Potemkin was being manipulated by Nassau-Siegen, Potemkin responded "No one manipulates me, not even the Empress!" Jones and Nassau-Siegen repulsed the
Ottoman forces from the area, but the jealous intrigues of Nassau-Siegen (and perhaps Jones's own ineptitude for Imperial politics) turned Potemkin against Jones. Jones was recalled to
Saint Petersburg for the claimed purpose of transfer to a command in the North Sea. Other factors may have included the theoretical resentment of rival officers, some of whom were several ex-British naval officers also in Russian employment, who regarded Jones as a renegade and refused to speak to him. As a foreigner among the Russian court, Jones threatened the existing power structures. He had successfully defeated the Turkish navy and was no longer as important to the war. Potemkin was known for his deviousness and court intrigue, and as a man who allowed only sycophants to serve under him, and chafed at Jones's pride and inexpert courtly intrigue. After Jones' victory, Potemkin began to assign him impossible missions, designed to force him to fail. On June 8, 1788, Jones was awarded the
Order of Saint Anna. In 1789, Jones arrived in
Warsaw,
Poland, where he befriended
Tadeusz Kościuszko, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Kościuszko advised him to leave the service of Russia and serve another power, suggesting
Sweden.
Rape suit and exile On March 31, 1789, Jones was accused of raping a 10-year-old Russian girl named Katerina Stepanova, a "daughter of German immigrants living in St. Petersburg." She lived with her mother, who took care of her and began the legal proceedings. A regimental surgeon and a midwife both examined her and found evidence to substantiate these physical and sexual assaults. Jones' manservant, Johann Gottfried Bahl, testified that Jones had been wearing his dress uniform when Stepanova entered Jones' chamber. He reported that on looking through a keyhole, he saw Jones was in a gown, not his uniform. Jones hired a lawyer, who soon quit the case, Jones claimed in a statement to prosecutors that he had "often" paid Stepanova for sex previously, but he denied that he had raped her. Jones stated he had not taken her virginity and believed her to be older than was being claimed; he wrote, "I love women, I confess, and the pleasures that one only obtains from that sex; but to get such things by force is horrible to me." However, Jones later claimed the accusation was entirely false, stemming from the supposed desire of Katerina's mother, Sophia Fyodorovna, to gain financially from a prominent man. He also produced Katerina's father, Stephan Holtszwarthen, to testify in court that his daughter was 12 rather than 10 years old and that his wife had left him for another man, lived in a brothel, and was herself promiscuous. Ségur investigated the accusation and suggested to Potemkin that it was false, and that Jones was the victim of a plot by Prince Charles for his own purposes. Ségur advanced theories that Jones had either "offended men who shared the Empress's bed" or else that he had angered Catherine by refusing "advances" from her. Jones' appeal to Potemkin "...fell on deaf ears, leaving Jones without Russian support against the judgment of the Russian sovereign." However, the international pressure applied by American and French connections via the Comte de Ségur persuaded Catherine to grant Jones two years' leave abroad, a de facto exile, rather than the usual punishment for rape by an officer of decapitation or a lifetime of penal labor; according to Jacob Bell:The Empress' actions here proved her priorities. She dismissed a tried naval commander, especially sought out by her agents abroad, during wartime, showing that she merited the allegations against Jones higher than his potential martial service. ==Later life==