John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747-July 18, 1792) was called the "Father of the American Navy." He was noted for his courage in fighting larger and better equipped fleets. In 1779, he took command of the Bonhomme Richard (Poor Richard), which he named in honor of the Benjamin Franklin, author of Poor Richard's Almanac.
On September 23, 1779, the Bonhomme Richard attacked the British ship, Serapis, which was leading a convoy. The ships came so close to each other that the masts entangled and the cannon muzzles touched. After intense naval combat, which nearly destroyed the Bonhomme Richard, the British commander yelled, wanting to know if the Americans were ready to surrender. John Paul Jones responded:
<I have not yet begun to fight.> 1747JJ001
When two cannons exploded and his ship began sinking, John Paul Jones lashed his ship to the enemy's to keep it afloat. After 3 more hours of fighting, the British surrendered.
John Paul Jones commanded the Continental Navy's first ship, Providence, in 1775. With 12 guns, it was the most victorious American vessel in the Revolution, capturing or sinking 40 British ships. In 1778, sailing the Ranger, Jones raided the coasts of Scotland and England.
In 1788, Jefferson arranged for John Paul Jones to fight for Russia's Catherine the Great against the Muslim Ottoman navy. In his Narrative of the Campaign of the Liman, John Paul Jones writes of victoriously sailing his flagship Vladimir against the Turks by the Black Sea's Dnieper River.
Later, in 1792, Jones was appointed as a U.S. Consul in Paris to negotiate the release of captured U.S. Navy officers held in the dungeons of Algiers.
On February 13, 1905, in a message to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt made comment as to John Paul Jones' burial as a Protestant in France:
<For a number of years efforts have been made to confirm the historical statement that the remains of Admiral John Paul Jones were interred in a certain piece of ground in the city of Paris then owned by the Government and used at the time as a burial place for foreign Protestants. These efforts have at last resulted in documentary proof that John Paul Jones was buried, on July 20, 1792, between 8 and 9 o'clock p.m., in the now abandoned cemetery of St. Louis, in the northeastern section of Paris....
The great interest which our people feel in the story of Paul Jones's life, the national sense of gratitude for the great service done by him toward the achievement of independence, and the sentiment of mingled distress and regret felt because the body of one of our greatest heroes lies, forgotten and unmarked, in foreign soil, lead me to approve the ambassador's suggestion that Congress should take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to do proper honor to the memory of Paul Jones.> 1747JJ002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1747JJ001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Paul Jones, September 23, 1779, as commander of the American ship, Bonhomme Richard, in answering a call to surrender from the commander of the British ship, Serapis. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1855, 1980), p. 394. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989), Vol. 9, pp. 4054-4055. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (London: Oxford University Press, Second Edition, 1941, 1955), p. 279.
1747JJ002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Paul Jones. February 13, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt stated in a message to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XIV, p. 6945-6946.