"I have not yet begun to fight!" - John Paul Jones - American Minute with Bill Federer

When two cannons exploded and his ship began sinking, John Paul Jones lashed his ship to the enemy's to keep it afloat.

John Paul Jones is called the "Father of the American Navy," a title shared with Commodore John Barry.

John Paul Jones had 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, striking terror and panic into the British Isles.

Just after midnight, April 23, 1778, Jones raided the British town of Whitehaven, and spiked the town's big defensive cannons to prevent them being fired.

Jones sailed to Scotland, and seized silver plating adorned with the family emblem, from the estate of the Earl of Selkirk, who lived on St. Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright.

For decades, British children would be scared hearing tales of the "pirate" John Paul Jones.

In A Brief Account of Religion and the Revolutionary War Chaplaincy, James E. Newell recorded:

"John Paul Jones sought a man with a set of qualifications that indicated that the chaplain would also be Jones' private secretary."

After the Revolution, Jefferson arranged for John Paul Jones to fight for Russia's Catherine the Great against the Muslim Ottoman navy in the second Russo-Turkish War.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to General Washington, 1788:

"The war between the Russians and the Turks has made an opening for our Commodore Paul Jones.

The Empress has invited him into her service. She insures to him the rank of rear admiral ...

In his Narrative of the Campaign of the Liman, John Paul Jones wrote of victoriously sailing his 24-gun flagship Vladimir against the Muslim Turks by the Black Sea's Dnieper River.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to M. Limozin, 1788:

"You have heard of the great victory (in the Black Sea) obtained by the Russians under command of Admiral Paul Jones, over the Turks commanded by the Captain Pacha."

Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Carmichael, 1788:

"I am pleased with the promotion of our countryman, Paul Jones.

When the Empress of Russia wanted to award him the St. Anne Decoration, John Paul Jones asked Jefferson if this was permitted, to which Jefferson replied in 1791:

"In answer to your request to obtain and transmit the proper authority of the United States for your retaining the Order of St. Anne, conferred on you by the Empress of Russia.

Shortly before he died, Jones was appointed as U.S. Consul in Paris to negotiate the release of captured U.S. Navy officers held in the Muslim dungeons of Algiers.

Jefferson wrote to John Paul Jones, June 1, 1792:

On the 25th of July, 1785, the schooner Maria, Captain Stevens, belonging to a Mr. Foster, of Boston, was taken off Cape St. Vincents, by an Algerine cruiser;

and 5 days afterwards, the ship Dauphin, Captain O'Bryan, belonging to Messrs. Irwins of Philadelphia, was taken by another, about 50 leagues westward of Lisbon.

These vessels, with their cargoes and crews, 21 persons in number, were carried into Algiers ..."

Jefferson continued his letter to John Paul Jones:

In February, 1787, I wrote to Congress to ask leave to employ the Mathurins (Catholic Religious Order) of France in ransoming our captives;

and on the 19th of September, I received their orders to do so, and to call for the money from our bankers at Amsterdam, as soon as it could be furnished ..."

Jefferson ended:

It has been a fixed principle with Congress to establish the rate of ransom of American captives with the Barbary states at as low a point as possible, that it may not be the interest of those states to go in quest of our citizens in preference to those of other countries ...

Thomas Jefferson wrote in April of 1792:

"President Washington wished to redeem our captives at Algiers and to make peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The Senate were willing to approve this ...

Thomas Jefferson wrote to Colonel David, 1793:

Jefferson ended:

"The unfortunate death of two successive commissioners (John Paul Jones and Mr. Barclay) have still retarded their relief."

John Paul Jones died July 18, 1792 and was buried at Paris in St. Louis Cemetery for Alien Protestants.

During the French Revolution's Reign of Terror the cemetery was neglected and sold, resulting in John Paul Jones' body being lost track of.

When his grave was finally identified, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote February 13, 1905:

"The remains of Admiral John Paul Jones were interred in a certain piece of ground in the city of Paris ... used ... as a burial place for foreign Protestants ...

The great service done by him toward the achievement of independence ... lead me to ... do proper honor to the memory of John Paul Jones."

The remains of John Paul Jones were transported to the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, where they are guarded 24 hours a day.

On May 8, 1783, Yale President Ezra Stiles gave an Election Address to the General Assembly of Connecticut:

"While we render our supreme honors to the Most High, the God of Armies;

Let us recollect ... the bold and brave sons of freedom, who willingly offered themselves, and bled in the defense of their country ... the (John) Manly's, the (John Paul) Jones's and other gallant commanders and brave seamen of the American navy ...

Never was the profession of arms used with more glory, in a better cause, since the days of JOSHUA, the son of Nun."

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Image Credits: Public Domain; Description: Battle between USS Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis September 23, 1779 (Battle of Flamborough Head); Illus. in: Memoirs de Paul Jones, frontispiece; Date: 1798; Source: US-LibraryOfCongress-BookLogo.svg     This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3b03765; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_between_BONHOMME_RICHARD_and_SERAPIS,_Sept._23,_1779_cph.3b03765.jpg