THE LIBRARY
[HE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGE .ES
GIFT OF
COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
V
(Breat Commanbers
EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON
COMMODORE PAUL JONES
dsreat oramatttet#
EDITED BY GENERAL JAMES GRANT WILSON.
Each, tamo, Cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net;
postage, u cents additional.
Admiral Farragut. By Captain A. T. MAHAN, U. S. N.
General Taylor. By General O. O. HOWARD, U. S. A.
General Andrew Jackson. By JAMES PARTON.
General Greene. By General FRANCIS V. GREENE.
General J. E. Johnston.
By ROBERT M. HUGHES, of Virginia.
General Thomas. By HENRY COPPEE, LL. D.
General Scott. By General MARCUS J. WRIGHT.
General Washington.
By General' BRADLEY T. JOHNSON.
General Lee. By General FITZHUGH LEE.
General Hancock. By General FRANCIS A. WALKER.
General Sheridan. By General HENRY E. DAVIES.
General Grant. By General JAMES GRANT W : ILSON.
General Sherman. By General MANNING F. FORCE.
Commodore Paul Jones.
By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
General Meade. By ISAAC R. PENNYPACKER.
General McClellan. By General PETER S. MICHIE.
General Forrest. By Captain J. HARVEY MATHES.
Admiral Porter. By JAMES RUSSELL SOLEY.
D. APPLETON' AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
GREAT COMMANDERS
* * * *
COMMODORE
PAUL JONES
BY
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
AUTHOR OF
REUBEN JAMES, A HERO OF THE FORECASTLE;
THE GRIP OF HONOR ; STEPHEN DECATUR ; ETC.
WITH PORTRAIT AND MAPS
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1906
COPYRIGHT, 1900,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
All rights reserved.
THIS STORY
OF THE LIFE OF ONE OF THE
GREAT FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
GEORGE CLIFFORD THOMAS,
A NOBLE EXEMPLAR
OF ITS CITIZENSHIP.
963196
PREFACE.
IN preparing this work I began, I admit, with
an ardent admiration for John Paul Jones, born of
long study of his career. I have endeavored, how-
ever, so far as possible, to lay aside my precon-
ceived opinions and predisposition in his favor, and
I have conscientiously gone over the immense mass
of material bearing upon him, de novo, in an attempt
to be absolutely and strictly impartial. Perhaps I
have not altogether succeeded, but if it be found
that I have erred in Jones' favor, I shall be glad
that I have followed the impulses of affection rather
than those of depreciation. I have not, I trust, been
blind to the faults in the character of the great
sailor, nor to the mistakes he committed, nor to the
wrongdoings in his career to which I have called
attention ; but, in spite of these things, which I
have most reluctantly recorded, I am happy that re-
newed investigation, careful study, and much
thought have only endeared him the more to me.
I lay down the pen with a higher respect, with a
more affectionate regard, with a greater admiration
for him than ever.
In Miss Seawell's fine phrase, " It may be said
viii COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of him as of the great Conde : ' This man was born
a captain.' " His place among the great sea kings
as a strategist, a tactician, and a fighter is now un-
questioned by the most calumnious of his defamers ;
but the wound he inflicted upon British pride still
rankles after the lapse of more than a century, and
his professional status and personal character are
still bitterly aspersed. So doth prejudice blind the
eyes of truth. I have devoted some space to the
old charge that he was a pirate, which was renewed
recently in an article in the London Academy, one
of the leading journals of England, and I trust that
the reader will find that I have finally disposed of
that absurd statement, and the other slanders con-
cerning him, in these pages. And I have tried to
be fair to the enemy as well.
Wherever it has been possible, without clogging
the narrative or letting it assume the form of a mere
collection of letters, Paul the sailor, like Paul the
Apostle, hath been permitted to speak for himself.
Contrary to some of his biographers, I have made it
a rule to accept Jones' o\vn statements unless they
were controverted by adequate evidence. It is
proper to call attention to the fact that' the intent of
the series, of which this is one, which deals prima-
rily with the subjects of the different volumes as
great commanders, naturally emphasizes their pub-
lic exploits rather than their private life. This will
account for a lack of amplification in certain direc-
tions, and for the omission of details of certain
periods of his life which, were "the circumstances
other than they are, would probably be treated of
at greater length. However, it is believed that
PREFACE. IX
enough appears in 'the pages to complete the picture
and exhibit the man.
There is a great amount of matter available for
the study of his life, in the shape of lives, essays,
sketches, and general histories, and contemporary
memoirs, and an immense mass of manuscript re-
ports and correspondence, and Jones himself left
several interesting accounts of his career and serv-
ices, which are of great value to his biographers.
I have freely used all sources of information to which
I could gain access, and they have not been few.
It will be only justice, however, if I acknowledge
that among the authorities consulted I have found
the excellent life by Commodore Alexander Slidell
Mackenzie, U. S. N., published in 1841, the most
useful. Mackenzie was an officer and seaman of
wide experience and fine talents, whose life cov-
ered the period of our naval development suc-
ceeding the War of 1812, and his comments from
a sailor's point of view are instructive and in-
valuable. His work is marred by an unfortu-
nate bias against Jones, which appears in several in-
stances ; in a desire to be accurate and just he has
gone to a censurable extreme. Two other books
have been most helpful : the life by John Henry
Sherburne, sometime Register of the United States
Navy, published in 1825, with its valuable collection
of reports of participants in different actions, and
statements and official documents not otherwise
preserved ; and the life compiled from the manu-
script furnished by Miss Janette Taylor, a niece of
the great commodore, published in 1830. I may
also add that I have found Captain Mahan's ad-
X COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
mirable papers upon the subject, in Scribner's
Magazine, of great value. Indeed, there are facts,
observations, and deductions in these articles which
appear nowhere else, so sure is the touch of a genius
for historical accuracy and investigation like his.
Among other essayists, Miss Molly Elliott Seawell,
whose facile pen has done so much to exploit our
early naval heroes, has written a notable and inter-
esting paper which appeared in the Century Maga-
zine; while Professor John Knox Laughton, the
English naval expert, in his celebrated but scandal-
ous and utterly unjustifiable attack, gives us a
modern British estimate of the commodore. I shall
pay my respects to his contribution later. No ex-
tended life has been published for fifty years.
My thanks are due to General Horace Porter
and the Honorable Charlemagne Tower, LL. D.,
ambassadors of the United States to France and
Russia respectively, for investigations in answers
to inquiries, and for suggestions ; to Dr. Talcott
Williams, of Philadelphia, for valuable suggestions
as to 'sources of possible information ; to the Rev.
Dr. William Elliot Griffis, of Ithaca, New York, for
much interesting matter connected with the Baron
van der Capellen, for unpublished manuscript notes
on North Holland, the Helder, and the Texel, and
for the rare copy of the old Dutch song, " Hir
komt Pauwel Jones aan," which appears in the
appendix ; to Lieutenant-General O. V. Stuben-
dorff, Chief of the Topographical Section of
the Imperial Russian General Staff, and to Major-
General E. Sarantchof, of the Russian army, for
maps, reports, and other data concerning the cam-
PREFACE. xi
paign on the Dnieper-Liman, not accessible in any
American books ; to Mr. Charles T. Harbeck, of
New York, for generous permission to make use of
rare books and pamphlets relating to Paul Jones in
his valuable collection of Americana ; to Messrs. W.
M. Gumming and Junius Davis, of Wilmington,
N. C, and Mrs. A. I. Robertson, of Columbia, S. C,
for information concerning the assumption of the
name of Jones by John Paul, not hitherto published
in book form ; to Mr. E. G. McCollin and the
Misses Mabel S. Meredith, Edith Lanigan, and
Bertha T. Rivailles for much important work in
translation ; and to Miss Isabel Paris for invaluable
assistance in transcribing the manuscript.
Lest any of the above should be involved in pos-
sible criticisms which may be made of the book, I
beg to close this preface with the assurance that for
everything which follows I alone am responsible.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., July, 1900.
CONTENTS.
I. ANCESTRY BIRTH EARLY YEARS PROFESSION
SUCCESS CHANGE OF NAME .... I
II. COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY HOISTS THE FIRST
FLAG EXPEDITION TO NEW PROVIDENCE
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GLASGOW . l6
III. THE CRUISE OF THE PROVIDENCE ... 38
IV. THE CRUISE OF THE ALFRED . . . .51
V. SUPERSEDED IN RANK PROTESTS VAINLY
AGAINST THE INJUSTICE ORDERED TO COM-
MAND THE RANGER HOISTS FIRST AMERICAN
FLAG 61
VI. THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE RANGER SALUTE
TO THE AMERICAN FLAG 77
VII. THE SECOND CRUISE OF THE RANGER THE
DESCENT ON WHITEHAVEN THE ATTEMPT ON
LORD SELKIRK THE CAPTURE OF THE DRAKE 91
VIII. STANDING AND WAITING 116
IX. THE CRUISE OF THE SQUADRON . . . .158
X. THE BATTLE WITH THE SERAPIS . . .175
XI. AFTER THE BATTLE REMARKS ON THE ACTION 209
XII. UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR IN THE TEXEL . 229
XIII. THE ESCAPE OF THE ALLIANCE .... 258
XIV. HONORS AND REWARDS QUARREL WITH LAN-
DAIS RELINQUISHES THE ALLIANCE . . 268
xiii
xiv COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
CHAPTER PAGE
XV. THE CRUISE OF THE ARIEL .... 291
XVI. CAREER IN THE UNITED STATES TO THE CLOSE
OF THE WAR 304
XVII. PRIZE AGENT IN FRANCE AND DENMARK LAST
VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES A BLOT ON
THE ESCUTCHEON FAMOUS PASSAGE OF THE
BALTIC . . 319
XVIII. IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE OTCHAKOFF AND
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE LlMAN . . -351
XIX. SLANDERED IN RUSSIA A SLAVONIC REWARD
FOR FAITHFUL SERVICES 390
XX. LAST YEARS AND DEATH ... . 407
XXI. PERSONAL APPEARANCE CHARACTERISTICS
WAS HE A PIRATE ? FAREWELL . . . 424
APPENDICES 459
INDEX . . . . . . . . . 477
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY BIRTH EARLY YEARS PROFESSION
SUCCESS CHANGE OF NAME.
OF the three great captains whose magnificent
fighting has added such glorious chapters to the
history of our naval campaigns, but one, George
Dewey, the last of them all, is purely an American
by birth and generations of ancestors. Farragut,
the greatest of the three, was but one remove from
a Spaniard. John Paul Jones, first of the group
in point of time and not inferior to the others in
quality and achievement, was a Scotsman. Only the
limitation in means necessitated by the narrow cir-
cumstances of his adopted country during his life-
time prevented his surpassing them all. He remains
to this day a unique character among the mighty
men who trod the deck and sailed the ocean a
strange personality not surpassed by any in the long
line of sea fighters from Themistocles to Sampson.
In spite of, nay, because of his achievements, he
was among the most calumniated of men. What
follows is an attempt to tell his story and to do him
justice.
Near the close of the fifth decade of the eight-
2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
eenth century, George I reigned in England, by
the grace of God and because he had succeeded
in putting down the rebellion of 1745 ; Frederick
the Great was tenaciously clutching the fair prov-
ince of Silesia which Maria Theresa, with equal
resolution but with faint prospect of success, was
endeavoring to retain ; Louis XV (the well be-
loved !) was exploiting the privileges and opportu-
nities of a king with Madame de Pompadour and the
Pare aux Ccrfs; and the long war of the Austrian
succession was just drawing to a close, when there
was born on July 6, 1747, to a Scots peasant, named
John Paul, and to Jean MacDuff, his wife, a son,
the fifth child of a large family.*
The youngster was duly christened John Paul,
Junior, after his sire. He is the hero of this history.
* Among the gross slanders by which envy strove to
blacken the fame of the great commodore in after years
the foulest, because it attempted to rob a virtuous woman of
her crown of honest motherhood and question the legitimacy
of Jones' birth was one which ascribed his paternity to the
Earl of Selkirk. To the English snob of that day it may
probably have seemed impossible that so much greatness
could spring from so plain a stock, and in a left-handed
descent from Lord Selkirk was sought an explanation of
Jones' fame. The calumny was refuted not only by its
antecedent incredibility, but by the testimony of persons in
position to affirm as to the high personal character of Jean
MacDuff Paul and by the loving and tender family relation-
ship she ever sustained to her husband and children. The
family was well known and highly respected. It may be
noted, by the way, that the Earl of Selkirk was not conspic-
uous for ability or anything else, and if it had not been for
a subsequent exploit of Jones' he would have been forgotten
long since.
ANCESTRY. 3
He first saw the light on the estate of Arbigland,
in the parish of Kirkbean, in the county of Kirkcud-
bright, a province once called the Royal Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright (pronounced " Kircoobree "), be-
cause it had been governed formerly by a steward or
deputy, appointed by the crown, of which the
county had been an appanage.
The father of the subject of this memoir filled
the modest situation of a master gardener, a pre-
cursor of the modern and scientific landscape gar-
dener, or engineer, in a small scale, in the employ of
a Scots bonnet laird named Craik. His remote
family peasants, yeomen always had come from
the ancient lands of the Thanes of Fife, whence his
grandfather had removed to Leith, where he kept
a mail garden or wayside inn in short, a tavern.
It is to the credit of Master John Paul, Senior
evidently a most honest and capable man in that
humble station in life into which it had pleased God
to call him that he forsook the tavern and clung
to the garden. When he had finished his appren-
ticeship as gardener he removed to Arbigland,
where he married Jean MacDuff, the daughter of a
sturdy yeoman farmer of the neighboring parish
of New Abbey, whose family had been established
in their present location from time immemorial.
The marriage was blessed with seven children,
the two youngest sons dying in infancy. The first
was a boy named William ; the next three were girls,
named Elizabeth, Janet, and Mary Ann; and the
fifth and last, considering the death of the infants,
the boy named John, after his father. En passant,
there must have been something favorable to the
4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
development of latent possibilities in gardeners' sons
in that corner of Scotland, for in the neighboring
county of Ayr, a few years later was born of simi-
lar bucolic stock the son of another tiller of the
soil, known to fame as Robbie Burns !
The cottage in which young Paul made his first
appearance was a little stone building in a verdant
glade in a thriving wood hard by the north shore
of the Sohvay. In front of the cottage whose white-
washed walls were in full view of the ships which
entered the Firth there was a patch of greensward.
The country of that section of bonnie Scotland
in which is the parish of Arbigland is rugged
and broken. . To the east and to the west, huge,
craggy mountains shut in a thickly wooded plateau,
diversified by clear, rapid streams abounding in fish.
The fastnesses in the hills even then were covered
with romantic ruins of decayed strongholds of feu-
dal times, reminiscent of the days of the Black
Douglasses and their men. The coast line, unusu-
ally stern and bold, is broken by many precipitous
inlets, narrow and deep. At the foot of the cliffs at
low tide broad stretches of sand are exposed to
view, and the rapid rise of the tide makes these
shelving beaches dangerous places upon which to
linger. The water deepens abruptly beyond the
beaches, and vessels under favorable circumstances
are enabled to approach near the shore.
Amid such scenes as these the childhood of
young Paul was passed. Like every thrifty Scots
boy of the period, he had plenty of work to do in
assisting his mother and father. The life of a Scots
peasant of that time was one of hard and incessant
EARLY YEARS.
5
toil ; his recreations were few, his food meager, his
opportunities limited, and the luxuries absent.
Young John Paul ate his porridge and did his work
like the rest. It would probably now be considered
a sad and narrow life, which the stern and rigid
austerity of the prevailing form of Calvinism did
nothing to lighten. That gloomy religion, however,
did produce men.
It was the parish school which shaped and
molded the minds of the growing Scots, and it
was the Kirk which shaped and directed the schools,
and the one was not more thorough than the other.
I doubt if anywhere on earth at that day was the
standard of education among the common people
higher and more universally reached than in Scot-
land. During the short school year Paul was sent
religiously to the nearest parish school, where he
was well grounded in the rudiments of solid learn-
ing with the thoroughness which made these little
schools famous. No demands of labor were allowed
to interfere with the claims of education. On Sun-
day he was religiously and regularly marched to
the kirk to be duly inducted into the mysteries of
the catechism, and thoroughly indoctrinated with
the theory of predestination and its rigorous con-
comitants.
Of him, as of other boys, it is veraciously stated
that he conceived a great fondness for the sea, and
it is related that all his plays were of ships and
sailors a thing easily understood when it is re-
membered that his most impressionable hours were
spent in sight and sound of the great deep, and that
the white sails of ships upon the horizon were quite
6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
as familiar a picture to his youthful vision as the
tree-clad hills and valleys of his native land. It is
evident that he had no fancy for the garden. A
man of action he, from his bib-and-tucker days. His
chroniclers have loved to call attention to the fact
that even as a lad he manifested the spirit of one
born to rule, for in the sports and games it was his
will which dominated his little group of comrades
and the Scotsman, even when he is a child, is not
easily dominated, be it remembered. His was a
healthy, vigorous boyhood.
His desire for the sea must have been stronger
than the evanescent feeling which finds a place
sooner or later in the life of most boys, for in 1759,
with the full consent of his parents, he crossed the
Solway to Whitehaven, the principal port of the
Firth, where he was regularly bound apprentice to
a merchant named Younger, who was engaged in
the American trade. He was immediately sent to
sea on the ship Friendship, Captain Benson, and at
the tender age of twelve years he made his first
voyage to the new land toward whose freedom and
independence he was afterward destined to contrib-
ute so much. The destination of the ship happened
to be the Rappahannock River. As it fortunately
turned out, his elder brother, William, had some
years before migrated to Virginia, where he had
married and settled at Fredericksburg, and by his
industry and thrift finally amassed a modest fortune.
Young Paul at once conceived a great liking for
America which never faltered ; long afterward he
stated that he had been devoted to it from his youth.
The ship duties in port not being arduous, the
EARLY YEARS. 7
young apprentice, through the influence of his
brother, was permitted to spend the period of the
vessel's stay in America on shore under the roof
of his kinsman. There he continued his studies with
that zeal for knowledge which was one of his distin-
guishing characteristics, and which never left him
in after life ; for it is to be noted that he was always
a student ; indeed, had he not been so, his subse-
quent career would have been impossible. It was
largely that habit of application, early acquired, that
enabled him to advance himself beyond his original
station. He especially applied himself to the
science of navigation, the intricacies of which he
speedily mastered, so that he became subsequently
one of the most expert navigators that sailed
the sea.
His natural inclination for the sea stood him in
good stead, and he finally acquired a complete
knowledge of the details of his trying profession.
Upon the failure of Mr. Younger, who surren-
dered the indentures of young Paul to him as
the only thing he could do for him in his present
circumstances, he was sufficiently capable to receive
an appointment as third mate on the slaver King
George, of Whitehaven. A few years after, in 1766,
being then but nineteen years of age, he was ap-
pointed to the most responsible position of chief
mate of the slaver Two Friends, a brigantine of
Jamaica. The contrast between the old and the new
regime is brought vividly before us when we learn
that to-day a cadet midshipman the lowest naval
rank at present of the same age has still a year of
schooling to undergo before he can even undertake
8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the two years' probationary t cruise at sea required
before he can be commissioned in the lowest grade.
Slave trading was a popular and common voca-
tion in that day, not reprehended as it would be at
present. Gentlemen of substance and station did
not scruple to engage in it, either as providing
money and receiving profit, or as actually participat-
ing as master or supercargo of ships in the traffic.
It is interesting to note that young Paul, as he grew
in years and acquired character, became intensely
dissatisfied with slaving. The sense of the cruelties,
iniquities, and injustice of the trade developed in him
with coming manhood, and gradually took such
possession of him that, as was stated by his rela-
tives and himself, he finally resolved to withdraw
from it.
This determination, scarcely to be expected from
one of his birth and circumstances, was greatly to
his credit. The business itself was a most stirring
and lucrative one, and for a young man to have
attained the rank he enjoyed so early in life was
evidence that he need have no fear but that the
future would bring him further advancement and
corresponding pecuniary reward. In this decision
he was certainly in advance of his time as well ; but
that love of liberty which had been bred in him by
the free air of the bold hills of his native land, and
which afterward became the master passion of his
life, for which he drew his sword, was undoubtedly
heightened and intensified by this close personal
touch with the horrors of involuntary servitude.
In the year 1768, therefore, giving up his posi-
tion on the Two Friends, he sailed as a passenger
PROFESSION. g
in the brigantine John, bound for Kirkcudbright.
It happened that the captain and mate of the vessel
both died of fever during the voyage, and at the
request of the crew Paul assumed command and
brought the vessel safely to her port. Currie, Beck
& Co., the owners of the John, were so pleased with
this exploit that they appointed young Paul master
and supercargo of the vessel, in which he made two
voyages to the West Indies. He was a captain,
therefore, and a merchant at the age of twenty-one.
The owners of the John dissolved partnership on
the completion of his second voyage, and disposed
of the ship, giving Paul the following honorable
certificate upon his discharge from their employ :
" These do certify to whom it may concern, that
the bearer, Captain John Paul, was two voyages
master of a vessel called the John, in our employ in
the West India trade, during which time he ap-
proved himself every way qualified both as a navi-
gator and supercargo ; but as our present firm is
dissolved, the vessel was sold, and of course he is
out of our employ, all accounts between him and the
owners being amicably adjusted. Certified at Kirk-
cudbright this ist April, 1771.
" CURRIE, BECK & Co."
One incident in his West Indian service is wor-
thy of mention, because it afterward crept out in
a very ugly manner. On the second voyage of the
John the carpenter, a man named Mungo Maxwell,
formerly of Kirkcudbright, who had been muti-
nous, was severely flogged by the order of Paul.
Maxwell was discharged at the island of Tobago.
I0 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
He immediately caused Paul to be summoned be-
fore the judge of the vice-admiralty court for as-
sault. The judge, after hearing the testimony and
statement of Captain Paul, dismissed the complaint
as frivolous. Maxwell subsequently entered on a
Barcelona packet, and in a voyage of the latter ship
from Tobago to Antigua died of a fever. Out of
this was built up a calumny to the effect that Max-
well had been so badly punished by Paul that he
died from his injuries. When Paul was in the Rus-
sian service years afterward the slander was en-
hanced by the statement that Maxwell was his
nephew. There was nothing w-hatever in the
charge.
After his retirement from the command of the
John he engaged in local trading with the Isle of
Man. It has been charged that he was a smuggler
during this period ; but he specifically and vehe-
mently denied the allegation, and it is certain that
the first entry of goods shipped from England to the
Isle of Man, after it was annexed to the crown,
stands in his name on the custom-house books of
the town of Douglas. Soon after this he com-
manded a ship, the Betsy, of London, in the West
India trade, in which he engaged in mercantile
speculations on his own account at Tobago and
Grenada, until the year 1773, when he went to Vir-
ginia again to take charge of the affairs of his
brother William, "who had died intestate, leaving
neither wife nor children.
Very little is known of his life from this period
until his entry into the public service of the United
SUCCESS. ! j
States. From remarks in his journal and corre-
spondence, it is evident, in spite of his brother's
property, to which he was heir, and some other
property and money which he had amassed by trad-
ing, which was invested in the island of Tobago,
West Indies, that he continued for some time in
very straitened circumstances. He speaks of
having lived for nearly two years on the small sum
of fifty pounds. It is probable that his poverty was
due to his inability to realize upon his brother's
estate, and the difficulty of getting a return of his
West Indian investments, on account of the unset-
tled political conditions, though they were of con-
siderable value. During this period, however, he
took that step which has been a puzzle to so many
of his biographers, and which he never explained in
any of his correspondence that remains. He came
to America under the name of John Paul ; he reap-
peared after this period of obscurity under the name
of John Paul Jones.
It is claimed by the descendants of the Jones
family of North Carolina that while in Fredericks-
burg the young mariner made the acquaintance of
the celebrated Willie (pronounced Wylie) Jones,
one of the leading attorneys and politicians of North
Carolina. Jones and his brother Allen were people
of great prominence and influence in that province.
It was Jones' influence, by the way, which in later
years postponed the ratification of the proposed
Constitution of the United States by North Caro-
lina. Willie Jones seems to have attended to the
legal side of Paul's claims to his deceased brother's
12 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
estate, and a warm friendship sprang up between
the two young men, so dissimilar in birth and breed-
ing, which, it is alleged, ended in an invitation to
young Paul to visit Jones and his brother on their
plantations.
The lonely, friendless little Scotsman gratefully
accepted the invitation the society of gentle people
always delighted him ; he ever loved to mingle with
great folk throughout his life and passed a long pe-
riod at " The Grove," in Northampton County, the
residence of Willie, and at " Mount Gallant," in
Halifax County, the home of Allen. While there,
he was thrown much in the society of the wife of
Willie Jones, a lady noted and remembered for her
graces of mind and person, and who, by the way,
made the famous answer to Tarleton's sneer
wholly unfounded, of course at the gallant Colonel
William A. Washington for his supposed illiteracy.
Morgan and Washington had defeated Tarleton
decisively at the Cowpens, and in the course of
the action Washington and Tarleton had met in
personal encounter. Washington had severely
wounded Tarleton in the hand. The Englishman
had only escaped capture by prompt flight and the
speed of his horse. " Washington," said the sneer-
ing partisan to Mrs. Jones, " why, I hear he can't
even write his name ! " " No ? " said the lady quietly
and interrogatively, letting her eyes fall on a livid
scar across Tarletpn's hand, " Well, he can make his
mark, at any rate."
The Jones brothers were men of culture and re-
finement. They were Eton boys, and had com-
pleted their education by travel and observation
CHANGE OF NAME. 13
in Europe. That they should have become so at-
tached to the young sailor as to have made him
their guest for long periods, and cherished the high-
est regard for him subsequently, is an evidence of the
character and quality of the man. Probably for the
first time in his life Paul was introduced to the
society of refined and cultivated people. A new
horizon opened before him, and he breathed, as it
were, another atmosphere. Life for him assumed
a different complexion. Always an interesting per-
sonality, with his habits of thought, assiduous study,
coupled with the responsibilities of command, he
needed but a little contact with gentle people and
polite society to add to his character those graces of
manner which are the final crown of the gentle-
man, and which the best of his contemporaries
have borne testimony he did not lack. The im-
pression made upon him by the privilege of this
association was of the deepest, and he gave to his
new friends, and to Mrs. Jones especially, a warm-
hearted affection and devotion amounting to ven-
eration.
It is not improbable, also, that in the society in
which he found himself and it must be remembered
that North Carolina was no less fervidly patriotic,
no less desirous of independence, than Massachu-
setts : it was at Mecklenburg that the first declara-
tion took place the intense love of personal lib-
erty and independence in his character which had
made him abandon the slave trade was further de-
veloped, and that during this period he finally de-
termined to become a resident of the new land ;
a resolution that made him cast his lot with the
14 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
other colonists when the inevitable rupture came
about.
It is stated that in view of this determination on
his part to begin life anew in this country, and as a
mark of the affection and gratitude he entertained
for the family of his benefactors, he assumed the
name of Jones. It was a habit in some secluded
parts of Scotland and in Wales to take the father's
Christian name as a surname also, .and this may
have been in his mind at the time. He did not as-
sume the name of Jones, however, out of any dis-
regard for his family or from any desire to dis-
guise himself from them, for, although he last saw
them in 1/71, he ever continued in correspondence
with them, and found means, whatever his circum-
stances, to make them frequent remittances of
money during his busy life. To them he left all his
property at his death. It is certain, therefore, that
for no reason for which he had cause to be ashamed
did he affix the name of Jones to his birth name, and
it may be stated that whatever name he took he
honored. Henceforth in this volume he will be
known by the name which he made so famous.*
One other incident of this period is noteworthy.
During his visit to North Carolina he was introduced
by the Jones brothers to Joseph Hewes, of Edenton,
one of the delegates from North Carolina to the first
and second Provincial Congresses, and a signer of
the great Declaration of Independence. In Congress
Hewes was a prominent member of the Committee
on Naval Affairs, upon which devolved the work
* See Appendix I.
A NAVAL APPOINTMENT. 15
of beginning and carrying on the navy of the Revo-
lution. When the war broke out Paul Jones was
still living in Virginia. But when steps were
taken to organize a navy for the revolted colonies,
attracted by the opportunities presented in that field
of service in which he was a master, and glad of the
chance for maintaining a cause so congenial to his
habit of life and thought, he formally tendered his
services to his adopted country. The influence of
Willie Jones and Hewes was secured, and on the
7th of December, 1775, Jones was appointed a lieu-
tenant in the new Continental navy.
Additional note on the assumption of the name of Jones.
Mr. Augustus C. Buell, in his exhaustive and valuable
study of Paul Jones, published since this book was written,
states that the name was assumed by him in testamentary
succession to his brother, who had added the name of Jones
at the instance of a wealthy planter named William Jones,
who had adopted him. Mr. Buell's authority rests on tradi-
tion and the statements made by Mr. Louden, a great-grand-
nephew of the commodore (since dead), and of the sometime
owner of the Jones plantation. On the other hand, in addi-
tion to the letters quoted in the Appendix, I have received
many others from different sources, tending to confirm the
version given by me. Among them is one from a Fredericks-
burg antiquarian, who claims that William Paul never bore
the name of Jones in Fredericksburg. General Cadwallader
Jones (who died in 1899, aged eighty-six), in a privately pub-
lished biography, also states explicitly that he heard the
story from Mrs. Willie Jones herself. Mr. Buell, in a recent
letter to me, calls attention to the fact and it is significant
that absolutely no reference to the North Carolina claim
appears in any extant letter of the commodore, and claims
that Hewes and Jones were acquainted before John Paul
settled in America. As the official records have all been
destroyed, the matter of the name will probably never be
absolutely determined.
CHAPTER II.
COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY HOISTS THE FIRST
FLAG EXPEDITION TO NEW PROVIDENCE
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GLASGOW.
THE honor of initiative in the origin of the
American navy belongs to Rhode Island, a doughty
little State which, for its area, possesses more miles
of seaboard than any other. On Tuesday, October
3, 1775, the delegates from Rhode Island introduced
in the Continental Congress a resolution which had
been passed by the General Assembly of the prov-
ince on August 26th of the same year, in which,
among other things, the said delegates were in-
structed to " use their whole influence, at the en-
suing Congress, for building, at the Continental ex-
pense, a fleet of sufficient force for the protection
of these colonies, and for employing them in such
manner and places as will most effectually annoy
our enemies, and contribute to the common defense
of these colonies."
Consideration of the resolution was twice post-
poned, but it was finally discussed on the 7th of
October and referred to a committee. On the I3th
of October the committee reported, and Congress
so far accepted the Rhode Island suggestion that
the following resolution was passed :
16
COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY. 17
" Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry
ten carriage guns and a proportionate number of
swivels with eighty men, be fitted with all possible
dispatch for a cruise of three months, and that the
commander be instructed to cruise eastward for in-
tercepting such transports as may be laden with
warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies,
and for such other purposes as the Congress shall
direct." Another vessel was also ordered fitted out
for the same purpose.
Messrs. Deane, Langden, and Gadsden were ap-
pointed a committee to carry out the instructions
embodied in the resolution. When the committee
submitted a report, on the 3Oth of October, it was
further resolved " that the second vessel ordered to
be fitted out on the I3th inst. be of such size as to
carry fourteen guns and a proportionate number of
swivels and men." Two other vessels were also
ordered to be put into service, one to carry not more
than twenty and the other not more than thirty-six
guns, " for the protection and defense of the United
Colonies, as the Congress shall direct."
This may be considered as the real and actual
beginning of the American navy. There had been
numerous naval encounters between vessels of war
of the enemy and private armed vessels acting under
the authority of the various colonies ; and Wash-
ington himself, with the approval of the Congress,
which passed some explicit resolutions on the sub-
ject on October 5th, had made use of the individual
colonial naval forces, and had issued commissions
to competent men empowering them to cruise and
Intercept the transports and other vessels laden with
3
1 8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
powder and supplies for the enemy, but no formal
action looking to the creation of a regular naval
force had been taken heretofore.
Congress had long clung to the hope of recon-
ciliation with the mother country, and had been ex-
ceedingly loath to take the radical step involved in
the establishment of a navy, for in the mind of the
Anglo-Saxon, who always claimed supremacy on
the sea, a navy is primarily for offense. To constitute
a navy for defense alone is to invite defeat. Aggres-
sion and initiative are of the essence of success in
war on the sea. Now, in the peculiar condition in
which the United Colonies found themselves, a
naval force could be used for no other purpose than
offense. The capacity of any navy which the colo-
nies could hope to create, for defensive warfare,
would be so slender as to be not worth the outlay,
and the creation of a navy to prey upon the enemy's
commerce and to take such of his armed vessels as
could be overcome would controvert the fiction that
we were simply resisting oppression. It would be
making war in the most unmistakable way.
It is a singular thing that men have been willing
to do, or condone the doing of, things on land which
they have hesitated to do or condone on the sea.
The universal diffusion of such sentiments is seen
in the absurdly illogical contention on the part of
the British Government subsequently, that, al-
though a soldier on land was a rebel, he could be
treated as a belligerent ; while a man who stood in
exactly the same relation to the King of England
whose field of action happened to be the sea was of
necessity a pirate.
COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY. 19
At any rate, by the acts of Congress enumer-
ated, a navy was assembled, and the plan of Rhode
Island was adopted. It was Rhode Island, by the
way, which, by preamble and resolution, sundered
its allegiance to Great Britain just two months to
a day before the Declaration of Independence. To
the naval committee already constituted, Stephen
Hopkins, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and
Joseph Hewes were soon added. The committee
at once undertook the work of carrying out the
instructions they had received. On the 5th of No-
vember they selected for the command of the pro-
posed navy Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, a
brother of the famous Stephen Hopkins who was
a member of the committee and one of the most
influential members of the Congress. Other officers
were commissioned from time to time as selections
were made, and commissions and orders were issued
to them by the committee, subject, of course, to the
ratification or other action by the Congress. Paul
Jones' commission as a lieutenant, as has been
stated, was dated the 7th of December, 1775.
Esek Hopkins, who was born in 1718, was
therefore fifty-seven years of age. He had been a
master mariner for thirty years. He was a man of
condition and substance wlio had traded in his own
ships in all the then visited parts of the globe. As
a commander of privateers and letters of marque
he was not without experience in arms. He had
been created a brigadier general of the Rhode Island
militia on the threatened outbreak of hostilities, a
position he resigned to take command of the navy.
On the 22d of December Congress confirmed the
20 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
nomination of Hopkins as commander-in-chief, and
regularly appointed the following officers :
fjohn Paul Jones,
[ Dudley Saltonstall,
Rhodes Arnold,
Can- Abraham Whipple, rirst Lieu-
4 Stansbury,
tains. ] N.cholas B.ddle tenants. H H
[John Burroughs Hopkins. [ Jonathan Pitcher]
f Benjamin Seabury,
Second Joseph Olney, Third r John Fanning,
Lieuten- < Elisha Warner, Lieuten- { Ezekiel Burroughs,
ants. Thomas Weaver, ants. I Daniel Vaughan.
l_ McDougall.
These were, therefore, the forerunners of that
long line of distinguished naval officers who have
borne the honorable commission of the United
States.
In addition to the regular course pursued, other
action bearing upon the subject of naval affairs was
had. On Saturday, November, 25th, Congress, en-
raged by the burning of Falmouth, adopted radical
resolutions, looking toward the capture and confis-
cation of armed British vessels and transports, di-
recting the issuance of commissions to the captains
of cruisers and privateers, and creating admiralty
courts and prescribing a scheme for distributing
prize money. On November 28th resolutions pre-
scribing " Regulations for the Government of the
Navy of the United Colonies " were adopted, the
first appearance of that significant phrase in the
records, by the way.
On December 5th the seizure of merchant ves-
sels engaging in trade between the Tories of Vir-
ginia and the West Indies under the inspiration of
Lord Dunmore, was ordered. On December nth
APPOINTED TO THE ALFRED. 21
a special committee to devise ways and means for
*' furnishing these colonies with a naval armament "
was appointed. Two days later the report of the
committee was adopted, and thirteen ships were or-
dered built, five of thirty-two, five of twenty-eight,
and three of twenty-four guns. They were to be
constructed one in New Hampshire, two in Mas-
sachusetts, one in Connecticut, two in Rhode Island,
two in New York, four in Pennsylvania, and one in
Maryland ; the maximum cost of each of them was
sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars
and sixty-six and two thirds cents. They had a fine
idea of accuracy in the construction corps of that
day.
But, while Congress had been therefore pre-
paring to build the navy, the regular marine com-
mittee had not been idle. By strenuous effort the
committee assembled a squadron. A merchant ves-
sel called the Black Prince, which had lately arrived
from London under the command of John Barry
(afterward a famous American commodore), was
purchased and renamed the Alfred, after King
Alfred the Great, who is commonly believed to be
the founder of the British navy. She was a small,
stanch trading vessel, very heavily timbered, and
with unusually stout scantlings for a ship of her
class, although of course not equal to a properly
constructed ship of war. The committee armed her
with twenty 9-pounders on the main deck, and four
smaller guns, possibly 6- or 4-pounders, on the fore-
castle and poop, and she was placed under the com-
mand of Captain Dudley Saltonstall. Jones, whose
name stood first on the list of first lieutenants, was
22 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
appointed her executive officer. Hopkins selected
her for his flagship. Jones had been offered the
command of one of the smaller vessels of the squad-
ron, but elected to fill his present station, as pre-
senting more opportunities .for acquiring informa-
tion and seeing service. His experience in armed
vessels had been limited ; he knew but little of the
requirements of a man-of-war, and deemed he could
best fit himself for that higher command to which
he aspired and determined to deserve by beginning
his service under older and more experienced offi-
cers a wise decision.
The next important vessel was another con-
verted merchantman, originally called the Sally,
now named the Columbus, after the great discov-
erer. She was a full-rigged ship of slightly less
force and armament than the Alfred, commanded by
Captain Abraham Whipple, already distinguished in
a privateering way. In addition to these there were
two brigs called the Andrea Doria and the Cabot,
commanded by Captains Nicholas Diddle and John
Burroughs Hopkins, a son of the commander-in-
chief. The Andrea Doria and Cabot carried four-
teen 4-pounders each.
Hopkins arrived at Philadelphia in December,
1775, in the brig Katy, of the Rhode Island navy,
which was at once taken into the Continental serv-
ice and renamed the Providence, after the com-
mander's native town. She carried twelve light
guns, 4-pounders. There were also secured a ten-
gun schooner called the Hornet, and the Wasp and
Fly, two eight-gun schooners or tenders, one of
which Jones had refused. The work of outfitting
HOISTS THE FIRST FLAG. 23
these ships as generously as the meager resources
of the colonies permitted had been carried on as-
siduously before the arrival of the commander-in-
chief, whose first duty, when he reached Philadel-
phia, was formally to assume the command.
This assumption of command entailed the put-
ting of the ships in commission by publicly read-
ing the orders appointing the commodore, and as-
signing him to command, and hoisting and saluting
the flags. The officers previously appointed had
been proceeding somewhat irregularly, doubtless,
by going on with their preparations prior to this im-
portant ceremony. At any rate, in the latter part of
December, 1775, or the early part of January, 1776
the date not being clear, the authorities not only
differing, but in no single case venturing upon a defi-
nite statement all things having been made ready,
Commodore Hopkins with his staff officers entered
the commodore's barge, lying at the foot of Wal-
nut Street, and was rowed to the flagship. The
wharves and houses facing the river were crowded
with spectators to witness so momentous a cere-
mony as the commissioning of the first American
fleet.
It has been recorded that it was a bright, cold,
clear winter morning. The barge picked its way
among the floating ice cakes of the Delaware, and
finally reached the Alfred. The commodore
mounted the side, followed by his staff, and was re-
ceived with due honors in the gangway by the cap-
tain and his officers in such full dress as they could
muster. The crew and the marines were drawn up
in orderly ranks in the waist and on the quarter
24 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
deck. After the reading of the commodore's com-
mission and the orders assigning him to the com-
mand of the fleet, Captain Dudley Saltonstall
nodded his head to John Paul Jones, his executive
officer. The young Scotsman, with, I imagine, a
heart beating rarely, stepped forward and received
from the veteran quartermaster the end of the hal-
liards, to which, in the shape of a neatly rolled-up
ball, was bent a handsome yellow silk flag, bearing
the representation of a rattlesnake about to strike
(and perhaps a pine tree also), with the significant
legend " Don't tread on me." With his own hands
the young lieutenant hauled the rolled-up ensign to
the masthead, and then, with a slight twitch, he
broke the stops and there blew out in the morning
breeze, before the eyes of the commodore, his offi-
cers, the men of the ships, and the delighted specta-
tors on shore, the first flag that ever flew from a
regularly commissioned war ship of the United
Colonies. The grand union flag, a red and white
striped ensign with the English cross in the canton,
was also hoisted. The flags \vere saluted by the
booming of cannon from the batteries of the ships,
and with cheers from the officers and men of the
squadron and the people on the shore, and thus the
transaction was completed, and the navy of the
United States began to be.
The ships were slight in force, their equipments
meager and deficient, and of inferior quality at best.
The men had but little experience in naval warfare,
and their officers scarcely much more. There were
men of undoubted courage and capacity among
them, however, and several to whom the profession
EXPEDITION TO NEW PROVIDENCE. 25
of arms was not entirely new. At least two of them,
Jones and Biddle, were to become forever famous
for their fighting. Compared with the huge and
splendid navy of England, the whole force was an
unconsidered trifle, but it was a beginning, and not
a bad one at that, as the mother country was to find
out. The outfitting of the squadron was by no
means complete, and, though the commodore with
the others labored hard, the work proceeded slowly
and with many hindrances and delays ; it was never
properly done. Then the ships were ice-bound in
Delaware Bay, and it was not until nearly two
months had elapsed that they were able to get to
sea.
The principal difficulty in the rebellious colonies,
from the standpoint of military affairs, was the scar-
city of powder. There were guns in respectable
numbers, but without powder they were necessarily
useless. The powder mills of the colonies were few
and far between, and their output was inadequate to
meet the demand. It is now well known that
although Washington maintained a bold front when
he invested the British army in Boston, at times
his magazines did not contain more than a round
or two of powder for each of his guns. His posi-
tion was a magnificent specimen of what in modern
colloquialism would have been called a " bluff."
There was, of course, but little powder to spare for
the improvised men-of-war, and most of what they
had was borrowed from the colony of Pennsylvania.
To get powder was the chief end of military men
then.
On February 17, 1776, the little squadron
2 6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
cleared the capes of the Delaware, and before night-
fall had disappeared from view beneath the south-
east horizon. It appears that the orders were for
Hopkins to sail along the coast toward the south,
disperse Dunmore's squadron, which was maraud-
ing in Virginia, pick up English coasting vessels,
and capture scattered English ships cruising be-
tween Pennsylvania and Georgia to break up the
colonial coasting trade and capture colonial mer-
chantmen. But it also appears from letters of the
Marine Committee that another object of the ex-
pedition was the seizure of large stores of powder
and munitions of warfare which had been allowed
to accumulate at New Providence, in the Bahama
group, and that Hopkins sailed with much discre-
tion as to his undertaking and the means of carry-
ing it out. The Bahama project was maintained as
a profound secret between the naval committee and
its commodore, the matter not being discussed in
Congress even.
With that end in view the commander-in-chief,
by orders published to the fleet before its de-
parture, appointed the island of Abaco, one of the
most northerly of the Bahama group, as a rendez-
vous for his vessels in case they became separated
by the usual vicissitudes of the sea. The scattered
ships were directed to make an anchorage oft' the
southern part of the island, and wait at least four-
teen days for the other vessels to join them before
cruising on their own account in such directions
as in the judgment of their respective commanders
would most annoy, harass, and damage the enemy.
Shortly after leaving the capes the squadron ran
EXPEDITION TO NEW PROVIDENCE. 2 /
into a severe easterly gale off Hatteras, then, as
now, one of the most dangerous points on the whole
Atlantic seaboard. The ships beat up against it,
and all succeeded in weathering the cape and escap-
ing the dreaded perils of the lee shore. If lack of
training prevented the officers from claiming to be
naval experts, there were prime seamen among
them at any rate. When the gale abated Hopkins
cruised along the coast for a short time, meeting
nothing of importance in the way of a ship. Rightly
concluding that the fierce winter weather would
have induced the enemy's vessels to seek shelter in
the nearest harbors, and his cruise in that direction,
if further continued, would be profitless, he squared
away for the Bahamas, to carry out the second and
secret part of his instructions.
It was for a long time alleged that he took this
action on his own account, and one of the charges
against him in the popular mind was disobedience
of orders in so doing ; but he was undoubtedly
within his orders in the course which he took, and
it is equally certain that the enterprise upon which
he was about to engage was one in which more
immediate profit would accrue to the colonies than
in any other. He should be held not only guiltless
in the matter, but awarded praise for his decision.
On the ist of March the squadron, with the excep-
tion of the Hornet and the Fly, which had parted
company in the gale, reached the island of Abaco,
about forty miles to the northward of New Provi-
dence.
No part of the western hemisphere had been
longer known than the Bahamas. Upon one of
2g COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
them Columbus landed. The principal island
among them, not on account of its size, which was
insignificant, but because it possessed a commodi-
ous and land-locked harbor, is the island of New
Providence. No island in the great archipelago
which forms the northeastern border of the Carib-
bean had enjoyed a more eventful history. From
time immemorial it had been the haunt of the buc-
caneer and the pirate. From it had sailed many
expeditions to ravage the Spanish Ivlain. It had
been captured and recaptured by the successive na-
tionalities which had striven for domination in the
Caribbean, and in their brutal rapacity had made a
hell of every verdant tropic island which lifted itself
in the gorgeous beauty peculiar to those latitudes,
above the deep blue of that lambent sea. It had come
finally and definitely under the English crown, and
a civilized government had been established by the
notorious Woodes Rogers, who was himself a sort
of Jonathan Wild of the sea, but one remove and
that not a great one from the gentry whose nests
he broke up and whose ravages he had put down.
It had been taken since then by the Spaniards, but
had been restored to the British.
The town of Nassau, which lies upon the north-
ern face of the island, is situated upon the side of
a hill which slopes gently down toward the water.
The harbor, which is sufficiently deep to accom-
modate vessels drawing not more than twelve feet,
is formed by a long island which lies opposite the
town. There are two entrances to the harbor, only
one of which was practicable for large ships, though
both were open for small vessels. At the ends of the
EXPEDITION TO NEW PROVIDENCE. 59
harbor, commanding each entrance, two forts had
been erected : Fort Montague on the east and Fort
Nassau on the west. Through culpable negligence,
in spite of the quantity of military stores it con-
tained, there was not a single regular soldier on
the island at that time, and no preparations for de-
fense had been made.
It was proposed to make the descent upon the
western end of the island and then march up and take
the town in the rear. Paul Jones, however, in the
council which was held on the Alfred before the de-
barkation, pointed out the greater distance which the
men would have to march in that case, the alarm
which would be given by the passage of the ships,
and advised that a landing be effected upon the east-
ern end of the island, whence the attack could be
more speedily delivered, and, as the ships would not
be compelled to advance, no previous alarm would
be given. Hopkins demurred to this plan on the
ground that no safe anchorage for the ships was
afforded off the eastern end. The Alfred had taken
two pilots from some coasting vessels which had
been captured, and from them it was learned that
about ten miles away was a small key which would
afford the larger vessels safe anchorage. As Hop-
kins hesitated to trust the pilots, Jones, at the peril
of his commission, offered in conjunction with them
to bring the ships up himself. His suggestions were
agreed to, his offer accepted, and when the vicinity
of the key was reached he took his station on the
fore-topmast crosstrees of the Alfred. He had
sailed in the West Indian waters many times,
and was familiar with the look of the sea and the
30 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
indications near the shore. With the assistance of
the pilots, after a somewhat exciting passage, he
succeeded in bringing all the ships to a safe an-
chorage. That he was willing to take the risk, and,
having done so, successfully carry out the difficult
undertaking, gives a foretaste of his bold and de-
cisive character, and of his technical skill as well.
Preparations for attack were quickly made.
Commodore Hopkins, having impressed some local
schooners, loaded them with two hundred and fifty
marines from the squadron, under the command of
Captain Samuel Nichols, the ranking officer of the
corps, and fifty seamen under the command of Lieu-
tenant Thomas Weaver of the Cabot, and on March
2d the transports with this attacking force were dis-
patched to Xew Providence.* They were convoyed
by the Providence and the Wasp, and a landing
was effected under the cover of these two ships of
war. Unfortunately, however, some of the other
larger vessels got under way at the same time, and
their appearance alarmed the town.
It never seems to have occurred to any one but
Jones that the west exit from the harbor should
be guarded by stationing two of the smaller vessels
off the channel to close it while the rest of the
squadron took care of the eastern end. It seems
probable from his correspondence that he ventured
upon the suggestion, for he specifically referred in
condemnatory terms to the failure to do so. At any
rate, if he did suggest it, and from his known ca-
* The Marine Corps was established by the Congress
November 10, 1775.
EXPEDITION TO NEW 1'ROYIDENCE. 31
pacity it is extremely likely that the obvious precau-
tion would have occurred to him, his suggestion was
disregarded, and the western pass from the harbor
was left open a fatal mistake.
The point where the expedition landed without
opposition was some four and a half miles from
Fort Montague. It was a bright Sunday morning
when the first American naval brigade took up its
march under Captain Nichols' orders. The men ad-
vanced steadily, and, though they were met by a
discharge of cannon from Fort Montague, they cap-
tured the works by assault without loss, the militia
garrison flying precipitately before the American
advance. The marines behaved with great spirit
on this occasion, as they have ever done. Instead
of promptly moving down upon the other fort, how-
ever, they contented themselves during that day with
their bloodless achievement, and not until the next
morning did they advance to complete the capture
of the place.
The inhabitants of the island were in a state of
panic, and when the marines and sailors marched
up to attack Fort Nassau they found it empty of any
garrison except Governor Brown, who opened the
gates and formally surrendered it to the Americans.
During the confusion of the night Brown seems to
have preserved his presence of mind, and rightly di-
vining that the powder would be the most precious
of all the munitions of warfare in his charge, he had
caused a schooner which lay in the harbor to be
loaded with one hundred and fifty barrels, the limit
of its capacity, and before daybreak she set sail and
made good her escape through the unguarded west-
32 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ern passage. A dreadful misfortune that, which
would not have occurred had Jones been in com-
mand.
However, a large quantity of munitions of war
of great value to the struggling colonies fell into
the hands of Hopkins' men, including eighty-eight
n Sfjtutdrvn,
Efcapt of Powder Se\oont
tt of Landing Party.
SCALE OF WILES
Map of attack on New Providence in the Bahamas.
cannon, ranging in size from 9- to 36-pounders, fif-
teen large mortars, over eleven thousand round
shot, and twenty precious casks of powder. The
Americans behaved with great credit in this con-
quest. None of the inhabitants of the island were
harmed, nor was their property touched. It was a
noble commentary on some of the British forays
along our own coast. Hopkins impressed a sloop,
promising to pay for its use and return it when he
was through with it, which promise was faithfully
kept, and the sloop was loaded with the stores, etc.,
which had been captured.
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GLASGOW.
33
His own ships were also heavily laden with these
military stores, the Alfred in particular being so
overweighted that it was almost impossible to fight
her main-deck guns, so near were they to the water-
line, except in the most favorable circumstances of
wind and weather.
Taking Governor Brown, who was afterward
exchanged for General Lord Stirling, and one or
two other officials of importance as hostages on
board his fleet, Hopkins set sail for home on the
1 7th of March. He had done his work expedi-
tiously and well, but through want of precaution
which had been suggested by Jones, he had failed
in part when his success might have been com-
plete. Still, he was bringing supplies of great value,
and his handsome achievement was an auspicious
beginning of naval operations. The squadron pur-
sued its way toward the United Colonies without
any adventures or happenings worthy of chron-
icle until the 4th of April, when off the east end
of Long Island they captured the schooner Hawk,
carrying six small guns. On the 5th of April the
bomb vessel Bolton, eight guns, forty-eight men,
filled with stores of arms and powder, was captured
without loss.
On the 6th, shortly after midnight, the night
being dark, the wind gentle, the sea smooth, and the
ships very much scattered, swashing along close-
hauled on the starboard tack between Block Island
and the Rhode Island coast, they made out a large
ship, under easy sail, coming down the wind toward
the squadron. It was the British sloop of war Glas-
gow, twenty guns and one hundred and fifty men,
4
34 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
commanded by Captain Tyringham Howe. She
was accompanied by a small tender, subsequently
captured. The nearest ships of the American squad-
ron luffed up to have a closer look at the stranger,
the men being sent to quarters in preparation for any
emergency. By half after two in the morning the
brig Cabot had come within a short distance of her.
The stranger now hauled her wind, and Captain
John Burroughs Hopkins, the son of the commo-
dore, immediately hailed her. Upon ascertaining
who and what she was he promptly poured in a
broadside from his small guns, which was at once
returned by the formidable battery of the Glasgow.
The unequal conflict was kept up with great spirit
for a few moments, but the Cabot alone was no
match for the heavy English corvette, and after a loss
of four killed and several wounded, including the
captain severely, the Cabot, greatly damaged in hull
and rigging, fell away, and her place was taken by
the Alfred, still an unequal match for the English
vessel, but more nearly approaching her size and
capacity.
The Andrea Doria now got within range and
joined in the battle. For some three hours in the
night the ships sailed side by side, hotly engaged.
After a time the Columbus, Captain Whipple, which
had been farthest to leeward, succeeded in crossing
the stern of the Glasgow, and raked her as she was
passing. The aim of the Americans was poor,
and instead of smashing her stern in and doing
the damage which might have been anticipated, the
shot flew high and, beyond cutting the Englishman
up aloft, did no appreciable damage. The Provi-
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GLASGOW. 35
dence, which was very badly handled, managed to
get in long range on the lee quarter of the Glasgow
and opened an occasional and ineffective fire upon
her. But the bulk of the fighting on the part of
the Americans was done by the Alfred.
Captain Howe maneuvered and fought his ves-
sel with the greatest skill. During the course of
the action a lucky shot from the Glasgow carried
away the wheel ropes of the Alfred, and before the
relieving tackles could be manned and the damage
repaired the American frigate broached to and was
severely raked several times before she could be got
under command. At daybreak Captain Howe, who
had fought a most gallant fight against overwhelm-
ing odds, perceived the hopelessness of continuing
the combat, and, having easily obtained a command-
ing lead on the pursuing Americans, put his helm
up and ran away before the wind for Newport.
Hopkins followed him for a short distance, keep-
ing up a fire from his bow-chasers, but his deep-
laden merchant vessels were no match in speed for
the swift-sailing English sloop of war, and, as with
every moment his little squadron with its precious
cargo was drawing nearer the English ships sta-
tioned at Newport, some of which had already heard
the firing and were preparing to get under way,
Hopkins hauled his wind, tacked and beat up for
New London, where he arrived on the 8th of April
with his entire squadron and the prizes they had
taken, with the exception of the Hawk, recaptured.
The loss on the Glasgow was one man killed
and three wounded ; on the American squadron, ten
killed and fourteen wounded, the loss being con-
36 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fined mainly to the Alfred and the Cabot, the Colum-
bus having but one man wounded. During this
action Paul Jones was stationed in command of the
main battery of the Alfred. He had nothing what-
ever to do with the maneuvers of the ships, and was
in no way responsible for the escape of the Glasgow
and the failure of the American force to capture her.
The action did not reflect credit on the Ameri-
can arms. The Glasgow, being a regular cruiser
and of much heavier armament than any of the
American ships, was more than a match for any
of them singly, though taken together, if the per-
sonnel of the American squadron had been equal
to, or if it even approximated, that of the British
ship, the latter would have been captured without
difficulty. The gun practice of the Americans was
very poor, which is not surprising. With the
exception of a very few of the officers, none of the
Americans had ever been in action, and they knew
little about the fine art of hitting a mark, especially
at night. They had had no exercise in target prac-
tice and but little in concerted fleet evolution.
There seems to have been no lack of courage except
in the case of the captain of the Providence, who
was court-martialed for incapacity and cowardice,
and dismissed from the service. Hopkins' judgment
in withdrawing from the pursuit for the reasons
stated can not be questioned, neither can he be
justly charged with the radical deficiency of the
squadron, though he was made to suffer for it.
While the Glasgow escaped, she did not get off
scot free. She w r as badly cut up in the hull, had ten
shot through her mainmast, fifty-two through her
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GLASGOW.
37
mizzen staysail, one hundred and ten through her
mainsail, and eighty-eight through her foresail.
Her royal yards were carried away, many of
her spars badly wounded, and her rigging cut to
pieces. This catalogue tells the story. The Ameri-
cans in their excitement and inexperience had fired
high, and their shot had gone over their mark. The
British defense had been a most gallant one, and the
first attack between the ships of the two navies had
been a decided triumph for the English.
Paul Jones' conduct in the main battery of the
Alfred had been entirely satisfactory to his superior
officers. He, with the other officers of that ship,
was commended, and subsequent events showed that
he still held the confidence of the commodore.
CHAPTER III.
THE CRUISE OF THE PROVIDENCE.
THE British fleet having left Newport in the
interim, on the 24th of April, 1776, the American
squadron got under way from New London for
Providence, Rhode Island. The ships were in bad
condition ; sickness had broken out among their
crews, and no less than two hundred and two men
out of a total of perhaps eight hundred and fifty at
best an insufficient complement were left ill at
New London. Their places were in a measure
supplied by one hundred and seventy soldiers, lent
to the squadron by General Washington, who had
happened to pass through New London, en route
to New York, on the day after Hopkins' arrival.
There was a pleasant interview between the two
commanders, and it was then that Jones caught his
first glimpse of the great leader.
The voyage to New London was made with-
out incident, except that the unfortunate Alfred
grounded off Fisher's Island, and had to lighten
ship before she could be floated. This delayed her
passage so that she did not arrive at Newport until
the 28th of April. The health of the squadron was
not appreciably bettered by the change, for over
one hundred additional men fell ill. Many of the
38
THE CRUISE OF THE PROVIDENCE.
39
seamen had been enlisted for the cruise only, and
they now received their discharge, so that the crews
of the already undermanned ships were so depleted
from these causes that it would be impossible for
them to put to sea. Washington, who was hard
pressed for men, and had troubles of his own, de-
manded the immediate return to New York of the
soldiers he had lent to the fleet. The captain of
the Providence being under orders for a court-mar-
tial for his conduct, on the ioth of May Hopkins
appointed John Paul Jones to the command of the
Providence.
The appointment is an evidence of the esteem in
which Jones was held by -his commanding officer,
and is a testimony to the confidence which was felt
in his ability and skill ; for he alone, out of all
the officers in the squadron, was chosen for im-
portant sea service at this time. Having no blank
commissions by him, Hopkins made out the new
commission on the back of Jones' original commis-
sion as first lieutenant. It is a matter of interest
to note that he was the first officer promoted to
command rank from a lieutenancy in the American
navy. His first orders directed him to take Wash-
ington's borrowed men to New York. After spend-
ing a brief time in hurriedly overhauling the brig
and preparing her for the voyage, Jones set sail for
New York, which he reached on the i8th of May,
after thirty-six hours. Having returned the men,
Jones remained at New York in accordance with
his orders until he could enlist a crew, which he
presently succeeded in doing. Thereafter, under
supplemental orders, he ran over to New London,
4 Q COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
took on board such of the men left there who were
sufficiently recovered to be able to resume their
duties, and came back and reported with them to
the commander-in-chief at Providence. He had
performed his duties, routine though they were,
expeditiously and properly.
He now received instructions thoroughly to
overhaul and fit the Providence for active cruising.
She was hove down, had her bottom scraped, and
was entirely refitted and provisioned under Jones's
skillful and practical direction. Her crew was ex-
ercised constantly at small arms and great guns, and
every effort made to put her in first-class condition.
In spite of the limited means at hand, she became a
model little war vessel. On June loth a sloop of war
belonging to the enemy appeared off the bay, and in
obedience to a signal from the commodore Jones
made sail to engage. Before he caught sight of the
vessel she sought safety in flight. On the 131!! of
June the Providence was ordered to Newburyport,
Massachusetts, to convoy a number of merchant
vessels loaded with coal for Philadelphia. Before
entering upon this important duty, however, Jones
was directed to accompany the tender Fly, loaded
with cannon, toward New York, and, after seeing
her safely into the Sound, convoy some merchant
vessels from Stonington to Newport.
There were a number of the enemy's war vessels
cruising in these frequented waters, arid the carry-
ing out of Jones' simple orders was by no means
an easy task ; but by address and skill, and that
careful watchfulness which even then formed a part
of his character, he succeeded in executing aU his
ENCOUNTER WITH THE CERBERUS. 41
duties without losing a single vessel under his
charge. He had one or two exciting encounters
with English war ships, the details of which are un-
fortunately not preserved. In one instance, by
boldly interposing the Providence between the Brit-
ish frigate Cerberus and a colonial brigantine loaded
with military stores from Hispaniola, he diverted
the attention of the frigate to his own vessel, and
drew her away from the pursuit of the helpless mer-
chantman, which thereby effected her escape. Then
the Providence, a swift little brig admirably handled,
easily succeeded in shaking off her pursuer, al-
though she had allowed the frigate to come within
gunshot range. The brigantine whose escape Jones
had thus assured was purchased into the naval serv-
ice and renamed the Hampden.
The coal fleet had assembled at Boston instead
of Newburyport, and in pursuance of his original
orders Jones brought them safely to the capes of
the Delaware on the ist of August. The run to
Philadelphia was soon made, and Hopkins' appoint-
ment, under which he was acting, was ratified by the
Congress, and the commission of captain was given
him, dated the 8th of August, 1776.
Hitherto Jones, like all the others engaged in
the war, had been a subject of England, a colonist
in rebellion against the crown. By the Declaration
of Independence he had become a citizen of the
United States engaged in maintaining the independ-
ence and securing the liberty of his adopted country.
The change WPS "most agreeable to him. It added a
dignity and value to his commission which could
not fail to be acceptable to a man of his tempera-
42 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ment. It was pleasant to him also to have the
confidence of his commander-in-chief, which had
been shown in the appointment to the command of
the Providence, justified by the government in the
commission which had been issued to him.
Jones had made choice of his course of action
in the struggle between kingdom and colony de-
liberately, not carried away by any enthusiasm of
the moment, but moved by the most generous senti-
ments of liberty and independence. He had much
at stake, and he was embarked in that particular
profession fraught with peculiar dangers not inci-
dent to the life of a soldier. It must have been,
therefore, with the greatest satisfaction that he per-
ceived opportunities opening before him in that
cause to which he had devoted himself, and in that
service of which he was a master. A foreigner with
but scant acquaintance and little influence in Amer-
ica, he had to make his way by sheer merit. The
value of what has been subsequently called " a
political pull " with the Congress was as well known
then as it is now, and nearly as much used, too.
He practically had none. Nevertheless, his foot was
already upon that ladder upon which he intended to
mount to the highest round eventually. He was not
destined to realize his ambition, however, without
a heartbreaking struggle against uncalled-for re-
straint, and a continued protest against active in-
justice which tried his very soul.
It was first proposed by the Marine Committee
that he return to New England and assume com-
mand of the Hampden, but he wisely preferred to
remain in the Providence for the time being. He
THE CRUISE OF THE PROVIDENCE.
43
thoroughly knew the ship and the crew, over which
he had gained that ascendency he always enjoyed
with those who sailed under his command. Not so
much by mistaken kindness or indulgence did he
win the devotion of his men for he was ever a stern
and severe, though by no means a merciless, disci-
plinarian but because of his undoubted courage,
brilliant seamanship, splendid audacity, and uniform
success. There is an attraction about these qualities
which is exercised perhaps more powerfully upon
seamen than upon any other class. The profession
of a sailor is one in which immediate decision, ad-
dress, resource, and courage are more in evidence
than in any other. The seaman in an emergency has
but little time for reflection, and in the hour of
peril, when the demand is made upon him, he must
choose the right course instantly as it were by in-
stinct.
With large discretion in his orders, which were
practically to cruise at pleasure and destroy the
enemy's commerce, the Providence left the Dela-
ware on the 2 ist of August. In the first week of
the cruise she captured the brigs Sea Nymph, Fa-
vorite, and Britannia ; the first two laden with rum,
sugar, etc., and the last a whaler. These rich prizes
were all manned and sent in.
On the morning of the ist of September, being
in the latitude of the Bermudas, five vessels were
sighted to leeward. The sea was moderately
smooth, with a fresh breeze blowing at the time, and
the Providence immediately ran off toward the
strangers to investigate. It appeared to the ob-
servers on Jones' brig that the largest was an East
44 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
Indiaman and the others ordinary merchant vessels.
They were in error, however, in their conclusions,
for a nearer approach disclosed the fact that the sup-
posed East Indiaman was a frigate of twenty-eight
guns, called the Solebay. Jones immediately hauled
his wind and clapped on sail. The frigate, which
had endeavored to conceal her force with the hope
of enticing the Providence under her guns, at once
made sail in pursuit. The Providence was a smart
goer, and so was the Solebay. The two vessels set-
tled down for a long chase. On the wind it be-
came painfully evident that the frigate had the heels
of the brig. With burning anxiety Jones and his
officers saw the latter gradually closing with them.
Shot from her bow-chasers, as she came within
range, rushed through the air at the little American
sloop of war, which now hoisted her colors and re-
turned the fire. Seeing this, the Solebay set an
American ensign, and fired one or two guns to lee-
ward in token of amity, but Jones was not to be
taken in by any transparent ruse of this character.
He held on, grimly determined. As the Solebay
drew nearer she ceased firing, confident in her abil-
ity to capture the chase, for which, indeed, there ap-
peared no escape.
An ordinary seaman, even though a brave man,
would probably have given up the game in his mind,
though his devotion to duty would have compelled
him to continue the fight until actually overhauled,
but Tones had no idea of being captured then. Al-
ready a plan of escape had developed in his fertile
brain. Communicating his intentions to his officers,
he completed his preparations, and only awaited the
ESCAPE FROM THE SOLEBAY.
45
favorable moment for action. The Solebay had
crept up to within one hundred yards of the lee
quarter of the Providence. If the frigate yawed and
delivered a broadside the brig would be sunk or
crippled and captured. Now was the time, if ever,
to put his plan in operation. If the maneuver failed,
it would be all up with the Americans. As usual,
Jones boldly staked all on the issue of the moment.
As a preliminary the helm had been put slightly
a-weather, and the brig allowed to fall off to leeward
a little, so bringing the Solebay almost dead astern
if anything, a little to windward. In anticipation
of close action, as Jones had imagined, the English
captain had loaded his guns with grape shot, which,
of course, would only be effective at short range.
Should the Englishman get the Providence under
his broadside, a well-aimed discharge of grape
would clear her decks and enable him to capture the
handsome brig without appreciably damaging her.
From his knowledge of the qualities of the
Providence, Jones felt sure that going free that is,
with the wind aft, or on the quarter he could run
away from his pursuer. The men, of course, had
been sent to their stations long since. The six 4-
pounders, which constituted the lee battery, were
quietly manned, the guns being double-shotted with
grape and solid shot. The studding sails light
sails calculated to give a great increase in the spread
of canvas to augment the speed of the ship in a light
breeze, which could be used to advantage going
free and in moderate winds were brought out and
prepared for immediate use. Everything having
been made ready, and the men cautioned to pay
46 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
strict attention to orders,. and to execute them with
the greatest promptitude and celerity, Jones sud-
denly put his helm hard up.
The handy Providence spun around on her heel
like a top, and in a trice was standing boldly across
the forefoot of the onrushing English frigate.
When she lay squarely athwart the bows of the
Solebay Jones gave the order to fire, and the little
battery of 4-pounders barked out its gallant salute
and poured its solid shot and grape into the eyes
of the frigate. In the confusion of the moment, ow-
ing to the suddenness of the unexpected maneuver,
and the raking he had received, the English captain
lost his head. Before he could realize what had
happened, the Providence, partially concealed by the
smoke from her own guns, had drawn past him, and,
covered with great wide-reaching clouds of light
canvas by the nimble fingers of her anxious crew,
was ripping through the water at a great rate at a
right angle to her former direction.
When the Solebay, rapidly forging ahead,
crossed the stern of the saucy American a few mo-
ments after, she delivered a broadside, which at that
range, as the guns were loaded with grape shot, did
little damage to the brig and harmed no one. The
distance was too great and the guns were badly
aimed. By the time the Solebay had emulated the
maneuvers of the Providence and had run off, the
latter had gained so great a lead that her escape
was practically effected. The English frigate proved
to be unable to outfoot the American brig on this
course, and after firing upward of a hundred shot at
her the Solebay gave over the pursuit. This escape
CHASED BY THE MILFORD.
47
has ever been counted one of the most daring and
subtle pieces of seamanship and skill among the
many with which the records of the American navy
abound. As subsequent events proved, the failure
to capture Jones was most unfortunate on the part
of the English.
Jones now shaped his course for the Banks of
Newfoundland, to break up the fishing industry and
let the British know that ravaging the coast, which
they had begun, was a game at which two could
play. On the i6th and i7th of the month he ran
into a heavy gale, so severe in character that he
was forced to strike his guns into the hold on ac-
count of the rolling of the brig. The gale abated on
the iQth, and on the 2Oth of September, the day be-
ing pleasant, the Providence was hove to and the
men were preparing to enjoy a day of rest and
amusement, fishing for cod, when in the morning
two sail appeared to windward. As Jones was pre-
paring to beat up and investigate them, they saved
him that trouble by changing their course and run-
ning down toward him. They proved to be a mer-
chant ship and a British frigate, the Milford, 32.
Jones kept the Providence under easy canvas
until he learned the force of the enemy, and then
made all sail to escape. Finding that he was very
much faster than his pursuer, he amused himself
during one whole day by ranging ahead and then
checking his speed until the frigate would get
almost within range, when he would run off again
and repeat the performance. Tt was naturally most
tantalizing to the officers of the Milford, and they
vented their wrath in futile broadsides whenever
48 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
there appeared the least possibility of reaching the
Providence. After causing the enemy to expand a
large quantity of powder and shot, having tired of
the game, Jones contemptuously discharged a
musket at them and sailed away.
On the 2 ist of September he appeared off the
island of Canso, one of the principal fishing depots
of the Grand Banks. He sent his boat in that night
to gain information, and on the 22d he anchored in
the harbor. There were three fishing schooners
there, one of which he burned, one he scuttled, and
the third, called the Ebenezer, he loaded with the
fish taken from the two he had destroyed, and
manned as a prize. After replenishing his wood and
water, on the 23d he sailed up to Isle Madame,
having learned that the fishing fleet was lying there
dismantled for the winter. Beating to and fro with
the Providence off the island, on that same evening
he sent an expedition of twenty-five men in a shal-
lop which he had captured at Canso, accompanied
by a fully manned boat from the Providence. Both
crews were heavily armed. The expedition cap-
tured the fishing fleet of nine vessels without loss.
The crews of most of them, numbering some three
hundred men, were ashore at the time, and the ves-
sels were dismantled. Jones promised that if the
men ashore would help to refit the vessels he de-
sired to take with him as prizes, he would leave
them a sufficient number of boats to enable them to
regain their homes. By his ready address he actu-
ally persuaded them to comply with his request, and
the unfortunate Englishmen labored assiduously to
get the ships ready for sea.
DESTRUCTION AT CANSO.
49
On the 25th of September their preparations
were completed, but a violent autumn gale blew up,
and their situation became one of great peril. The
Providence, anchored in Great St. Peter Channel,
rode it out with two anchors down to a long scope
of cable. The ship Alexander and the schooner
Sea Flower, which were heavily laden with valuable
plunder, had also reached the same channel. The
Alexander succeeded in making an anchorage
under a point of rocks which sheltered her, and en-
abled her to sustain the shock of the gale unharmed.
The Sea Flower was driven on the lee shore, and,
being hopelessly wrecked, was scuttled and fired the
next day. The Ebenezer, loaded with fish from
Canso, was also wrecked. The gale had abated
about noon, when, after burning the ship Adven-
ture, dismantled and in ballast, and leaving a brig
and two small schooners to enable the English sea-
men to reach home, the Providence, accompanied
by the Alexander and the brigs Kingston Packet
and Success, got under way for home. On the 2/th
the Providence, in spite of the fact that she was now
very shorthanded on account of the several prizes
she had manned, chased two armed transports ap-
parently bound in for Quebec, which managed to
make good their escape. The little squadron re-
sumed its course, and arrived safely at Rhode Island
without further mishap on the 7th of October.
On this remarkable cruise Jones had captured
sixteen vessels, eight of which he manned and sent
in as prizes, destroying five of the remainder, and
generously leaving three for the unfortunate fisher-
men to reach their homes. He had carried out
5
50 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
his orders to sink, burn, destroy, and capture with
characteristic thoroughness, but without needless
cruelty and oppression. He burned no dwelling
houses, and turned no non-combatants out of their
homes in the middle of winter, as Mo watt had done
at Falmouth. He had entirely broken up the fish-
ery at Canso, had escaped by the exercise of the
highest seamanship from one British frigate, and
had led another a merry dance in impotent pursuit.
Property belonging to the enemy had been de-
stroyed to the value of perhaps a million of dollars
in round numbers, not to speak of the effect upon
their pride by the bold cruising of the little brig of
twelve 4-pound guns and seventy men.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CRUISE OF THE ALFRED.
WHEN his countrymen heard the story of this
daring and successful cruise, Jones immediately be-
came the most famous officer of the new navy. The
eclat he had gained by his brilliant voyage at once
raised him from a more or less obscure position,
and gave him a great reputation in the eyes of his
countrymen, a reputation he did not thereafter lose.
But Jones was not a man to live upon a reputation.
He had scarcely arrived at Providence before he
busied himself with plans for another undertaking.
He had learned from prisoners taken on his last
cruise that there were a number of American pris-
oners, at various places, who were undergoing hard
labor in the coal mines of Cape Breton Island, and
he conceived the bold design of freeing them if pos-
sible.
We are here introduced to one striking charac-
teristic, not the least noble among many, of this
great man. The appeal of the prisoner always pro-
foundly touched his heart. The freedom of his na-
ture, his own passionate love for liberty and inde-
pendence, the heritage of his Scotch hills perhaps,
ever made him anxious and solicitous about those
who languished in captivity. It was but the work-
Si
Squadron, starting at Ph
and ending at A'tru-port.
Crui*c uf the
ttarting at Xewport, via Xrui Fork,
Boston, Phi/a,Utpliia, Canto, and
ending at Provident*.
^__,_^_Crt(i of the Mfftd,
starting at Prm'itlence and
ending at Botton.
SCALE OF MILES
Map showing the cruise of the first American squadron, and
of the Providence and the Alfred.
WRECK OF THE HAMPDEN.
53
ing out of that spirit which compelled him to relin-
quish his participation in the lucrative slave trade.
In all his public actions, he kept before him as one
of his principal' objects the release of such of his
countrymen as were undergoing the horrors of Brit-
ish prisons.
The suggested enterprise found favor in the
mind of Commodore Hopkins, who forthwith as-
signed Jones to the command of a squadron com-
prising the Alfred, the Providence, and the brigan-
tine Hampden. Jones hoisted his flag on board the
Alfred and hastened his preparations for departure.
He found the greatest difficulty in manning his little
squadron, and finally, in despair of getting a suf-
ficient crew to man them all, he determined to set
sail with the Alfred and the Hampden only, the lat-
ter vessel being commanded by Captain Hoysted
Hacker. He received his orders on the 22d of
October, and on the 27th the two vessels got under
way from Providence. The wind was blowing fresh
at the time, and Hacker, who seems to have been an
indifferent sailor, ran the Hampden on a ledge of
rock, where she was so badly wrecked as to be un-
seaworthy. Jones put back to his anchorage, and,
having transferred the crew of the Hampden to the
Providence, set sail on the 2d of November.
Both vessels were very short-handed. The Al-
fred, whose proper complement was about three
hundred, which had sailed from Philadelphia with
two hundred and thirty-five, now could muster no
more than one hundred and fifty all told. The two
vessels were short of water, provisions, munitions,
and everything else that goes to make up a ship
54 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of war. Jones made up for all this deficiency by his
own personality.
On the evening of the first day out the two
vessels anchored in Tarpauling Cove, near Nan-
tucket. There they found a Rhode Island priva-
teer at anchor. In accordance with the orders of
the commodore, Jones searched her for deserters,
and from her took four men on board the Alfred.
He was afterward sued in the sum of ten thousand
pounds for this action, but, though the commodore,
as he stated, abandoned him in his defense, nothing
came of the suit.
On the 3d of November, by skillful and success-
ful maneuvering, the two ships passed through the
heavy British fleet off Block Island, and squared
away for the old cruising ground on the Grand
Banks. In addition to the release of the prisoners
there was another object in the cruise. A squadron
of merchant vessels loaded with coal for the British
army in New York was about to leave Louisburg
under convoy. Jones determined to intercept them
if possible.
On the 1 3th, off Cape Canso again, the Alfred
encountered the British armed transport Mellish,
of ten guns, having on board one hundred and fifty
soldiers. After a trilling resistance she was cap-
tured. She was loaded with arms, munitions of
war, military supplies, -and ten thousand suits of
winter clothing, destined for Sir Guy Carleton's
army in Canada. She was the most valuable prize
which had yet fallen into the hands of the Ameri-
cans. The warm clothing, especially, would be a
godsend to the ragged, naked army of Washington.
A VALUABLE PRIZE.
55
Of so much importance was this prize that Jones
determined not to lose sight of her. and to convoy
her into the harbor himself. Putting a prize crew
on board, he gave instructions that she was to be
scuttled if there appeared any danger of her recap-
ture.
About this time two other vessels were captured,
one of which was a large fishing vessel, from which
he was able to replenish his meager store of pro-
visions. On the I4th of November a severe gale
blew up from the northwest, accompanied by a vio-
lent snowstorm. Captain Hacker bore away to the
southward before the storm and parted company
during the night, returning incontinently to New-
port. The weather continued execrable. Amid
blinding snowstorms and fierce winter gales the
Alfred and her prizes beat up along the desolate
iron-bound shore. Jones again entered the har-
bor of Canso, and, finding a large English trans-
port laden with provisions for the army aground
on a shoal near the mouth of the harbor, sent a
boat party which set her on fire. Seeing an im-
mense warehouse filled with oil and material for
whale and cod fisheries, the boats made a sudden
dash for the shore, and, applying a torch to the
building, it was soon consumed.
Beating off the shore, still accompanied by his
prizes, he continued up the coast of Cape Breton to-
ward Louisburg, looking for the coal fleet. It was
his good fortune to run across it in a dense fog. It
consisted of a number of vessels under the convoy
of the frigate Flora, a ship which would have made
short work of him if she could have run across him.
56 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
Favored by the impenetrable fog, with great ad-
dress and hardihood Jones succeeded in capturing
no less than three of the convoy, and escaped un-
noticed with his prizes.
Two days afterward he came across a heavily
armed British privateer from Liverpool, which he
took after a slight resistance. But now, when he
attempted to make Louisburg to carry out his de-
sign of levying on the place and releasing the pris-
oners, he found that the harbor was closed by
masses of ice, and that it was impossible to effect a
landing. Indeed, his ships were in a perilous con-
dition already. He had manned no less than six
prizes, which had reduced his short crew almost
to a prohibitive degree. On board the Alfred he
had over one hundred and fifty prisoners, a number
greatly in excess of his own men ; his water casks
were nearly empty, and his provisions were ex-
hausted. He had six prizes with him, one of ex-
ceptional value. Nothing could be gained by lin-
gering on the coast, and he decided, therefore, to
return.
The little squadron, under convoy of the Alfred
and the armed privateer, which he had manned and
placed under the command of Lieutenant Saunders,
made its way toward the south in the fierce winter
weather. Off St. George's Bank they again en-
countered the Milford. It was late in the afternoon
when her^topsails rose above the horizon. The wind
was blowing fresh from the northwest ; the Alfred
and her prizes were on the starboard tack, the enemy
was to windward. From his previous experience
Jones was able fairly to estimate the speed of the
THE MILFORD AGAIN.
57
Milford. A careful examination convinced him that
it would be impossible for the latter to close with
his ships before nightfall. He therefore placed the
Alfred and the privateer between the English frigate
lasking down upon them and the rest of his ships,
and continued his course. He then signaled the
prizes, with the exception of the privateer, that they
should disregard any orders or signals which he
might give in the night, and hold on as they were.
The prizes were slow sailers, and, as the slowest
necessarily set the pace for the whole squadron, the
Milford gradually overhauled them. At the close of
the short winter day, when the night fell and the
darkness rendered sight of the pursued impossible,
Jones showed a set of lantern signals, and, hanging
a top light on the Alfred, right where it would be
seen by the Englishmen, at midnight, followed by
the privateer, he changed his course directly away
from the prizes. The Milford promptly altered her
course and pursued the light. The prizes, in obedi-
ence to their orders, held on as they were. At day-
break the prizes were nowhere to be seen, and the
Milford was booming along after the privateer and
the Alfred.
To run was no part of Paul Jones* desires, and
he determined to make a closer inspection of the
Milford, with a view to engaging if a possibility of
capturing her presented itself; so he bore up and
headed for the oncoming British frigate. The
privateer did the same. A nearer view, however,
developed the strength of the enemy, and convinced
him that it would be madness to attempt to engage
with the Alfred and the privateer in the condition he
58 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
then was, so he hauled aboard his port tacks once
more, and, signaling to the privateer, stood off
again. For some reason Jones imagined that it
was caused by a mistaken idea of the strength of
the Milford Saunders signaled to Jones that the
Milford was of inferior force, and disregarding his
orders foolishly ran down under her lee from a posi-
tion of perfect safety, and was captured without a
blow. The lack of proper subordination in the nas-
cent navy of the United States brought about many
disasters, and this was one of them. Jones char-
acterized this as an act of folly ; it is difficult to dis-
miss it thus mildly. I would fain do no man an
injustice, but if a man wanted to be a traitor that
is the way he would act. Jones' own account of
this adventure, which follows, is of deep interest :
" This led the Milford entirely out of the way
of the prizes, and particularly the clothing ship,
Mellish, for they were all out of sight in the morn-
ing. I had now to get out of the difficulty in the
best way I could. In the morning we again tacked,
and as the Milford did not make much appearance
I was unwilling to quit her without a certainty of
her superior force. She was out of shot, on the lee
quarter, and as I could only see her bow, I ordered
the letter of marque, Lieutenant Saunders, that held
a much better wind than the Alfred, to drop slowly
astern, until he could discover by a view of the
enemy's side whether she was of superior or in-
ferior force, and to make a signal accordingly. On
seeing Mr. Saunders drop astern, the Milford wore
suddenly and crowded sail toward the northeast.
LOSS OF THE PRIVATEER. 59
This raised in me such doubts as determined me to
wear also, and give chase. Mr. Saunders steered by
the wind, while the Milford went lasking, and the
Alfred followed her with a pressed sail, so that Mr.
Saunders was soon almost hull down to windward.
At last the Milford tacked again, but I did not tack
the Alfred till I had the enemy's side fairly open,
and could plainly see her force. I then tacked about
ten o'clock. The Alfred being too light to be steered
by the wind, I bore away two points, while the Mil-
ford steered close by the wind, to gain the Alfred's
wake ; and by that means he dropped astern, not-
withstanding his superior sailing. The weather,
too, which became exceedingly squally, enabled me
to outdo the Milford by carrying more sail. I began
to be under no apprehension from the enemy's su-
periority, for there was every appearance of a severe
gale, which really took place in the night. To my
great surprise, however, Mr. Saunders, toward four
o'clock, bore down on the Milford, made .the signal
of her inferior force, ran under her lee, and was
taken!"
With the exception of one small vessel, which
was recaptured, the prizes all arrived safely, the
precious Mellish finally reaching the harbor of Dart-
mouth. The Alfred dropped anchor at Boston, De-
cember 15, 1/76. The news of the captured cloth-
ing reached Washington and gladdened his heart
and the hearts of his troops as well on the eve of
the battle of Trenton.
The reward for this brilliant and successful
cruise, the splendid results of which had been
60 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
brought about by the most meager means, was an
order relieving him of the command of the Alfred
and assigning him to the Providence again. When
he arrived at Philadelphia the next spring he found
that by an act of Congress, on the loth of October,
1776, which had created a number of captains in
the navy, he, who had been first on the list of lieu-
tenants, and therefore the sixth ranking sea officer,
was now made the eighteenth captain. He was
passed over by men who had no claim whatever to
superiority on the score of their service to the Com-
monwealth, which had been inconsiderable or noth-
ing at all. Indeed, there was no man in the coun-
try who by merit or achievement was entitled to
precede him, except possibly Nicholas Biddle.
If the friendless Scotsman had commanded more
influence, more political prestige, so that he might
have been rewarded for his auspicious services by
placing him at the head of the navy, I venture to
believe that some glorious chapters in our marine
history would have been written.
CHAPTER V.
SUPERSEDED IN RANK PROTESTS VAINLY AGAINST
THE INJUSTICE ORDERED TO COMMAND THE
RANGER HOISTS FIRST AMERICAN FLAG.
THE period between the termination of his last
cruise and his assignment to his next important
command was employed by Jones in vigorous and
proper protests against the arbitrary action of Con-
gress, which had deprived him of that position on
the navy list which was his just due, were either
merit, date of commission, or quality of service con-
sidered. To the ordinary citizen the question may
appear of little interest, but to the professional sol-
dier or sailor it is of the first importance. Indeed,
it is impossible to conceive of properly maintaining
an army or navy without regular promotion, defini-
tive station, and adequate reward of merit. To feel
that rank is temporary and position is at the will of
unreasonable and irresponsible direction is to under-
mine service.
The same injustice drove John Stark, of New
Hampshire, to resign the service with the pithy
. observation that an officer who could not protect
his own rights was unfit to be trusted with those of
his country. It did not prevent his winning the
61
62 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fight at Bennington, though. The same treatment
caused Daniel Morgan to seek that retirement from
which he was only drawn forth by his country's
peril to win the Battle of the Cowpens. And, lastly,
it was the same treatment which, in part at least,
made Arnold a traitor. Then, as ever, Congress
was continually meddling with matters of purely
military administration, to the very great detriment
of the service.
Jones has been censured as a jealous stickler for
rank, a quibbler about petty distinctions in trying
times. Such criticisms proceed from ignorance. If
there were nothing else, rank means opportunity.
The range of prospective enterprises is greater the
higher the rank. The little Scotsman was properly
tenacious of his prerogatives we could not admire
him if he were not so and naturally exasperated by
the arbitrary course of Congress, against which
he protested with all the vehemence of his passion-
ate, fiery, and it must be confessed somewhat irri-
table nature. On this subject he thus wrote to the
Marine Board at Philadelphia:
" I am now to inform you that by a letter from
Commodore Hopkins, dated on board the Warren,
January 14, 1777, which came to my hands a day
or two ago, I am superseded in the command of the
Alfred, in favour of Captain Hinrnan, and ordered
back to the sloop in Providence River. Whether
this order doth or doth not supersede also your
orders to me of the loth ult. you can best deter-
mine ; however, as I undertook the late expedition
at his (Commodore Hopkins') request, from a prin-
SUPERSEDED IN RANK. 63
ciple of humanity, I mean not now to make a dif-
ficulty about trifles, especially when the good of
the service is to be consulted. As I am unconscious
of any neglect of duty or misconduct, since my ap-
pointment at the first as eldest lieutenant of the
navy, I can not suppose that you have intended to
set me aside in favour of any man who did not at
that time bear a captain's commission, unless, in-
deed, that man, by exerting his superior abilities,
hath rendered or can render more important serv-
ices to America. Those who stepped forth at the
first, in ships altogether unfit for war, were gen-
erally considered as frantic rather than wise men,
for it must be remembered that almost everything
then made against them. And although the success
in the affair with the Glasgow was not equal to
what it might have been, yet the blame ought not
to be general. The principal or principals in com-
mand alone are culpable, and the other officers,
while they stand unimpeached, have their full merit.
There were, it is true, divers persons, from misrep-
resentation, put into commission at the beginning,
without fit qualification, and perhaps the number
may have been increased by later appointments;
but it follows not that the gentleman or man of
merit should be neglected or overlooked on their
account. None other than a gentleman, as well as
a seaman both in theory and practice, is qualified
to support the character of a commission officer in
the navy ; nor is any man fit to command a ship of
war who is not also capable of communicating his
ideas on paper, in language that becomes his rank.
If this be admitted, the foregoing operations will
64 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
be sufficiently clear ; but if further proof is required
it can easily be produced.
" When I entered into the service I was not
actuated by motives of self-interest. I stepped forth
as a free citizen of the world, in defense of the vio-
lated rights of mankind, and not in search of riches,
whereof, I thank God, I inherit a sufficiency ; but I
should prove my degeneracy were I not in the high-
est degree tenacious of my rank and seniority. As
a gentleman I can yield this point up only to per-
sons of superior abilities and superior merit, and
under such persons it would be my highest ambition
to learn. As this is the first time of my having ex-
pressed the least anxiety on my own account, I must
entreat your patience until I account to you for the
reason which hath given me this freedom of senti-
ment. It seems that Captain Hinman's commis-
sion is No. i, and that, in consequence, he who
was at first my junior officer by eight, hath expressed
himself as my senior officer in a manner which doth
himself no honour, and which cloth me signal in-
jury. There are also in the navy persons who have
not shown me fair play after the service I have ren-
dered them. I have even been blamed for the civili-
ties which I have shown to my prisoners, at the
request of one of whom I herein inclose an appeal,
which 1 must beg leave to lay before Congress.
Could you see the appellant's accomplished lady,
and the innocents their children, arguments in their
behalf would be unnecessary. As the base-minded
only are capable of inconsistencies, you will not
blame my free soul, which cin never stoop where I
can not also esteem. Could I, which I never can,
PROTESTS VAINLY AGAINST THE INJUSTICE. 65
bear to be superseded, I should indeed deserve your
contempt and total neglect. I am therefore to en-
treat you to employ me in the most enterprising and
active service, accountable to your honourable board
only for my conduct, and connected as much as pos-
sible with gentlemen and men of good sense."
The letter does credit to his head and heart alike.
Matter and manner are both admirable. In it he is
at his best, and one paragraph shows that the gen-
erous sympathy he ever felt for a prisoner could
even be extended to the enemies of his country, so
that as far as he personally was concerned they
should suffer no needless hardship in captivity.
Considered as the production of a man whose life
from boyhood had been mainly spent upon the sea
in trading ships and slavers, with their limited op-
portunities for polite learning, and an entire absence
of that refined society without which education
rarely rises to the point of culture, the form and
substance of Jones' letters are surprising. Of this
and of most of the letters hereafter to be quoted only
words of approbation may be used. A just yet
modest appreciation of his own dignity, a proper
and resolute determination to maintain it, a total
failure to truckle to great men, an absence of syc-
ophancy and hypocrisy, a clear insight into the re-
quirements of a gentleman and an effortless rising
to his own high standard without unpleasant self-
assertion, are found in his correspondence. Consid-
ering the humble source from which he sprang, his
words, written and spoken, equally with his deeds,
indicate his rare qualities.
66 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
It is probable that no disposition existed in Con-
gress to do him an injustice quite the reverse, in
fact ; but the claims of the representatives of the
several States, which were insistently put forth in
behalf of local individuals aspiring to naval station
from the various colonies in which the different
ships were building, were too strong to be disre-
garded. The central administration was at no time
sufficiently firm for a really strong government, and
conciliation and temporization were necessary. It
was only by the very highest quality of tact that
greater difficulties were overcome, and that more
glaring acts of injustice were not perpetrated. So
sensible w.ere the authorities of Jones' conduct, so
valuable had been his services on his last two
cruises, that while they were unable at that time,
in spite of his protests, to restore him to his proper
place in the list, as a concession to his ability and
merit orders were given him assigning him to the
command of the squadron consisting of the Alfred,
Columbus, Cabot, Hampden, and Providence, to
operate against Pensacola.
This was virtually creating him commander-in-
chief of the naval forces, for outside the ships
mentioned there were but few others worthy
of consideration. Natural jealousy had, how-
ever, arisen in the mind of Hopkins, the comman-
der-in-chief, at being thus superseded and ignored
through one of his own subordinates by Con-
gress, with which his relations had become so
strained that he affected fo disbelieve the validity
of the order assigning Jones to this duty, and, re-
fusing to comply therewith, retained the ships
PROTESTS VAINLY AGAINST THE INJUSTICE. 67
under his command. The matter thereupon fell
through.
Finding all efforts to secure the squadron and
carry out these orders fruitless, Jones journeyed to
Philadelphia for the purpose of emphatically plac-
ing before the Marine Committee his grievances.
There a further shock awaited him.
" My conduct hitherto," he writes on this sub-
ject in the memorial addressed to Congress from the
Texel years after, " was so much approved of by
Congress that on the 5th of February, 17/7, I was
appointed, with unlimited orders, to command a
little squadron of the Alfred, Columbus, Cabot,
Hampden, and sloop Providence. Various impor-
tant services were pointed out, but I was left at free
liberty to make my election. That service, however,
did not take place; for the commodore, who had
three of the squadron blocked in at Providence,
affected to disbelieve my appointment, and would
not at last give me the necessary assistance. Find-
ing that he trifled with my applications as well as
the orders of Congress, I undertook a journey from
Boston to Philadelphia, in order to explain matters
to Congress in person. I took this step also be-
cause Captain Hinman had succeeded me in the
command of the Alfred, and, of course, the service
could not suffer through my absence. I arrived at
Philadelphia in the beginning of April. But what
was my surprise to find that, by a new line of navy
rank, which had taken place on the loth day of
October, 1776, all the officers that had stepped forth
at the beginning were superseded ! I was myself
68 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
superseded by thirteen men, not one of whom did
(and perhaps some of them durst not) take the sea
against the British flag at the first ; for several of
them who were then applied to refused to venture,
and none of them has since been very happy in
proving their superior abilities. Among these thir-
teen there are individuals who can neither pretend
to parts nor education, and with whom, as a private
gentleman, I would disdain to associate.
" I leave your excellency and the Congress to
judge how this must affect a man of honour and
sensibility.
" I was told by President Hancock that what
gave me so much pain had been the effect of a mul-
tiplicity of business. He acknowledged the injus-
tice of that regulation, said it should make but a
nominal and temporary difference, and that in the
meantime I might assure myself that no navy offi-
cer stood higher in the opinion of Congress than,
myself."
The complete news of his displacement and
supersession in rank does not appear to have
reached him before this. His efforts to secure the
restoration of his rank proving useless, he applied
for immediate sea duty. The next attempt on the
part of the Marine Committee to gratify Jones's
wish for active service, and avail themselves of his
ability at the same time, took the shape of a resolu-
tion of Congress authorizing him to choose the best
of three ships which it was proposed to purchase in
Boston, which he was to command until some better
provision could be made for him. He was ordered
SUGGESTS NAVAL REGULATIONS.
69
to that point to fit out the ship. During this period
of harassing anxiety he gave great attention to for-
mulating plans and making suggestions looking to
a more effective organization of the new naval estab-
lishment.
To Robert Morris, chairman of the committee,
on different occasions, he communicated his views
on this important subject in a series of valuable let-
ters, of which the following are pertinent extracts :
" As the regulations of the navy are of the ut-
most consequence, you will not think me presump-
tuous, if, with the utmost diffidence, I venture to
communicate to you such hints as, in my judgment,
will promote its honor and good government. I
could heartily wish that every commissioned officer
were to be previously examined ; for, to my certain
knowledge, there are persons who have already
crept into commission without abilities or fit quali-
fications ; I am myself far from desiring to be ex-
cused. From experience in ours, as well as from
my former intimacy with many officers of note in
the British navy, I am convinced that the parity of
rank between sea and land or marine officers is of
more consequence to the harmony of the sea service
than has generally been imagined. ... I propose
not our enemies as an example for our general imi-
tation ; yet, as their navy is the best regulated of
any in the world, we must, in some degree, imitate
them, and aim at such further improvement as may
one day make ours vie with and exceed theirs."
With regard to the difficulty of recruiting sea-
men, some of whom, finding the merchant service or
70 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
coasting trade was broken up, had entered the army
at the beginning of the war, while many more had
engaged in privateering a much more profitable
vocation than the regular service he says :
" It is to the least degree distressing to contem-
plate the state and establishment of our navy. The
common class of mankind are actuated by no nobler
principle than that of self-interest ; this, and this
alone, determines all adventurers in privateers the
owners, as well as those whom they employ. And
while this is the case, unless the private emolument
of individuals in our navy is made superior to that
in privateers, it can never become respectable, it will
never become formidable. And without a respect-
able navy alas! America. In the present critical
situation of affairs human wisdom can suggest no
more than one infallible expedient : enlist the sea-
men during pleasure, and give them all the prizes.
What is the paltry emolument of two thirds of prizes
to the finances of this vast continent ? If so poor a
resource is essential to its independence, in sober
sadness we are involved in a woeful predicament,
and our ruin is fast approaching. The situation of
America is new in the annals of mankind ; her
affairs cry haste, and speed must answer them.
Trifles, therefore, ought to be wholly disregarded,
as being, in the old vulgar proverb, penny wise and
pound foolish. If our enemies, with the best estab-
lishment and most formidable navy in the universe,
have found it expedient to assign all prizes to the
captors, how much more is such policy essential to
our infant fleet! But I need use no arguments to
SUGGESTS NAVAL REGULATIONS. 71
convince you of the necessity of making the emolu-
ments of our navy equal, if not superior, to theirs.
We have had proof that a navy may be officered
on almost any terms, but we are not so sure that
these officers are equal to their commissions ; nor
will the Congress ever obtain such certainty until
they in their wisdom see proper to appoint a board
of admiralty competent to determine impartially the
respective merits and abilities of their officers, and
to superintend, regulate, and point out all the mo-
tions and operations of the navy."
In another letter to Robert Morris he writes :
'' There are no officers more immediately wanted
in the marine department than commissioners of
dockyards, to superintend the building and outfits
of all ships of war ; with power to appoint deputies,
to provide, and have in constant readiness, sufficient
quantities of provisions, stores, and slops, so that
the small number of ships we have may be con-
stantly employed, and not continue idle, as they do at
present. Besides all the advantages that would arise
from such appointments, the saving which would
accrue to the continent is worth attending to. Had
such men been appointed at the first, the new ships
might have been at sea long ago. The difficulty now
lies in finding men who are deserving, and who are
fitly qualified for an office of such importance."
We are surprised at the clear insight of this un-
trained, inexperienced Scotsman, whom, by the way,
I shall hereafter call an American. Most of his
recommendations have long since been adopted in
72 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
our own navy and other navies of the world. His
conclusions are the results of his long and thorough
professional study, his habits of application, his
power of comprehension and faculty of clear and
explicit statement. His observations would do
credit to the most trained observer with large ex-
perience back of his observation.
Another curious letter to a former friend on the
island of Tobago, written at this time, which deals
with certain investments in property with balances
due him from his various trading ventures, contains
the following statement :
" As I hope my dear mother is still alive, I must
inform you that I wish my property in Tobago, or in
England, after paying my just debts, to be applied
for her support. Your own feelings, my dear sir,
make it unnecessary for me to use arguments to
prevail with you on this tender point. Any remit-
tances which you may be enabled to make, through
the hands of my good friend Captain John Plainer,
of Cork, will be faithfully put into her hands ; she
hath several orphan grandchildren to provide for."
All of which plainly indicates that, though a citi-
zen of another country and the bearer of another
name, he still retained those natural feelings of affec-
tion which his enemies would fain persuade us were
not in his being.
While waiting at Boston for the purchase of the
ships referred to, he was selected by Congress to
command a heavy ship of war, a frigate to be called
the Indien, then building at Amsterdam, which un-
doubtedly would be the most formidable vessel in
ORDERED TO THE AMPHITRITE. 73
the American service. This would be not only a
just tribute to his merit, but would also solve the
difficulty about relative rank, for he would be the
highest ranking officer in Continental waters, and
there could be no conflict of authority. He was
directed to proceed at once to Europe to take com-
mand of this ship. The Marine Committee sent the
following letter, addressed to the commissioners of
the United States in Europe, to Paul Jones, for him
to present to them on his arrival in France :
" PHILADELPHIA, May 9, 7777.
" HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN : This letter is in-
tended to be delivered to you by John Paul Jones,
Esquire, an active and brave commander in our
navy, who has already performed signal services in
vessels of little force; and, in reward for his zeal,
we have directed him to go on board the Amphitrite,
a French ship of twenty guns, that brought in a valu-
able cargo of stores from Messrs. Hortalez & Co.,*
and with her to repair to France. He takes with
him his commission, and some officers and men, so
that we hope he will, under that sanction, make some
good prizes with the Amphitrite ; but our design
of sending him is, with the approbation of Congress,
that you may purchase one of those fine frigates that
Mr. Deane writes us you can get, and invest him
with the command thereof as soon as possible. We
hope you may not delay this business one moment,
but purchase, in such port or place in Europe as it
can be .done with most convenience and dispatch, a
* A fictitious house, under the name of which the com-
missioners sent out military stores.
74 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fine, fast-sailing frigate, or. larger ship. Direct Cap-
tain Jones where he must repair to, and he will take
with him his officers and men toward manning her.
You will assign him some good house or agent, to
supply him with everything necessary, to get the
ship speedily and well equipped and manned ; some-
body that will bestir himself vigorously in the busi-
ness, and never quit it until it is accomplished.
" If you have any plan or service to be per-
formed in Europe by such a ship, that you think will
be more for the interest and honour of the States
than sending her out directly, Captain Jones is in-
structed to obey your orders; and, to save repeti-
tion, let him lay before you the instructions we have
given him, and furnish you with a copy thereof.
You can then judge what will be necessary for you
to direct him in ; and whatever you do will be ap-
proved, as it will undoubtedly tend to promote the
public service of this country.
" You see by this step how much dependence
Congress places in your advices ; and you must
make it a point not to disappoint Captain Jones'
wishes and expectations on this occasion.
At the same time the committee sent the follow-
ing letter to Jones himself :
" PHILADELPHIA, May g, 7777.
" SIR : Congress have thought proper to author-
ize the Secret Committee to employ you on a voy-
age in the Amphitrite, from Portsmouth to Carolina
and France, where it is expected you will be pro-
vided with a fine frigate ; and as your present com-
mission is for the command of a particular ship, we
ORDERED TO COMMAND THE RANGER.
75
now send you a new one, whereby you are appointed
a captain in our navy, and of course may com-
mand any ship in the service to which you are par-
ticularly ordered. You are to obey the orders of the
Secret Committee, and we are, sir, etc."
The Amphitrite, which was to carry out Jones
and the other officers and seamen to man the pro-
posed frigate, was an armed merchantman. The
French commander of the Amphitrite, however,
made great difficulty with regard to surrendering his
command to Jones, and even to receiving him and
his men on board the ship, and through his persist-
ent and vehement objections this promising ar-
rangement likewise fell through. Jones continued
his importunities for a command, however, his de-
sire being then, as always, for active service. Final-
ly, by the following resolutions passed by Congress
on the 1 4th of June, he was appointed to the sloop
of war Ranger, then nearing completion at Ports-
mouth, New Hampshire :
" Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United
States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white;
that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field,
representing a new constellation.
" Resolved, That Captain Paul Jones be appointed
to command the ship Ranger.
" Resolved, That William Whipple, Esquire,
member of Congress and of the Marine Committee,
John Langdon, Esquire, Continental agent, and the
said John Paul Jones be authorized to appoint lieu-
tenants and other commissioned and warrant officers
necessary for the said ship ; and that blank commis-
76 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
sions and warrants be sent them, to be filled up
with the names of the persons they appoint, returns
whereof to be made to the navy board in the Eastern
Department."
At last, having received something tangible, he
hastened to Portsmouth as soon as his orders were
delivered to him, and assumed the command. It is
claimed, perhaps with justice, that his hand was
the first to hoist the new flag of the Republic, the
Stars and Stripes, to the masthead of a war ship, as
it had been the first to hoist the first flag of any sort
at the masthead of the Alfred, not quite two years
before. The date of this striking event is not known.
It is interesting to note the conjunction of Jones
with the flag in this resolution ; an association justi-
fied by his past, and to be further justified by his
future, conduct, and by the curious relationship in
which he was brought to the colors of the United
States by his opportune action upon various occa-
sions. The name of no other man is so associated
with our flag as is his.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE RANGER SALUTE TO THE
AMERICAN FLAG.
IN spite of the most assiduous effort on the part
of Jones, he was unable to get the Ranger ready for
sea before October, and the following extract from
another letter to the Marine Committee shows the
difficulties under which he labored, and the inade-
quate equipment and outfit with which he finally
sailed.
" With all my industry I could not get the single
suit of sails completed until the 2Oth current. Since
that time the winds and weather have laid me under
the necessity of continuing in port. At this time
it blows a very heavy gale from the northeast. The
ship with difficulty rides it out, with yards and top-
masts struck, and whole cables ahead. When it
clears up I expect the wind from the northwest, and
shall not fail to embrace it, although I have not a
spare sail nor materials to make one. Some of those
I have are made of hissings.* I never before had
so disagreeable service to perform as that which I
* A coarse thin stuff, a very poor substitute for the ordi-
nary canvas.
77
78 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
have now accomplished, and of which another will
claim the credit as well as the profit. However, in
doing my utmost, I am sensible that I have done no
more than my duty."
The instructions under which Jones sailed for
Europe are outlined in the following orders from the
Marine' Committee :
" As soon as these instructions get to hand you
are to make immediate application to the proper
persons to get your vessel victualed and fitted for
sea with all expedition. When this is done you are
to proceed on a voyage to some convenient port in
France ; on your arrival there, apply to the agent, if
any, in or near said port, for such supplies as you
may stand in need of. You are at the same time to
give immediate notice, by letter, to the Honourable
Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee,
Esquires, or any of them at Paris, of your arrival,
requesting their instructions as to your further des-
tination, which instructions you are to obey as far
as it shall be in your power.
" You are to take particular notice that while on
the coast of France, or in a French port, you are, as
much as you conveniently can, to keep your guns
covered and concealed, and to make as little war-
like appearance as possible."
In the original plan the ship was heavily over-
armed, being pierced for twenty-six guns. Consid-
ering her size and slight construction, Jones exer-
cised his usual good" judgment by refusing to take
more than eighteen" gnns, the ordinary complement
THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE RANGER.
79
for a ship of her class. These were 6-pounders
manufactured in the United States and ill propor-
tioned, being several calibres short in the length of
the barrel, according to a statement of the captain
a most serious defect. To all these disabilities was
added an inefficient and insubordinate first lieu-
tenant named Simpson, who probably had been ap-
pointed to this responsible position on account of
the considerable family influence which was back
of him. He was related to the Hancocks among
others. The crew was a fair one, but was spoiled
eventually by the example of Simpson and other
officers. On the first of November, 1777, the im-
perfectly provided Ranger took her departure from
Portsmouth bound for Europe. Her captain la-
ments the fact that she had but thirty gallons of
rum aboard for the men to drink, a serious defect in
those grog-serving days. Before sailing, Jones made
large advances from his private funds to the men,
the Government being already in his debt to the
amount of fifteen hundred pounds, for previous ad-
vances to the men of the Alfred and the Provi-
dence. None of these advances were repaid until
years after. These facts are evidence, by the way,
that he had finally realized considerable sums of
money from his brother's estate, for he had no
other financial resource save his West Indian
investments, which were worth nothing to him at
this time.
Wickes, Johnston, and Cunningham, in the Re-
prisal, Lexington, Surprise, and Revenge, insig-
nificant vessels of inferior force, had by their bril-
liant and successful cruising in the English Chan-
8o COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
nel demonstrated the possibility of operations
against British commerce in that supposedly safe
quarter of the ocean. Paul Jones was now to under-
take, upon a larger scale, similar operations with
much more astounding results.
On the way over, two prizes, both brigantines,
laden with wine and fruit, were captured. Nearing
the other side, the Ranger fell in with ten sail of mer-
chantmen from the Mediterranean, under convoy of
the line of battle ship Invincible, 74. Jones made
strenuous efforts to cut out one of the convoy, but
they clung so closely to the line of battle ship that
he found it impossible to bring about his design,
though he remained in sight of the convoy during
one whole day. Had the Ranger been swifter or
handier, he might have effected something, but she
was very crank and slow as well.
On the 2d of December the sloop of war dropped
anchor in the harbor of Nantes. Jones sent his let-
ters and instructions to the commissioners, and had
the pleasure of confirming to them the news of the
surrender of Burgoyne and his army, which was
probably the most important factor in bringing
about the subsequent alliance between America and
France. While awaiting a reply to his letters he
busied himself in repairing the defects and weak-
nesses of his ship so far as his limited means per-
mitted. Her trim was altered, ballast restowed, and
a large quantity of lead taken on board ; the lower
masts were shortened several feet, and every other
change which his skill and experience dictated was
made on the ship. The results greatly conduced to
her efficiency. It may be stated here that Jones was
THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE RANGER. 8 1
a thorough and accomplished seaman, and no man
was capable of getting more out of a ship than he.
From a slow, crank, unwieldy vessel he developed
the sloop of war into a handy, amenable ship, and
very much increased her speed.
In January, 1778, in obedience to instructions
from the commissioners, he visited them in Paris
and explained to them in detail his proposed plan
of action. Alone among the naval commanders of
his day does he appear to have appreciated that com-
merce destroying can be best carried on and the
enemy most injured by concentrated attacks by mo-
bile and efficient force upon large bodies of shipping
in harbors and home ports, rather than by sporadic
cruising in more or less frequented seas. He had
come across with the hope of taking command of
the fine frigate Indien, then building in Holland, and
then, with the Ranger and such other ships as might
be procured, carrying out his ideas by a series of
bold descents upon the English coasts. But while
the ministers of the King of France were hesitating,
or perhaps better perfecting their plans preparatory
to announcing an alliance offensive and defensive
with this country, it was deemed of the utmost im-
portance that no occasion should be given the Brit-
ish which would enable them unduly to hasten the
course of events. The suspicion of the British Gov-
ernment was aroused with respect to the Indien,
however, and it was thought best, under the cir-
cumstances, to pretend that she was being made for
the Government of France, with which England was
then nominally at peace. In any event, work upon
her had been so delayed that she was very far from
7
82 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
completion, and would not have been available for
months.
Thus was Jones deprived of the enjoyment of
this command, to his great personal regret, to the
disarrangement of his plans, and to the detriment of
the cause he was so gallantly to support. There
was no other ship nor were any smaller vessels then
available for him, and he was therefore of necessity
continued in the command of the Ranger.
This in itself was annoying, and produced a se-
quence of events of a most unfortunate character.
Lieutenant Simpson had been promised the com-
mand of the Ranger when Jones took over the In-
dien, and the failure to keep this promise entailed by
the circumstances mentioned, embittered Simpson
to such a degree that his efficiency never of the
first order was greatly impaired, and so long as he
remained under the command of Jones he was a
smoldering brand of discontent and disobedience.
On the loth of January Jones, who had rejoined
his ship, wrote at great length to Silas Deane, one
of the commissioners, suggesting a plan whereby,
in case the proposed alliance between France and
the rebellious colonies were consummated, a mag-
nificent blow might be struck against England, and
the cause of the Revolution thereby greatly fur-
thered. He urged that Admiral D'Estaing should
be dispatched with a great fleet to pen up and cap-
ture Lord Howe, then operating in the Delaware
with an inferior fleet. There is no doubt that this
conception was essentially sound, and if he himself
could have been intrusted with the carrying out of
the plan the results would have been most happy ;
A BOLD PLAN. 83
but, in order to effect anything, in peace or war,
prompt action is as necessary as careful planning
and wise decision.
When the French did finally adopt the plan they
found that their dilatory proceedings, their failure
to take immediate advantage of past preparation,
and their substitution of Toulon for Brest as a naval
point of departure, doomed the enterprise to failure.
Lord Howe, hearing of the attempt, and realizing
his precarious and indefensive position in the Dela-
ware, made haste to return to his old anchorage in
New York. When D'Estaing, urged by Washing-
ton, arrived off the harbor, he was deterred from
attacking Lord Howe's inferior force by the rep-
resentations of the pilots, who stated that there was
not enough water on the bar for the greater ships
of the line. While, therefore, Jones' suggestion
came to nothing, it is interesting and instructive to
contemplate this project ofhis fertile brain. An-
other enterprise proposed by him involved an ex-
pedition to take the island of St. Helena, and with
it as a base of attack attempt the capture of the
numerous Indiameri which either stopped at James-
town or passed near the island. This too was un-
heeded.
While these matters were under consideration, the
Ranger sailed from Nantes to Quiberon Bay early
in February, 1778, having under convoy several
American trading ships which were desirous of join-
ing a great fleet of merchant vessels assembling at
that point. These vessels were to be convoyed past
Cape Finisterre on their way across the Atlantic by
a heavy French squadron of five line of battle ships
84 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
and several frigates and sloops under the command
of La Motte Piquet.
On the 1 3th of February the Ranger hove to
off the bay. The wind was blowing furiously, as it
frequently does on the rocky confines of that bold
shore, off which a few years before the great Lord
Hawke had signally defeated Conflans ; but, instead
of running to an anchorage immediately, Jones sent
a boat ashore, and through the American resident
agent communicated to the French commander his
intention of entering the bay the next day and salut-
ing him ; asking, as was customary, that the salute
be returned. The French admiral courteously re-
plied that he would return four guns less than the
number he received, his instructions being to that
effect, and in accordance with the custom of his
navy when an interchange of sea courtesies took
place between the fleets of France and those of a
republic. This was not satisfactory to the doughty
American, and he addressed the following letter to
the American agent for the French commander :
' ' February 14, 1778.
" DEAR SIR : I am extremely sorry to give you
fresh trouble, but I think the admiral's answer of
yesterday requires an explanation. The haughty
English return gun for gun to foreign officers of
equal rank, and two less only to captains by flag
officers. It is true, my command at present is not
important, yet, as the senior American officer at
present in Europe, it is my duty to claim an equal
return of respect to the flag of the United States that
would be shown to any other flag whatever.
SALUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG. 85
" I therefore take the liberty of inclosing an
appointment, perhaps as respectable as any which
the French admiral can produce ; besides which, I
have others in my possession.
" If, however, he persists in refusing to return
an equal salute, I will accept of two guns less, as I
have not the rank of admiral.
" It is my opinion that he would return four less
to a privateer or a merchant ship ; therefore, as I
have been honoured oftener than once with a chief
command of ships of war, I can not in honour ac-
cept of the same terms of respect.
" You will singularly oblige me by waiting upon
the admiral ; and I ardently hope you will succeed
in the application, else I shall be under a necessity
of departing without coming into the bay.
I have the honour to be, etc.
" To WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, ESQ.
" N. B. Though thirteen guns is your greatest
salute in America, yet if the French admiral should
prefer a greater number he has his choice on con-
ditions."
A great stickler for his rights and for all the
prerogatives of his station was John Paul Jones. In
this instance he was maintaining the dignity of the
United States by insisting upon a proper recogni-
tion of his command.
However, having learned afterward that the con-
tention of the French admiral was correct, Jones de-
termined to accept the indicated return, realizing
with his usual keenness that the gist of the matter
lay in receiving any salute rather than in the number
86 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of guns which it comprised ; so the Ranger got under
way late in the evening of the I4th, and beat in
toward the harbor. It was almost dark when she
drew abreast the great French flagship. Backing
his main-topsail, the 6-pounders on the main deck
of the Ranger barked out their salute of thirteen
guns, which was promptly returned by the French
commander with nine heavy guns from the battle
ship.
It was the first time the Stars and Stripes had
been saluted on the high seas. It was, in fact, the
first official recognition of the existence of this new
power by the authorized military representatives of
any civilized nation. A Dutch governor of St. Eu-
statius, a year before, had saluted an American
ensign not the Stars and Stripes, of course on one
of our cruisers, but the act had been disavowed and
the governor promptly recalled for his presumption.
As this little transaction between Paul Jones and
La Motte Piquet had occurred so late at night, the
American sent word to the Frenchman that he pro-
posed to sail through his line in broad daylight on
the morrow, with the brig Independence, a privateer
temporarily attached to his command, and salute
him in the open light of day. With great good
humor and complaisance, La Motte Piquet again
expressed his intention of responding. Accordingly,
the next morning, Jones repaired on board the In-
dependence, which had been lying to during the
night outside of signal distance, and, having made
everything as smart and as shipshape as possible
on the little vessel, with the newest and brightest of
American ensigns flying from every masthead, the
SALUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG. 87
little brig sailed past the towering walls of the great
ships of the line, saluting and receiving their reply.
There were no doubts in any one's mind as to the
reality of the salute to the flag after that !
It must have been a proud moment for the man
who had hoisted the pine-tree flag for the first time
on the Alfred ; for the man who had been the first
officer of the American navy to receive promotion ;
for the man who had first flung the Stars and Stripes
to the breeze from the masthead of a ship ; for the
man who, in his little vessel, trifling and inconsider-
able as she was, was yet about to maintain the
honor of that flag with unexampled heroism in the
home waters and in the presence of the proudest,
most splendid, and most efficient navy of the world.
That 1 5th of February, that bright, cold, clear winter
morning, is one of the memorable anniversaries in
the history of our nation.
Writing to the Marine Committee on the 22d of
February, 1778, he says:
" I am happy in having it in my power to con-
gratulate you on my having seen the American flag
for the first time recognized in the fullest and com-
pletest manner by the flag of France. I was off
their bay the I3th instant, and sent my boat in the
next day, to know if the admiral would return my
salute. He answered that he would return to me,
as the senior American Continental officer in Eu-
rope, the same salute which he was authorized by
his court to return to an admiral of Holland, or any
other republic, which was four guns less than he
galute given. I hesitated at this, for I demande4
88 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
gun for gun. Therefore I anchored in the entrance
of the bay, at a distance from the French fleet ; but,
after a" very particular inquiry on the 14th, finding
that he had really told the truth, I was induced to
accept of his offer, the more so as it was, in fact, an
acknowledgment of American independence. The
wind being contrary and blowing hard, it was after
sunset before the Ranger got near enough to salute
La Motte Piquet with thirteen guns, which he re-
turned with nine. However, to put the matter be-
yond a doubt, I did not suffer the Independence to
salute till next morning, when I sent the admiral
word that I would sail through his fleet in the brig,
and would salute him in open day. He was exceed-
ingly pleased, and he returned the compliment also
with nine guns."
The much-talked-of treaty of alliance between
France and the United States had been secretly
signed six days before, but neither of the partici-
pants of this interchange of sea courtesies was then
aware of this fact. Having discharged his duties
by placing the merchant ships he had convoyed un-
der La Motte Piquet's command, Jones left Qui-
beron Bay and went to Brest, where there was as-
sembled a great French fleet under the famous
Comte D'Orvilliers. Jones had the pleasure of
again receiving, by the courtesy of that gallant
officer, a reply to the Ranger's salute from the great
guns of the flagship La Bretagne.
The Frenchman, whose acquaintance Jones
promptly made, was much attracted by his daring
and ingenuous personality, and, having been advised
SALUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG. 89
of the disappointment caused by the loss of the In-
dien, he offered to procure him a commission as a
captain in the French navy and assign him to a
heavy frigate instead of the petty sloop of war at
present under his command an unprecedented
honor. Had Jones been the mere soldier of fortune
which his enemies have endeavored to maintain he
was, this brilliant offer would have met with a ready
acceptance. The French marine, through the
strenuous efforts of the king and his ministers, was
then in a most flourishing condition. The terrific
defeats at the close of the century and the beginning
of the next were still in the womb of events and
had not been brought forth, and the prospects of
its success were exceedingly brilliant. With the
backing of D'Orvilliers and his own capacity, speedy
promotion and advancement might easily be pre-
dicted for the American. He refused decisively to
accept the flattering offer, and remained with the
Ranger.
On the loth of April, having done what he could
to put the ship in efficient trim, he sailed from Brest
under the following orders :
" PARIS, January f6, 1778.
" SIR : As it is not in our power to procure you
such a ship ?s you expected, we advise you, after
equipping the Ranger in the best manner for the
cruise you propose, that you proceed with her in
the manner you shall judge best for distressing the
enemies of the United States, by sea or otherwise,
consistent with the laws of war and the terms of
your commission." (Directions here follow for
QO COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
sending prizes taken on the coasts of France and
Spain into Bilboa or Corogne, unless the danger
was too great, in which case they were to be sent
to L'Orient or Bordeaux.) " If you make an at-
tempt on the coast of Great Britain we advise you
not to return immediately into the ports of France,
unless forced by stress of weather or the pursuit of
the enemy ; and in such case you can make the
proper representation to the officers of the port, and
acquaint us with your situation. We rely on your
ability, as well as your zeal, to serve the United
States, and therefore do not give you particular in-
structions as to your operations. We must caution
you against giving any cause of complaint to the
subjects of France or Spain, or of other neutral
powers, and recommend it to you to show them
every proper mark of respect and real civility which
may be in your power."
These orders had been dated and issued to him
some months before, but were not modified or re-
voked in the interim. He was given an opportunity
to carry out so much of his proposed plan for at-
tacking the English coast as was possible with his
single ship.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND CRUISE OF THE RANGER THE DESCENT
ON WHITEHAVEN THE ATTEMPT ON LORD SEL-
KIRK THE CAPTURE OF THE DRAKE.
THE first few days of the cruise were uneventful.
On the I4th of April, 1778, between the Scilly Isles
and Cape Clear, the Ranger captured a brig bound
for Ireland loaded with flaxseed. As the prize and
her cargo were not worth sending in, the vessel was
burned at sea. On the i7th, off St. George's Chan-
nel, they overhauled a large ship, the Lord Chatham,
loaded with porter en route irom London to Dublin.
The ship and cargo being of great value one likes
to think how the porter must have appealed to the
seamen, who, it is quite likely, were permitted to
regale themselves to a limited extent from the cargo
she was manned and sent back to Brest as a prize.
After this capture Jones proceeded up the Irish
Channel, heading to the northeast, and on the i8th,
finding himself off the northern extremity of the
Isle of Man, and in line with Whitehaven, he at-
tempted to carry out a preconceived project of de-
stroying the shipping in the port ; being determined,
as he says, by one great burning of ships to put an
end to the burnings and ravagings and maraudings
92 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of the British upon the undefended coasts of North
America.
The wind was blowing from the east, and he
beat up against it toward the town, where he hoped
to find a large number of ships in the harbor. The
adverse wind delayed him, however, and it was not
until ten o'clock at night that the Ranger reached a
point from which it was practicable to dispatch the
boats. Preparations were hastily made, and the
boats were called away and manned by volunteers.
The boats were already in the water when the wind
suddenly shifted and blew hard on shore, so that
the Ranger was forced to beat out to sea promptly
to avoid taking ground on the shoals under her lee.
The expedition, therefore, for that time, was aban-
doned, the boats were swung up to the davits, and
the Ranger filled away again.
The next morning, off the Mull of Galloway,
they captured a schooner loaded with barley and
sunk her. Learning from some prisoners that ten
or twelve large ships, under the protection of a small
tender, were anchored in Lochvyau, Scotland,
Jones ran for that harbor, intending to destroy them,
but the variable weather, as before, interfered with
his plans, and a sudden squall drove the Ranger
into the open once s more and saved the ships. He
captured and sunk a small Irish fishing sloop, mak-
ing prisoners of the fishermen, that same afternoon.
The sloop was of no value to Jones, and he would
have let her go had it not been that he feared the
alarm would be given. He treated the fishermen
kindly, however, and, as we shall see, in the end they
suffered no loss from his action.
THE SECOND CRUISE OF THE RANGER. 93
On the 2Oth he captured a sloop loaded with
grain, and on the 2ist, off Carrickfergus, he took an-
other small fishing boat. Learning from the fisher-
men that the British man-of-war Drake, twenty
guns and a hundred and fifty men, was lying at
anchor in Belfast Lough, he promptly determined
upon a bold scheme to effect her capture. Beating
to and fro off the mouth of the Lough until the
evening, as soon as it was dark he ran for the har-
bor, proposing tq lay his vessel athwart the hawse
of the Drake, lying unsuspiciously at anchor, drop
his own anchor over the cable of the English sloop
of war, and capture her by boarding.
Every preparation was made to carry out this
brilliant coup de main. The crew were mustered at
quarters, armed for boarding with pike or cutlass
and pistol, the best shots were told off to sweep the
decks of the Drake with small-arm fire, guns were
loaded and primed, and so on. It was blowing
heavily as the Ranger under reduced canvas dashed
gallantly into the harbor. With masterly seaman-
ship Jones brought her to in exactly the right posi-
tion, and gave the order to let go the anchor. His
orders were not obeyed, through the negligence of
a drunken boatswain, it was said, and the anchor was
not dropped until the Ranger had drifted down past
the lee quarter of the Drake, when she brought up.
The position of the American was now one of ex-
treme peril. The Ranger lay under the broadside of
the Drake, subjected to her fire and unable to make
reply.
The watch kept on the British ship, however,
must have been very careless. In the darkness of
94 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the night, too, the guns of the Ranger being run in,
it is probable that if they observed her they took
her for a clumsy merchantman. Enjoining perfect
silence on the part of his crew, with the greatest
coolness Jones took the necessary steps to extricate
the vessel from her dangerous position. The cable
was cut, sail made, and under a heavy press of can-
vas the Ranger beat out of the harbor, barely clear-
ing the entrance, and only escaping wreck by the
consummate ability df her captain.
The plan was brilliantly conceived, and would
have been successful but for the mischance, or de-
lay, in dropping the anchor. The crew originally
was only a fair one, as has been stated, and, ow-
ing to the fact that their wages had not been paid,
they were in a more or less mutinous state by this
time. Jones was covetous of glory only. A less
mercenary man never lived. To fight and conquer
was his aim, but in this he radically differed from
the ideas of his officers and men. Where he wrote
honor and fame they saw plunder and prize money,
and it was sometimes difficult to get them to obey
orders and properly to work the ship.
After leaving Belfast the Ranger ratched over to
the southern coast of Scotland to ride out the sud-
den and furious gale under the lee of the land. The
wind had abated by the morning of the 22d, and
the sun rose bright and clear, discovering from the
tops of the Ranger a beautiful prospect of the three
kingdoms covered with snow as far as the eye could
see. The wind now set fair for Whitehaven, and
Jones squared away for that port to carry out his
previous project. The breeze fell during the day,
THE DESCENT ON WHITEHAVEN.
95
however, and it was not until midnight that the
boats were called away.
The expedition comprised two boats, carrying
thirty-one officers and men, all volunteers, Jones
himself being in command of one boat, while Lieu-
tenant Wallingford, one of the best officers of the
ship, had the other. Simpson and the second lieu-
tenant both pleaded indisposition and fatigue as ex-
cuse for not going on the expedition. The tide was
ebbing, and it was not until nearly dawn, after a
long, hard pull, that the two boats reached the har-
bor, which was divided into two parts at that time by
a long stone pier. There were from seventy to one
hundred ships on the north side of the pier, and
about twice as many on the south side, ranging in
size from two hundred to four hundred tons. As the
tide was out, the ships were all aground, lying high
and dry upon the beach, and in close touch with
each other. Directing Wallingford to set fire to
the ships on the north side of the pier, Jones and his
party landed and advanced toward the fort which
protected the harbor.
The weather was raw and cold, the fort was old
and dilapidated, and manned by a few men. The
sentry, ignorant of the presence of any foe, never
dreaming of an enemy within a thousand miles of
him, had calmly retired to the sentry box. Probably
he was asleep. The little party approached the walls
without being detected. Climbing upon the shoul-
der of one of his men, Jones sprang over the ram-
part, where he was followed by the rest of the party.
The feeble garrison was captured without striking a
blow. The guns were hastily spiked. Ordering the
96 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
prisoners to be marched down to the wharf, and
throwing out a few sentries, Jones, attended by a
single midshipman, then made his way to the other
fort or battery, a distance of about half a mile. Find-
ing it untenanted, he spiked the few guns mounted
there and returned to the landing place.
To his very great surprise and disappointment, no
evidence of a conflagration was apparent. When he
reached the wharf he was met by Wallingford, who
explained his failure to fire the shipping by claim-
ing that his lights had gone out. It was before the
days of lucifer matches, and the party had carried
candles in lanterns with which to kindle the fires.
Wallingford excused himself by a remark which
does more credit to his heart than to his head, to
the effect that he could not see that anything was to
be gained by burning poor people's property. In-
asmuch as he was sent on the expedition to obey
orders and not to philosophize, his statement gives
the key to the disposition among the officers and
crew. \Vhether his hesitation was dictated by char-
ity to others or lack of possible profit to the officers
and men it is not necessary to inquire particularly
now, for Wallingford redeemed himself nobly later
in the cruise. A hasty inspection revealed the fact
that the candles had also burned out, or had been
extinguished through carelessness, in Jones' own
boat.
It was now broad daylight, and considerations
of safety indicated an immediate return to the ship ;
but Jones was not willing to abandon his brilliantly
conceived, carefully prepared, and coolly undertaken
enterprise without some measure of success. Re-
THE DESCENT ON WHITEHAVEN.
97
posting his sentries, therefore, he dispatched mes-
sengers who broke into a neighboring dwelling
house and procured a light in the shape of a torch
or glowing ember. With his own hand Jones kindled
a fire on one of the largest ships in the midst of the
huddle of vessels on the beach. In order to insure
a thorough conflagration, a hasty search through
the other vessels was made, and a barrel of tar was
found which was poured upon the flames now burn-
ing fiercely.
One of the boat party, named David Freeman,
happened to be an Englishman. In the confusipn
attendant upon these various maneuvers he made
off, and, escaping observation, sought shelter in the
town, which he quickly alarmed. The inhabitants
came swarming out of their houses in the gray of
the morning and hastened toward the wharf. See-
ing that the fire on the ship was at last blazing furi-
ously, and realizing that nothing more could be
effected, Jones ordered his men to their boats.
Then, in order that the fire already kindled might
have sufficient time to develop, the undaunted cap-
tain stood alone on the wharf, pistol in hand, con-
fronting the ever-increasing crowd. Impelled by
pressure from behind, those in front finally made
a movement toward him. He gave no ground what-
ever. Pointing his weapons at the front rank, he
sternly bade them retire, which they did with pre-
cipitation. I should think so. Having remained a
sufficient time, as he thought, he calmly entered the
boat and was rowed to the Ranger.
Some of the inhabitants promptly made a dash
for the burning ship, and succeeded by hard work
^8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
in confining the fire to that one vessel. Others re-
leased the prisoners which Jones left bound on the
wharf, taking, as he said, only two or three for a
sample. The soldiers ran to the fort and man-
aged to draw the hastily applied spikes from two or
three of the guns, which they loaded and fired after
the retreating boats. Answering the harmless fusil-
lade with a few derisive musket shots, Jones re-
turned to the Ranger ; having had, he says, the
pleasure of neither inflicting nor receiving any loss
in killed or wounded.
The desertion and treachery of David Freeman
undoubtedly saved the shipping. The enterprise
was well conceived and carried out with the utmost
coolness. Had the orders of Captain Jones been
obeyed, the shipping would have been completely
destroyed. As it was, the descent created the great-
est consternation in England. No enemy had landed
on those shores for generations, and the expedition
by Jones was like slapping the face of the king on
his throne. A burning wave of indignation swept
over England, as the news was carried from town
to town, from hall to hall, and from hamlet to ham-
let. It was all very well to burn property in Amer-
ica, but the matter had a different aspect entirely
when the burning took place in England. A uni-
versal demand arose for the capture of this audacious
seaman, who was called many hard names by the
infuriated British.
From Whitehaven the Ranger ran over to St.
Mary's Isle, a beautifully wooded promontory at the
mouth of the River Dee, which was the seat of the
Earl of Selkirk. In furtherance of his usual desire
THE ATTEMPT ON LORD SELKIRK.
99
to ameliorate the wretched condition of the Ameri-
cans in British prisons, Jones determined to seize
the earl. He cherished the hope that by securing the
person of a peer of the realm, who could be either
held as a hostage or exchanged for some prominent
American captive, he could thus effect a recognition
of the principle of exchange, which the British had
refused to consider. It was a wild hope, to be sure,
but not without a certain plausibility.
Two boat crews under the command of Lieu-
tenants Simpson and Hall, with himself in charge of
the expedition, landed on the shore. Before moving
toward the hall, Jones learned that the earl was not
at home. He proposed, therefore, to return to the
ship, but the mutinous men demurred fiercely to
this suggestion, and demanded that they be per-
mitted to enjoy the opportunity for plunder pre-
sented. The situation was a precarious one, and
Jones finally agreed, although very reluctantly, that
they should demand the family silver from the
Countess of Selkirk, who was at home. He did this
with the full intention of purchasing the silver on
his own account when the prizes were disposed of,
and returning it to the earl. A party of the men,
therefore, with Simpson and Hall, went up to the
house, leaving Jones pacing to and fro near the
shore under the oaks and chestnuts of the estate.
By Jones' orders the seamen did not enter the
house. Simpson and Hall were ushered into the
presence of the Lady Selkirk, made their demand
upon her ladyship, received the silver, which the
butler gathered up for them, and retired without
molesting or harming any of the inmates or en-
100 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
deavoring to appropriate anything except what was
given them. The men drank her ladyship's health
in good Scots whisky, which was served them by
the countess' orders. The party then embarked on
the Ranger.
One of his biographers has said that the whole
transaction was an evidence of the singular ability
of Jones in creating difficulties which it afterward re-
quired greater labor to overcome ; but the criticism
is unfair. The only way in which he could satisfy
the demands of his men and maintain even that pre-
carious authority which the peculiar constitution of
the crew and the character of his officers enabled
him to have, was by permitting them to take some-
thing of value which could be turned into prize
money. He could buy it from the prize court, or
from the prize master, as well as any other man, and
after it became his own property he could return it
to its proper owners at his pleasure.
It was a perfectly legitimate transaction on his
part, and he could only obviate the necessity by tak-
ing the proposed value of the silver out of his own
pocket and handing it to his men, a proceeding
which would have been subversive of the last re-
mains of discipline, and therefore could not be con-
sidered for a moment. It would establish a prece-
dent which could not be carried out in the future
unless he were willing to abrogate his ri-ght of com-
mand ; if he began that way he would have to buy
their acquiescence to every command bribe them
to obey orders ; so he said nothing whatever to
them about his intentions with regard to the plate
at present.
THE CAPTURE OF THE DRAKE. IQI
Standing away from St. Mary's Isle on the
morning of the 24th, the Ranger came in sight once
more of Carrickfergus. By this time her presence
on the Irish coast had become well known, and ex-
presses had been sent to the Drake with information
of the propinquity of the enemy. In the afternoon
the Ranger appeared in the offing easily visible from
the Drake. The commander of the Drake, Captain
George Burdon, with singular stupidity, sent a lieu-
tenant and a boat off toward the Ranger to investi-
gate and report what she was, meanwhile getting
his ship under way and clearing for action. The
boat foolishly came alongside the Ranger and was
captured. As Burdon weighed anchor he was joined
by Lieutenant William Dobbs, engaged on recruit-
ing duty in the vicinity, and a band of volunteers
ranging in number, according to different reports,
from ten to forty.
The regular complement of the Drake was one
hundred and fifty officers and men. This re-enforce-
ment raised her crew to between one hundred and
sixty and one hundred and ninety. It was devel-
oped at the court-martial, which was held upon the
survivors some months after for the loss of the ship,
that the Drake was poorly prepared for action ; that
she was short of commissioned and warrant officers
rnd skilled men ; that her powder charges were bad,
matches poor, cartridges unfilled, and that her guns
were badly mounted, so that they were easily "over-
set," and so on. In short, the whole catalogue of
usual excuses for failure is given. It is true that
although the Drake carried two more guns than the
Ranger, they were of smaller caliber, being 4-
102 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
pounders. Still, the two ships were well matched,
and preparedness for action has always been con-
sidered a test of naval ability as much as capacity
in maneuvering and courage in the actual fight.
The wind was now blowing toward the shore,
and the Drake made but slow progress in ratching
toward the sea. While the Ranger awaited her, the
guns were run in and the English flag hoisted on
the approach of the Drake's boat, and the character
of the American disguised as much as possible. I
presume that, save for her armament, she looked
more like a merchant vessel than anything else, and,
as Jones skillfully kept the sloop end on to the cut-
ter, the British suspected, or at least discovered,
nothing. Indeed, so w r ell was the deception carried
out that the Drake's officer actually boarded the
Ranger and was made prisoner with his crew before
he discovered her quality.
Meanwhile things were almost in a state of mu-
tiny. Jones states in his journal that he was in peril
of his life from his recalcitrant crew, who, under
the leadership of Simpson, were apparently ap-
palled at the prospect of encountering a regular
man-of-war, and therefore manifested a great un-
willingness to fight. Plunder without danger was
the end of their ambition. However, after the cap-
ture of the Drake's boat, by putting a bold front on
the situation, Jones succeeded in restoring compara-
tive order and getting his men to their quarters.
His power of persuasive and inspiring speech never
stood him in better stead than on this occasion, and
he actually seems to have succeeded in infusing
some of his own spirit into the refractory men.
THE CAPTURE OV THE DRAKE. 103
It was late in the evening before the Drake
neared the Ranger. Jones had stood out to sea
to draw his pursuer far away from the land to pre-
vent his escape in case of defeat, and now awaited
his advance. The Drake was accompanied by sev-
eral pleasure yachts filled with people who were
desirous of seeing the English victory, which was
almost universally attendant upon single ship ac-
tions in which the British navy participated ; but, not
liking the look of things in this instance, they one
by one dropped astern and returned to the land.
Between five and six o'clock, having come
within easy distance, an officer of the Drake sprang
on the rail and hailed, demanding to know the
name of the stranger. Jones, still keeping the stern
of his ship toward the bow of the enemy, seized the
trumpet and replied :
" This is the American Continental ship Ranger.
We are waiting for you. The sun is scarce an hour
high. It is time to begin. Come on ! "
While he was amusing the English captain with
this rather lengthy rejoinder for the purpose of
gaining time, the Stars and Stripes supplanted the
red ensign of England, the helm of the Ranger,
which was to windward of her antagonist, was sud-
denly put up, and by smart handling, in the twink-
ling of an eye she was rushed Across the bow of
the Drake, which was severely raked by a prompt
broadside at short range. As Jones shifted his helm
so as not to lose the weather gauge, the advantage
of the first hard blow was clearly with the Ameri-
cans. The English captain, after an attempt to cross
her stern, which was frustrated by Jones' prompt-
I0 4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ness, ran off by the side of the Ranger, and the com-
bat resolved itself into a fair and square yardarm to
yardarm fight, which was continued with the most
determined persistence on both sides. The two ships
under the gentle breeze sailed side by side, gradu-
ally nearing, and poured a furious fire upon each
other. The lack of preparedness on the English
ship was manifested in the slowness and inaccuracy
of her gun practice. That of the Ranger, however,
was very effective. An hour and five minutes, after
the first broadside the enemy called for quarter
and hauled down the flag. The Drake was a
wreck. Her fore and main topsail yards were
cut adrift and lying on the caps ; the fore top-
gallant yard and the spanker gaff were hanging up
and down their respective masts ; two ensigns had
been shot away, and another one was hanging over
the quarter galley and dragging in the water. The
jib was dragging under her forefoot ; her sails and
rigging were entirely cut to pieces, most of the yards
wounded, and her hull very much shattered. Many
of her guns were dismounted, and she had lost, ac-
cording to the statement of the Americans, forty-
two * men in killed and wounded (or about twenty
per cent of her force !), including her captain, who
had been struck in the head by a musket ball at the
close of the action, about a minute before the ship
surrendered ; the gallant first lieutenant, Dobbs,
who had bravely volunteered for service, was so
severely wounded that he survived the action only
two days. Captain Burdon was still living when
* English accounts state their casualties at twenty-five.
THE CAPTURE OF THE DRAKE.
105
Jones boarded the prize, but died a few moments
after. The Americans lost two killed, among them
being poor Wallingford, whose death has somewhat
redeemed him from his failure to obey orders in
the raid on Whitehaven. There were six wounded
on the Ranger, including the gunner and a midship-
man who lost his arm ; one of the wounded subse-
quently died.
The action was a sharp and brilliant one. Jones
had maneuvered and fought his ship with his usual
skill and courage, and had given fair evidence of
what might be expected from him with a better ves-
sel and better men under his command. The Eng-
lish captain had been outmaneuvered when he per-
mitted the American to rake him, and he had been
outfought in the action. Unpreparedness was the
cause of the failure of the Drake to make a better
showing in the fight. This lack must be laid at
the captain's door. It is the business of a cap-
tain to see that things are ready. The deficiencies
in the Drake's equipment were counterbalanced by
equal deficiencies on the part of the Ranger. The
apparent preponderance of the latter's gun power
was, in fact, minimized by the shortening of her
guns, of which Jones had previously complained.
It is probable that the Drafce had a better cftw,
and such officers as she had were probably better
than those under Jones, with a few exceptions. It
is always the custom of the defeated party to make
excuses, and always will be ; but the ships were
as nearly matched in offensive qualities as two ves-
sels in different navies are ever likely to be, and
the difference between them, which determined the
I0 6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
issue of the conflict, was purely a question of the
personal equation. It was always hard to find any-
thing to counterbalance Jones for the other side of
the equality sign. Burdon was not the man.
The English captain was a brave but very stupid
or very confident man. Jones was more than a
match for him at best, and when the mistakes of
Burdon are considered the comparison is painful.
The English knew that the Ranger was on the
coast ; the Drake had picked up her anchor (it was,
of course, recaptured), and an alert mind would have
connected the recovered anchor with the attempt
of the night of the 2Oth. The suspicious actions of
the stranger and there must have been some indi-
cation in her maneuvers and appearance at least
to inspire caution .the failure of the boat crew either
to return or to make any signal, should have made
the English captain pause and consider the situa-
tion. But with the usual " uncircumspect gallantry "
of his kind he charged clown, bull-like, on his enemy,
was promptly raked, hammered to pieces, killed, and
his ship surrendered. He proved his courage in
battle which no one would question, bravery being
usual and to be expected and he died in the at-
tempt to atone for his rashness ; but professionally
he was a failure, and his demise was fortunate for
his reputation and future career. His death prob-
ably prevented some very inconvenient questions
being asked him.
Jones treated his prisoners with a kindness and
consideration the more remarkable from the fact
that the contrary was the custom with the British
toward American captives. During the night and
GENEROSITY TO THE FISHERMEN.
ID/
the whole of the next day, the weather being mod-
erate, the two ships were hove to while the Drake
was refitted as well as their resources permitted.
Late the next afternoon a large brigantine, actuated
by an unfortunate curiosity, ran down so near the
two ships that she was brought to by a shot from
the Drake and taken possession of. Having re-
paired damages and put the Drake in as good trim
as possible, Jones first determined to return to Brest
by the South Channel, the way he had come, but
the variable wind shifted and came strongly, and
he decided to run northward before it and pass
around the west coast of Ireland. In spite of his
previous insubordination Simpson was placed in
command of the Drake.
Before they left these waters, however, some-
thing still remained to be done. On the evening of
the 25th the two ships sailed once more for Belfast
Lough. There Jones hove the Ranger to, and,
having given the poor Irish fishermen, whom he
had captured on the 2ist and held, one of the
Drake's boats, and having charitably bestowed upon
them all the guineas which he had left in his private
purse (not many, I suppose) to remunerate them
for the loss they had sustained, he sent them ashore.
They took with them one of the Drake's sails, which
would attest the truth of their story of what had
happened. The grateful Irishmen w r ere delighted
and touched by such unusual treatment, and they
signalized their gratitude to their generous and kind-
hearted captor by giving Jones three cheers from
the boat as they passed the Ranger's quarter. The
Americans then bore awav to the northwestward.
108 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The voyage around the coast of Ireland was un-
eventful. Lieutenant Dobbs, of the Drake, died on
the cruise, and he and Captain Burdon were buried
at sea with all possible honors, Jones himself read-
ing the usual Church service. The cruise was con-
tinued without incident until the morning of the
5th of May, when the Ranger being off Ushant,
and having the Drake in tow, Jones cut the tow-
line and bore away in chase of a sail which had been
sighted. Simpson, instead of continuing toward
Brest, as he had been directed, hauled off to the
south, so that when Jones had overtaken the chase
and found her a neutral, the Drake was almost en-
tirely out of sight to the southward.
The Ranger chased her and made various sig-
nals, to which no attention was paid. Simpson
changed his course aimlessly several times. During
the whole of the day the same eccentric maneuvers
on the part of the Drake continued. To Jones'
great annoyance, the inexplicable actions of the
prize prevented him from chasing several large ves-
sels which he saw standing into the Channel, among
which he would probably have made many valuable
captures. He was forced to abandon any attempt
to take them and follow the Drake, which he only
overhauled late in Jhe evening. By Jones' orders
Lieutenant Elijah Hall immediately replaced Simp-
son in command of the Drake, and the latter was
placed under arrest. On the 8th of May both ves-
sels arrived safely at Brest, from which point Jones
promptly dispatched the following remarkable let-
ter to the Countess of Selkirk :
A REMARKABLE LETTER.
109
" RANGER, BREST, May <?, 1778.
" The Right Hon. the Countess of Selkirk.
" MADAM : It can not be too much lamented that,
in the profession of arms, the officer of fine feelings
and real sensibility should be under the necessity
of winking at any action of persons under his com-
mand which his heart can not approve ; but the re-
flection is doubly severe when he finds himself
obliged, in appearance, to countenance such actions
by his authority. This hard case was mine, when, on
the 23d of April last, I landed on St. Mary's Isle.
Knowing Lord Selkirk's interest with his king, and
esteeming as I do his private character, I wished
to make him the happy instrument of alleviating the
horrors of hopeless captivity, when the brave are
overpowered and made prisoners of war. It was
perhaps fortunate for you, -madam, that he was from
home, for it was my intention to have taken him on
board the Ranger and detained him until, through
his means, a general and fair exchange of prisoners,
as well in Europe as in America, had been effected.
" When I was informed, by some men whom I
rnet at landing that his lordship was absent, I
walked back to my boat, determined to leave the
island. By the way, however, some officers who
were with me could not forbear expressing their
discontent, observing that in America no delicacy
was shown by the English, who took away all sorts
of movable property, setting fire not only to towns
and to the houses of the rich, without distinction,
but not even sparing the wretched hamlets and
milch cows of the poor and helpless, at the approach
of an inclement winter. That party had been with
HO COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
me the same morning at Whitehaven; some com-
plaisance, therefore, was their due. I had but a
moment to think how I might gratify them, and
at the same time do your ladyship the least injury.
I charged the officers to permit none of the seamen
to enter the house, or to hurt anything about it ; to
treat you, madam, with the utmost respect; to ac-
cept of the plate which was offered, and to come
away without making a search or demanding any-
thing else. I am induced to believe that I was
punctually obeyed, since I am informed that the
plate which they brought away is far short of the
quantity expressed in the inventory which accom-
panied it. I have gratified my men, and when the
plate is sold I shall become the purchaser, and will
gratify my own feelings by restoring it to you by
such conveyance as you shall please to direct.
" Had the earl been on board the Ranger the fol-
lowing evening he would have seen the awful pomp
and dreadful carnage of a sea engagement, both
affording ample subject for the pencil, as well as
melancholy reflection for the contemplative mind.
Humanity starts back from such scenes of horror,
and can not sufficiently execrate the vile promoters
of this detestable war.
" ' For they, 't was they unsheathed the ruthless blade,
And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made.'
" The British ship of war Drake, mounting
twenty guns, with more than her full complement
of officers and men, was our opponent. The ships
met, and the advantage was disputed with great
fortitude on each side for an hour and four minutes,
A REMARKABLE LETTER. m
when the gallant commander of the Drake fell, and
victory declared in favor of the Ranger. The ami-
able lieutenant lay mortally wounded, besides near
forty of the inferior officers and crew killed and
wounded a melancholy demonstration of the un-
certainty of human prospects and of the sad re-
verses of fortune which an hour can produce. I
buried them in a spacious grave, with the honors
due to the memory of the brave.
" Though I have drawn my sword in the present
generous struggle for the rights of men, yet I am
not in arms as an American, nor am I in pursuit of
riches. My fortune is liberal enough, having no
wife and family, and having lived long enough to
know that riches can not secure happiness. I pro-
fess myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered
by the little mean distinctions of climates or of coun-
try, which diminish the benevolence of the heart
and set bounds to philanthropy. Before this war
was begun, I had, at an early time in life, with-
drawn from sea service in favor of ' calm contem-
plation and poetic ease.' I have sacrificed not only
my favorite scheme of life, but the softer affections
of the heart, and my prospects of domestic happi-
ness, and I am ready to sacrifice my life also with
cheerfulness, if that forfeiture could restore peace
among mankind.
" As the feelings of your gentle bosom can not
but be congenial with mine, let me entreat you,
madam, to use your persuasive art with your hus-
band, to endeavour to stop this cruel and destruc-
tive war, in which Britain can never succeed.
Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and
112 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
unmanly practice of the Britons in America, which
savages would blush at, and which, if not discon-
tinued, will soon be retaliated on Britain by a justly
enraged people. Should you fail in this, and I am
persuaded you will attempt it (and who can resist
the power of such an advocate?), your endeavour
to effect a general exchange of prisoners will be
an act of humanity, which will afford you golden
feelings on your deathbed.
" I hope this cruel contest will soon be closed ;
but, should it continue, I wage no war with the fair.
I acknowledge their force, and bend before it with
submission. Let not, therefore, the amiable
Countess of Selkirk regard me as an enemy; I am
ambitious of her esteem and friendship, and would
do anything, consistent with my duty, to merit it.
The honor of a line from your hand, in answer to
this, will lay me under a singular obligation, and
if I can render you any acceptable service in France
or elsewhere I hope you see into my character so
far as to command me, without the least grain of
reserve. I wish to know the exact behaviour of
my people, as I am determined to punish them if
they have exceeded their liberty.
" I have the honor to be, with much esteem and
with profound respect, madam, etc.,
" JOHN PAUL JONES."
The shrewd Franklin says of this extraordinary
document : " It is a gallant letter, which must give
her ladyship a high and just opinion of your gen-
erosity and nobleness of mind." But I seem to read
a gentle laugh in the tactful words of the old phi-
THE PLATE IS RESTORED. 113
losopher. I like this epistle less than any of Jones'
letters I have read, but it certainly does not merit
the severe censures which have been passed upon
it. No one would write such a letter to-day, cer-
tainly, but things were different then, and we need
not too closely criticise the form and style of the
document in view of its honest purpose and good
intent.
As might have been expected, the Countess of
Selkirk made no reply to this singular communica-
tion. To anticipate the course of events, and obviate
the necessity of further discussion of this incident, it
may be stated that more than a year after its cap-
ture Jones obtained possession of the plate through
the prize court by strenuous effort, and by paying
for it at an exorbitant valuation. The state of war-
fare then existing between France and England pre-
vented the delivery of the silver for several years,
though Jones made earnest efforts to get it into
the hands of the Selkirks whenever apparent op-
portunity presented. It was not, however, until
1784, after peace had been declared, that the plate
was restored to its original owners. It is stated that
it was received by them in exactly the same con-
dition as when it had been taken, even to the tea
leaves which were still in the teapot! The receipt
of the silver is thus acknowledged in a letter from
Lord Selkirk :
" LONDON, August 4, 17 8q.
" Monsieur le Chevalier Paul Jones, a Paris.
" SIR : I received the letter you wrote to me at
the time you sent off my plate, in order for restoring
it. Had I known where to direct a letter to you at
9
114 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the time it arrived in Scotland I would then have
wrote to you ; but, not knowing it, nor finding that
any of my acquaintance at Edinburgh knew it, I
was obliged to delay writing till I came here, when,
by means of a gentleman connected with America, I
was told M. le Grand was your banker at Paris, and
would take proper care of a letter for you ; therefore,
I inclose this to him.
" Notwithstanding all the precautions you took
for the easy and uninterrupted conveyance of the
plate, yet it met with considerable delays : first at
Calais, next at Dover, then at London ; however, it
at last arrived at Dumfries, and I dare say quite
safe, though as yet I have not seen it, being then at
Edinburgh.
" I intended to have put an article in the news-
papers about your having returned it ; but before I
was informed of its being arrived, some of your
friends, I suppose, had put it in the Dumfries news-
paper, whence it was immediately copied into the
Edinburgh papers, and thence into the London
ones. Since that time I have mentioned it to many
people of fashion ; and, on all occasions, sir, both
now and formerly, I have done you the justice to
tell that you made an offer of returning the plate
very soon after your return to Brest ; and, although
you yourself was not at my house, but remained at
the shore with your boat, that yet you had your
officers and men in such extraordinary good disci-
pline that your having given them the strictest or-
ders to behave well, to do no injury of any kind, to
make no search, but only to bring off what plate
was given them ; that in reality they did exactly
AN IGNORANT PEER. Htj
as ordered, and that not one man offered to stir
from his post on the outside of the house, nor en-
tered the doors, nor said an uncivil word ; that the
two officers stayed not a quarter of an hour in the
parlour and butler's pantry, while the butler got the
plate together, behaved politely, and asked for noth-
ing but the plate, and instantly marched their men
off in regular order ; and that both officers and men
behaved in all respects so well that it would have
done credit to the best disciplined troops whatever.
" Some of the English newspapers at that time
having put in confused accounts of your expedition
to Whitehaven and Scotland, I ordered a proper one
of what had happened in Scotland to be put in the
London newspapers, by a gentleman who was then
at my house, by which the good conduct and civil
behaviour of your officers and men was done justice
to, and attributed to your order, and the good disci-
pline you maintained over your people.
" I am, sir, your most humble servant,
" SELKIRK."
It is a handsome acknowledgment, but I note
with great pleasure the sailor writes better than the
peer!
CHAPTER VIII.
STANDING AND WAITING.
THE Ranger and her prizes arrived at Brest at a
. propitious time, both for the fortunes of Jones and
for those of his adopted country as well. The secret
treaty of alliance between the confederated colonies
and France had been signed on February 6th. The
plenipotentiaries from the United States had been
publicly received at Versailles on March 23d. On
the same day the French ambassador left England,
and the English ambassador, Lord Stormont, left
France. The fleet of D'Estaing put to sea from
Toulon a fortnight later. In two weeks the English
fleet followed to American waters. The attempt was
made on the part of the French to execute the bril-
liant strategic plan which Jones had devised, al-
though, of course, the delay had rendered the effort
fruitless.
The successful cruise of the Ranger, the rich
captures she had made, the daring enterprises she
had undertaken, the boldness and audacity of her
commander in venturing with a little vessel of such
trifling force into the very midst of the three king-
doms, and the brilliancy of his capture of a war ves-
sel of nominally superior, and at least really equal,
force, in a fair and open yardarm to yardarm fight,
116
STANDING AND WAITING.
117
a thing to which the French navy was not accus-
tomed, awakened the greatest admiration, and Paul
Jones found himself in that most congenial of posi-
tions to him and to almost any other man of be-
ing the observed of all. On this expedition, his first
real opportunity, he had demonstrated that he pos-
sessed an ability to plan, and a courage to carry
out his conceptions, which' put him in the front rank
of the sea officers of his day. With one single ves-
sel, laboring under every disadvantage conceivable,
he had done what no European power or combina-
tion of powers had been able to accomplish in cen-
turies, with all their resources at command. He
had terrorized the whole English seaboard, and filled
the United Kingdom with uneasiness and unrest.
The gallant men who had gone before him and
accomplished so much with the Reprisal, the Re-
venge, and the others, had a worthy successor and
superior in this little Scots-American, who, as a citi-
zen of the world, in love with humanity, drew his
sword for the cause of freedom. The French ad-
mired him, the English hated him. The American
prisoners immediately felt the effect of his captures
by the general amelioration of their unhappy condi-
tion, and Franklin at last realized that he had a man
at hand upon whom he could depend to further his
bold designs. When the news reached America, it
was received with great joy, and the Naval Com-
mittee and the Congress generally knew they had
made no mistake in sending Jones to Europe. The
young navy looked to him with hope. His exploits
were detailed and amplified in the cafes and on the
boulevards of Paris, and were related with approba-
Ilg COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
tion even within the sacred confines of the court.
He was the hero of the hour.
But there is a homely maxim exemplified by fre-
quent experience that " Fine words butter no par-
snips." It was true in this instance undoubtedly,
and Jones learned that there was no necessary con-
nection between glory and bread and butter. He
was unable to procure actually necessary supplies
for his crew. All the vessels of the Continental
navy went to sea undermanned, ill-provided, and
inadequately provisioned, and the ship's purser, as
a rule, had no money. The seamen had not received
their wages no money at all, in fact, except that
which Jones himself had advanced out of his own
pocket. With the sanction of the Marine Com-
mittee he had made himself responsible for the regu-
lar payment of the wages of the men. His pocket
was now empty, the last guineas having been given
to the Irish fishermen aforementioned. His own
resources were always drawn upon freely for the
good of the service and his men ; now they were
entirely exhausted. His provisions had been con-
sumed, he did not know where to get any more.
In addition to his own people he had 'several prizes
and over two hundred prisoners who had to be cared
for, and who were a healthy and hungry lot.
When he arrived in France he had been author-
ized to draw upon the commissioners to the extent
of twelve thousand livres, with the caution not to
avail himself of the permission unless it were im-
peratively necessary. With great prudence, and by
the exercise of rigid economy, he had avoided any
inroad on the depleted and overtaxed fund of the
IN DESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCES.
119
commissioners. Something, however, had to be
done in this instance, and without securing another
authority, for which, indeed, time was wanting, so
pressing were his needs, he made drafts upon the
commissioners in the sum of twenty-four thousand
livres, about five thousand dollars.
Meanwhile he subsisted his crew and prisoners
through the generosity of the French naval authori-
ties at Brest, which he secured by the pledge of
his own private personal credit. The draft was dis-
honored. Certainly the commissioners were embar-
rassed almost beyond endurance by the demands
upon them from every side, but this was a matter to
which they should have given attention if it were
humanly possible, for they were the only resource
that Jones had. His condition was simply desper-
ate. He knew not what to do nor where to turn.
The following extract of a letter to the commis-
sioners on the 27th of May exhibits his painful posi-
tion :
" Could I suppose that my letters of the gth and
1 6th current (the first advising you of my arrival
and giving reference to the events of my expedition ;
the last advising you of my draft in favour of Mon-
sieur Bersolle, for twenty-four thousand livres, and
assigning reasons for the demand) had not made
due appearance, I would hereafter, as I do now,
inclose copies. Three posts have already arrived
here from Paris since Comte d'Orvilliers showed
me the answer which he received from the minister,
to the letter which inclosed mine to you. Yet you
remain silent. M. Bersolle has this moment in-
120 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
formed me of the fate of my bills ; the more extraor-
dinary as I have not yet made use of your letter of
credit of the loth of January last, whereby I then
seemed entitled to call for half the amount of my
last draft, and I did not expect to be thought ex-
travagant when, on the i6th current, I doubled that
demand. Could this indignity be kept secret I
should disregard it ; and, though it is already pub-
lic in Brest and in the fleet, as it affects only my
private credit I will not complain. I can not, how-
ever, be silent when I find the public credit involved
in the same disgrace. I conceive this might have
been prevented. To make me completely wretched,
Monsieur Bersolle has now told me that he now
stops his hand, not only of the necessary articles to
refit the ship, but also of the daily provisions. I
know not where to find to-morrow's dinner for the
great number of mouths that depend on me for food.
Are then the Continental ships of war to depend on
the sale of their prizes for a daily dinner for their
men ? ' Publish it not in Gath.'
" My officers, as well as men, want clothes, and
the prizes are precluded from being sold before
farther orders arrive from the minister. I will
ask you, gentlemen, if I have deserved all this.
Whoever calls himself an American ought to be
protected here. I am unwilling to think that
you have intentionally involved me in this dilem-
ma, at a time when I ought to expect some enjoy-
ment.
" Therefore I have, as formerly, the honour to
be, with due esteem and respect, gentlemen, yours,
etc."
HOLDING HIS PRISONERS. 12 1
How he managed under such circumstances he
relates in a journal which he prepared in later years
for submission to the King of France.
" Yet during that time, by his [Jones'] personal
credit with Comte D'Orvilliers, the Due de Chartres,
and the Intendant of Brest, he fed his people and
prisoners, cured his wounded, and refitted both the
Ranger and the Drake for sea."
He could, of course, have relieved himself of
some of his burden by turning over his prisoners
to France, but, as that country was still nominally
neutral, the people he had captured would have been
set free at the demand of England. As long as he
held possession of them it was possible that the cir-
cumstance would force an exchange for Americans
a thing the commissioners had been bent upon
s : nce their arrival in Europe. The English Govern-
ment had long since sanctioned and carried out the
exchange of soldiers, but for arbitrary and inade-
quate reasons seamen stood upon a different footing
apparently. When Franklin previously wrote Lord
Stormont, the British ambassador, offering to ex-
change one hundred men captured by the Reprisal
for an equal number of American seamen held in
English prisons, no answer was made to his letter ;
a second letter brought forth the following curt
reply :
" The king's ambassador receives no applica-
tions from rebels, unless they come to implore his
Majesty's mercy."
To this insulting and inexplicable message the
following apt and dignified reply was made :
122 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" In answer to a letter. which concerns some of
the material interests of humanity, and of the two
nations, Great Britain and the United States of
America, now at war, we received the inclosed in-
decent paper, as coming from your lordship, which
we return for your lordship's more mature consid-
eration."
Of course, the ostensible reason for refusing this
exchange was that the captured seamen were
traitors, and as such had no belligerent rights, yet
how they differed from soldiers it is impossible to
see. Indeed, the English authorities went so far
as to call them pirates, and they could not have
treated them worse short of hanging them if
they had actually merited the opprobrious title.
The real reason, however, lay in the hope that the
Americans, having no place in France in which to
confine their prisoners, would be compelled to set
them free. This hope was frequently justified, and
it was not until March, 1779, that the persistent de-
termination of Franklin brought about a complete
general recognition of the principle of exchange for
which he had so valiantly contended, although he
had been partially successful on particular occasions
before that time. Jones knew the situation per-
fectly, and so with his usual grim determination he
held on to his precious prisoners.
The prize agents were dilatory and incompetent.
The seamen, lacking food, clothes, salary, and prize
money, were naturally mutinous and discontented.
But Jones repressed the crews, hurried up the sales,
and managed at last to weather all his troubles.
KINDNESS TO SIMPSON.
I2 3
The malcontent Simpson was a constant incen-
tive to discord and mutiny, and he was finally re-
moved to a French guardship, called the Admiral,
where he was well treated and allowed the freedom
of the deck. While there, he behaved in such a
contumacious manner that D'Orvilliers, the French
commander, sent him to the prison of the port. All
his expenses during this interval were paid by Jones
himself; indeed, when he did not pay personally,
nobody did. There was nothing sordid or avari-
cious in Jones' character. He was greedy for
glory and fame and reputation, but he cared noth-
ing whatever for money. To dismiss a tiresome
subject, Jones, with extraordinary complaisance,
finally accepted Simpson's apologies and released
him on his parole not to serve in the navy until he
had been regularly tried by a court-martial. He
even went further than this. He offered to relin-
quish the command of the Ranger to him in order
that he might take her back to the United States
and there take his trial.
While these efforts were pending, the commis-
sioners, misunderstanding their tentative character,
restored Simpson to the command of the Ranger,
unconditionally, much to Jones' disgust. He was
quite willing to relinquish the command of his little
ship, because the King of France had requested
the commissioners to allow France to avail herself of
the services of Jones in a naval expedition which
was projected. But that such contumacy and lack
of subordination as had been exhibited by Simpson
should go unpunished, and that he should receive
the absolute command of the ship as a reward for
124 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
his action, and should be allowed to return home
without even an investigation, was not only harm-
ful to the service, but an appare'nt reflection upon
himself though, of course, nothing was further
from the commissioners' thoughts, as they specifi-
cally declared. In the end Jones acquiesced in the
situation, and the matter was dropped. Simpson
was never employed in^the service after he returned
home.
The famous action between the Arethusa and
the Belle Poule, on June i/th, having made it clear
to every observer that war between France and
England was inevitable, though the formal declara-
tion was not issued until the following September,
the first enterprise which it was desired Jones should
undertake under the auspices of France was pro-
posed to him by Franklin as follows :
" The Jersey privateers," he says, " do us a great
deal of mischief by intercepting our supplies. It has
been mentioned to me.that your small vessel, com-
manded by so brave an officer, might render great
service by following them where greater ships dare
not venture their bottoms ; or, being accompanied
and supported by some frigates from Brest, at a
proper distance, might draw them out and then take
them. I wish you to consider of this, as it comes
from high authority."
It was not a particularly brilliant prospect ; all
the hard work and dangerous labor was to be per-
formed by Jones, and the glory was to be reaped
by the French frigates ; but, with a noble disinterest-
edness in his desire to serve his country, he at once
VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS. 125
expressed his perfect willingness to co-operate. Be-
fore anything came of it, however, Franklin offered
him the command of the Indien, in the following
letter :
(Private.)
" DEAR SIR : I have the pleasure of informing
you that it is proposed to give you the command
of the great ship we have built at Amsterdam. By
what you wrote to us formerly, I have ventured
to say in your behalf, that this proposition would be
agreeable to you. You will immediately let me
know your resolution ; which, that you may be
more clear in taking, I must inform you of some
circumstances. She is at present the property of
the king ; but, as there is no war yet declared, you
will have the commission and flag of the States, and
act under their orders and laws. The Prince de
Nassau will make the cruise with you. She is to
be brought here under cover as a French merchant-
man, to be equipped and manned in France. We
hope to exchange your prisoners for as many
American sailors ; but, if that fails, you have your
present crew to be made up here with other nations
and French. The other commissioners are not
acquainted with this proposition as yet, and you see
by the nature of it that it is necessary to be kept
a secret till we have got the vessel here, for fear
of difficulties in Holland, and interception ; you will
therefore direct your answer to me alone. It being
desired that the affair rest between you and me, per-
haps it may be best for you to take a trip up here to
concert matters, if in general you approve the idea.
126 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" I was much pleased with reading your journal,
which we received yesterday."
This is the first mention of the Prince of Nas-
sau-Siegen, who will appear prominently hereafter,
and be described in his proper place. Jones was
naturally delighted with the flattering prospects,
and at once wrote to the prince, acquainting him of
the pleasure he anticipated in having him associ-
ated with him. A few days later Franklin wrote
Jones again as follows :
" PASSY,yH^ 10, IJfS.
"DEAR SIR: I received yours of ist instant,
with the papers inclosed, which I have shown to
the other commissioners, but have not yet had their
opinion of them ; only I know that they had be-
fore (in consideration of the disposition and uneasi-
ness of your people) expressed an inclination to
order your ship directly back to America. You
will judge from what follows whether it will not be
advisable for you to propose their sending her back
with her people, and under some other command.
In consequence of the high opinion the Minister
of the Marine' has of your conduct and bravery, it
is now settled (observe, that it is to be a secret be-
tween us, I being expressly enjoined not to com-
municate it to any other person), that you are to
have the frigate from Holland, which actually be-
longs to Government, and will be furnished with
as many good French seamen as you shall require.
But you are to act under Congress commission. As
you may be likely to have a number of Americans,
and your own are homesick, it is proposed to give
FRANKLIN'S INTENTIONS. 127
you as many as you can engage out of two hun-
dred prisoners, which the ministry of Britain have
at length agreed to give us in exchange for those
you have in your hands. They propose to make the
exchange at Calais, where they are to bring the
Americans. Nothing is wanting to this but a list
of yours, containing their names and rank ; imme-
diately on the receipt of which an equal number are
to be prepared, and sent in a ship to that port,
where yours are to meet them.
" If by this means you can get a good new crew,
I think it would be best that you are quite free
of the old, for a mixture might introduce the infec-
tion of that sickness you complain of. But this may
be left to your own discretion. Perhaps we shall
join you with the Providence, Captain Whipple, a
new Continental ship of thirty guns, which, in com-
ing out of the river of Providence, gave the two
frigates that were posted to intercept her each of
them so heavy a dose of her 18- and 12-pounders
that they had not the courage or were not able to
pursue her. It seems to be desired that you will
step up to Versailles (where one will meet you),
in order to such a settlement of matters and plans
with those who have the direction as can not well
be done by letter. I wish it may be convenient to
you to do it immediately.
" The project of giving you the command of this
ship pleases me the more as it is a probable opening
to the higher preferment you so justly merit."
In obedience to this request Jones went pri-
vately to Versailles, where he spent some time in
128 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
consultation with the commissioners and the French
ministry discussing the exchange of prisoners, and
proposed several plans of attack by which his serv-
ices could be utilized. These plans well indicate
the fertility of imagination, the resourceful genius,
and the daring hardihood of the man. One of them
was for making another descent upon Whitehaven,
another was to attack the Bank of Ayr and destroy
or ransom that town ; another was to burn the ship-
ping on the Clyde. Expeditions on the coast of Ire-
land were suggested. London might be distressed,
he thought, by cutting off the supplies of coal from
Newcastle ; but the most feasible projects were the
capture or destruction of the West Indian or Baltic
fleets of merchantmen or the Hudson Bay ships.
The Minister of Marine, M. de Sartine, lent an
attentive ear to all of the plans which were pro-
posed, and Jones returned to Brest with high hopes
that he should be soon employed in an expedition to
carry out one or the other of these plans with ade-
quate means to do it well. It is quite likely that
the minister was as earnest and honest in his in-
tentions as the king in his desire to make use of
Jones, but the formal declaration of war rendered
it possible to prosecute the enterprises which had
been suggested by Jones, if it were thought expedi-
ent to attempt them, under the French flag and
with French officers. As France had only intended
to use him under the cover of the American fbg to
harass England before war was declared, and as
that could now be done openly under her own flag,
they did not see the same necessity for his services
as before.
DISAPPOINTMENTS.
129
The matter of finding employment for him was
further complicated by the fact that since a state
of actual war existed the ministry was besieged with
applications from numbers of French officers for
command, and the ships which had been proposed
for Jones were naturally appropriated to the French
themselves. Even if a command could have been
found for the American, there would have been a
natural disinclination, so great as to be nearly pro-
hibitive of success, on the part of the French offi-
cers to serving under a foreigner. Time brought
him nothing but disappointment, and the high
hopes he had cherished gradually waned.
Always a persistent and voluminous letter
writer, in his desperation he overwhelmed every-
body with correspondence. Inaction was killing to
him. Not to be employed was like death itself to
a man of his intensely energetic temperament. His
pride would not permit him to return to the United
States and seek a command when he had specifically
announced, in a letter to Congress by the returning
Ranger, that the King of France asked that he
might make use of his services, and therefore no
command in America need be reserved for him ; and
yet he now found himself a hanger on the outskirts
of a court and a ministry which had no further use
for him.
The delicate situation of the commissioners,
who had been themselves scarcely more than on
sufferance, did not permit them, in the interests of
expediency and diplomacy, to insist as strongly as
they would have liked to do, that the king and the
ministry should keep their engagement with Jones,
10
!3o COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
which was, erf course, an engagement with them and
with the United States. Diplomacy and persuasion
were the only weapons at their command. They
certainly made good use of them. Franklin, pend-
ing something else, procured the minister's order
that Jones should be received on the great French
fleet of D'Orvilliers, which was about to put to sea
to engage the English fleet under Keppel. He
was very desirous of availing himself of this in-
vitation, which he himself sought, for it would
give him an opportunity he could not otherwise
hope to enjoy, of perfecting himself in naval tactics
and the fine art of maneuvering and governing a
great fleet. He never allowed anything to interfere
so far as he was able to prevent it with his ad-
vancement in professional study. The permission,
however, to D'Orvilliers' great regret, arrived too
late, for the fleet sailed without him. The French
admiral seems to have appreciated the American
captain, and to have highly esteemed him. It is
stated that the delay in transmitting the permission
was intentional, and was due to the jealousy of the
French naval service.
Jones was exasperated by all these happenings
almost to the breaking point. In one letter he says :
" I think of going to L'Orient, being heartily sick
of Brest." I should think he would be! As days
passed without bringing him any nearer to the frui-
tion of his hope, he became more modest in his
demands and propositions. One significant phrase
culled from one of his letters well indicates the
bold, dashing character of the man : " I do not wish
to have command of any ship that does not sail fast,
AN EMPHATIC PROTEST. 131
for I intend to go in harm's way." * In the sentence
which follows this statement, we get another touch
of that entire consciousness of his own ability and
high quality which, though warranted, it were bet-
ter, perhaps, for his reputation if it were not so
evident in his writing : " I know, I believe, that this
is no other person's intention. Therefore, buy a
frigate that sails fast and is sufficiently large to carry
twenty-six or twenty-eight guns on one deck."
His state of mind may well be understood from
this citation : " I have, to show my gratitude to
France, lost so much time, and with it such oppor-
tunities as I can not regain. I have almost killed
myself with grief."
Chafing, fretting, writing letters, the time
dragged on. At last he addressed to" the Minister
of Marine, M. de Sartine, this emphatic protest and
statement which he calls, and justly, an explicit let-
ter. It is certainly sufficiently definite and clear,
and shows that rank and position did not deter him
from a free and somewhat sarcastic expression of
his grievances and wrongs :
" BREST, September /j>, //7<?.
" HONOURED SIR : When his excellency Doctor
Franklin informed me that you had condescended
to think me worthy of your notice, I took such pleas-
ure in reflecting on the happy alliance between
France and America that I was really flattered, and
entertained the most grateful sense of the honour
which you proposed for me, as well as the favour
which the king proposed for America, by putting
* Italics mine.
1 32 COMMODORE PAUL JONES,
so fine a ship as the Indien under my command,
and under its flag, with unlimited orders.
" In obedience to your desire, I came to Ver-
sailles, and was taught to believe that my intended
ship was in deep water, and ready for sea ; but when
the Prince [de Nassau] returned I received from
him a different account ; I was told that the Indien
could not be got afloat within a shorter period than
three months at the approaching equinox.
" To employ this interval usefully, I first offered
to go from Brest with Count D'Orvilliers as a vol-
unteer, which you thought fit to reject. I had then
the satisfaction to find that you approved in general
of a variety of hints for. private enterprises which
I had drawn up for your consideration, and I was
flattered with -assurances from Messieurs de Chau-
mont and Baudouin that three of the finest frigates
in France, with two tenders and a number of
troops, would be immediately put under my com-
mand ; and that I should have unlimited orders, and
be at free liberty to pursue such of my own projects
as I thought proper. But this plan fell to nothing
in the moment when I was taught to think that
nothing was wanting but the king's signature.
" Another much inferior armament from
L'Orient was proposed to be put under my com-
mand, which was by no means equal to the services
that were expected from it; for speed and force,
though both requisite, were both wanting. Hap-
pily for me, this also failed, and I was thereby saved
from a dreadful prospect of ruin and dishonour.
" I had so entire a reliance that you would de-
sire nothing of me inconsistent with my honour and
AN EMPHATIC PROTEST.
133
rank, that the moment you required me to come
down here, in order to proceed round to St. Malo,
though I had received no written orders, and
neither knew your intention respecting my destina-
tion or command, 1 obeyed with such haste, that
although my curiosity led me to look at the arma-
ment at L'Orient, yet I was but three days from
Passy till I reached Brest. Here, too, I drew a
blank ; but when I saw the Lively it was no dis-
appointment, as that ship, both in sailing and equip-
ment, is far inferior to the Ranger.
" My only disappointment here was my being
precluded from embarking in pursuit of marine
knowledge with Count D'Orvilliers, who did not
sail till seven days after my return. He is my friend,
and expressed his wishes for my company; I ac-
companied him out of the road when the fleet sailed,
and he always lamented that neither himself nor
any person in authority in Brest had received from
you any order that mentioned my name. I am
astonished therefore to be informed that you attrib-
ute my not being in the fleet to my stay at L'Orient.
" I am not a mere adventurer of fortune. Stimu-
lated by principles of reason and philanthropy, I laid
aside my enjoyments in private life, and embarked
under the flag of America when it was first dis-
played. In that line my desire of fame is infinite,
and I must not now so far forget my own honour,
and what I owe to my friends and America, as to
remain inactive.
" My rank knows no superior in the American
marine. I have long since been appointed to com-
mand an expedition with five of its ships, and I can
134 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
receive orders from no junior or inferior officer
whatever.
" I have been here in the most tormenting sus-
pense for more than a month since my return ; and,
agreeable to your desire, as mentioned to me by
Monsieur Chaumont, a lieutenant has been ap-
pointed, and is with me, who speaks the French as
well as the English. Circular letters have been
written, and sent the 8th of last month from the
English admiralty, because they expected me to
pay another visit with four ships. Therefore I trust
that, if the Indien is not to be got out, you will
not, at the approaching season, substitute a force
that is not at least equal both in strength and sailing
to any of the enemy's cruising ships.
" I do not wish to interfere with the harmony of
the French marine ; but, if I am still thought worthy
of your attention, I shall hope for a separate com-
mand, with liberal orders. If, on the contrary, you
should now have no further occasion for my ser-
vices, the only favour I can ask is that you will
bestow on me the Alert, with a few seamen, and
permit me to return, and carry with me your good
opinion in that small vessel, before the winter, to
America."
Hjs intense, burning desire for action, however,
did not permit him to degrade, as he thought, his
Government and station by accepting the command
of a privateer which was tendered to him. In the
command of a speedy, smart privateer there is no
limit to the plundering he might have done and
the treasure he might have gained, if that had been
REFUSES A PRIVATEER.
135
what he wished. Many naval officers before and
since his time have done this and thought it not
derogatory to their dignity. It is therefore to
Jones' credit that he was very jealous in this and
many other instances on the point of honor of serv-
ing in no ship, under no flag, and with no commis-
sion save that of the United States. We shall see
this spirit again and again. The citizen of the world
was beginning to feel that the world as his country
was hardly adequate to his needs ; in theory it was a
very pretty proposition, but in practice it was neces-
sary to form and maintain a more definite and par-
ticular relationship. As a final effort to better his
condition and secure that opportunity for which he
thirsted, he prepared the following letter to the
king:
" BREST, October 19, 1778.
" SIRE: After my return to Brest in the Ameri-
can ship of war the Ranger, from the Irish Chan-
nel, his excellency Doctor Franklin informed me
by letter, dated June the ist, that M. de Sartine,
having a high opinion of my conduct and bravery,
had determined, with your Majesty's consent and
approbation, to give me the command of the ship of
war the Indien, which was built at Amsterdam for
America, but afterward, for political reasons, made
the property of France.
" I was to act with unlimited orders under the
commission and flag of America ; and the Prince de
Nassau proposed to accompany me on the ocean.
" I was deeply penetrated with the sense of the
honour done me by this generous proposition, as
well as of the favour your Majesty intended thereby
136 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to confer on America. And I accepted the offer
with the greater pleasure as the Congress had sent
me to Europe in the Ranger to command the In-
dien before the ownership of that vessel was
changed.
" The minister desired to see me at Versailles to
settle future plans of operation, and I attended him
for that purpose. I was told that the Indien was at
the Texel completely armed and fitted for sea; but
the Prince de Nassau was sent express to Holland,
and returned with a very different account. The
ship was at Amsterdam, and could not be got
afloat or armed before the September equinox. The
American plenipotentiaries proposed that I should
return to America; and, as I have repeatedly been
appointed to the chief command of an American
squadron to execute secret enterprises, it was not
doubted but that Congress would again show me
a preference. M. de Sartine, however, thought
proper to prevent my departure, by writing to the
plenipotentiaries (without my knowledge), request-
ing that I might be permitted to remain in Europe,
and that the Ranger might be sent back to America
under another commander, he having special ser-
vices which he wished me to execute. This request
they readily granted, and I was flattered by the
prospect of being enabled to testify, by my services,
my gratitude to your Majesty, as the first prince
who has so generously acknowledged our independ-
ence.
'* There was an interval of more than three
months before the Indien could be gotten afloat.
To employ that period usefully, when your Majes-
LETTER TO THE KING.
137
ty's fleet was ordered to sail from Brest, I proposed
to the minister to embark in it as a volunteer, in
pursuit of marine knowledge. He objected to this,
at the same time approved of a variety of hints for
private enterprises, which I had drawn up for his
consideration. Two gentlemen were appointed to
settle with me the plans that were to be adopted,
who gave me the assurance that three of the best
frigates in France, with two tenders, and a num-
ber of troops, should be immediately put under my
command, to pursue such of my own projects as I
thought proper ; but this fell to nothing, when I
believed that your Majesty's signature only was
wanting.
" Another armament, composed of cutters and
small vessels, at L'Orient, was proposed to be put
under my command, to alarm the coasts of England
and check the Jersey privateers ; but happily for
me this also failed, and I was saved from ruin and
dishonour, as I now find that all the vessels sailed
slow, and their united force is very insignificant.
The minister then thought fit that I should return
to Brest to command the Lively, and join some
frigates on an expedition from St. Malo to the North
Sea. I returned in haste for that purpose, and
found that the Lively had been bestowed at Brest
before the minister had mentioned that ship to me
at Versailles. This was, however, another fortu-
nate disappointment, as the Lively proves, both in
sailing and equipment, much inferior to the Ranger ;
but, more especially, if it be true, as I have since
understood, that the minister intended to give the
chief command of an expedition to a lieutenant,
138 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
which would have occasioned a very disagreeable
misunderstanding; for, as an officer of the first
rank in the American marine, who has ever been
honoured with the favour and friendship of Con-
gress, I can receive orders from no inferior officer
whatever. My plan was the destruction of the Eng-
lish Baltic fleet, of great consequence to the enemy's
marine, and then only protected by a single frigate.
I would have held myself responsible for its success
had I commanded the expedition.
" M. de Sartine afterward sent orders to Count
D'Orvilliers to receive me on board the fleet agree-
ably to my former proposal ; but the order did not
arrive until after the departure of the fleet the last
time from Brest, nor was I made acquainted with
the circumstance before the fleet returned here.
" Thus have I been chained down to shameful
inactivity for nearly five months. I have lost the
best season of the year, and such opportunities of
serving my country and acquiring honour as I can
not again expect this war ; and, to my infinite mor-
tification, having no command, I am considered
everywhere an officer cast off and in disgrace for
secret reasons.
" I have written respectful letters to the minister,
none of which he has condescended to answer; I
have written to the Prince de Nassau with as little
effect ; and I do not understand that any apology
has been made to the great and. venerable Dr.
Franklin, whom the minister has made the instru-
ment of bringing me into such unmerited trouble.
" Having written to Congress to reserve no
command for me in America, my sensibility is the
LETTER TO THE KING.
139
more affected by this unworthy situation in the sight
of your Majesty's fleet. I, however, make no re-
mark on the treatment I have received.
" Although I wish not to become my own pane-
gyrist, I must beg your Majesty's permission to ob-
serve that I am not an adventurer in search of for-
tune, of which, thank God, I have a sufficiency.
" When the American banner was first displayed
I drew my sword in support of the violated dignity
and rights of human nature ; and both honour and
duty prompt me steadfastly to continue the right-
eous pursuit, and to sacrifice to it not only my own
private enjoyments, but even life, if necessary. I
must acknowledge that the generous praise which
I have received from Congress and others exceeds
the merit of my past services, therefore I the more
ardently wish for future opportunities of testifying
my gratitude by my activity.
" As your Majesty, by espousing the cause of
America, hath become the protector of the rights of
human nature, I am persuaded that you will not dis-
regard my situation, nor suffer me to remain any
longer in this unsupportable disgrace.
" I am, with perfect gratitude and profound re-
spect, Sire, your Majesty's very obliged, very obedi-
ent, and very humble servant,
" J. PAUL JONES."
This letter,-at once dignified, forceful, respectful,
and modest, was inclosed to Dr. Franklin with the
request that it should be delivered to the king. The
deference paid to Franklin's opinion, the eager de-
sire to please him, the respect in which he held him,
I 4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
is not the least pleasing feature of Jones' character,
by the way. The letter in question was withheld by
Franklin with Jones' knowledge and acquiescence,
and the king, it is probable, never saw it. There
was, in fact, no necessity for its delivery, for the
appeals, prayers, and importunities had at last
evoked a response. The minister, worn out by the
persistence of Jones, determined, since none of the
French naval vessels were available, to buy him a
ship and assemble a squadron and send him forth.
The inquiry naturally arises why the French
Government should care to go to the trouble and
expense of doing this. Before the war was declared
their action was understandable, but afterward the
then operating cause disappeared. Yet there was
another reason aside from the fact that M. de Sar-
. tine was willing to keep his promise if he could, and
that was this :
It was not the custom to harry, plunder, and
ravage the seacoasts in the wars between France
and England. Military or naval forces were the
sole objects of attack, and by a specific though un-
written law of custom, the efforts of the rival com-
batants were confined to ships of war, fortifications,
and armies, and, of course, to merchant vessels be-
longing to the enemy. The peaceful seashore
towns were generally let alone unless the inhabit-
ants in exposed localities provoked retaliation by
aggression a thing they usually took good care
not to do. To introduce the practice would be un-
fortunate and nothing would be gained, by France
especially. The King of France, however, was more
than willing to have the coasts of his neighbor rav-
REASONS FOR FRENCH ACTION.
141
aged, if no retaliation on his own unprotected shores
were provoked thereby. No convention of any sort,
expressed or understood, existed between Great
Britain and the United States which would prevent
such action on the part of the Americans. Great
liritain was making a bloody ravaging warfare on
the coasts of North America, and, never dreaming
of reprisal, paid no attention whatever to this law of
war, save when it suited her to do so, on our sea-
board. Franklin and the commissioners wisely real-
ized that the only way to stop this merciless and
brutal burning and plundering was to let the enemy
experience the thing himself. They were therefore
in entire accord with the desire of the French king.
To produce the result he would furnish the squad-
ron, they the flag. It was a charming arrangement
from the king's point of view. Consequently the
reason for the encouragement given Jones is ap-
parent, and the determination of the minister is
therefore explained and understood.
Jones received word early in November through
the commissioners, with a solemn assurance from
De Sartine, that a suitable ship would be purchased
for him at the expense of France and a squadron
assembled under his supreme command. Let those
who would reproach Jones for his part in this plan
remember that (as in his previous cruise) he only
carried out the orders of Franklin. There was no
sentimental nonsense about the old Quaker. He
knew what was the best remedy for the deplorable
conditions in America, and he grimly prepared to
apply it. He had no illusions in the premises at all ;
it was a pure matter of business, and with sound
142 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
policy he so treated it. Jones' appeals, be it under-
stood, were only for a ship or ships and an oppor-
tunity to get into action with the enemy. His orders
were outside of his control. All he had to do as a
naval officer was to carry them out to the best of
his ability when he received them. Therefore a cen-
sure of Jones is a censure of Franklin.
It was first designed to employ Jones and his
proposed squadron for a descent upon Liverpool,
for which purpose five hundred men from Fitz-
maurice's Irish regiment were to be taken on the
ships. Pending the assembling of the squadron,
and while Jones was busily engaged in seeking for
a proper vessel for himself in various French ports,
Lafayette arrived from America, and sought the
command of the land forces of the proposed expedi-
tion. His desire was a notable tribute to the sailor,
by the way. The change was most agreeable to
Jones, to whom, of course, the reputation and abili-
ties of Lafayette were well known, and who would
naturally prefer association with such a distin-
guished man in the undertaking, but, as usual, there
were delays on the part of the minister.
Jones traveled about from port to port, look-
ing at different ships which it was proposed to pur-
chase for him. The minister offered him the Due
de Broglie, a large new ship lying at Nantes, capable
of mounting sixty-four guns. He inspected her,
and would have taken her gladly, but he felt utterly
unable properly to man such a large ship, and he was
reluctantly compelled to dismiss her from considera-
tion. There was also at Nantes a smaller ship, the
Ariel, of twenty guns, which had been captured
STANDING AND WAITING STILL. 143
from the English, which he was willing to accept if
nothing better turned up. Another vessel that he
looked at was a great old-fashioned merchant ship,
lying dismantled at L/Orient, which had been some
fourteen years in the India trade, and was very
much out of repair. She was called the Due de
Duras. Jones thought she might do in default of
anything else, and he so informed the minister.
However, in spite of the promises that had been
made and reiterated to him, and the determination
which had been arrived at, nothing was done. His
visits of inspection were fruitless, his propositions
were disregarded as before. Furthermore, the plan
to send Lafayette with him fell through because
France was at that time projecting a grand descent
in force upon England, and Lafayette was desig-
nated to command a regiment in the proposed un-
dertaking. Like other similar projects, the plan
was never put in operation. Though France did
enter the Channel with sixty-six French and Spanish
ships of the line, she did not accomplish as much
with this great armada as Paul Jones did with the
little squadron he finally was enabled to assemble.
Meanwhile he was at his wits' end. The year
had nearly passed and nothing had been done. He
had been put off with promises until he was desper-
ate. Chance, it is stated, threw in his way one day,
as he sat idle at Nantes, gloomily ruminating on
-the prospect, or lack of it, and almost making up
his mind to go back to the United States in the
first vessel that offered and seek such opportunity
for service as might arise there, a copy of Franklin's
famous book of maxims, called Poor Richard's Al-
I 4 4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
manac. As the harassed little captain sat listlessly
turning its pages, his eyes fell upon this signifi-
cant aphorism :
" If a man wishes to have any business faith-
fully and expeditiously performed, let him go on
it himself; otherwise he may send."
The truth of the saying inspired him to one final
ejfort before he abandoned European waters. He
went to Versailles in November, 1778, for one last
visit, and there settled the matter. His determina-
tion and persistence at last, as it had many times
before, brought him success. De Sartine directed
the purchase of the Duras, which Jones, from his
love for Franklin and the circumstance just related,
with the consent of the minister, renamed the Bon
Homme Richard, that being the French equivalent
for Poor Richard, or Good Man Richard, which
was the caption of the almanac.
De Sartine appointed as the agent and commis-
sary of the king for the purchase and refitting of
the Duras and the other vessels of the squadron, and
for the disposal of any prizes which might be taken,
in short, as his representative with entire liberty
of action, Monsieur le Ray de Chaumont. This
gentleman, belonging, of course, to the nobility of
the country, was a man of considerable influence at
the court, where he had held the responsible dual
position of Grand Master of the Forests and Waters
of the King. Since the arrival of the American com-
missioners he had shown his devotion to the cause
of liberty and to them personally by many and con-
spicuous acts of kindness.
.. It was his private residence at Passy that Frank-
LE RAY DE CHAUMONT. 145
lin made his headquarters during his long tenure
of office. De Chaumont had offered him the use
of this house, and with generous and splendid
hospitality had refused to accept of any remunera-
tion by way of rental. Realizing the pressing neces-
sity of the struggling colonists for every dollar they
could scrape together, he positively declined to im-
pair their limited resources by any charge whatso-
ever. Franklin endeavored to change his decision,
and when John Adams replaced Deane he made the
same effort, but the generous Frenchman refused
to recede from his determination. He also placed
his private purse at the disposal of Franklin, and
in every way showed himself a worthy and disinter-
ested friend of America.
He was one of those romantic Frenchmen who
espoused the cause of the rights of man under the
influence of the new philosophy of Rousseau and
Voltaire ; somewhat, it would seem, from motives
similar to those proclaimed by Jones himself. He
had nothing to gain by his action and much to lose
should the effort of the colonists result in failure.
He was a man of affairs and possessed an ample
fortune. To anticipate events, it may be stated that
he spent it all in the cause to which he had devoted
himself, and eventually became bankrupt. He was
not a military man ; still less was he aware of the exi-
gencies and demands of the naval service. For the
present, however, he did his work efficiently and
well.
The Duras was purchased immediately, as were
two other merchant vessels, the Pallas and the Ven-
geance, all at the cost of the royal treasury. To
ii
146 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
these were added the Cerf, a king's cutter, a well-
appointed and efficient vessel, and the United States
ship Alliance, a new and very handsome frigate built
at Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1778, which had
arrived in Europe with Lafayette as a passenger.
Jones had specifically asked that the American
frigate should be assigned to his squadron a most
unfortunate request, as it afterward turned out.
The Duras was an East Indiaman of obsolete
type ; a large, old-fashioned ship with . a very high
poop and topgallant forecastle. She had made, dur-
ing many years of service, a number of round voy-
ages to the East Indies. While stoutly built for a
merchant ship, as compared to a man-of-war of her
size she was of light and unsubstantial frame. In
the absence of particular information I suppose her
to have been of something under eight hundred
tons burden. Neglect had allowed her to fall into
such a .bad condition that her efficiency as a pro-
posed war vessel was further impaired by her in-
ability to stand the necessary repairs.
Jones, however, surveyed her and determined
to make her do. Indeed, there was no choice ; it
was that or nothing. He hoped to effect something
with her which would warrant him in demanding
a better ship ; so, with a sigh of regret for the Indien,
he set to work upon her, doing his best to make
her efficient. By his orders she was pierced for
twenty-eight guns on her main deck and six on
the poop and forecastle. In order to further in-
crease her force, Jones, after much deliberation, re-
sorted to the hazardous experiment of cutting "six
ports in the gun room, on the deck below the gun
THE BON HOMME RICHARD. 147
deck, close to the water line ; so close, in fact, that,
with anything like a sea on, to open the ports would
be to invite destruction by foundering.* Only un-
der exceptionally favorable circumstances, therefore,
could these guns be used. At best the gun-room
battery could only be fought in the calmest weather
and smoothest water. In this dangerous place
he mounted six old and condemned i8-pounders,
which were all that he could obtain from the French
arsenals. On the main deck fourteen 12-pounders
and fourteen Q-pounders were mounted, f Two
9-pounders were placed aft on the quarter-deck, two
in each gangway, and two on the forecastle. All the
guns were old and worn out ; many of them had
been condemned by the French Government as un-
fit for use. The six guns on the lower deck were
mounted three on a side, but a sufficient number of
ports had been cut to admit of shifting the guns and
working the whole battery on either side. New
guns had been ordered cast for the Richard at the
French gun foundries ; but the usual delays com-
pelled Jones to take what he could, and finally sail
with these old makeshifts. The guns intended for
* The ship of the line Thesee(74), commanded by the cele-
b-ated de Kersaint, was lost in the night battle between
Hawke and Conflans at Quiberon Bay, because in the midst
of a terrific gale, with a very heavy sea on, the Frenchman
unfortunately opened his lower deck ports to make use of
his heavy battery in the action.
f There is a discrepancy in the various accounts of the
armament of the Richard, some authorities asserting that
all the guns on the main deck were 12-pounders and that
the small guns on the poop and forecastle were 6-pounders.
The probabilities are as I have stated.
148 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the Bon Homme Richard arrived after she had
gone.
The Alliance was a frigate-built ship of thirty-
two guns, 9- and 6-pounders, manned by two hun-
dred and fifty men, and commanded by Pierre Lan-
dais. Landais was an ex-officer of the French navy,
who had been dismissed- for insubordination and in-
capacity. Ignorant of these facts, knowing only
that he had been a navy officer, and wishing to
please their royal ally, and perhaps pay a delicate
compliment also to Lafayette, who was a passenger
upon the ship on her first cruise, the marine commis-
sioners had appointed him to the command of this
fine and handsome little frigate. The Alliance was
one of the fastest ships of her day ; indeed, she may
be regarded as the precursor of that long line of
splendid frigates and sloops of war which have been
the pride of American shipbuilders and the admira-
tion of foreign navies. Properly re-armed and re-
fitted, under the command of stout old John Barry
she did splendid service on several occasions later
in the war. Her swiftness and mobility, it was be-
lieved, would add greatly to the usefulness of Jones'
squadron.
The Pallas was a fairly efficient merchant ship,
frigate built, carrying thirty 6-pounders, com-
manded by Captain de Cottineau de Kloguene. The
Vengeance was a twelve-gun brig of little force,
and the Cerf a sixteen-gun cutter, under the com-
mand of Captains Ricot and de Varage respectively.
After many difficulties and disheartening delays,
chiefly overcome by Jones' invincible determina-
tion and persistence, the squadron was at last made
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.
149
ready for use. The first duty assigned to the dar-
ing commodore was a cruise for the driving of the
enemy's ships out of the Bay of Biscay, and con-
voying merchant ships bound from port to port
along the coast. It was not a particularly congenial
duty, but he entered upon it zealously and without
complaint.
The squadron sailed on the I9th of June, 1779.
During the night of the 2Oth the Alliance ran foul
of the Richard, and as a result of the collision the
mizzenmast of the Alliance was carried away, while
the Richard lost her head, cutwater, jib boom, etc.
The blame for the accident mainly rested on Lan-
dais, who, it was afterward developed, had behaved
disgracefully on this occasion, showing such a lack
of presence of mind and seamanly aptitude, coupled
with such timidity and shrinking from duty, that,
when the accident occurred, he not only gave no
orders, but basely ran below to load his pistols, leav-
ing the ship to be extricated from her critical situa-
tion by the junior officers. Perhaps he was afraid
that the infuriated Jones would attack him for the
mishandling of his ship. Jones, who had been be-
low when the accident occurred, immediately as-
sumed charge of the Richard, and by prompt action
averted a more serious disaster. To do Landais jus-
tice, however, the officer of the watch on the Rich-
ard also must have been culpable, for he was subse-
quently court-martialed and broken for his lack of
conduct on this occasion.
Refusing to return to port, and patching up the
two ships as well as possible from their present re-
sources, Jones performed the duties assigned to him,
150 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
driving the enemy's ships out of those waters and
safely delivering his convoy. On the return voy-
age, Captain de Yarage, of the Cerf, had a spirited
encounter with a heavily armed privateer of greater
force than his own, which lasted for an hour and
ten minutes and resulted in the privateer striking
her flag. Before he could take possession, however,
other ships of the enemy appeared, and he was
forced to abandon his prize. The Richard chased
several sail, two of which were thought to be
frigates, and the officers and men manifested every
disposition to get into action ; but the ships sighted
were all able to run away from the cumbrous and
slow-sailing American ship.
On the last day of June the squadron put into
L'Orient again to repair damages. During the
cruise it is interesting to note that Jones dispatched
thirty pounds, in the shape of a draft, through a
friend in Dublin, to Scotland for the use of his
family. He frequently made them remittances from
his scanty supplies of money, and, in fact, he never
forgot them, however busy with great undertakings
he may have been.
Instructions were received at L'Orient from
Franklin intended to govern the future movements
of the squadron. They had, of course, been pre-
pared after consultation with De Sartine. Jones
was directed to cruise off the west coast of Ireland
to intercept the West Indian ships and then to pro-
ceed to the northward, passing the Orkneys, and
range down the coast of Scotland and endeavor to
capture the Baltic fleet which, by the way, had
been one of his ojiginal^ projects. After carrying
.MUTINY ON THE RICHARD. 151
out these orders he was instructed to proceed to the
Texel about August 15th, where he would find
further directions awaiting him. Prizes were to be
sent to Dunkirk or Ostend in France, or Bergen in
Norway, consigned to such agents as De Chaumont
should designate.
Jones was very much disappointed, naturally,
with the Richard, and in acknowledging the receipt
of these instructions he made a last effort to get the
Inclien. It was intimated that such might be the
result of his cruise when he arrived at the Texel, if
it were successful, but that no change could be made
in his orders at present. Franklin refused to at-
tempt to have them modified by consulting with the
ministry, and, in a way gentle but sufficiently de-
cided, he directed Jones to finish repairing the ships
with all speed and proceed to carry out the orders
he had received. The commodore, swallowing his
disappointment and dissatisfaction with a rather ill
grace, it must be confessed, hastened to get his ships
in shape for the proposed expedition.
During the cruise in the Bay of Biscay a muti-
nous spirit had broken out among the English sea-
men, with whom in part Jones had been forced to
man his ship in default of other men, which had
become sufficiently developed to result in an organ-
ized conspiracy to take the Richard. The plot was
discovered and the ringleaders were put in irons.
When the Richard arrived at L'Orient, these men,
two quartermasters, were court-martialed ; but, in-
stead of being sentenced to death, as they deserved,
they were severely flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails.
Jones, who, if he erred, leaped to the side of mercy,
!J2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
seems to have been greatly relieved at this termina-
tion of the affair. At this time the lieutenant of the
Richard, who had been in charge of the watch dur-
ing the collision, was also court-martialed and dis-
missed the service.
These several unfortunate happenings had given
De Sartine a very low idea of the efficiency and
value of the Bon Homme Richard and the squad-
ron, which galled Jones extremely. Indeed, 1 im-
agine De Sartine looked upon Jones in the light of
a nuisance niore than anything else. The repairs
progressed very slowly, and it was not until August
that the ships were ready to proceed. Meanwhile
an event of the greatest importance had occurred
in the arrival of a cartel at Nantes with one hun-
dred and nineteen exchanged American prisoners.
Many of them entered on the Richard, and Jones
was thus enabled to weed out a large proportion of
the mutinous and disorderly element in his crew.
The fine qualities of some of these new recruits en-
abled him to replace many of his petty officers
invaluable adjuncts to an efficient crew with ex-
perienced seamen who could be depended upon, not
merely as sailors, but as men who, fresh from the
horrors and brutalities of English prisons, were
more than ready to fight against the red flag wher-
ever it was planted. They leavened the whole mass.
The re-enforcement was of the greatest value ;
but Jones' good fortune did not end here, for before
he sailed again he was joined by a young American
naval officer of the highest capacity and courage,
named Richard Dale, who had been captured in the
Lexington and held a prisoner in England. He had
RICHARD DALE. 153
effected a most daring and romantic escape from the
Mill Prison by the assistance of an unknown woman,
whose name and the circumstances of their ac-
quaintance remained a mystery ; Dale absolutely re-
fused to divulge them to the day of his death.
Jones found in him a congenial spirit and an
able subordinate. He promptly appointed him first
lieutenant of the Richard, and between the two men
there speedily developed a friendship as lasting as it
was unaffected and disinterested. Next to Jones
himself, in the early records, stands the name of this
young man, then scarcely twenty-three years of age.
Aside from the great commodore, it was he who
contributed more to the subsequent success of the
Richard than any other man. At the request of De
Sartine, Jones also received on the Richard a bat-
talion of royal marines, who w r ere all French of
course, and who had been augmented until they
numbered one hundred and thirty-seven officers and
men, under Lieutenant-Colonel de Chamillard de
Warville. It was supposed by the minister that they
could at least keep order on the ship! The time
limited to the expiration of the cruise was extended
to the end of the month of September.
The total complement of the Richard, therefore,
according to Jones' statement, was about three
hundred and eighty officers, men, and boys, includ-
ing the one hundred and thirty-seven marines. A
roll of officers and men is given by Sherburne in his
Life of Jones.
On this list, which purports to contain the names
of those who were on board on the date of the bat-
tle with the Serapis, are enumerated the names of
154 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
but two hundred and twenty-seven officers and
men. It omits the name of de Chamillard and an-
other colonel of infantry, de Weibert, who were
actually on board, and gives no names of the French
marines. Adding the two hundred and twenty-
seven to the one hundred and thirty-seven, we get
three hundred and sixty-four, which is as near as
we can come to Jones' figures. There may have
been others whose names were added later on, but
at any rate it is safe to take Jones' statement as
practically correct.
Assuming that the known factors fairly repre-
sented the whole crew, we find that among the offi-
cers twenty-four were Americans, two were French-
men, and six British, including Jones and two sur-
geon's mates. Among the seamen fifty-five were
American born, sixteen Irish, sixty-one British,
twenty-eight Portuguese, twenty who are not de-
scribed, of whom seven were probably Portuguese,
and fifteen of other nationalities, including, accord-
ing to Cooper, some Malays possibly Filipinos
learning thus early to fight for freedom under, not
against, the Stars and Stripes ! Thus, scarcely more
than one fifth of the complement were native Ameri-
cans. The marines, of course, were efficiently or-
ganized and commanded, and were of the usual
character of the men in the French service. The
rest of the crew, with the exception of the Ameri-
cans, who were filling the posts of petty officers,
were a hard-bitten, reckless crowd of adventurers,
mercenaries, bravos, and what not, whom only a
man like Jones could control and successfully direct.
Under his iron hand they developed into as ready
A HARD-BITTEN CREW. 155
a crew as ever fought a ship, and in our estimation
of his subsequent success the fact must not be lost
sight of that he made out of such a motley assem-
blage so efficient an organization. The officers were
fairly capable, though none of them reached the
standard of Dale, and at least one of them left the
cruise with a serious cloud upon his reputation.
Perhaps two thirds of the crew of the Alliance
were English seamen who had been recruited from
the men of the line of battle ship Somerset, which
had been wrecked in America, and a large number
of her crew captured. They enlisted on the Alli-
ance in the hope of capturing her and making their
escape, thus avoiding a sojourn in American prisons.
Qn the way to France, owing to the presence of
these men on the ship, a conspiracy had developed,
the successful termination of which was only pre-
vented by the resolution and courage of Lafayette
and the passengers with the regular officers of the
ship. There were but a small number of Americans
on the Alliance, owing to the fact that she was com-
manded by a Frenchman, under whom Americans
generally refused to sail. The officers, with few ex-
ceptions, were poor in quality. Her crew had been
somewhat improved before the squadron sailed, by
the enlistment of some of the prisoners from the
cartel, but it was still far from being an efficient body
of men, and under such a captain as Landais there
was no hope of it ever becoming so.
The officers and crew of the Pallas, Vengeance,
and Cerf were French in toto, the officers all hold-
ing French commissions. The squadron was en-
tirely at the charges of the French Government, al-
156 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
though each of the officers sailed with a supple-
mentary American commission issued by Franklin
and his confreres, and all the vessels were under
the American flag.
De Chaumont had been indefatigable in fitting
out the ships as best he could, and personally he
had done everything in his power to further the
success of the enterprise. If his labors had ceased
there, the results would have been better ; but, prob-
ably under the direction of the minister, and influ-
enced by the natural reluctance of the French offi-
cers and men to serve under the command of an
officer of another country, de Chaumont prepared
a concordat, which he suppressed until just before
the time of sailing, when it was exhibited to Jones
and the other captains and their signatures de-
manded. By the terms of this singular document
the officers and men and the several vessels of the
squadron, instead of being under the absolute
charge of Jones himself, as is the case with every
properly organized expedition, were formed into a
species of alliance offensive and defensive ; and
while, of course, the headship was necessarily under
Jones while he lived, he was so hampered and re-
stricted by the various articles of the agreement as to
feel himself scarcely more than first among his
equals. He was left with full responsibility for suc-
cess, but so shorn of power and ability to compel
obedience to his orders as to render it necessary for
him to resort to persuasion to effect his end. Any
ordinary commander would have withdrawn at the
last moment, but Jones was determined upon effect-
ing something; so, with great reluctance and un-
THE UNFORTUNATE CONCORDAT.
157
availing protests, he signed the concordat, and the
ill-assorted squadron proceeded on its way.*
Surely never before was such an expedition for
warlike purposes put forth upon the narrow seas !
It is difficult to see what result any sane man could
have legitimately expected from it. That it ac-
complished anything was due to Jones himself
commodore by virtue of a paper agreement, just as
binding and effective as any of the several signers
wished it to be ! The world had long known him as
a man remarkable for audacity in conception, bold-
ness in planning, hardihood in carrying out, and
downright courage in the supreme moment. As a
seaman and a fighter he had few equals and no
masters. But the cruise developed that he pos-
sessed other qualities of leadership which are some-
times lost sight of in this brilliant galaxy, qualities
which his previous experience had not led us to
expect him to exhibit. He was shown to be con-
siderate, tactful, forbearing, persuasive, holding
himself under strong restraint. Naturally of a pas-
sionate, impetuous, uncontrollable nature, that he
exhibited these qualities speaks well for the man.
He had learned to control his feelings in the bitter
school of procrastination, evasion, and disappoint-
ment of the past year.
* See Appendix No. II.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CRUISE OF THE SQUADRON.
ALL things being as ready as it was possible to
make them, on the I4th of August, 1779, amid the
booming of cannon and the waving of flags, the
expedition set sail. Very pretty it must have looked,
dropping down the roads, as sail after sail was set
on the broad yardarms extending above the little
commander on the poop deck of the Indiaman,
resolutely putting his difficulties and trials behind
him, and glad to be at last at sea and headed for
the enemy. And yet he might well have borne a
heavy heart ! Only a man of Jones' caliber could
have faced the possibilities with a particle of equa-
nimity. By any rule of chance or on any ground of
probability the expedition was doomed to failure,
capture, or destruction. But the personality of
Jones, his serene and soon-to-be-justified confidence
in himself, discounted chance and overthrew proba-
bility. I have noticed it is ever the man with the
fewest resources and poorest backing who accom-
plishes most in the world's battles. The man who
has things made easy for him usually " takes it
easy," and accomplishes the easy thing or nothing.
The squadron was accompanied by two heavily
armed privateers, the Monsieur and the Granvelle,
158
THE FIRST PRIZE.
159
raising the number of vessels to seven. The mas-
ters of the privateers did not sign the concordat, but
they entered into voluntary association with the
others and agreed to abide by the orders of Jones
an agreement they broke without hesitation in the
face of the first prize, which was captured on the
1 8th of August. The prize was a full-rigged ship,
called the Verwagting, mounting fourteen guns and
loaded with brandy. The vessel, a Dutch ship, had
been captured by the English, and was therefore a
lawful prize to the squadron. The captain of
the Monsieur, which was the boarding vessel,
plundered the prize of several valuable articles
for his own benefit, manned her, and attempted to
dispatch her to Ostend. Jones, however, over-
hauled her, replac'ed the prize crew by some of
his own men, and sent her in under his own
orders. The Monsieur and her offended captain
thereupon promptly deserted the squadron in the
night.
On the 2ist, off the southwest coast of Ireland,
they captured a brig, the Mayflower, loaded with
butter, which was also manned and sent in. On the
23d they rounded Cape Clear, the extreme south-
western point of Ireland. The day being calm,
Jones manned his boats and sent them inshore to
capture a brigantine. The ship, not having steerage
way, began to drift in toward the dangerous shore
after the departure of the boats, and it became neces-
sary to haul her head offshore, for which purpose the
captain's barge was sent ahead with a towline. As
the shades of evening descended, the crew of the
barge, who were apparently English, took advan-
l6o COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
tage of the absence of the other boats and the
opportunity presented, to cut the towline and desert.
As they made for the shore, Mr. Cutting Lunt, third
lieutenant, with four marines, jumped into a small
boat remaining, and chased the fugitives without
orders ; but, pursuing them too far from the ship, a
fog came down which caused him to lose his bear-
ings, and prevented him from joining the Richard
that night.
The crew of a commodore's barge, like the crew
of a captain's gig, is usually made up of picked men,
and the character of the Richard's crew is well indi-
cated by this desertion. The other boats luckily
managed to rejoin the Richard, after succeed-
ing in cutting out the brigantine. The ships beat
to and fro off the coast until the next day, when the
captains assembled on the Richard. Landais be-
haved outrageously on this occasion. He re-
proached Jones in the most abusive manner, as if
the desertion of the barge and the loss of the two
boats was due to negligence on his part. One can
imagine with what grim silence the irate little
American listened to the absurd tirade, and in what
strong control he held himself to keep from arrest-
ing Landais where he stood. It gives us -a vivid
picture of the situation of the fleet to find that
Jones was actually compelled to consult with his
captains and obtain the consent of de Varage
before he could order the Cerf to reconnoiter
the coast, if possible to find the two boats and their
crews.
Thus, as Commodore Mackenzie, himself a naval
officer, grimly remarks :
THE LOSS OF JHE BOATS. 161
" Before giving orders of indispensable neces-
sity, as a superior officer, we find him taking the
advice of one captain and obtaining the consent and
approbation of another."
But we may be sure that it was only dire neces-
sity that required such a course of action. Evi-
dently the situation was not to the liking of the
commodore, but it was one that he could not
remedy.
As the Cerf approached the shore to reconnoiter,
she hoisted the English colors to disguise her na-
tionality, and was seen by Mr. Lunt, who had evi-
dently overtaken the deserters. Mistaking her
character, he pulled in toward the shore to escape
the fancied danger, and was easily captured by the
English with the two boats and their crews. By
this unfortunate mishap the Richard lost two of her
boats, containing an officer and twenty-two men.
The Cerf, losing sight of the squadron in the even-
ing, turned tail and went back to France, instead
of proceeding to the first of the various rendezvous
which had been agreed upon. The Granvelle, hav-
ing made a prize on her own account, took advan-
tage of her entirely independent position and the
fact* that she was far away from -the Richard to
disregard signals and make off with her capture.
This reduced the squadron to the Richard, Alliance,
Pallas, and Vengeance. It was Jones' desire to
cruise to and fro off the harbor of Limerick to inter-
cept the West Indian ships, which, to the number of
eight or ten, were daily expected. These vessels,
richly laden, were of great value, and their capture
12
162 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
could have easily been effected, but Landais pro-
tested vehemently against remaining in any one
spot. Among other things, the Frenchman was un-
doubtedly a coward, and, of course, by remaining
steadily in one place opportunities for being over-
hauled were greatly increased. Jones finally suc-
cumbed to Landais' entreaties and protestations,
which were backed up by those of Captains Cotti-
neau and Ricot.
Of course, it is impossible to say how far his
authority would have lasted had he peremptorily
refused to accede to their demands, as paper con-
cordats are not very binding ties ; but he might per-
haps have made a more determined effort to induce
them to carry out his plans and remain with him.
To leave the position he had chosen, which pre-
sented such opportunities, was undoubtedly an
error in judgment, and Jones tacitly admits it in the
following words, written long afterward :
" Nothing prevented me from pursuing my de-
sign but the reproach that would have been cast
upon my character as a man of prudence.* It
would have been said : ' Was he not forewarned by
Captain Cottineau and others ? ' '
The excuse is as bad as, if not worse than* the
decision. But this is almost the only evidence of
weakness and irresolution which appears in Jones'
conduct in all the emergencies in which he was
thrown. It is impossible to justify this action, but,
in view of the circumstances, which we can only
* In case of disaster, that is.
THE HIGHEST COURAGE. 163
imagine and hardly adequately comprehend, we
need not censure him too greatly for his indecision.
In fact, the decision itself was a mistake which the
ablest of men might naturally make. The weak-
ness lay in the excuse which he himself offers, and
which it pains one to read. In this connection the
noble comment of Captain Mahan is interesting:
" The subordination of public enterprises to con-
siderations of personal consequences, even to repu-
tation, is a declension from the noblest in a pub-
lic man. Not life only, but personal credit, is
to be fairly risked for the attainment of public
ends."
It can not be said that Jones was altogether dis-
interested in his actions. The mere common, vul-
gar, mercenary motives were absent from his under-
takings, but it must be admitted that he never lost
sight of the results, not only to his country and its
success, but to his own reputation as well. If Jones
had proceeded in his intention, and Landais had
finally deserted him, the results would have been
very much better for the cruise always provided
that the Pallas at least remained with the Richard.
We shall see later on that all the ships deserted him
on one occasion.
On the 26th of August a heavy gale blew up
from the southwest, and Jones scudded before it to
the northward along the Irish coast. Landais de-
liberately changed the course of the Alliance in the
darkness, and, the tiller of the Pallas having been
carried away during the night, Jones found himself
alone with the Vengeance the next morning. The
164 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
gale having abated, these two remaining vessels
continued their course in a leisurely manner along
the Irish coast. On the 3ist the Alliance hove in
sight, followed by a valuable West Indiaman called
the Betsy, mounting twenty-two guns, which she
had captured a sample of what might have resulted
if the squadron had stayed off Limerick.
The Pallas having also joined company again,
on the ist of September the Richard brought to the
Union, a government armed ship of twenty-two
guns, bound for Halifax with valuable naval stores.
Before boats were called away and the prize taken
possession of, with unparalleled insolence Landais
sent a messenger to Jones asking whether the Alli-
ance should man the prize, in which case he should
allow no man from the Richard to board her ! With
incredible complaisance the long-suffering Jones
allowed Landais to man this capture also, while he
himself received the prisoners on the Richard.
These two vessels, in violation of Jones' explicit
orders, were sent in to Bergen, Norway, where they
were promptly released by the Danish Government
and returned to England on the demand of the Brit-
ish minister. Their value was estimated at forty
thousand pounds sterling. The unwarranted return
of the vessels was the foundation of a claim for in-
demnity against Denmark, of which we shall hear
later. On the day of the capture Landais disre-
garded another specific signal from the flagship to
chase ; instead of doing which, he wore ship and
headed directly opposite the direction in which he
should have gone. The next morning he again dis-
regarded a signal to come within hail of the Richard,
LAN DAIS DESERTS THE SQUADRON. 165
on which occasion he did not even set an answering
pennant.
On September 3d and 4th the squadron captured
a brig and two sloops off the Shetland Islands. On
the evening of this day Jones summoned the cap-
tains to the flagship. Lanclais refused to go, and
when de Cottineau tried to persuade him to do so
he became violently abusive,, and declared that the
matters at issue between the commodore and him-
self were so grave that they could only be settled by
a personal meeting on shore, at which one or the
other should forfeit his life. Fortunately for the
peace of mind of the commodore, whose patience
had reached the breaking point, the Alliance imme-
diately after parted company, and did not rejoin the
command until the 23d of September. If Landais
had stayed away altogether, or succeeded in getting
himself lost or captured, it would have been a great
advantage to the country.
Another gale blew up on the 5th, and heavy
weather continued for several days. The little
squadron of three vessels labored along through the
heavy seas to the northward, passed the dangerous
Orkneys, doubled the wild Hebrides, rounded the
northern extremity of Scotland, and on the evening
of the 1 3th approached the east coast near the
Cheviot Hills. On the I4th they arrived off the
Firth of Forth, where they were lucky enough to
capture one ship and one brigantine loaded with
coal. From them they learned that the naval force
in the harbor of Leith was inconsiderable, consist-
ing of one twenty-gun sloop of war and three or
four cutters. Jones immediately conceived the idea
1 66
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of destroying this force, holding the town under his
batteries, landing a force of marines, and exacting a
heavy ransom under threat of destruction.
Map showing the cruises of the Ranger and the Bon Homme
Richard, and the dash of the Alliance from the Texel.
THE ATTEMPT ON LEITH. \fy
Although weakened in force by the desertion of
the ships, by the number of prizes he had manned,
and the large number of prisoners on board the
Richard, he still hoped, as he says, to teach English
cruisers the value of humanity on the other side
of the water, and by this bold attack to demonstrate
the vulnerability of their own coasts. He also
counted upon this diversion in the north to call at-
tention from the expected grand invasion in the
south of England by the French and Spanish fleets.
The wind was favorable for his design, but unfor-
tunately the Pallas and the Vengeance, which had
lagged as usual, were some distance in the offing.
Jones therefore ran back to meet them in order to
advise them of his plan and concert measures for
the attack. He found that the French had but little
stomach for the enterprise; they positively refused
to join him in the undertaking, a decision which, by
the terms of the concordat, they had a right to make.
After a night spent in fruitless argument between the
three captains think of it, arguments in the place
of orders ! Jones appealed to their cupidity, proba-
bly the last thing that would have moved him. By
painting the possibilities of plunder he wrung a re-
luctant consent from these two gentlemen, and pro-
ceeded rapidly to develop the plan.
As usual, not being able to embrace the oppor-
tunity when it was presented, a change in the wind
rendered it impossible for the present. The design
and opportunity were too good, however, to be lost,
and the squadron beat to and fro off the harbor,
waiting for a shift of wind to make practicable the
effort. On the I5th they captured another collier,
1 68 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
a schooner, the master of which, named Andrew
Robertson, was bribed by the promised return of
his vessel to pilot them into the harbor of Leith.
Robertson, a dastardly traitor, promised to do so,
and saved his collier thereby. On the morning of
the i6th an amusing little incident occurred off the
coast of Fife. The ships were, of course, sailing
under English colors, and one of the seaboard gen-
try, taking them for English ships in pursuit of Paul
Jones, who was believed to be on the coast, sent a
shore boat off to the Richard asking the gift of some
powder and shot with which to defend himself in
case he received a visit from the dreaded pirate.
Jones, who was much amused by the situation,
made a courteous reply to the petition, and sent a
barrel of powder, expressing his regret that he had
no suitable shot. He detained one of the boatmen,
however, as a pilot for one of the other ships. Dur-
ing the interim the following proclamation was pre-
pared for issuance when the town had been cap-
tured. The document is somewhat diffuse in its
wording, but the purport of it is unmistakable :
" The Honorable J. Paul Jones, Commander-in-
chief of the American Squadron, now in Europe, to
the Worshipful Provost of Leith, or, in his absence,
to the Chief Magistrate, who is now actually present,
and in authority there.
" SIR : The British marine force that has been
stationed here for the protection of your city and
commerce, being no\v taken by the American arms
under my command, I have the honour td send you
this summons by my officer, Lieutenant-Colonel de
THE ATTEMPT ON LEITH. 169
Chamillard, who commands the vanguard of my
troops. I do not wish to distress the poor inhabit-
ants ; my intention is only to demand your contribu-
tion toward the reimbursement which Britain owes
to the much-injured citizens of the United States ;
for savages would blush at the unmanly violation
and rapacity that have marked the tracks of British
tyranny in America, from which neither virgin in-
nocence nor helpless age has been a plea of protec-
tion or pity.
" Leith and its port now lie at our mercy ; and,
did not our humanity stay the hand of just retalia-
tion, I should, without advertisement, lay it in ashes.
Before I proceed to that stern duty as an officer, my
duty as a man induces me to propose to you, by
means of a reasonable ransom, to prevent such a
scene of horror and distress. .For this reason I
have authorized Lieutenant-Colonel de Chamillard
to conclude and agree with you on the terms of ran-
som, allowing you exactly half an hour's reflection
before you finally accept- or reject the terms which
he shall propose. If you accept the terms offered
within the time limited, you may rest assured that
no further debarkation of troops will be made, but
the re-embarkation of the vanguard will immedi-
ately follow, and the property of the citizens shall re-
main unmolested."
On the afternoon of the i6th, the squadron was
sighted from Edinburgh Castle, slowly running in
toward the Firth. The country had now been fully
alarmed. It is related that the audacity and bold-
ness of this cruise and his previous successes had
170 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
caused Jones to be regarded with a terror far be-
yond that which his force justified, and which well-
nigh paralyzed resistance. Arms were hastily dis-
tributed, however, to the various guilds, and bat-
teries were improvised at Leith. On the I7th, the
Richard, putting about, ran down to within a mile
of the town of Kirkaldy. As it appeared to the in-
habitants that she was about to descend upon their
coast, they were rilled with consternation. There is
a story told that the minister of the place, a quaint
oddity named Shirra, who was remarkable for his
eccentricities, joined his people congregated on the
beach, surveying the approaching ship in terrified
apprehension, and there made the following prayer :
" Now, deer Lord, dinna ye think it a shame for
ye to send this vile piret to rob our folk o' Kirkaldy?
for ye ken they're puir enow already, and hae nae-
thing to spaire. The wa the ween blaws, he'll be here
in a jiffie, and wha kens what he may do? He's nae
too guid for onything. Meickle's the mischief he
has dune already. He'll burn thir hooses, tak their
very claes and tirl them to the sark ; and wae's me !
wha kens but the bluidy villain might take their
lives! The puir weemen are maist frightened out
o' their wits, and the bairns skirling after them. I
canna thol't it ! I canna thol't it ! I hae been lang
a faithfu' servant to ye, Laird ; but gin ye dinna turn
the ween about, and blaw the scoundrel out of our
gate, I'll na staur a fit, but will just sit here till the
tide comes. Sae tak yere will o't."
This extraordinary petition has probably lost
nothing by being handed down. At any rate, just
THE KIRKALDY PRAYER. 17!
as that moment, a squall which had been brewing
broke violently over the ship, and Jones was com-
pelled to bear up and run before it. The honest
people of Kirkaldy always attributed their relief to
the direct interposition of Providence as the result
of the prayer of their minister. He accepted the
honors for his Lord and himself by remarking,
whenever the subject was mentioned to him, that
he had prayed but the Lord had sent the wind !
It is an interesting tale, but its effect is some-
what marred when we consider that Jones had no
intention of ever landing at Kirkaldy or of doing the
town any harm. He was after bigger game, and in
his official account he states that he finally succeeded
in getting nearly within gunshot distance of Leith,
and had made every preparation to land there,
when a gale which had been threatening blew so
strongly offshore that, after making a desperate at-
tempt to reach an anchorage and wait until it blew
itself out, he was obliged to run before it and get
to sea. When the gale abated in the evening he
was far from the port, which had now become thor-
oughly alarmed. Heavy batteries were thrown up
and troops concentrated for its protection, so that he
concluded to abandon the attempt. His conception
had been bold and brilliant, and his success would
have been commensurate if, when the opportunity
had presented itself, he had been seconded by men
on the other ships with but a tithe of his own reso-
lution.
The squadron continued its cruise to the south-
ward and captured several coasting brigs, schooners,
and sloops, mostly laden with coal and lumber. Baf-
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fled in the Forth, Jones next determined 'upon a
similar project in the Tyne or the Humber, and on
the iQth of the month endeavored to enlist the sup-
port of his captains for a -descent on Xewcastle-
upon-Tyne, as it was one of his favorite ideas to cut
off the London coal supply by destroying the ship-
ping there ; but Cottineau, of the Pallas, refused tc
consent. The ships had been on the coast now foi
nearly a week, and there was no telling when a pur-
suing English squadron would make its appearance
Cottineau told de Chamillard that unless Jones left
the coast the next day the Richard would be aban-
doned by the two remaining ships. Jones, there-
fore, swallowing his disappointment as best be
might, made sail for the Humber and the important
shipping town of Hull.
It was growing late in September, and the time
set for the return to the Texel was approaching.
As a matter of fact, however, though Jones remained
on the coast cruising up and down and capturing
everything he came in sight of, in spite of his anx-
iety Cottineau did not actually desert his commo-
dore. Cottineau was the best of the French officers.
Without the contagion of the others he might have
shown himself a faithful subordinate at all times.
Having learned the English private signals from a
captured vessel, Jones, leaving the Pallas, boldly
sailed into the mouth of the Humber, just as a heavy
convoy under the protection of a frigate and a small
sloop of war was getting under way to come out of
it. Though he set the English flag and the private
signals in the hope of decoying the whole force out
to sea and under his guns, to his great disappoint-
OFF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 173
ment the ships, including the war vessels, put back
into the harbor. The Richard thereupon turned to
the northward and slowly sailed along the coast, fol-
lowed by the Vengeance.
Early in the morning of September 23d, while it
was yet dark, the Richard chased two ships, which
the daylight revealed to be the Pallas and the long-
missing Alliance, which at last rejoined. The wind
was blowing fresh from the southwest, and the two
ships under easy canvas slowly rolled along to-
ward Flamborough Head. Late in the morning
the Richard discovered a large brigantine inshore
and to windward. Jones immediately gave chase
to her, when the brigantine changed her course
and headed for Bridlington Bay, where she came to
anchor.
Bridlington Bay lies just south of Flamborough
Head, which is a bold promontory bearing a light-
house and jutting far out into the North Sea. Ves-
sels from the north bound for Hull or London gen-
erally pass close to the shore- at that point,, in order
to make as little of a detour as possible. For this
reason Jones had selected it as a particularly good
cruising ground. Sheltered from observation from
one side or the other, he waited for opportunities,
naturally abundant, to pounce upon unsuspecting
merchant ships. The Baltic fleet had not yet ap-
peared off the coast, though it was about due. Un-
less warned of his presence, it would inevitably pass
the bold headland and afford brilliant opportu-
nity for attack. If his unruly consorts would only
remain with him a little longer something might
yet be effected. To go back now would be to con-
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fess to a partial failure, and Jones was determined
to continue the cruise even alone, until he had dem-
onstrated his fitness for higher things. Fate had his
opportunity ready for him, and he made good use
of it.
CHAPTER X.
THE BATTLE WITH THE SERAPIS.
ABOUT noon on the 23d of September, 1779, the
lookouts on the Richard became aware of the sails
of a large ship which suddenly shot into view around
the headland. Before any action could be taken the
first vessel was followed by a second, a third, and
others to the number of six, all close hauled on the
starboard tack, evidently intent upon weathering the
point. The English flags fluttering from their gaff
ends proclaimed a nationality, of which, indeed,
there could be no doubt. The course of the Richard
was instantly changed. Dispatching a boat under
the command of Lieutenant Henry Lunt to capture
the brigantine, Jones, in high anticipation, headed
the Richard for the strangers, at the same time sig-
naling the Alliance, the Pallas, and the Vengeance
to form line ahead on his ship that is, get into the
wake of the Richard and follow in single file. The
Alliance seems to have been ahead and to windward
of the Richard, the Pallas to windward and abreast,
and the Vengeance in the rear of the flagship.
It had not yet been developed whether the six
ships, which, even as they gazed upon them, were
followed by others until forty sail were counted, were
vessels of war or a merchant fleet under convoy ; but
i75
176 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
with characteristic audacity Jones determined to ap-
proach them sufficiently near to settle the question.
He had expressed his intention of going in harm's
way, and for that purpose had asked a swift ship.
He could hardly have had a slower, more un-
wieldy, unmanageable vessel under him than the
Richard, but the fact had not altered his intention in
the slightest degree, so the course of the Richard
was laid for the ships sighted.
Captain Landais, however, was not actuated by
the same motives as his commander. He paid no
attention, as usual, to the signal, but instead ran off
to the Pallas, to whose commander he communi-
cated in a measure some of his own indecision. In
the hearing of the crews of both vessels Landais
called out to his fellow captain that if the fleet in
view were convoyed by a vessel of more than fifty
guns they would have nothing to do but run away,
well knowing that in such a case the Pallas, being
the slowest sailer of the lot slower even than the
Richard would inevitably be taken. Therefore,
with his two other large vessels beating to and fro
in a state of frightened uncertainty, Jones with the
Richard bore down alone upon the enemy. The
Vengeance remained far enough in the rear of the
Richard to be safe out of harm's way, and may be
dismissed from our further consideration, as she
took no part whatever in the subsequent events.
Closer scrutiny had satisfied the American that
the vessels in sight were the longed-for Baltic mer-
chant fleet which was convoyed by two vessels of
war, one of which appeared to be a small ship of the
line or a heavy frigate. In spite, therefore, of the sus-
THE BALTIC FLEET. 177
picious maneuvers of his consorts, Jones flung out a
signal for a general chase, crossed his light yards
and swept toward the enemy. Meanwhile all was
consternation in the English fleet off the headland.
A shore boat which had been noticed pulling hard
toward the English convoying frigate now dashed
alongside, and a man ascended to her deck. Imme-
diately thereafter signals were broken out at the
masthead of the frigate, attention being called to
them by a gun fired to windward. All the ships but
one responded by tacking or wearing in different di-
rections in great apparent confusion, but all finally
headed for the harbor of Scarborough, where, under
the guns of the castle, they hoped to find a secure
refuge. As they put about they let fly their top-
gallant sheets and fired guns to spread the alarm.
Meanwhile the English ship, which proved to be
the frigate Serapis, also tacked and headed west-
ward, taking a position between her convoy and
the approaching ships. Some distance to leeward
of the frigate, and farther out to sea, to the eastward,
a smaller war vessel, in obedience to orders, alsx>
assumed a similar position, and both waited for the
advancing foe. Early that morning Richard Pear-
son, the captain of the Serapis, had been informed
that Paul Jones was off the coast, and he had been
instructed to look out for him. The information
had been at once communicated to the convoy, to
which cautionary orders had been given, which had
been in the main disregarded, as \vas the invariable
custom with convoys. The shore boat which the
men on the Richard had just observed speaking the
Serapis contained the bailiff of Scarborough Castle,
13
!78 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
who confirmed the previous rumors and undoubt-
edly pointed out the approaching ships as Jones'
squadron.
Pearson, as we have seen, had signaled his con-
voy, and the latter, now apprised of their danger be-
yond all reasonable doubt by the sight of the ap-
proaching ships, had at last obeyed his orders.
Then he had cleverly placed his two ships between
the oncoming American squadron to cover the re-
treat of his charges and to prevent the enemy from
swooping down upon them. His position was not
only proper and seamanlike, but it was in effect a
bold challenge to his approaching antagonist a
challenge he had no wish to disregard, which he
eagerly welcomed, in fact. In obedience to Jones'
signal for a general chase, the Richard and the Pallas
were headed for their two enemies. As they drew
nearer the Pallas changed her course in accordance
with Jones' directions, and headed for the smaller
English ship, the Countess of Scarborough, a twen-
ty-four gun, 6-pounder sloop of war, by no means
an equal match for the Pallas. The Vengeance fol-
lowed at a safe distance in the rear of the commo-
dore, while Landais disregarded all signals and pur-
sued an erratic course of his own devising. Some-
times it appeared that he was about to follow the
Richard, sometimes the Pallas, sometimes the flying
merchantmen attracted his attention. It was evident
that the one thing he would not do would be to
fight.
In utter disgust, Jones withdrew' his attention
from him and concentrated his mind upon the task
before him. He was about to engage with his worn-
A COMPARISON OF FORCE.
179
out old hulk, filled with condemned guns, a splen-
did English frigate of the first class. A com-
parison of force is interesting. Counting the main
battery of the Richard as composed of twelves and
the spar-deck guns as nines, and including the six
i8-pounders in the gun room as being all fought
on one side, we get a total Of forty guns throwing
three hundred and three pounds of shot to the
broadside ; this is the extreme estimate. Counting
one half of the main battery as Q-pounders, we get
two hundred and eighty-two pounds to the broad-
side, and, considering the i8-pounders as being
fought only three on a side, we reduce the weight of
the broadside to two hundred and twenty-eight
pounds. As it happened, as we shall see, the
i8-pounders were abandoned after the first fire, so
that the effective weight of broadside during the
action amounted to either one hundred and ninety-
five or one hundred and seventy-four pounds, de-
pending on the composition of the main battery.
Even the maximum amount is small enough by
comparison.
The crew of the Richard had been reduced to
about three hundred officers and men, as near as
can be ascertained. The desertion of the barge, the
loss of the boat under Cutting Lunt off the Irish
coast, the various details by which the several prizes
had been manned, and the absence of the boat sent
that morning under the charge of Henry Lunt,
which had not, and did not come back until after
the action, had reduced the original number to these
figures. A most serious feature of the situation
was the lack of capable sea officers. There were
!g COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
so few of the latter on board the Richard originally
that the absence of the two mentioned seriously
hampered her work. Dale himself was a host.
Those that remained, who, with the exception of the
purser, sailing master, and the officers of the French
contingent, were young and inexperienced, mostly
midshipmen boys, in fact made up for their de-
ficiencies by their zeal and courage. The officers of
the French contingent proved themselves to be men
of a high class, who could be depended upon in
desperate emergencies.
The Serapis was a brand-new, double-banked
frigate, of about eight hundred tons burden that
is, she carried guns on two covered and one uncov-
ered decks. This was an unusual arrangement, not
subsequently considered advantageous or desir-
able, but it certainly enabled her to present a for-
midable battery within a rather short length ; her
shortness, it was believed, would greatly enhance
her handiness and mobility, qualities highly desir-
able in a war vessel, especially in the narrow seas.
On the lower or main deck twenty i8-pounders
were mounted ; on the gun deck proper, twenty 9-
pounders ; and on the spar deck, ten 6-pounders,
making a total of fifty guns, twenty-five in broad-
side, throwing three hundred pounds' weight of shot
at each discharge as against the Richard's one hun-
dred and seventy-four. She was manned by about
three hundred trained and disciplined English sea-
men, forming a homogeneous, efficient crew, and
well they proved their quality. Richard Pearson,
her captain, was a brave, competent, and successful
officer, who had enjoyed a distinguished career, win-
THE FRIGATE SERAPIS. jgl
ning his rank by gallant and daring enterprises ;
no ordinary man, indeed, but one from whom much
was to be expected.
In making this comparison between the two
ships it must not be forgotten that while the differ-
ence in the number of guns ten was not great,
yet in their caliber and the consequent weight of
broadside the Richard was completely outclassed.
Then, too, the penetrative power of an 1 8-pound
gun is vastly greater than that of a 1 2-pound gun, a
thing well understood by naval men, though scarcely
appearing of much moment on paper. Indeed, it
was a maxim that a 1 2-pound frigate could not suc-
cessfully engage an i8-pounder, or an 1 8-pound
frigate cope with a 24-pound ship.*
In addition to this vast preponderance in actual
fighting force, there was another great advantage to
the Serapis in the original composition of her crew
as compared with the heterogeneous crowd which
Jones had been compelled to hammer into shape.
Worthily, indeed, did both bodies of men demon-
strate their courage and show the effect of their
training. There was a further superiority in the
English ship in that she was built for warlike pur-
poses, and was not a converted and hastily adapted
merchant vessel. She was of much heavier con-
struction, with more massive frames, stouter sides,
rnd heavier scantling. The last advantage Pear-
son's ship possessed was in her superior mobility
* The English learned this in 1812, when with the long
eighteens of the Guerriere and the Java they tackled the
long twenty-fours of the Constitution's broadside.
!g2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
and speed. She should have been able to choose and
maintain her distance, so that with her longer and
heavier guns she could batter the Richard to pieces
at pleasure, herself being immune from the latter's
feebler attack.
In but one consideration was the Richard supe-
rior to the Serapis, and that was in the personality
of the man behind the men behind the guns ! Pear-
son was a very gallant officer. There was no blem-
ish upon his record, no question as to his capacity.
In personal bravery he was not inferior to any one.
As a seaman he worthily upheld the high reputation
of the great navy to which he belonged ; but as a
man, as a personality, he was not to be mentioned
in the same breath with Jones.
This is no discredit to that particular English-
man, for the same disadvantageous comparison to
Jones would have to be made in the case of almost
any other man that sailed the sea. There was about
the little American such Homeric audacity, such
cool-headed heroism, such unbreakable determina-
tion, such unshakable resolution, that so long as he
lived it was impossible to conquer him. They might
knock mast after mast out of the Richard ; they
might silence gun after gun in her batteries ; man
after man might be killed upon her decks; they
might smash the ship to pieces and sink her beneath
his feet, but there was no power on earth which
could compel him to strike her flag.
Jones was the very incarnation of the indomi-
table Ego: a soul that laughed at odds, that despised
opposition, that knew but one thing after the battle
was joined to strike and strike hard, until opposi-
THE INDOMITABLE EGO. 183
tion was battered down or the soul of the striker
had fled. In action he would be master or dead.
But his fighting was no baresark fury ; no blind, wild
rage of struggle ; no ungovernable lust for battle ;
it was the apotheosis of cool-blooded calculation.
He fought with his head as well as with his heart,
and he knew perfectly well what he was about all
the time. Pearson was highly trained matter of
first-rate composition ; Jones was mind, and his
superiority over matter was inevitable. The hot-
tempered spirit of the man which involved him in so
many difficulties, which made him quarrelsome, con-
trary, and captious, gave place to a coolness and
calmness as great as his courage in the presence
of danger, in the moment of action. By his skill, his
ability, his address, his persistence, his staying
power, his hardihood, Jones deserved that victory
which his determination absolutely wrested from
overwhelming odds, disaster, and defeat. The chief
players in the grim game, therefore, were but ill
matched, and not all the superiority in the pawns
upon the chessboard could overcome the fearful
odds under which the unconscious Pearson labored.
We pity Pearson ; in Jones' hands he was as help-
less as Pontius Pilate.
The crew of the Richard, having had supper and
grog, had long since gone to their stations to the
music of the same grim call of the beat to quarters
which had rolled upon the decks of every war ship
of every nation which had joined battle for perhaps
two hundred years. Jones was a great believer in
drill and gun practice. His experience on his first
cruise in the Alfred, if nothing else, had taught him
jg4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
that, and upon this ill-found ship with its motley
crew probably a more thorough regimen of control
and discipline existed than could be found in any
other ship afloat. Frequent target practice was had,
too, and the result proved the value of the exercise.
Had this not been the case the approaching battle
might have had a different termination.
The great guns had been cast loose and pro-
vided ; having been run in and loaded, they were run
out and a turn taken with the training tackles to
hold them steady. The magazines had been opened,
and the gunner and his mates stationed inside the
wetted woolen screen, which minimized the danger
of fire, to hand out charges of powder to the lads
called powder boys, or powder " monkeys," who,
with their canvas carrying boxes, were clustered
about the hatches. The gun captains saw that the
guns were properly primed, and they looked care-
fully after the slow matches used to discharge the
pieces, keeping them lighted and freely burning.
In the iron racks provided were laid rows of round
shot, with here and there a stand of grape. Arm
chests were opened and cutlasses and pistols dis-
tributed, and the racks filled with boarding pikes.
Many of the officers discarded their hats and put
on round steel boarding caps with dropped cheek
pieces. Swords were buckled on and the priming
of pistols carefully looked to. The men in many
cases stripped off their shirts and jackets, laid aside
caps and shoes, and slipped into their stations half
naked, with only a pair of trousers and their arms
upon them. Division tubs filled with water were
placed conveniently at hand, and the decks were
PREPARATIONS FOR ACTION. ^5
well sanded to prevent them from becoming slip-
pery with blood when the action began. The pumps
were overhauled and put in good condition, and
hose led along the decks in case of fire. The car-
penter and his mates, well provided with shot plugs
to stop up possible holes, were stationed in the more
vulnerable parts of the ship. The boats were
wrapped with canvas to prevent splintering under
heavy shot, and heavy nettings triced up fore and
aft as a protection against boarders. Preventer
braces were rove from the more important yardarms,
the heavier yards were slung with chains, and the
principal rigging, including the backstays, stop-
pered to minimize the danger in case they should be
carried away by shot. Grapnels, strong iron hooks
securely fastened to the ends of stout ropes or slen-
der iron chains, were swung from every yardarm,
and laid along the bulwarks in case it became pos-
sible or desirable to lash the ships together. Every-
thing which would impede the working of the guns
or hinder the fighting of the men was either stowed
below or thrown overboard. Around the masts and
at the braces the sail trimmers were clustered, some
of them armed with boarding axes or hatchets,
handy for cutting away wreckage. Aft on the quar-
ter-deck and forward on the forecastle large bodies
of French marines were drawn up, musket in hand.
The broad, old-fashioned tops of the Richard
were filled with seamen and marines, armed with
muskets and having buckets full of small grenades
close at hand. Among these seamen were many of
the more agile and daring among the topmen who
from their stations in making and taking in sail were
i86 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
designated as " light yardmen " while the marines
stationed in the tops were selected for their skill as
marksmen. The main body of the crew was dis-
tributed at the battery of great guns on the main
deck, which were in charge of Richard Dale and a
French lieutenant colonel of infantry, named de
Weibert. In the gloomy recesses of the gun room,
close to the water line, a little group of men was
told off to fight the heavy i8-pounders. Around the
hatches leading to the hold was stationed another
body of seamen and marines with the master at
arms, all armed to the teeth, to guard the English
prisoners, whose number is variously stated from
two to three hundred. The relieving tackles to use
in steering the ship in case the wheel was carried
away occupied the attention of another group.
Far below the water line in the dark depths of
the ship a bloody place familiarly known as the
cockpit the surgeon and his mates unconcernedly
spread out the foreboding array of ghastly instru-
ments and appliances of the rude surgery of the rude
period, in anticipation of the demands certain to be
made upon them. At the break of the poop a vet-
eran quarter-master and several assistants stood
grasping the great wheel of the ship with sturdy
fingers. Little groups of men were congregated on
the quarter-deck and forecastle and in the gangways
to man the Q-pounders, which were to play so im-
portant a part in the action. Jones himself, a quiet,
composed little figure of slender proportions, paced
steadily to and fro athwart the ship, now eagerly
peering ahead as the shades of night descended, now
casting a solemn glance aloft at the swelling canvas
THE ADVANCE OF THE RICHARD. ] g/
softly rounded out into huge curves in the gentle
breeze. Ever and anon he threw a keen glance back
toward the Alliance. When his gaze fell upon her,
the compression of his lips and the fierceness of his
look boded ill for Landais when he had time to deal
with him.
What must have been his thoughts in this mo-
mentous hour ! One likes to dwell upon him there
and then ; so alone and so undaunted on that old
deck in that gray twilight, resolutely proceeding to
battle with a ship which, now that it was in plain
view, his practised eye easily determined surpassed
his own in every particular. At such a moment, when
every faculty of his mind naturally would be needed
to fight his own vessel, suggestions of treachery and
disobedience and an utter inability to tell what his
cowardly and soon-to-be-proved traitorous subordi-
nate would do, made his situation indeed unbear-
able. But he dismissed all these things from his
mind. Confident in the justice of his cause in the
approval of Heaven for that cause and full of trust
in his own ability and personality, he put these
things out of his head and swept on. He was a
figure to inspire confidence on the deck of any ship.
The men, who had perhaps as vivid an appreciation
of their situation and all its dangers as he had him-
self, looked to their captain and took confidence in
the quiet poise of the lithe figure at the break of the
poop, balancing itself so easily to the lumbering roll
of the great ship. The young midshipmen, his per-
sonal aides, slightly withdrawn from close contact
with him, respected his silence as he paced to
and fro.
jgg COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
Presently another graceful active figure, belong-
ing to the first lieutenant of the ship, came running
from below, walked rapidly along the deck, sprang
up the ladder, and stopped before the little captain,
whom he overtowered to a degree. He saluted
gravely, and announced that the Richard was clear,
the men at quarters, and the ship was ready for
action. After a few moments of conversation Jones
and Dale descended to the lower deck and walked
through the ship. A hearty word of appreciation
and encouragement here and there, as occasion sug-
gested, heartened and stimulated the reckless crew,
until they had almost risen to the captain's level.
Presently he returned to the deck alone. A few final
directions, one last glance of approval at the Pallas
closing in on the Scarborough, one last regret, one
last flush of indignation as he looked toward the
Alliance r a moment, and the battle would be
joined.
It was about seven o'clock in the evening. The
harvest moon had long since risen in the eastern sky,
and was flooding the pallid sea with its glorious
radiance. On the western horizon the broad, bright
beacon of Flamborough Head was sending out its
bright ray of yellow light over the trembling water.
With a night glass, clusters of people could be seen
upon the shore and upon the ships anchored under
the guns of Scarborough Castle, towering grim and
black against the horizon. Ahead was the white
Serapis, calmly confident, lying broadside on, port
shutters triced up, lights streaming from every
opening. She lay with her topsails to the mast, gal-
lantly waiting. Upon her, too, like preparations for
THE BATTLE WITH THE SERAPIS.
189
combat had been made. Along her decks the same
beating call to battle had rolled. Men who spake
the same language, who read the same Bible, who
but a few years since had loved the same flag, who
had vied with each other in loyalty to a common
king, now made ready to hurl death and destruction
at each other. Presently sharp words of command
rang out ; there was a sudden bustle on the deck of
the English ship. The braces were manned, the
yards swung, and the Serapis slowly gathered way
and gently forged ahead. Then all was still once
more on the serene English ship.
As the Richard drew nearer to the Serapis a deep
silence settled over the American ship. Even over
the roughest and rudest among her crew crept a
feeling of awe at the terrible possibilities of the next
few moments. The magnitude of their task as they
came nearer became more apparent. Forced laugh-
ter died away ; coarse words remained unspoken ;
lips foreign to prayer formed words of belated and
broken petition. Thoughts went back to home : to
sunny fields and vine-clad cottages in France ; to
frontier huts in verdant clearings in America ; to
rude houses in seaboard towns where the surf of the
western ocean broke in wild thunder upon the rocky
shore. Pictures of wives, of children, of mothers,
of sweethearts, rose before the misted vision. Here
and there a younger man choked down a sob. The
rude jests with which men sometimes strive to dis-
guise emotion fell unnoticed, or were sternly repre-
hended by the older and more thoughtful. The
fitful conversation died away, and the silence was
broken only by the soft sigh of the wind through
igO COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the top hamper, the gentle flap of the lighter sails
as the pitch of the ship threw the canvas back and
forth, the soft splash of the bluff bows through the
water, the straining of the timbers, the creak of the
cordage through the blocks. Candle-filled battle
lanterns in long rows throughout the ship shed a
dim radiance over the bodies of the stalwart, half-
naked, barefooted men. Here and there a brighter
flash told of moonlight reflected from some gleam-
ing sword.
And the ships drew nearer nearer. In a mo-
ment the dogs of war would be loose. Presently a
sound broke the silence, a hail from the English
ship. A man leaped up on her rail and a cry came
faintly up through a hollowed hand against the
gentle breeze :
"What ship is that?"
The Richard had been kept skillfully end on to
the Serapis, and the commander of the latter ship
had still some lingering doubts as to her nationality.
Measuring the distance between the two ships,
Jones quickly motioned to the watchful quarter-
master beneath him. With eager hands the men
began, spoke by spoke, to shift the helm to star-
board. As the American ship began to swing to
port it would be but a moment before her broadside
would be revealed and concealment at an end. That
precious moment, however, Jones would have. He
sprang on the taffrail to starboard, and, catching
hold of the backstay, leaned far out and called
loudly :
" I do not understand you."
The Richard was swinging still more now. The
THE BATTLE IS ON. 191
English caught a glimpse of a lighted port forward.
From it a huge gun thrust its muzzle out into the
night. Quick and sharp came the hail once more :
" W r hat ship is that ? Answer at once or I fire ! "
With what breathless silence the two ships lis-
tened for the reply !
The helm was hard over now, the quartermas-
ters holding it down with grim determination, sweat
pouring from their foreheads, the ship swinging
broadside in to, and a little forward of, the Eng-
lishman. Bending over toward the quarter-deck, in
a clear voice heard throughout his ship, Jones called
out a sharp word of command. Even as he spoke
a line of fire lanced out into the night, followed by
the roar of one of the i2-pounders. It was an an-
swer not to be mistaken. Immediately the whole
broadside of the Richard was let go. Simultane-
ously the iron throats on the Serapis belched forth
their rain of hell arid destruction, and the great
battle was on ! It was perhaps a quarter after seven.
Side by side the two ships, covered with blinding
smoke, sailed in the still night, broadside answer-
ing broadside, the roar of the great guns sounding
in one horrible continuous note vibrating over the
ocean. The thunderous diapason was punctuated
by the sharp staccato rattle of the small arms.
The Richard, having more way on her, forged
slightly ahead of the Serapis, which had so lately
filled away that she had scarcely yet begun to move.
Jones, watchful of his opportunity, swung the head
of his ship in toward the English frigate, hoping
to cross her bows and rake her ; but the careful
Pearson, presently feeling the wind, gathered way
IQ2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
and with his superior speed easily regained his dis-
tance. The game was being played as he would have
it, and the bolts from his long eighteens were mak-
ing havoc of the Richard. Jones now determined to
back his topsails, check the speed of his own ship,
allow the Serapis to forge ahead, and then fill away
again, and rush the Richard alongside the English
frigate so that he could board and make use of his
preponderant force of soldiery. Accordingly, the
way of his frigate was checked and the Serapis drew
slightly ahead, receiving the fire of the Richard's
battery as she passed, and maintaining her own fire
in the smoke and darkness for some moments, until
Pearson discovered that he had passed ahead of the
Richard. The way of his ship was immediately
checked. The conflict had been maintained with
incredible fierceness for more than three quarters
of an hour.
As soon as Jones had gained sufficient distance,
he smartly filled away again and headed the clumsy
Richard at the Serapis; but the slow old vessel was
not equal to the demands of her commander. The
Richard only succeeded in striking the Serapis on
the port quarter very far aft. To have attempted
boarding from such a position would have been
madness. There are only two positions from which
a ship can be boarded advantageously. In one case,
when two ships are laid side by side, by massing
the crew at some point of the long line of defense
necessitated by the relative position of the vessels,
it may be possible to break through and effect a
lodgment on the enemy's deck. The other case is
when the ship desirous of boarding succeeds in
"HAVE YOU STRUCK?"
193
crossing the bows of her enemy so that the latter
vessel is subjected to a raking fire from the battery
of the attacking ship, which beats down opposition
and sweeps everything before it, thus affording a
chance for favorable attack. Neither of these op-
portunities was presented at this time.
Jones, nevertheless, mustered his boarders on
the forecastle at this moment, heading them himself,
but the English appeared in such force at the point
of contact that the attempt was of necessity aban-
doned. The two ships hung together a moment,
then separated, and, the Serapis going ahead, the
Richard backing off, they formed a line ahead,
the bow of the Richard following the stern of
the Serapis. There was not a single great gun
which bore on either ship. The roar of the battle
died away, and even the crackle of the small arms
ceased for a space. At this moment Pearson
hailed the Richard. Having been subjected to the
battering of his superior force for so long a time,
Pearson concluded that it was time for the Richard
to surrender. He was right in theory in practice it
was different. His own ship had suffered severely
in the yardarm to yardarm fight, and he realized
that the loss upon the Richard must have been pro-
portionately greater. . Even the most unskilled sea-
man had learned by this time the difference in the
power of the two vessels. Therefore, taking advan-
tage of the momentary cessation of the battle, he
sprang up on the rail of the Serapis in the moon-
light and called out :
" Have you struck ? "
And to this interrogation Paul Jones returned
1 94 COMMODORE PAUL JONKS.
that heroic answer, which since his day has been the
watchword of the American sailor :
" / have not yet begun to fight! " he cried with
gay audacity.
The ringing tones of his voice carried his an-
swer not only to the ears of the English captain, but
threw it far up into the high tops where the eager
seamen had so busily plied their small arms. The
men on the gun deck heard it with joy. It even
penetrated to the gloomy recesses of the gun room,
which had been the scene of such misfortune and
disaster as would have determined the career of any
other ship. The wounded caught the splendid in-
spiration which was back of the glorious declaration,
and under the influence of it stifled their groans,
forgot their wounds, and strove to fight on. It told
the dying that their lives were not to be given in
vain. Nay, those mighty words had a carrying
power which lifted them above the noise of the con-
flict, which sent them ringing over the narrow seas,
until they reverberated in the Houses of Parliament
on the one side and the Court of Versailles on the
other. They had a force which threw them across
the thousand leagues of ocean until they were heard
in every patriot camp, and repeated from the deck of
every American ship, until they became a part of
the common heritage of the nation as eternal as are
its Stripes and Stars ! The dauntless phrase of that
dauntless man :
" / hare not yet begun to fight! "
It was no new message. The British had heard
it as they tramped again and again up the bullet-
swept slopes of Bunker Hill ; Washington rang it
"I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!" 195
in the ears of the Hessians on the snowy Christmas
morning at Trenton ; the hoof beats of Arnold's
horse kept time to it in the wild charge at Saratoga ;
it cracked with the whip of the old wagoner Morgan
at the Cowpens ; the Maryland troops drove it home
in the hearts of their enemies with Greene at Guil-
ford Courthouse, and the drums of France and Eng-
land beat it into Cornwallis' ears when the end
came at Yorktown. There, that night in that dark-
ness, in that still moment of battle, Paul Jones de-
clared the determination of a great people. His was
the expression of an inspiration on the part of a new
nation. From this man came a statement of an un-
shakable determination at whatever cost to be free !
A new Declaration of Independence, this famous
word of warning to the British king. Give up the
contest now, O monarch ! A greater majesty than
thine is there !
I imagine a roar of wild exultation quivering
from truck to keelson, a gigantic Homeric laugh
rising from the dry throats of the rough men as yet
unharmed on the Richard as they caught the sig-
nificance of their captain's reply. " It was a joke,
the character of which those blood-stained ruffians
could well appreciate ; but the captain was in no
mood for joking. He was serious, and in the sim-
plicity of the answer lay its greatness. Strike ! Not
now, nor never! Beaten! The fighting is but just
begun ! The preposterous possibility of surrender
can not even be considered. What manner of man
this, with whom you battle in the moonlight, brave
Pearson ! An unfamiliar kind to you and to most ;
such as hath not been before, nor shall be again.
I9 6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
Yet all the world shall see and understand at this
time.
"' ' / have not yet begun to fight! '
" Surprising answer ! On a ship shattered be-
yond repair, her best guns exploded and useless, her
crew decimated, ringed about with dead and dying,
the captain had not yet begun to fight ! But there
was no delay after the answer, no philosophizing, no
heroics. The man of action was there. He meant
business. Every moment when the guns were silent
wasted one." *
The Richard was in a dreadful condition, espe-
cially below. At the first fire two of the i8-pounders
in the gun room had exploded, killing most of the
officers and men of their crews, blowing out the side
of the ship, shattering the stanchions, blowing up
the deck above' them, and inflicting injuries of so
serious, a character that they virtually settled the
fate of the ship. The other guns there were imme-
diately abandoned, and the men left alive in the divi-
sion, who were not required to guard the prisoners,
were sent to the gun deck to report to Dale and
de Weibert. The battery which had been the main
dependence of Jones had proved worse than useless.
Indeed, it had done more harm than had the guns
of the Serapis. I know of no action between two
ships in which a similar, or even a less frightful,
happening did not cause the ship suffering it to
surrender at once.
The two ships hung in line for a moment, then
Jones put his helm hard astarboard again and
* From the author's novel, The Grip of Honor.
"DON'T SWEAR, MR. STACY." 197
swung off to port, perhaps hoping to rake the Sera-
pis ; but the English captain, anticipating his ma-
neuver, backed his own topsails, and the two ships
passed by each other once more, the batteries re-
opening their fire at close range. The combat at
once recommenced with the most heroic determina-
tion. Fortunately, however, the captain of the
Serapis miscalculated either the speed at which his
own ship backed or the speed with which the
Richard drew ahead, for, before Pearson filled away
again, Jones had drawn so far ahead that by con-
summate seamanship and quick, desperate work he
managed to swing the Richard across the path of the
Serapis, an astonishing feat for the slower and more
unwieldy American frigate. It was his one oppor-
tunity and he embraced it one was enough for
Jones. Pearson had just succeeded in checking the
stern board of his own ship, and was going ahead
slowly, when the bow of his frigate ran aboard the
starboard quarter of the American, thrusting her
jib boom through the mizzen rigging far across
the quarter-deck of the Richard. Pouring a raking
fire upon the English frigate from his starboard bat-
tery, Jones, with his own hand, sprang to lash the
two ships together. The sailing master, Mr. Stacy,
leaped to assist him. As the officer strove to over-
haul the gear lying in a tangled mass upon the deck,
he broke into the natural oath of a sailor at the delay.
" Don't swear, Mr. Stacy," Jones is reported to
have said quietly, although he was working with
feverish energy to the same end " in another mo-
ment we may all be in the presence of our Maker
but let us do our duty."
igg COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The lashing was soon passed, and passed well.
The American boarders were called away again,
but they could do nothing in the face of the sharp
fire of the English repelling force. Meanwhile, the
pressure of the wind upon the after-sails of the
Serapis had broken off her bowsprit and forced her
stern around until she lay broadside to the American
ship. A spare anchor on the Serapis caught in the
mizzen chains of the Richard, and with it and the
grapnels which were hastily flung the two ships
were firmly bound together, the bow of one ship
by the stern of the other, heading in different ways,
their starboard sides touching. Pearson at once
dropped his port anchor, hoping that, his ship be-
ing anchored and the Richard under way, the Amer-
ican would drag clear, when his superiority in gun
power would enable him to continue the process of
knocking her to pieces at long range ; but, for-
tunately for the Richard, the wind had gradually
decreased until it was now nearly killed, or so light
that it did not prevent the ships from swinging to
the Serapis' anchor with the tidal current then set-
ting strongly to the northward.
It was some time after eight o'clock now, and the
battle at once recommenced with the utmost fury.
As the Serapis had not hitherto been engaged on
the starboard side,* it was necessary for her men to
blow off the port lids of their own ship at the first
discharge of her battery. They were so close to-
gether that the conflict resolved itself into a hand-to-
hand encounter with great guns. As Dale said, the
* See remarks on page 226.
IN DEATH GRAPPLE JOINED.
199
sponges and rammers had to be extended through
the ports of the enemy in order to serve the guns.
Though the American batteries were fought with
the utmost resolution, they were, of course, no match
PLAN : Showing maneuvers of Bon Homme Richard and Serapis,
September 23, 177^ ; showing also course and conduct of Alliance.*
4f( Serapis.
tfo Bon Homme Richard
A, Alliance. C, Countess of Scarborough. P, Pallas.
c
whatever for those of the English ship, which had
two tiers of heavier guns to oppose to one of the
American. Below decks, therefore, the Americans
were at a fearful disadvantage. Above, however,
the number of soldiers and marines, constantly re-
enforced by a stream of men sent from below as
their guns were put out of action, gave them a com-
pensating factor, and by degrees the concentrated
fire of the Americans cleared the deck of the Serapis.
The two ships lying side by side, slowly grinding
* After a drawing by Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N., by
permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.
200 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
together in the gentle sea, the yardarms were inter-
laced and the American topmen, again outnumber-
ing their English antagonists, ran along the yards,
and a dizzy fight in midair ensued, as the result of
which, after suffering severe loss, the Americans
gained possession of the British maintop. Turning
their fire forward and aft, aided by attacking parties
from the fore and crossjack yards, they finally cleared
the English entirely out of the upper works of their
ship. From this lofty point of vantage they poured
such a rain of fire upon the Serapis that Pearson
was left practically alone on the quarter-deck. To
a chivalrous admiration for his courage he is said
to owe his immunity. He, too, should have his meed
of praise for the undaunted heroism with which he
stood alone on the bullet-swept, blood-stained
planks, maintained his position, and fought his
ship.
Now, to go back a little. Shortly after the two
ships were lashed together, the Alliance, apparently
having recovered from her hesitation, came sweep-
ing toward the combatants, and deliberately poured
a broadside into the Richard, which did not a little
damage and killed several men. In spite of all sig-
nals, Landais repeated his treacherous performance,
but before the Richard's men could fairly realize the
astonishing situation he sailed away from them and
ran over before the wind toward the Pallas, which
had been for some time hotly engaged with the
Countess of Scarborough, where he is said to have
done the same thing.* This strange action of the
* Doubtful.
THE RELEASE OF THE PRISONERS. 2OI
Alliance had but little effect upon the battle at this
time, which was continued with unremitting fury.
One by one the small guns on the main deck of
the Richard were silenced. The crews were swept
away, guns were dismounted, carriages broken and
shattered, and finally the whole side of the Richard
from the mainmast aft was beaten in ; so much so,
that during the latter part of the action the shot of
the Serapis passed completely through the Richard,
and, meeting no opposition, fell harmlessly into the
sea far on the other side. In the excitement the
English never thought of depressing their guns and
tearing .the bottom out of the Richard. As it was,
transoms were. beaten out, stern frames were cut to
pieces, and a few stanchions alone supported the
decks above. Why they did not collapse and fall
into the hull beneath it, with the guns and men on
them, is a mystery. In addition to all this, the ship
was on fire repeatedly, and men were continually
called away from their stations to fight the flames.
Dale and de Weibert had just fired their last
shots from the remaining guns of the main battery
which were serviceable when a new complication
was added to the scene. The men guarding the pris-
oners had been gradually picked off by the shot of
the enemy. The Richard was leaking rapidly, and
when the carpenter sounded the well a little after
nine o'clock, late in the action, he discovered sev-
eral feet of water in it. In great alarm he shrieked
out that they were sinking. The few remaining men
in the gun room ran for the hatchways. The mas-
ter at arms, thinking that all was over, unlocked the
hatches and released the prisoners, crying out at
202 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the same time, " On deck, everybody ; the ship is
sinking ! " The Englishmen in panic terror scram-
bled up through the narrow hatchways, and fought
desperately with each other in their wild hurry to
reach the deck, where the carpenter had preceded
them, still shouting that the ship was sinking, and
now crying loudly, " Quarter ! Quarter ! "
As the carpenter ran aft, shouting his message of
fear and alarm, he was followed by some of the for-
ward officers, who, catching the contagion of his ter-
ror, repeated his words. Reaching the poop deck,
the carpenter fumbled in the darkness for the hal-
liards to haul down the flag, calling out to Jones that
all was lost, the ship sinking, and that he must sur-
render. Other officers and men joined in the cry.
It was another critical moment. Pearson, hearing
the commotion, again hailed, asking if the Richard
had struck. Jones, unable to stop the outcry of the
terrified carpenter, smashed his skull with the butt of
his pistol, and answered the second request of Pear-
son with, as he says, a most determined negative.
We can imagine it. By his presence of mind in si-
lencing the carpenter, and a supreme exertion of his
indomitable will power, Jones soon succeeded in
checking the incipient panic on the spar deck. At
this period of the fight some accounts say that Pear-
son called his boarders from below and attempted to
board. The advance was met by Jones at the head
of a few men, pike in hand, with such firmness that
it was not pressed home, and the men returned to
their stations at the guns and resumed the fight.
Meanwhile, Richard Dale, seconded by his mid-
shipmen, with rare and never-to-be-undervalued
DALE'S DECISIVE ACTION.
203
presence of mind, had stopped the oncoming rush
of frightened English prisoners, who now greatly
outnumbered the broken crew of the Richard. He
sprang among them, beating them down, driving
them back, menacing them with the point of the
sword, at the same time telling them that the Eng-
lish ship was sinking, and that they were in the same
condition, and unless they went to the pumps imme-
diately all hands would be inevitably lost. The au-
dacity of this statement was worthy of Jones himself.
It was a rare action on the part of a boy of twenty-
three years of age. Such a young man under pres-
ent conditions in the United States Navy probably
would be filling the responsible station of a naval
cadet afloat ! * Instantly divining this new peril, the
commodore himself sprang to the hatchway and
seconded Dale's effort. Incredible as it seems, the
two men actually forced the panic-stricken, bewil-
dered, and terrified English prisoners to man the
pumps, thus relieving a number of the crew of the
Richard ; and the singular spectacle was presented of
an American ship kept afloat by the efforts of Eng-
lishmen, and thus enabled to continue an almost
hopeless combat. Dale, with imperturbable au-
dacity, remained below in command of them.
The Richard was a wreck. She had been fought
to a standstill. Her battery was silenced, her decks
were filled with released prisoners, she was making
water fast, she was on fire in two or three places ;
numbers of her crew had been killed and wounded,
the water had overflowed the cockpit, and the
* Possibly he might be an ensign.
204 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
frightened surgeon had been driven to the deck,
where, in conjunction with some of the French offi-
cers, he counseled surrender.
" What ! " cried Paul Jones, smiling at the sur-
geon, " What, doctor ! Would you have me strike
to a drop of water? Help me to get this gun
over ! "
But the doctor, liking the looks of things on
deck even less than below, ran down the hatchway,
and, his station untenable, wandered to and fro and
ministered to the wounded on every side as best he
could. Meanwhile Jones had taken the place of the
purser, Mr. Mease, commanding the upper battery,
who had been severely wounded and forced to leave
his station. The commodore was personally direct-
ing the fire of the upper deck guns left serviceable
on the Richard, the two 9-pounders on the quar-
ter-deck. W T ith great exertion another gun was
dragged over from the port side, Jones lending a
hand with the rest, and the fire of the three was
concentrated upon the mainmast of the Serapis.
About this time, between half after nine and ten
o'clock, a huge black shadow came darting between
the moonlight and the two frigates grinding against
each other. It was the Alliance once more enter-
ing the fray. After running away from the Richard
toward the Scarborough and the Pallas, she hov-
ered about until she found that the former had
capitulated after a gallant defense against the over-
whelming superiority of the French ship. Then
Landais headed once more for the Richard and the
Serapis. To reach them, he was forced to make two
tacks. As he approached, a burning anxiety filled
LANDAIS' TREACHERY. 205
the minds of Jones and the officers who were left
on deck with him, as to what Landais would do.
They were soon enlightened.
Sailing across the bow of the Serapis, the Alli-
ance drew past the stern of the Richard, and when
she had reached a position slightly on the quarter
of the latter ship, she poured in a broadside. There
could be no misapprehension on the part of Landais
as to which ship he was firing into. The Richard
was a black ship with a high poop, and the Serapis
was painted a creamy white with much lower stern.
The moon was filling the sky with brilliant light.
Things were as plain as if it were daytime. In addi-
tion to all this, -Jones had caused the private night
signals to be hung upon the port side of the Richard.
Shouts and cries warned the Alliance that she was
firing upon her own people. These were disre-
garded. It was the opinion of the Americans that
the English had taken the ship and were endeavor-
ing to compass the destruction of the Richard.
They could not otherwise explain the astonishing
action. Sailing slowly along the starboard side of
the Richard, the Alliance poured in another broad-
side. Then she circled the bows of the American
ship, and from some distance away raked her with
a discharge of grape which killed and wounded
many, including Midshipman Caswell, in charge of
the forecastle. It was just before ten o'clock when
this happened. Some of the shot from these several
broadsides may have reached the Serapis and pos-
sibly have done some damage, but the brunt of the
severe attack fell upon the Richard. Her men, in
the face of this awful stab in the back from a friend,
2o6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
naturally flinched from their guns and ran from
their stations.
All seemed hopeless ; but Jones was still left, and
while he was alive he would fight. He and his offi-
cers drove the men back to their guns, and as the
Alliance sailed away, for the time being, they forgot
her. The fight went on !
It is greatly to the credit of the men that under
such circumstances they could be induced to con-
tinue the contest. But the men had actually grown
reckless of consequences : filled with the lust of
battle, the brute in them was uppermost. They
fought where they stood, with what they had.
When the American guns were silenced, the seamen
struck at their British foes over their silent muzzles
with ramrods and sponges. Some endeavored to
subdue the flames which broke out on every side.
Others joined the English prisoners at the pumps.
Many ran to the upper deck to replace the deci-
mated crews of the Q-pounders. Some seized the
muskets of the dead French soldiers and poured in
a small-arm fire. They had grown careless of the
fire, indifferent to the progress of the battle, igno-
rant of the results of the action. There was but
one spirit among them, one idea possessed them
to fight and to fight on. Both crews had done their
best ; both had fought as men rarely had fought be-
fore; the battle was still undecided. The issue lay
between Jones and Pearson. What was it to be?
Things on the Richard were hopeless, but things
on the Serapis had not gone much better. She, too,
was on fire in no less than twelve places at once.
The fearful musketry fire from the quarter-deck and
THE ACCIDENT ON THE SERAPIS.
207
forecastle of the Richard, and from the tops, had
practically cleared her decks of all but Pearson. By
Jones' orders the men in the American tops had
made a free use of their hand grenades. A daring
sailor, sent by Midshipman Fanning from the main-
top, ran out upon the main yardarm, which hung
over the after hatch of the Serapis, and began to
throw grenades down the hatchway. On the lower
deck of that ship a large pile of powder cart-
ridges had been allowed to accumulate, for which,
on account of the silencing of a large number of
guns, there had been no demand. With reckless
improvidence, in their haste, the powder boys con-
tinued to pile up these unused charges on the deck
of the ship between the batteries. Nobody cau-
tioned them, perhaps nobody noticed them in the
heat of the action. At last a hand grenade struck
the hatch combing, bounded aft, and fell into the
midst of the pile of cartridges. There was a det-
onating crash, a terrific explosion, which absolutely
silenced the roar of the battle for a moment. The
two ships rolled and rocked from the shock of it.
When the smoke cleared away, the decks were filled
with dead and dying. Some twenty-eight men were
killed or desperately wounded by the discharge ;
many others on the decks were stunned, blinded,
and thrown in every direction by the concussion.
Clothes were ripped from them, and many of them
were severely burned. Lieutenant Stanhope, in
charge of that gun division, his clothing on fire,
actually leaped into the sea to get relief from his
agony. Afterward, though frightfully burned, he
regained his station and fought on.
2o8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
It was this last shock that determined Pearson to
surrender. He had beaten his antagonist a half
dozen times, but his antagonist did not seem to
realize it. In the face of such implacable determina-
tion his own nerve gave way. He was surrounded
by dead and dying, no human soul apparently fit
for duty on his decks but himself, the roar of his
own guns silenced by this terrific explosion. He
had fought through many desperate battles never
one like this. The other American frigate might
come back. His consort had been captured. His
nerve was broken. He turned and walked aft to
the flagstaff raking from the taffrail. To this staff,
with his own hand before the action, he had nailed
the English flag.* With the same hand he seized
the drooping folds of bunting, and with a breaking
heart tore it from the staff.
* Some authorities imply that the flag had been nailed to
the masthead, and that it was necessary for Pearson to go
aloft in default of any one else in order to strike his colors.
Nailing a flag to the masthead is a figure of speech, and I
doubt the actuality of the performance. On the other hand,
it would be easy and natural for Pearson to have nailed the
ensign to a staff, which contemporary prints show that ships
sometimes carried for the purpose of flying the colors. In
the latter case it would be easy for Pearson to tear it down ;
in that hypothesis his whole action then and subsequently is
understandable. If the flag had been nailed to the mast-
head it is extremely unlikely that he would have taken the
time, trouble, and risk of going aloft to tear it down when
by a simple word or two he could have surrendered his ship.
CHAPTER XI.
AFTER THE BATTLE REMARKS ON THE ACTION.
"THEY have struck their flag!" cried Jones,
who had witnessed the action. " Cease firing ! "
His powerful voice rang through the two ships with
such a note of triumph as has rarely been heard in
the fought-over confines of the narrow seas.
As the little scene transpired above, from the
decks beneath them came the roar of the Serapis'
guns. She had resumed her fire. Her men, too,
were of heroic breed ! A British ship captain
among the English prisoners, recovering from his
panic and noting the desperate condition of the
Richard, had slipped away from the pumps, and,
eluding the observation of Dale and his men, had
crawled through the gaping openings in the sides
of the Richard and the Serapis at the risk of his
life for the first Englishman who saw him moved
to cut him down and had announced the dread-
ful plight of the Richard to the first lieutenant of
the Serapis, who had succeeded in rallying his
men and forcing them once more back to the
guns.
But the cry of the American was taken up by the
men on the different ships until Dale came bound-
ing up the hatchway, when Jones ordered him to
15 209
2io COMMODORE TAUL JONES.
board the English frigate and take possession. Fol-
lowed by Midshipman Mayrant and a party of
boarders with drawn swords, Dale leaped up on
the rail of the Richard, seized the end of the main
brace pennant, swung himself to the lower Serapis,
and jumped down upon her quarter-deck. As May-
rant followed he was met by an English seaman
coming from the waist, pike in hand. The sailor,
ignorant of or disbelieving the surrender, thrust
violently at Mayrant, inflicting a serious wound in
the thigh before he could be stopped.
Aft upon the lee side of the deck, Pearson was
standing alone with bowed head, leaning against
the rail, the flag in one hand, his face being cov-
ered by the other. As the Americans clambered
over the rail he raised his head his hand fell to the
breast of his coat. There was the look of defeat, the
saddest aspect humanity can bear, upon his face.
As Dale approached him, the English first lieuten-
ant, not believing that the ship had struck, also came
bounding from below.
"Have you struck?" cried Dale, stepping be-
fore the English captain.
" Yes, sir," was the reply. The anguish of the
broken-hearted sailor was apparent in his face and
in his voice.
" Sir, I have orders to send you on board the
ship alongside," replied the American, .
" Very good, sir," answered Pearson, reaching
for his sword and dropping the flag. Just at this
moment his subordinate interrupted them.
" Has the enemy struck to you, sir? " he asked.
" No, sir ; on the contrary, he has struck to us,"
211
interposed Dale. But the English lieutenant re-
fused to believe him.
" A few more broadsides, sir, and they are ours,"
he persisted. " Their prisoners have escaped.
They are sinking ! "
" The ship has struck, sir," Dale burst out hur-
riedly, scarcely giving the miserable Pearson an op-
portunity of replying, " and you are my prisoner ! "
Very properly, however, the English officer would
take such news from no one but his own captain.
" Sir ! " he cried in astonishment to Pearson,
" have you struck ? "
" Yes, sir," at last answered Pearson reluctantly.
There was a deadly little pause.
" I have nothing more to say, sir," replied the
officer at last, turning to go below. As Dale inter-
posed, he added, '' If you will permit me to go be-
low I will silence the firing of the lower deck guns."
" No, sir," answered Dale, " you will accompany
your captain on board our ship at once, by the
orders of Commodore Jones. Pass the word to
cease firing. Your ship has surrendered ! "
Dale was fearful lest the lieutenant should go
below and, refusing to accept the captain's decision,
attempt to resume the conflict. So, with his usual
presence of mind, he sternly insisted upon both
officers proceeding on board the Richard at once.
In the face of the swarming crowd of the Richard's
men on the Serapis' quarter-deck they had, of
course, no option but to obey. By the aid of the
dangling ropes they climbed up to the rail of the
Indiaman and thence dropped to the quarter-deck
of the American ship. They found themselves in
212 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the presence of a little man in a blue uniform which
was rent and torn from the labors he had undergone
during the action. He was hatless, and his dark
face was grimed with the smoke and soil of battle.
Blood spattering from a slight wound upon his fore-
head was coagulated upon his cheek. In the lurid
illumination of the fire roaring fiercely forward,
which, with the moon's pallid irradiation, threw a
ghastly light over the scene of horror, he looked a
hideous spectacle a picture of demoniac war.
Nothing but the fierce black eyes still burning with
the awful passions of the past few hours and gleam-
ing out of the darkness, with the exultant light of
the present conquest proclaimed the high humanity
of the man. In his hand he held a drawn sword.
As the English officers stepped upon the deck he
advanced toward them and bowed gracefully.
" You are " began Pearson interrogatively.
. " Commodore John Paul Jones, of the American
Continental squadron, and the ship Bon Homme
Richard, at your service, gentlemen ; and you
are "
" Captain Richard Pearson, of His Britannic
Majesty's ship Serapis," responded the other, bow-
ing haughtily, as he tendered his sword.
Pearson is reputed to have said on this occa-
sion, " I regret at being compelled to strike to a
man who has fought with a halter around his
neck," or words to that effect. He did not utter
the remark at that time, according to Jones' spe-
cific statement made long afterward. The sub-
stance of the statement was used, however, in
Pearson's testimony before a court martial subse-
THE MAGNANIMITY OF JONES. 213
quently for the loss of his ship. And the story
probably arose from that circumstance. Jones
retained the sword, which was customary at that
period, though different customs obtained later.
As he received the proffered sword the American
replied, with a magnanimity as great as his valor:
" Sir, you have fought like a hero, and I make
no doubt that your sovereign will reward you in the
most ample manner."
His countrymen have ever loved Paul Jones for
the chivalrous nobility of this gracious answer. But
he wasted no further time in discussion. There was
too much to be done ; not a moment could be lost.
It was half after ten o'clock at night ; the battle
was over, but their tasks were not yet completed.
Both ships were burning furiously. Their decks
were filled with desperately wounded men, whose
agonies demanded immediate attention. Their
screams and groans rose above the sound of the
crackling, roaring flames. With but half a single
crew Jones had to man both ships, put out the
fires, force the escaped English prisoners back into
the hold, secure the additional prisoners, and care
for the wounded on the Serapis. From the actions
of the Alliance, too, there was no telling what Lan-
dais might take it into his head to do. He had fired
twice upon them ; he might do it again, and possibly
it might, be necessary for Jones to defend the flag-
ship and her prize from a more determined attack by
Landais than any to which they had yet been sub-
jected.
He turned over the command of the Serapis to
Dale, sending him, as usual, a generous contingent
214 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
for a prize crew, and then, as a preliminary to fur-
ther work, the lashings which had held the two ves-
sels in their death grapple were cut asunder. The
Richard slowly began to draw past her beaten an-
tagonist. Dale immediately filled his head sail and
shifted his helm to wear ship and carry out his
orders. He was much surprised to find that the
Serapis lay still and did not obey the helm. Fearing
that the wheel ropes had been shot away, he sent a
quartermaster to examine them, who reported that
they were intact. At this moment the master of
the Serapis, coming aft and observing Dale's sur-
prise, informed him that the English ship was an-
chored, which was the first intimation of that fact
the Americans had received. Dale ordered the
cable cut, whereupon the ship paid off and began
to shove through the water, which fortunately still
continued calm. As he spoke, he rose from the bin-
nacle upon which he had been seated, and immedi-
ately fell prone to the deck. He discovered at that
moment, by his inability to stand, that he had been
severely wounded in the leg by a splinter, a thing
which he had not noticed in the heat of the action.
As he lay upon the deck, Mr. Henry Lunt, the
second lieutenant of the Richard, came on board the
Serapis at this juncture. This officer had been dis-
patched in the afternoon to pursue the brigantine,
and had caused his boat's crew to lay on their oars
at a safe distance from the two ships during the
whole of the desperate battle, because, as he states,
he " thought it not prudent to go alongside in time
of action." Mr. Lunt no doubt lived to regret the
pusillanimous " prudence " of his conduct on this
THE RICHARD'S DESPERATE CONDITION.
215
occasion, although, if that conduct be an index to
his character, his services would not be of great
value in the battle. Dale turned over the command
of the Serapis to Lunt, and was assisted on board
the Richard.
As the Richard cleared the Serapis, the tottering
mainmast of that ship, which had been subjected
to a continual battering from the Q-pounders and
which had only been sustained by the interlocking
yards, came crashing down, just above the deck,
carrying with it the mizzen topmast, doing much
damage as it fell, and adding an element of ship-
wreck to the other evidence of disaster. The frigate
was also on fire, and the flames, unchecked in the
confusion of the surrender, were gaining great
headway. Moved by a sense of their common peril
and necessity, the English crew joined with the
Americans in clearing away the wreck and subduing
the fire. They did not effect this without a hard
struggle, but they finally succeeded in saving the
ship and following the Richard.
The situation on that ship was precarious in the
extreme. She was very low in the water and leak-
ing like a sieve. She was still on fire in several
places, and the flames were blazing more furiously
than ever. There was not a minute's respite allowed
her crew. Having conquered the English, they
turned to fight the fire and water. The prisoners
were forced to continue their exhausting toil at the
pumps. Pressing every man of the crew into serv-
ice, including the English officers, except those so
badly wounded as to be incapable of anything, Jones
and his men turned their attention to the fire. They
2i6 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
had a hard struggle to get it under control. At one
time the flames approached so near to the magazine
that, fearful lest they should be blown up, Jones
caused the powder to be removed and stowed upon
the deck preparatory to throwing it overboard.
For some time they despaired of saving the ship.
Toward daybreak, however, they managed to extin-
guish the flames and were saved that danger. In
the morning a careful inspection of the ship was
made. A fearful situation was revealed. She had
been torn to pieces. It was hardly safe for the offi-
cers and men to remain on the after part of the ship.
Everything that supported the upper deck except a
few stanchions had been torn away. Her rotten
timbers had offered no resistance to the Serapis'
searching shot. Jones writes :
" With respect to the situation of the Bon
Homme Richard, the rudder was cut entirely off,
the stern frame and the transoms were almost en-
tirely cut away ; the timbers, by the lower deck espe-
cially, from the mainmast to the stern, being greatly
decayed with age, were mangled beyond my power
of description, and a person must have been an eye-
witness to form a just idea of the tremendous scene
of carnage, wreck, and ruin that everywhere ap-
peared. Humanity can not.but recoil from the pros-
pect of such finished horror, and lament that war
should produce such fatal consequences."
It was evident that nothing less than a miracle
could keep her afloat even in the calmest weather.
With a perfectly natural feeling Jones determined to
try it.
THE RICHARD IS ABANDONED.
A large detail from the Pallas was set to work
pumping her out. Every effort, meanwhile, was
made to patch her up so that she could be brought
into the harbor. The effort^ were in vain. Owing
to the decayed condition of her timbers, even the
poor remnants of her frames that were left standing
aft could not bear the slightest repairing. She set-
tled lower and lower in the water, until, having been
surveyed by the carpenters and various men of ex-
perience, including Captain de Cottineau, about five
o'clock in the evening it was determined to abandon
her. It was time. She threatened to sink at any
moment would surely have sunk, indeed, if the
pumps had stopped. She was filled with helpless
wounded and prisoners. They had to be taken off
before she went down.
During the night everybody worked desperately
transferring the wounded to the other ships, fur-
ther details of men from the Pallas being told off to
man the frigate and keep her afloat. Such was the
haste with which they worked that they barely suc-
ceeded in transhipping the last of the wounded just
before daybreak on the 25th. Although the sea
fortunately continued smooth, the poor wounded
suffered frightfully from the rough handling neces-
sitated by the rapid transfer.
The removal of the prisoners from the Richard
was now begun ; naturally, these men, expecting the
ship to sink at any moment, were frantic with terror.
They had only been kept down by the most rigor-
ous measures. As day broke, the light revealed to
them the nearness of the approaching end of the
ship. They also realized that they greatly outnum-
2i8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
befed the Americans remaining on the Richard.
There was a hurried consultation among them : a
quick rush, and they made a desperate attempt to
take the ship. Some endeavored to overpower
the Americans, others ran to the 'braces and wheel
and got the head of the ship toward the land. A
brief struggle ensued. The Americans were all
heavily armed, the English had few weapons, and
after two of them had been shot dead, many
wounded, and others thrown overboard, they were
subdued once more and the ship regained. In the
confusion some thirteen of them got possession of
a boat and escaped in the gray of the morning to the
shore. By close, quick work during the early morn-
ing all the men alive, prisoners and crew, were em-
barked in the boats of the squadron before the
Richard finally disappeared.* At ten o'clock in the
morning of the 25th she plunged forward and went
down bow foremost. The great battle flag under
which she had been fought, which had been shot
away during the action, had been picked up and re-
set. It fluttered above her as she slowly sank be-
neath the sea.f
So filled had been the busy hours, and so many
had been the demands made upon him in every
direction, that Jones, ever careless of himself in
others' needs, lost all of his personal wardrobe,
papers, and other property. They went down with
the ship. From the deck of the Serapis, Jones, with
* It has been incorrectly stated that many wounded and
prisoners were carried down with the ship. Jones, who was
in a position to know, asserts the contrary.
f See Appendix No. III.
THE SINKING OF THE RICHARD. 219
longing eyes and mingled feelings, watched the
great old Indiaman, which had earned everlasting
immortality because for three brief hours he and his
men had battled upon her wornout decks, sink be-
neath the sea. Most of those who had given their
lives in defense of her in the battle lay still and
silent upon her decks. There had been no time to
spare to the dead. Like the Vikings of old, they
found their coffin in Her riven sides, and sleep to-day
in the quiet of the great deep on the scene of their
glory. During the interval after the action, a jury
rig had been improvised on the Serapis, which had
not been severely cut up below by the light guns
of the Richard, and was therefore entirely sea-
worthy, and the squadron bore away by Jones' or-
ders for Dunkirk, France.
Before we pass to a consideration of the subse-
quent movements of the squadron, a further com-
parison between the Richard and the Serapis, with
some statement of the losses sustained and the vari-
ous factors which were calculated to bring about the
end, wall be in order, and will reveal much that is
interesting. The accounts of the losses upon the
two ships widely differ. Jones reported for the Rich-
ard forty-nine killed and sixty-seven wounded ; total,
one hundred and sixteen out of three hundred ; but
the number is confessedly incomplete. Pearson, for
the Serapis, reported the same number of killed and
sixty-eight wounded, out of a crew of three hundred
and twenty ; but it is highly probable that the loss in
both cases was much greater. The records, as we
have seen, were badly kept on the Richard, and
most of them were lost when the ship went do\vn.
220 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The books of the Serapis seemed to have fared
equally ill in the confusion. The crews of both
ships were scattered throughout the several ships of
the American squadron, and accurate information
was practically unobtainable. Jones, who was in a
better position than Pearson for ascertaining the
facts, reports the loss of the Serapis as over two
hundred men, which is probably nearly correct, and
the loss of the Richard was pi*obably not far from
one hundred and fifty men. The Countess of Scar-
borough lost four killed and twenty wounded. The
loss of the Pallas was slight, and that of the Alliance
and Vengeance nothing.
However this may be, the battle was one of the
most sanguinary and desperate ever fought upon
the sea. It was unique in that the beaten ship,
which was finally sunk by the guns of her antago-
nist, actually compelled that antagonist to surrender.
It was remarkable for the heroism manifested by
both crews. It is invidious, perhaps, to make a com-
parison on that score, yet, if the contrast can be
legitimately drawn, the result is decidedly in favor
of the Richard's men, for they had not only the
enemy to occupy their attention, but they sustained
and did not succumb to the treacherous attack of the
Alliance in the rear. The men of the Serapis were,
of course, disheartened and their nerves shattered by
the explosion which occurred at the close of the
action, but a similar and equally dreadful misfortune
had occurred at the commencement of the engage-
ment on the Richard, in the blowing up of the two
i8-pounders. In ninety-nine cases out of a hun-
dred either of these two terrible incidents would
REMARKS ON THE ACTION. 221
have caused a prompt surrender of the ship on
which they occurred ; but the Richard's men rallied
from the former, and it must not be forgotten that
the Serapis' men did the like from the latter, for
they had recommenced the fire of their guns just
as Pearson hauled down his flag.
The officers on the two ships appear to have
done their whole duty, and the difference, as I have
said, lay in the relative qualities of the two captains.
Jones could not be beaten, Pearson could. When
humanity enters into a conflict with a man like
Jones, it must make up its mind to eventually dis-
continue the fight or else remove he -man. For-
tunately, Jones, though slightly wounded, was not
removed ; therefore Pearson had to surrender. Next
to Jones, the most unique personality which was
produced by the action was Richard Dale. I do
not refer to his personal courage he was no braver
than Pearson ; neither was Jones, for that matter ;
in fact, the bravery of all three was of the highest
order but to his astonishing presence of mind
and resource at that crucial moment which was the
third principal incident of the battle, when the Eng-
lish prisoners were released. The more one thinks
of the prompt, ready way in which he cajoled, com-
manded, and coerced these prisoners into manning
the pumps so that his own men could continue the
battle, the result of which, if they succeeded would
be to retain the English still as prisoners, the more
one marvels at it. The fame of Dale has been
somewhat obscured in the greater fame of Jones,
but he deserves the very highest praise for his
astonishing action. And in every possible public
222 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
way Jones freely accorded the greatest credit to
him.
There is one other fact in connection with the
battle which must be mentioned. The English have
always claimed that the presence of the Alliance de-
cided Pearson to surrender. In justice, I have no
doubt that it did exercise a moral influence upon the
English captain. In the confusion of the fight, what
damage, whether little or great, had been done to
the Serapis by the fire of the Alliance could not be
definitely ascertained. Again, it would never enter
the head of an ordinary commander that the Alli-
ance was deliberately firing into her consort. So
far as can be determined now, no damage worthy of
account had been done to the English ship by the
Alliance ; but Pearson knew she was there, and he
had a right to believe that she would return at any
time. When she returned, if she should take posi-
tion on the starboard side of the Serapis, the unen-
gaged side, he would have to strike at once.
Something of this sort may have been in his
mind, and it would undoubtedly contribute to de-
cide him to surrender ; but, admitting all this, he
should have delayed the formal surrender until the
possible contingency had developed into a reality,
until he actually saw the Alliance alongside of him
again. As a matter of fact, he did not strike until
about thirty minutes after the Alliance had fired the
last broadside and sailed away. The American
frigate was out of gunshot when he surrendered,
and going farther from him with every minute.
Imagine what Jones would have done under
similar circumstances ! Indeed, we do not have to
A FAIR DEFEAT. 223
imagine what he would have done, for as it hap-
pened the Alliance had on two occasions fired full
upon him, and he was actually in the dilemma which
Pearson imagined he might fall into, and yet it only
re-enforced his already resolute determination to
continue the fight more fiercely than ever. A nice
point this : with Pearson the Alliance was an im-
aginary danger, with Jones a real one! While the
presence of the Alliance, therefore, explains in a
measure Pearson's surrender, it does not enhance
his reputation for dogged determination. The un-
heard-of resistance which he had met from the Rich-
ard, the persistence with which the attack was car-
ried on, the apparently utterly unconquerable na-
ture of his antagonist of whose difficulties on the
Richard he was not aware, for there was no evidence
of faltering in the battle the frightful attack he had
received, and his isolation upon the deck filled with
dead and dying men, broke his own power of resist-
ance. There were two things beaten on that day
the Richard and Pearson ; one might almost say
three things : both ships and the captain of one. It
is generally admitted, even by the English, that the
result would have been the same if the Alliance had
never appeared on the scene. No, it was a fair and
square stand-up fight, and a fair and square defeat.*
* Thackeray told an American friend that the account of
the amazing capture of the Serapis by Paul Jones was one
of the most extraordinary stories in naval annals, and Mrs.
Ritchie, writing of her father's last days, says : " Sometimes
we found him .in great spirits, as when he had been reading
about the famous fight of the Serapis, a stirring thing in-
deed." EDITOR.
224 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The conduct of Landais has presented a prob-
lem difficult of solution. It has been surmised, and
upon the warrant of his own statement, that he
would have thought it no harm if the Richard had
struck to the Serapis, and he could have had the
glory of recapturing her and then forcing the sur-
render of the English frigate ; but whether he really
meant by his dastardly conduct to compel this situa-
tion from which he trusted he could reap so much
honor, is another story. Most of the historians
have been unable to see anything in his actions
but jealousy and treachery. The most eminent
critic, however, who has treated of the battle *
has thought his actions arose from an incapacity,
coupled with a timidity amounting to cowardice,
which utterly blinded his judgment ; that he was de-
sirous of doing something, and felt it incumbent
upon him to take some part in the action and that his
firing into the Richard was due to incompetency
rather than to anything else. With all deference,
it is difficult to agree with this proposition. The
officers of the squadron, in a paper which w r as pre-
pared less than a month after the action, bore con-
clusive testimony that while it is true that he was
an incapable coward, he was, in addition, either a
jealous traitor, or and this is the only other
supposition which will account for his action
that he was irresponsible, in short, insane. This
is a conclusion to which his own officers after-
* Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. (retired). The greatest
authority, living or dead, on warfare on the sea, especially
from the philosophical standpoint.
WAS THE RICHARD RAKED? 225
ward arrived, and which his subsequent career
seems to bear out. At any rate, this is the most
charitable explanation of his conduct which can be
adopted. If he had been simply cowardly, he could
have done some service by attacking the unprotected
convoy, which was entirely at his mercy, and among
which he could have easily taken some valuable
prizes. It is stated to their credit that some of the
officers of the Alliance remonstrated with Landais,
and pointed out to him that he was attacking the
wrong ship, and that some of his men refused to
obey his orders to fire.
There is but one other circumstance to which it
is necessary to refer. All the plans of the battle
which are extant, and all the descriptions which
have been made, from Cooper to Maclay and Spears,
show that the Richard passed ahead of the Serapis
and was raked ; and that the Serapis then ranged
alongside to windward of the American and pres-
ently succeeded in crossing the Richard's bow and
raking her a second time. Richard Dale's account,
in Sherburne's Life of Paul Jones, written some
forty-six years after the action, seems to bear out this
idea. Jones himself, whose report is condensed and
unfortunately wanting in detail, says : " Every meth-
od was practiced on both sides to gain an advantage
and rake each other, and I must confess that the
enemy's ship, being much more manageable than
the Bon Homme Richard, gained thereby several
times an advantageous situation, in spite of my best
endeavors to prevent it."
Nathaniel Fanning, midshipman of the maintop
in the action, stated in his narrative, published in
16
226 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
1806, twenty-seven years later, that the Serapis
raked the Richard several times.
Notwithstanding this weight of apparent testi-
mony, I must agree with Captain Mahan in his
conclusion that the Serapis, until the ships were
lashed together, engaged the Richard with her port
battery only, and that the plan as given above is cor-
rect. In the first place, Jones' statement is too in-
definite to base a conclusion upon unless clearly
corroborated by other evidence. Dale, being in
the batteries, where he could hardly see the ma-
neuvers, and writing from memory after a lapse
of many years, may well have been mistaken.
Fanning's narrative is contradicted by the articles
which he signed concerning the conduct of Lan-
dais, in October, 1779, in the Texel, so that his
earliest statement is at variance with his final
recollection, and Fanning is not very reliable at
best.
However, we might accept the statements of
these men as decisive were it not for the fact that
Pearson, whose report is very explicit indeed,
makes no claim whatever to having succeeded in
raking the Richard, though it would be so greatly
to his credit if he had done so that it is hardly
probable he would fail to state it. His account of
the battle accords with the plan of the present work.
Again, when the Serapis engaged the Richard in
the final grapple, she had to blow off her starboard
port shutters, which were therefore tightly closed.
If she had been engaged to starboard (which would
necessarily follow if she had been on the port side
of the Richard at any time), the ports would have
WAS THE RICHARD RAKED? 22/
been opened.* This is not absolutely conclusive, be-
cause, of course, it would be possible that the ports
might have been closed when the men were shifted
to the other battery, but in the heat of the action
such a measure would be so improbable as to be
worthy of little consideration. But the most con-
clusive testimony to the fact that the Serapis was
not on the port side of the Richard at any time is
found in the charges which were signed by the offi-
cers concerning the conduct of Landais. Article
19 reads : " As the most dangerous shot which the
Bon Homme Richard received under the water were
under the larboard bow and quarter, they must
have come from the Alliance, for the Serapis was
on the other side." f
Captain Mahan well sums it up : " As Landais'
honor, if not his life, was at stake in these charges,
it is not to be supposed that six officers (besides two
French marine officers), four of whom were spe-
cially well situated for seeing, would have made this
statement if the Serapis had at any time been in
position to fire those shots."
This consideration, therefore, seems to settle the
question. Again, the maneuvers as they have been
described in this volume are the simple and natural
evolutions which, under the existing conditions of
wind and weather and the relative positions of the
two ships, would have been in all human probabil-
* She could only have engaged to starboard by crossing
the path of the Richard, in which event she would have raked
her, of course, with her port battery, and then have brought
her starboard battery in play when she got alongside again.
f Italics mine.
228 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ity carried out. The attempt to put the ships in
the different positions of the commonly accepted
plans involves a series of highly complicated and
unnecessary evolutions (scarcely possible, in fact, in
the very light breeze), which no commander would
be apt to attempt in the heat of action unless most
serious contingencies rendered them inevitable.
CHAPTER XII.
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR IN THE TEXEL,
AFTER the sinking of the Richard, Jones turned
his attention to the squadron. Those ships which
had been in action were now ready for sea, so far,
at least, as it was possible to make them, and it
was necessary to make a safe port as soon as pos-
sible. He had now some five hundred English
prisoners, including Captains Pearson and Piercy
and their officers, in his possession. These equaled
all the American seamen held captive by the Eng-
lish, and, with one of the main objects of his ex^
pedition in view, Jones earnestly desired to make a
French port, in which case his prizes would be
secure and he would be able to effect a proper ex-
change of prisoners. But the original destination
of the squadron had been the Texel. It is evident
that in sending the squadron into the Zuyder Zee
Franklin shrewdly contemplated the possibility of
so compromising Holland by the presence of the
ships as to force a recognition from that important
maritime and commercial power of the belligerency
of the United States. This was the real purport of
the orders. There \vas an ostensible reason, how-
ever, in the presence of a large fleet of merchant ves-
sels in the Texel, which would be ready for sailing
. 229
230 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
for France in October, and Jones' squadron could
give them a safe convoy.
The events of the cruise had brought about a
somewhat different situation from that contem-
plated in the original orders, and Jones was un-
doubtedly within his rights in determining to
enter Dunkirk, the most available French port ;
in which event the difficulties which afterward
arose concerning the exchange of prisoners and
the disposition of the prizes would never have pre-
sented themselves. In the latter case, however, the
hand of Holland might not have been so promptly
forced, and the recognition accorded this country
would probably have been much longer delayed, al-
though in the end it would have come. But the
balance of advantage lay with Jones' choice of Dun-
kirk.
For a week the ships beat up against contrary
winds, endeavoring to make that port. Their posi-
tion was most precarious. Sixteen sail, including
several ships of the line, were seeking the audacious
invaders, and they were likely to overhaul them at
any time. The Frenchmen naturally grew nervous
over the prospect. Finally, the captains, who had
been remonstrating daily with Jones, refused to
obey his orders any longer ; and, the wind continu-
ing unfavorable for France, they actually deserted
the Serapis, running off to leeward in a mass and
heading for the Texel.
The officers of the American squadron were
fully aware of the assigned destination, although
the deep reasons for Franklin's subtle policy had
probably not been communicated to them. In.view
THE TEXEL.
231
of this unprecedented situation, which may be traced
distinctly to the concordat, there was nothing left to
Jones but to swallow the affront as best he might,
and follow his unruly squadron.
Landais had not yet been deposed from the com-
mand of the Alliance, because it would have prob-
ably required force to arrest him on the deck of
his own ship, and an internecine conflict might have
been precipitated in his command. On the 3d of
October, having made a quick run of it, the squad-
ron entered the Texel.
From the mainland of the Dutch Republic, now
the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the state of North
Holland thrusts a bold wedge of land far to the
northward, between the foaming surges of the Ger-
man Ocean on the one hand, and the tempest-tossed
waters of the Zuyder Zee on the other. Opposite
the present mighty fortifications of Helder, justly
considered the Gibraltar of the North, which ter-
minate the peninsula, lies a deep and splendid chan-
nel, bounded on the north side by the island of
Texel, from which the famous passage gets its
name. Through this ocean gateway, from time im-
memorial, a splendid procession of gallant ships and
hardy men have gone forth to discover new worlds,
to found new countries, to open up new avenues of
trade with distant empires, and to uphold the honor
of the Orange flag in desperate battles on the sea.
Through the pass sailed the first great Christian for-
eign missionary expedition of modern times, when
in 1624 the Dutchmen carried the Gospel to the dis-
tant island of Formosa, the beautiful.
Brederode and the wild beggars of the sea;
232 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
Tromp, De Ruyter, van Heemskerk, De Winter,
leading their fleets to battles which made their
names famous, had plowed through the deep chan-
nel with their lumbering keels. Of smaller ships
from these familiar shores, the little Half Moon, of
Henry Hudson, and the pilgrim-laden Mayflower
had taken their departure. But no bolder officer nor
better seaman had ever made the passage than the
little man on the deck of the battered Serapis on
that raw October morning. It is a rather interest-
ing coincidence that among the prizes of this cruise
was one which bore the name of the Mayflower.
As the cables of the ships tore through the
hawse pipes when they dropped anchor, Jones may
have imagined that his troubles were over. As a
matter of fact, they had just begun, and his stay
in the Texel was not the least arduous nor the
least brilliant period in his life. His conduct in the
trying circumstances in which he found himself was
beyond reproach. The instant that he appeared,
Sir Joseph Yorke, the able and influential Minister
of England at The Hague, demanded that the
States-General deliver the Serapis and the Scar-
borough to him and compel the return of the Eng-
lish prisoners held by Jones, and that the American
" Pirate " should be ordered to leave the Texel im-
mediately, which would, of course, result in the cer-
tain capture of his ships, for the English pursuing
squadron appeared off the mouth of the channel
almost immediately after Jones.' entrance.
Sir Joseph made the point and it was a pretty
one that by the terms of past treaties prizes taken
by ships whose commanders bore the commission of
THE ENGLISH DEMANDS.
233
no recognized power or sovereign were to be re-
turned to the English whenever they fell into the
hands of Holland. This placed the States-General
in a dilemma. Paul Jones would show no commis-
sion except that of America; indeed, he had no
other. In Sir Joseph's mind the situation was this :
The States-General would comply with the terms of
the treaty or it would not. If it did, he would get
possession of the ships and of Jones as well. If
it did not, the logic of events would indicate that the
States-General considered the commission which
Paul Jones bore as being valid, in that it was issued
by a sovereign power. This would be in effect a
recognition of belligerency. In other words, the
shrewd British diplomatist was endeavoring to force
the hand of the States-General. To determine the
position of Holland with regard to the revolted
colonies of Great Britain was a matter of greater
moment than to secure Paul Jones or to receive the
two ships, the loss of which, except so far as it
affronted the pride of England, was of no conse-
quence whatever. The States-General, however,
endeavored to evade the issue and postpone the de-
cision, for, while their " High Mightinesses " re-
fused to cause "the ships to be given up, they ordered
Jones to leave the harbor at once, and they earnestly
disclaimed any intention of recognizing the revolted
colonies.
As a matter of fact, since there were two parties
in the government of Holland, and two opinions on
the subject, they could come to no more definite
conclusion. Jones was intensely popular with the
people, and the democratic opinion favored the im-
234 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
mediate recognition of American independence, and
protested against any arbitrary action toward him
and his ships. The Prince of Orange and the aris-
tocratic party took the contrary view, and they
pressed it upon him as far as they dared. Realizing
the precarious nature of his stay in Holland, Jones
immediately set to work with his usual energy to
refit the ships, especially the Serapis. Dispatching
a full account of his cruise and his expedition to
Franklin, he went in person to Amsterdam to facili-
tate his desire. A contemporary account states that
he was dressed in an American naval uniform,*
wearing on his. head, instead of the usual cocked hat,
a Scotch bonnet edged with gold lace.
When he appeared in the exchange he received
a popular ovation, which naturally greatly pleased
him. However, he modestly strove to escape the
overwhelming demonstrations of admiration and
approval with which he was greeted, by retiring to
a coffee room, but he was compelled to show him-
self again and again at the window in response to
repeated demands from crowds of people assem-
bled in the street who desired a sight of him. He
was made the hero of song and story, and one of the
ballads of the time, a rude, rollicking, drinking
* By resolution of the Marine Committee, dated Septem-
ber 5, 1776, this was, for captains: "A coat of blue cloth
with red lapels, slashed cuffs, a stand-up collar, flat yellow
buttons, blue breeches, and a red waistcoat with yellow
lace." In Jones' case the " flat yellow buttons " were made
of gold and the lace was woven of the same precious tissue.
Nothing was too good for him, for the rank he supported,
and the cause he upheld.
A POPULAR HERO. 235
song, very popular among sailors, which celebrates
his exploits, is sung to this day in the streets of
Amsterdam.* So delighted were the Dutch with
the humiliation he had inflicted upon their ancient
enemy that some of the principal men of the nation,
including the celebrated Baron van der Capellen,
subsequently noted for his friendship for America
(evidently not in harmony with the aristocratic
party), entered into a correspondence with him,
which must have been highly flattering to him, from
the expressions of admiration and approval with
which every letter of the baron's abounds. They
desired to receive at first hand an account of his
exploits. In response to this request Jones had
his report to Dr. Franklin copied and sent to van
der Capellen, together with other documents illus-
trative of his career, accompanied by the following
letter :
"ON BOARD THE SERAPIS AT THE TEXEL,
' ' October 79, 7779.
" MY LORD : Human nature and America are
under a very singular obligation to you for your
patriotism and friendship, and I feel every grateful
sentiment for your generous and polite letter.
" Agreeable to your request I have the honour
to inclose a copy of my letter to his Excellency Doc-
tor Franklin, containing a particular account of my
late expedition on the coasts of Britain and Ireland,
by which you will see that I have already been
praised far more than I have deserved ; but I must
at the same time beg leave to observe that by the
* See Appendix No. IV.
236 COMMODORE PAUL JONES..
other papers which I take, the liberty to inclose
(particularly the copy of my letter to the Countess
of Selkirk, dated the day of my arrival at Brest from
the Irish Sea), I hope you will be convinced that
in the British prints I have been censured unjustly.
I was, indeed, born in Britain, but I do not in-
herit the degenerate spirit of that fallen nation,
which I at once lament and despise. It is far be-
neath me to reply to their hireling invectives. They
are strangers to the inward approbation that greatly
animates and rewards the man who draws his sword
only in support of the dignity of freedom.
" America has been the country of my fond elec-
tion from the age of thirteen, u'licn I first sau 1 it* I
had the honour to hoist, with my own hands, the
flag of freedom, the first time that it wcs displayed
on the Delaware, and I have attended it with ven-
eration ever since on the Ocean ; I see it respected
even here, in spite of the pitiful Sir Joseph, and I
ardently wish and hope very soon to exchange a
salute with the flag of this Republick. Let but the
two Republicks join hands, and they will give Peace
to the World."
Among the documents transmitted was the fa-
mous letter to Lady Selkirk, of which sententious
epistle he evidently remained inordinately proud.
In acknowledging this courtesy van der Capellen
wrote as follows :
" The perusal of the letters with which you have
favoured me has done the very same effect upon
* Italics mine.
BARON VAN DER CAPELLEN. 237
me that his Excell. Dr. Franklin expected they
would do on the Countess of Selkirk, as you are
represented in some of our Newspapers as a rough,
unpolished sailor, not only, but even as a man of
little understanding and no morals and sensibility,
and as I think the 4 papers extremely fit to destroy
these malicious aspersions, I must take the liberty
of asking your permission to publish them in our
gazettes. The public will soon make this very just
conclusion that the man honoured by the friendship
and intimacy of a Franklin can not be such as you
hare been represented.* There are three points on
which you will oblige me by giving some elucida-
tion, ist. whether you have any obligations to
Lord Selkirk? 2d. whether Lady Selkirk has ac-
cepted your generous offer? 3d. whether you have
a commission of France besides that of the Con-
gress? 'Tis not a vain curiosity that incites me to
be so importunate ; no, sir, the two first questions
are often repeated to me by your enemies, or, at
least, by prejudiced people ; and as to the last, a
relative of mine, a known friend of America, has
addressed himself to me for information on that
subject, which he will be glad to have before the
States of his province, of which he is a member
(but not yet, as I am, expelled the house), be as-,
sembled.
" You will greatly oblige me by sending me as
soon as possible such information as you will think
proper to grant.
" You may rely on our discretion ; we can keep
* Italics mine.
238 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
a secret, too. I am in a great hurry, with the most
perfect esteem . . ."
The baron's statement gives us a contemporary
opinion one of entire approbation, by the way
of the letter to Lady Selkirk, and it shows us that
our great-grandfathers looked at things with differ-
ent eyes from ours.
In reply, Jones dispatched the following letter
a month later :
"ALLIANCE, TEXEL, November 29, 1779.
" MY LORD : Since I had the honour to receive
your second esteemed letter I have unexpectedly
had occasion to revisit Amsterdam ; and, having
changed ships since my return to the Texel, I have
by some accident or neglect lost or mislaid your
letter. I remember, however, the questions it con-
tained : ist, whether I ever had any obligation to
Lord Selkirk ? 2dly, whether he accepted my offer ?
and 3dly, whether I have a French commission ? I
answer: I have never had any obligation to Lord
Selkirk, except for his good opinion, nor does
know me nor mine except by character. Lord Sel-
kirk wrote me an answer to my letter to the Count-
ess, but the Ministry detained it in the general post
office in London for a long time, and then returned
it to the author, who afterward wrote to a friend of
his (M. Alexander), an acquaintance of Doctor
Franklin's then at Paris, giving him an account of
the fate of his letter to me & desiring him to
acquaint his Excellency and myself that if the plate
was restored by Congress or by any public Body he
would accept it, but that he would not think of ac-
A NICE SENSE OF HONOR.
239
cepting it from my private generosity. The plate
has, however, been bought, agreeable to my letter
to the Countess, and now lays in France at her dis-
posal. As to the 3rd article, / never bore nor acted
under any other commission than what I have received
from the Congress of the United States of America*
" I am much obliged to you, my Lord, for the
honour you do me by proposing to publish the
papers I sent you in my last, but it is an honour
which I must decline, because I can not publish
my letter to a lady without asking and obtaining the
lady's consent, and because I have a very modest
opinion of my writings, being conscious that they
are not of sufficient value to claim the notice of
the public. I assure you, my Lord, it has given
me much concern to see an extract of my rough
journal in print, and that, too, under the disadvan-
tage of a translation. That mistaken kindness of a
friend will make me cautious how I communicate
my papers.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord, with great
esteem and respect,
" Your most obliged,
" And very humble servant."
The nice delicacy of his conduct in refusing to
permit the publication of a letter to a lady without
her consent goes very far toward redeeming the ab-
surdity of the letter itself. While this interesting
correspondence was going on, events of great mo-
ment were transpiring. In the first place, Captain
Pearson was protesting against his detention as a
* Italics mine.
240 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
prisoner in the most vehement way, and otherwise
behaving in a very ill-bred manner. When the com-
modore offered to return him his plate, linen, and
other property, which had been taken from the
Serapis, he refused to accept it from Jones ; but he
intimated that he would receive it from the hand
of Captain de Cottineau ! Jones had the magnanim-
ity to overlook this petty quibbling, and returned
the property through the desired channel. Pearson,
like Jones, was of humble origin ; but, unlike Jones,
he never seems to have risen above it. On October
he addressed the following note to Jones :
" PALLAS, TUESDAY EVENING, October 19, 7779.
" Captain Jones, Serapis.
" Captain Pearson presents his compliments to
Captain Jones, and is sorry to find himself so little
attended to in his present situation as not to have
been favoured with either a Call or a line from Cap-
tain Jones since his return from Amsterdam. Cap-
tain P ... is sorry to say that he can not look
upon such behaviour in any other light than as a
breach of that Civility, which his Rank, as well as
behaviour on all occasions entitles to, he at the same
time wishes to be informed by Captain Jones
whether any Steps has been taken toward the en-
largement or exchange of him, his officers and peo-
ple, or what is intended to be done with them. As
he can not help thinking it a very unprecedented
circumstance their being kecped here as prisoners
on board of ship, being so long in a neutral port."
He received in return this decided and definite
reply :
A SHARP LETTER. 241
" SERAPIS, WEDNESDAY, October 20, 7779.
" Captain Pearson.
" SIR : As you have not been prevented from
corresponding with your friends, and particularly
with the English ambassador at The Hague, I could
not suppose you to be unacquainted with his me-
morial, of the 8th, to the States-General, and there-
fore I thought it fruitless to pursue the negotiation
for the exchange of the prisoners of war now in our
hands.
" I wished to avoid any painful altercation with
you on that subject ; I was persuaded that you had
been in the highest degree sensible that my be-
haviour ' toward you had been far from a breach of
civility.' This charge is not, Sir, a civil return for
the polite hospitality and disinterested attentions
which you have hitherto experienced.
" I know not what difference of respect is due to
' Rank,' between your service and ours ; I sup-
pose, however, the difference must be thought very
great in England, since I am informed that Captain
Cunningham, of equal denomination, and who bears
a senior rank in the service of America, than yours
in the service of England, is now confined at Plym-
outh in a dungeon, and in fetters.
" Humanity, which hath hitherto superseded the
plea of retaliation in American breasts, has induced
me (notwithstanding the procedure of Sir Joseph
Yorke) to seek after permission to land the danger-
ously wounded, as well prisoners as Americans,
to be supported and cured at the expense of our
Continent. The permission of the Government has
been obtained, but the magistrates continue to make
17
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
objections. I shall not discontinue my application.
I am ready to adopt any means that you may pro-
pose for their preservation and recovery, and in the
meantime we shall continue to treat them with the
utmost care and attention, equally, as you know,
to the treatment of our people of the same rank.
" As it is possible that you have not yet seen the
memorial of your ambassador to the States-General,
I enclose a paper which contains a copy, and I be-
lieve he has since written what, in the opinion of
good men, will do still less honour to his pen.
" I can not conclude without informing you that
unless Captain Cunningham is immediately better
treated in England, I expect orders in consequence
from His Excellency Dr. Franklin ; therefore, I be-
seech you, Sir, to interfere."
The States-General having refused to consent
to the restoration of the ships and the surrender of
the prisoners, Paul Jones went to The Hague for
the purpose of pleading his own cause ; and there,
through the representations of the French ambas-
sador, the Due de la Vauguyon, received permis-
sion from their High Mightinesses to land the more
dangerously wounded among his prisoners and
crew as well, numbering over one hundred, in order
that he might better care for them and establish
them in more comfortable quarters than the crowded
ships permitted.
From motives of humanity, in view of the con-
dition of the prisoners, Sir Joseph Yorke acquiesced
in this arrangement. It was first proposed that
Jones should land them and establish a hospital at
EXIT PEARSON. 243
Helder; but the magistrates of that town objecting
to the proposition, a fort on the Texel was assigned
to him, of which the entire charge was committed to
him. Colonel de Weibert, with a sufficient force to
garrison the works, was placed in command of the
fort.
Meanwhile, the charges against Landais, having
been formulated and signed, were dispatched to
Franklin, who, with the consent of the French Gov-
ernment, ordered him to resign the command of
the Alliance and repair immediately to Paris. Be-
fore he left the Texel the erratic Frenchman com-
pelled Captain de Cottineau to accord him the honor
of a duel. As Landais was an expert swordsman, he
succeeded in severely wounding his less skillful but
far more worthy antagonist. Elated by this exploit,
the mad Frenchman sent Jones a challenge also.
In reply to Landais' note, the commodore, Marius-
like, promptly dispatched men to arrest him ; but
Landais got wind of the attempt and hastened to
escape, taking up his departure for Paris. During
the stay in the Texel Jones succeeded in effecting
the exchange of Captain Pearson for Captain Gus-
tavus Cunningham, whom he had at last the pleas-
ure of receiving upon his own ship.* Meanwhile,
* As this is the last appearance of Pearson in our pages,
it may be interesting to note that when he returned to Eng-
land he was knighted for " his gajlant defense of the Serapis
against a greatly superior force"; in addition to which the
merchants of London presented him, and Captain Piercy as
well, with very valuable services of plate for their efficient
protection of their convoy. Pearson afterward rose to high
rank in the British service. He certainly had protected his
convoy, for all of them escaped, and the gratitude of the
244 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
with true British persistence, Sir Joseph kept at the
States-General, and it in turn pressed upon Jones,
who imperturbably passed the matter on to the
French ambassador and Dr. Franklin.
On the 12th of November, to relieve a situation
which had- become* well-nigh insupportable, the
French Government, with the consent of Franklin,
directed that the command of the Serapis should
be given to Captain de Cottineau, and that all
the other vessels, except the Alliance, to which
the French had no claim, should hoist the French
flag, and that the Americans should be sent on
board the Alliance, which should be turned over
to Paul Jones. To his everlasting regret, Jones had
to obey the heart-breaking order, and in one mo-
ment found himself deprived of his command and
his prizes taken from him. It was a crushing blow,
but he had no option save to bear it as best he could.
The exchange was effected at night, and the next
morning, when the Dutch admiral sent his flag cap-
merchants was natural. On the other hand, he had been
beaten by an inferior force, and merited no honors on that
score. As a matter of fact, the Serapis alone, to say nothing
of the Countess of Scarborough, was nearly a match for
Jones' whole squadron. Suppose, for instance, that Jones
had been in command of the Serapis and Pearson of the
Richard. Does anybody doubt that Jones could have beaten
the Richard, the Alliance, and the Pallas with the Serapis
alone? But it is unprofitable to discuss this question
further. When Jones heard of these honors, he is reported
to have made the following remark :
" He has done well, and if he get another ship and I fall
in with him again, I will make a duke of him." There is a
grim humor about his comment which is highly pleasing, in
spite of Jones' subsequent repudiation of it.
JONES GIVES UP THE SERAPIS. 245
tain on board the Serapis to attempt his usual bully-
ing, he was surprised to see the French flag flying
from her gaff end, and to be informed that she was
now the property of France, as were all the other
ships except the Alliance. Proceedings at once,
therefore, fell to the ground as regarded all the ships
but the American frigate. There was no possible
reason for giving up the ships of the French king
to the British Government, so Sir Joseph Yorke
necessarily, although with a very bad grace,
dropped the matter, and . a short time after the
French ships and the prizes sailed with the merchant
fleet under a strong Dutch convoy for France,
where they all arrived safely. Yorke persisted, how-
ever, in attempting to secure the person of Jones, it
is gravely alleged, through the efforts of private
individuals, kidnappers or bravos. At any rate, he
redoubled his representations regarding the Alli-
ance, and his efforts to force the departure, of the
ship that she might fall into the hands of the wait-
ing English.
The Serapis had been thoroughly overhauled
and refitted, and the other ships, with the exception
of the Alliance, were in good shape. By his un-
sailorly antics and foolish arrangements Landais
had almost destroyed the qualities of that noble
frigate. She was in a dreadful condition. Thirteen
Dutch men-of-war, all of them two-deckers, or line
of battle ships, had assembled in the Texel to en-
force the orders of the States-General, which, on
the 1 7th of November, by a specific resolution di-
rected the Admiralty Board at Amsterdam to com-
mand Jones to let no opportunity escape to put to
246 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
sea, as the approach of winter might make his de-
parture inconvenient or impossible if he delayed
longer. Vice-Admiral Rhynst, who had succeeded
Captain Rimersina (like van der Capellen, another
friend of the United States) in the command of the
Dutch fleet, was peremptorily ordered to permit no
delay which was not unavoidable in the carrying out
of these orders. He was instructed and empowered
to use force if necessary. Outside the harbor there
was a constantly increasing number of English
ships, so that Jones found himself " between the
devil and the deep sea." He was not to be intimi-
dated, however, and he absolutely refused to go out
at all until he was ready, sending Admiral Rhynst a
rather boastful letter to the effect that he could not
engage more than three times his force with any
hope of success, but were the odds any less he
should go out at once. M. Dumas, the French
commissary and the agent of the United States at
The Hague, had been directed to proceed to the
Texel and do what he could for Jones, and an in-
teresting correspondence was carried on between
them and the French ambassador on the subject of
Jones' departure. With clear-eyed diplomacy and
stubborn resolution the American held on ; go he
would not until he was ready ! It was, no doubt,
very exasperating to the Dutch, and they did every-
thing possible save using force to get rid of their
unwelcome visitor.
The Alliance, as has been stated, was in an un-
seaworthy condition. An old-fashioned sailing
vessel was as complex and delicate a thing as a
woman ; rude, brutal, and unskillful handling had
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR.
247
the same effect on both of them it spoiled them.
Jones at once began the weary work of refitting her
so far as his limited resources provided. The
powder which had been saved from the wreck of the
Richard replaced the spoiled ammunition of the
Alliance. Two cables had been borrowed from the
Serapis, and such other steps taken as were possible.
When the squadron was turned over to France the
prisoners, except those already exchanged by agree-
ment between Jones and Pearson, also were directed
to be surrendered to the French Government, who
immediately exchanged them with the English for
an equal number of French prisoners, promising
Franklin that they would presently exchange a cor-,
responding number of French prisoners for the
Americans. But Jones resolutely refused to give
up all of his prisoners. In spite of protests and
orders he re-embarked the hundred men who had
been recovering from their wounds in the fort on
the Texel, and taking all the Americans of the
squadron, so that the Alliance was heavily over-
manned, he made his preparations to get away.
At this time the Due de la Vauguyon, by the di-
rection of De Sartine, made Jones the offer of a
French naval letter of marque, which might have
protected the captain of the Alliance on her pro-
posed homeward passage, and have removed all
legal cause of objection as to her stay in the Texel.
To this proposition, which he considered insulting,
Jones made the following characteristic answer :
" MY LORD : Perhaps there are many men in
the world who would esteem as an honour the com-
248 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
mission that I have this day refused. My rank from
the beginning knew no superior in the marine of
America; how then must I be humbled were I to
accept a letter of marque! I should, my lord,
esteem myself inexcusable were I to accept even a
commission of equal or superior denomination to
that I bear, unless I were previously authorised by
Congress, or some other competent authority in
Europe. And I must tell you that, on my arrival
at Brest from the Irish Channel, Count D'Orvilliers
offered to procure for me from court a commission
of ' Capitaine de Vaisseau,' which I did not then
accept for the same reason, although the war be-
.tween France and England was not then begun,
and of course the commission of France would have
protected me from an enemy of superior force.
" It is a matter of the highest astonishment to
me that, after so many compliments and fair pro-
fessions, the court should offer the present insult
to my understanding, and suppose me capable of
disgracing my present commission. I confess that
I never merited all the praise bestowed on my past
conduct, but I also feel that I have far less merited
such a reward. Where profession and practice are
so opposite I am no longer weak enough to form a
wrong conclusion. They may think as they please of
me; for u'hcre I can not continue my esteem, praise or
censure from any man is to me a matter of indifference.*
" I am much obliged to them, however, for hav-
ing at last fairly opened my eyes, and enabled me
to discover truth from falsehood.
* Italics mine.
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR.
249
" The prisoners shall be delivered agreeable to
the orders which you have done me the honour to
send me from his excellency the American ambas-
sador in France.
" I will also with great pleasure not only permit
a part of my seamen to go on board the ships under
your excellency's orders, but I will also do my ut-
most to prevail with them to embark freely; and if
I can now or hereafter, by any other honourable
means, facilitate the success or the honour of his
Majesty's arms, I pledge myself to you as his am-
bassador, that none of his own subjects would bleed
in his cause with greater freedom than myself, an
American.
" It gives me the more pain, my lord, to write
this letter, because the court has enjoined you to
prepare what would destroy my peace of mind, and
my future veracity in the opinion of the world.
" When, i^'itli the consent of the court, and by
order of the American ambassador, I gave Ameri-
can commissions to French officers, I did not fill
up those commissions to command privateers, nor
even for a rank equal to that of their commissions in
the marine of France. They were promoted to rank
far superior. And why ? Not from personal friend-
ship, nor from my knowledge of their services and
abilities (the men and their characters being entire
strangers to me), but from the respect which I be-
lieved America would wish to show for the service
of France.
" While I remained eight months seemingly
forgot by the court at Brest, many commissions,
such as that in question, were offered to me ; and I
250 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
believe (when I am in pursuit of plunder) I can still
obtain such an one without application to court.
" I hope, my lord, that my behaviour through
life will ever entitle me to the continuance of your
good wishes and opinion, and that you will take
occasion to make mention of the warm and personal
affection with which my heart is impressed toward
his Majesty."
In no other letter among the many which I have
examined does Jones appear in so brilliant and suc-
cessful a light. His high-souled decision, and his
dignified but explicit way of conveying it, alike
do him the greatest credit. In the hands of such a
man, not only his own honor but that of his country
would be perfectly safe always. As usual, on the
1 6th of December, he inclosed a copy of his letter
to Franklin with the following original comment :
" I hope," he said, " that the within copy of my
letter to the Due de la Vauguyon will meet your
approbation, for I am persuaded that it never could
be your intention or wish that I should be made the
tool of any great r . . . whatever ; or that the com-
mission of America should be overlaid by the dirty
piece of parchment which I have thus rejected!
They have played upon my good humour too long
already, but the spell is at last dissolved. They
would play me off with assurance of the personal
and particular esteem of the king, to induce me to
do what would render me contemptible even in the
eyes of my own servants ! Accustomed to speak
untruths themselves, they would also have me to
give under my hand that I am a liar and a scoundrel.
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR.
251
They are mistaken, and I would tell them what you
did to your naughty servant. ' We have too con-
temptible an opinion of one another's understand-
ing to live together.' I could tell them, too, that if
M . . . de C . . . had not taken such safe precau-
tions to keep me honest by means of his famous
concordat, and to support me by so many able col-
leagues, these great men would not have been re-
duced to such mean shifts ; for the prisoners could
have been landed at Dunkirk the day that I entered
the Texel, and I could have brought in double the
numbers."
After annoying him with daily injunctions and
commands, on the i6th of December Vice Admiral
Rhynst finally commanded Jones to come on board
his flagship and report his intentions. Jones
promptly refused to obey this astonishing order,
telling the Dutchman that he had no right to order
him anywhere. Whereupon the vice admiral wrote
to him as follows :
" I desire you by this present letter to inform me
how I must consider the Alliance which you are on
board of: whether as a French or American vessel.
If the first, I expect you to cause his Majesty's com-
mission to be "shown to me, and that you display the
French flag and pendant, announcing it by dis-
charging a gun. If the second, I expect you to
omit no occasion of departing, according to the
orders of their High Mightinesses."
Jones had passed beyond the arguing point, and
treated this communication with contempt. He
252 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
rightly judged that the Dutch would not resort to
force in the end, and he refused to go out to certain
capture; indeed, he would not move until he was
ready and a fair chance of escape presented itself.
When the French Commissary of Marine at Am-
sterdam, the Chevalier de Lironcourt, saw Rhynst's
communication, which Jones sent to him, he sug-
gested that Jones might waive the point and display
French colors on his ship, disclaiming, at the same
time, any ulterior motive not in consonance with the
dignity of the commander, on the part of himself or
his government, in this proposition. But Jones was
not to be moved from the stand he had taken. The
man of the world was becoming the dauntless citizen
of the United States at last. He curtly told the
Dutch admiral that he had no orders to hoist any
other flag than the American, and that it only should
fly from the gaff of his ship. He also told him that
as soon as a pilot would undertake to carry out his
ship he would leave. But his most significant action
was to state emphatically to the vice admiral's flag
captain, who came aboard the Alliance for an answer
to his note of the i6th, that he was tired of the
annoyances, insults, and threats which had been di-
rected at him daily, and that they must be stopped
in future, as he would receive no more communica-
tions from the vice admiral. He also requested the
flag captain to say to his superior officer that, al-
though the Dutch flagship mounted sixty-four
guns, if she and the Alliance were at sea together
the vice admiral's conduct toward him would not
have been tolerated for a moment. I have no doubt
that Jones meant exactly what he said, and I think
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR. 253
the vice admiral was lucky in not being required
to test the declaration. From this time until his
departure no communications of any sorf. were re-
ceived by Jones from his baffled and silenced tor-
mentor.
He had done all that mortal man could do to
retain his prizes, to protract his stay in Dutch
waters, to commit Holland to the side of the United
States, to effect an exchange of prisoners, and to
maintain the honor of the American flag. In doing
this, on all sides he had been harassed and insulted
beyond measure. It was therefore some consola-
tion to him to receive on the 2ist the following note
of explanation and apology from De la Vauguyon :
' ' December 21, 1779.
" I perceive with pain, my dear commodore, that
you do not view your situation in the right light ; and
I can assure you that the ministers of the king have
no intention to cause you the least disagreeable feel-
ing, as the honourable testimonials of the esteem of
his majesty, which I send you, ought to convince
you. I hope you will not doubt the s ; ncere desire
with which you have inspired me to procure you
every satisfaction you may merit. It can not fail to
incite you to give new proofs of your zeal for the
common cause of France and America. I flatter
myself to renew, before long, the occasion and to
procure you the means to increase still more the
glory you have already acquired. I am already oc-
cupied with all the interest I promised you ; and if
my view's are realized, as I have every reason to be-
lieve, you will be at all events perfectly content ; but
254 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
I must pray you not to hinder any project by de-
livering yourself to the expressions of those strong
sensations to which you appear to give way, and
for which there is really no foundation. You appear
to possess full confidence in the justice and kindness
of the king; rely also upon the same sentiments on
the part of his ministers."
To this letter Jones sent the following reply ;
he was a generous man, who bore no malice :
' ' ALLIANCE, TEXEL, December 25, 7779.
" The Duke de Vauguyon.
" MY LORD : I have not a heart of stone, but I
am duly sensible of the obligations conferred on
me by the very kind and affectionate letter that you
have done me the honour to write me the 2ist cur-
rent.
" Were I to form my opinion of the ministry
from the treatment that I experienced while at
Brest, or from their want of confidence in me after-
ward, exclusive of what has taken place since I had
the misfortune to enter this port, I will appeal to
your Excellency as a man of candour and ingenu-
ousness, whether I ought to desire to prolong a con-
nection that has made me so unhappy, and wherein
I have given so little satisfaction? M. de Chev. de
Lironcourt has lately made me reproaches on ac-
count of the expense that he says France has been
at to give me reputation, in preference to twenty cap-
tains of the royal navy, better qualified than myself,
and who, each of them, solicited for the command
that was lately given to me! This, I confess, is
quite new- and indeed surprising to me, and had I
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR.
255
known it before I left France I certainly should
have resigned in favour of the twenty men of supe-
rior merit. I do not, however, think that his first
assertion is true, for the ministry must be unworthy
of their places were they capable of squandering the
public money merely to give an individual reputa-
tion ! and as to the second, I fancy the court will
not thank him for having given me this information,
whether true or false. I may add here that, with
a force so ill-composed, and with powers so limited,
I ran ten chances of ruin and dishonour for one
of gaining reputation ; and had not the plea of
humanity in favour of the unfortunate Americans in
English dungeons superseded all considerations of
self, I faithfully assure you, my lord, that I would
not have proceeded under such circumstances from
Groix. I do not imbibe hasty prejudices against
any individual, but when many and repeated cir-
cumstances, conspiring in one point, have inspired
me with disesteem toward any person, I must see
very convincing proofs of reformation in such per-
son before my heart can beat again with affection
in his favour ; for the mind is free, and can be
bound only by kind treatment.
" You do me great honour, as well as justice,
my lord, by observing that no satisfaction can be
more precious to me than by giving new proofs of
my zeal for the common cause of France and Amer-
ica ; and the interest that you take to facilitate the
means of my giving such proofs by essential serv-
ices, claims my best thanks. / hope I shall not,
through any imprudence of mine, render ineffectual
any noble design that may be in contemplation for the
256 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
general good.* Whenever that object is mentioned,
my private concerns are out of the question, and
where 1 can not speak exactly what I could wish
with respect to my private satisfaction, I promise
you in the meantime to observe a prudent silence.
" With a deep sense of your generous senti-
ments of personal regard toward me, and with the
most sincere wishes to merit that regard by my
conduct through life."
The following extract from a letter to Robert
Morris well indicates how his treatment by the
French ambassador rankled :
" By the within despatches for Congress I am
persuaded you will observe with pleasure that my
connection with a court is at an end, and that my
prospect of returning to America approaches. The
great seem to wish only to be concerned with tools,
who dare not speak or write truth. I am not sorry
that my connection with them is at an end. In the
course of that connection I ran ten chances of ruin
and dishonour for one of reputation ; and all the
honours or profit that France could bestow should
not tempt me again to undertake the same service
with an armament, equally ill composed, and with
powers equally limited. It affords me the most ex-
alted pleasure to reflect that, when I return to Amer-
ica, I can say that I have served in Europe at my own
expense, and without the fee or rcz^ard of a court. \
When the prisoners we have taken are safely lodged
in France I shall have no further business in Eu-
* Italics mine. f Italics mine.
UPHOLDING AMERICAN HONOR.
257
rope, as the liberty of our fellow citizens who now
suffer in English prisons will then be secured; and
I shall hope hereafter to be usefully employed under
the immediate direction of the Congress."
It is a remarkable thing that, during the per-
plexities and harassing incidents of his stay in the
Texel, with the constant demands made upon him
in every direction, the difficulties with which he had
to cope, the responsibilities he assumed, the prob-
lems he had to solve, and the dangers grappled with,
he found time to carry on such a voluminous and
extraordinary correspondence as has been pre-
served. Among other documents he drew up a long
memorial to Congress recounting his career and
public services to date, which is of much service to
those who strive to solve the enigma of his com-
plex life and character. The tendency to lionize a
hero was as prevalent then as now, and Jones was
compelled by the exigencies of his situation to re-
fuse many invitations of a social nature at Amster-
dam and The Hague. " Duty," he says, " must take
precedence of pleasure. I must wait a more favour-
able opportunity to kiss the hands of the fair." Cer-
tain young impressionable misses, after the custom
of the day, indited poetical effusions to him. In the
hurry and rush of business he could only find time
in his replies to deplore the fact that so much was
expected from him that he could not respond in
rhyme to these metrical communications.
i-
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ESCAPE OF THE ALLIANCE.
CHRISTMAS day passed gloomily enough, I im-
agine, for the Americans on the Alliance. There had
been opportunities, of course, when it would have
been possible for Jones to have made the mouth of
the harbor, but his capture would have been in-
evitable. So, on one pretext or another, he delayed
until the night of the 2/th of December, when he
weighed anchor and dropped down to the mouth of
the Texel. Early the next morning in a howling
gale he dashed for the sea. On the same day he
sent the following note back to Dumas, and merrily
proceeded on his way:
" I am here, my dear sir, with a good wind at
east, and. under my best* American colours ; so far
you have your wish. What may be the event of this
critical moment I know not; I am not, however,
without good hopes. Through the ignorance or
drunkenness of the old pilot the Alliance last night
got foul of a Dutch merchant ship, and I believe the
Dutchmen cut our cable. We lost the best bower
anchor, and the ship was brought up with the sheet
anchor so near the shore that this morning I have
been obliged to cut the cable in order to get clear
258
tHE ESCAPE OF THE ALLIANCE. 2 $$
of the shore, and that I might not lose this oppor-
tunity of escaping from purgatory."
Though he had escaped from the Texel, his
situation was one of extreme peril. It is claimed
that no less than forty sail were on the lookout for
him in the English Channel ; and, besides those spe-
cifically detailed for the purpose, there were a num-
ber of ships and at least two great fleets at anchor
in these narrow waters, which he would have to
pass. I suppose that never before had so many ves-
sels been on the lookout for a single ship as in
this instance. It never seems to have occurred to
the blockading ships that Jones would attempt
to pass down the Channel ; his safest course from
the point of view of the ordinary man would have
been through the North Sea and around Scot-
land and Ireland. But Jones was not an ordinary
man, though the English refused to see the fact.
Consequently, his bold course took them by sur-
prise, and, as usual, by choosing apparently the most
dangerous way he escaped. And the way of it
was this : By the exercise of his usual seamanship
Jones managed to hug the Flemish banks so closely
that he passed to windward of the British blockad-
ing ships, which were driven to the northward by
the same gale of which he had taken advantage.
The wind came strongly from the east, and un-
der a great press of canvas the Alliance staggered
away toward the south, keeping as dose as possible
to the weather shore until all danger from the imme-
diate blockading fleet was avoided. Then Jones ran
for the middle of the Channel, and the next day the
260 COMMODORE PAUL JOKES.
Alliance passed through the straits of Dover and
ran close to the Goodwin Sands, passing in full view
of a large English fleet anchored in the Downs only
three miles to leeward. On the day after, the 29th,
the Alliance flew by the Isle of Wight, running near
enough to take a good look at another fleet at Spit-
head.
On the ist of January Jones was out of the
Channel, having passed in sight of, and almost in
range, at different times in this bold dash for free-
dom, of several British ships of the line, just out of
gunshot to leeward. During all this time he had
not ceased to fly the American flag. I do not know
of a more splendid piece of sea bravado than this
dash of the Alliance from the Texel. The daring
and gallantry of the man at first seemed to have
led him into injudicious and dangerous situations
when he took the Alliance so close to the English
coast and the British fleets ; but his effrontery was
governed by that sound and practical sense which
ever distinguished his conduct from mere unthink-
ing recklessness, for no one would ever imagine
that the escaping ship would take such a course, and
those vessels on the lookout for him would prob-
ably be found where a less subtle commander would
have endeavored to pass off the Flemish coast and
near the French shore, for instance. Be that as it
may, the little Alliance, with her Stars and Stripes
flapping defiantly in the great breeze in the face
of the overmastering English ships, running the
gantlet of her enemies, is a picture we love to
think upon.
The ship was in a critical condition. Damages
THE ESCAPE OF THE ALLIANCE. 2 6l
which she had incurred in her voyage from Boston
to France were still unrepaired. Her trim had been
altered for the worse by Landais' blunders, and the
improper stowage of the ballast had dangerously
strained her and greatly diminished her speed,
which had originally been very high. There was
no way these things could have been temporarily re-
paired in the Texel ; in fact, but little could be done
until the vessel reached France. Owing to the un-
sanitary regimen of Landais, disease had broken out
at different times, and the ship had become so dirty
that nothing short of a -thorough disinfection would
render her safe for her crew. She was much over-
crowded with men, all actually or professedly
American, and carried a hundred prisoners as well.
There were two sets of officers on board those
originally attached to her and the officers of the
Richard. Jealousy and bickerings between the two
crews were prevalent. Naturally, they had no love
for each other. The officers and men of the
Richard could not forget the conduct of those on
the Alliance, and they looked upon them with
hatred and contempt. Sailorlike, the men of the
Alliance reciprocated that feeling. It was the desire
of every one, except Jones and a few others, to get
to France at once, but the commodore wished to
return with more prizes ; so he bore away to the
south and west, seeking for ships, impressing
upon his discontented men that the Alliance was
equal to anything under a fifty-gun ship ! He was
not fortunate on this occasion, however, and finally,
to avoid a threatened gale, he ran into the port of
Corunna in Spain, on the i6th of January, 1780,
2 62 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
where he was kindly received and hospitably enter-
tained. During this cruise, in spite of the responsi-
bilities of his position, he found time to compose the
following verses in reply to a similar communication
which he had received from the daughter of M. Du-
mas (it will be remembered that he deplored his in-
ability in the Texel to find time for his present oc-
cupation) :
" Were I, Paul Jones, dear maid, ' the king of sea,'
I find such merit in thy virgin song,
A coral crown with bays I'd give to thee,
A car which on the waves should smoothly glide along ;
The "Nereides all about thy side should wait,
And gladly sing in triumph of thy state,
' Vivat ! vivat ! the happy virgin Muse !
Of liberty the friend, who tyrant power pursues ! '
" Or, happier lot ! Were fair Columbia free
From British tyranny, and youth still mine,
I'd tell a tender tale to one like thee
With artless looks and breast as pure as thine.
If she approved my flame, distrust apart,
Like faithful turtles, we'd have but one heart ;
Together, then, we'd tune the silver lyre,
As love or sacred freedom should our lays inspire.
" But since, alas ! the rage of war prevails,
And cruel Britons desolate our land,
For freedom still I spread my willing sails.
My unsheath'd sword my injured country shall command.
Go on, bright maid ! the Muses all attend
Genius like thine, and wish to be its friend.
Trust me, although conveyed through this poor shift,
My New Year's thoughts are grateful for thy gift."
I have read worse poetry than this, also better,
but it is very creditable to the sailor. If the reader
THE STAY AT CORUNNA. 263
has a low opinion of it, let him essay some verse-
writing himself.*
While at Corunna, the ship was careened and her
bottom scraped as far as possible without docking
her, and, having procured an anchor to take the
place of the two lost in the Texel, Jones prepared to
set forth once more. The 28th of January was fixed
for his departure, but the discontent among the
crew reached such a pitch that they positively re-
fused to weigh anchor unless they received at
least a portion of their pay or prize money. Noth-
ing had been paid them from the time the ships
had been put in commission until they reached
the Texel. There Jones had received from Am-
sterdam a small sum of money, from which he ad-
vanced five ducats to each of the officers and one to
each of the men. The amount, compared to their
dues and needs, was so insignificant that many of the
men threw the money into the sea in disgust a
very foolish but extremely sailorlike action.
There were many patriotic men on these ships
w 7 ho merit the approbation and deserve the gratitude
of their country. They had shown, especially those
belonging to the Richard, a most desperate courage
in most trying scenes. They had performed services
upon which no monetary value could be placed, and
had subjected themselves to dangers which no mere
pecuniary consideration could have tempted them
to face. It may at first, therefore, seem surprising
that they should have so resolutely demanded their
* For another specimen of Jones' verse-writing, see page
277-
264 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
pay and prize money, even to the extent of mutiny-
ing for it; but it is a common experience that men
who will freely offer themselves for the most dan-
gerous undertakings, and who really are actuated
by the strongest kind of patriotism, will quarrel and
rebel, and even fight, for the petty amounts prom-
ised them by way of wages, which in themselves
neither could tempt them to, nor repay them for, the
sacrifices they had cheerfully undergone. Frankly,
I have the greatest sympathy with the point of view
of the unpaid soldiers or sailors of the past, and I
quite understand their demands and complaints
under such circumstances.
Perhaps there is an association of ideas between
fighting for the liberties of one's country and de-
manding one's dues. Both are a revolt against in-
justice and oppression. The mind of the common
sailor, especially of that day, was not calculated to
draw nice distinctions, and he could see little dif-
ference between fighting for liberty and demanding
that the country whose independence he periled
his life to establish should show the small appre-
ciation of his devotion involved in paying his
scanty wages and not withholding his lawful prize
money. Jones struggled for rank, station, repu-
tation, opportunity; these men could aspire to no
higher station than they already filled, and their
corresponding effort was for the money justly
due them.
The Richard's men had lost practically every-
thing except the clothes they stood in when their
ship went down, and their personal needs were neces-
sarily very great. The. original crew of the Alliance
A BROKEN PROMISE. 265
were under the impression that Jones had reserved
from the small sum he had received at Amsterdam
a considerable portion for himself. There is not
the slightest evidence to warrant this supposition.
The commodore was the most prodigal and gen-
erous of men, and his whole career evidences his
entire willingness to devote his own personal prop-
erty to the welfare and wages of his men. He finally
persuaded the crew to get under way by promising
to run direct to L'Orient, where he hoped they
would undoubtedly receive their prize money.
With this understanding the crew consented to
work the ship to that point, and their departure was
accordingly taken on the 28th.
When the vessel was fairly at sea, however, Jones
summoned the officers to the cabin and proposed
that they should cruise two or three weeks in those
waters before making their promised port. I am
afraid that the commodore allowed the possibility
of taking some valuable prizes and perhaps another
British frigate to incline him to break his promise
to his men. His interview in his cabin with his
officers was an interesting one. With all the elo-
quence of which he was a master and he was able
to speak convincingly and well on congenial sub-
jects he placed before them the possibilities pre-
sented, appealed to their patriotism, their love of
fame, and as a last resort pointed out the further
monetary advantage of another rich prize lago's
argument ! If they were successful in taking an-
other frigate they would shed still greater luster
upon their names, and put money in their pockets.
The officers, however, bluntly refused to be per-
2 66 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
suacled. They emphasized the mutinous and dis-
contented state of the crews, who had only sailed
under Jones' positive promise to take them immedi-
ately to L'Orient ; pointed out that many of the men
had not proper clothing with which to endure the
severe winter weather, and that they themselves
were in a destitute condition.
Their natural reluctance to fall in with his plans
infuriated Jones. Rising from the chair upon which
he had been sitting, with an emphatic stamp of his
foot he dismissed them with a sneering contempt in
the following words :
" I do not want your advice, neither did I send
.for you to comply with your wishes, but only by
way of paying you a compliment, which was more
than you deserve by your opposition. Therefore,
you know my mind ; go to your duty, each one of
you, and let me hear no more grumbling ! "
The Alliance cruised for some days to the west-
ward of Cape Finisterre, but, as the quarreling be-
tween the two crews ran higher than ever, and as
Jones had failed to keep his promise, thus adding to
their discontent, when they fell in with the Amer-
ican ship Livingstone, laden with a valuable cargo
of tobacco, Jones gave over his attempt, and de-
cided to convoy her to L'Orient, where he arrived
on the loth of February, 1780. That he should
gravely have contemplated action with a British
frigate with his ill-conditioned ship and mutinous
crew shows the confidence he felt in his own abil-
ity. I have no doubt that, unprepared as she
SAFE AT LAST. 267
was, if the Alliance had fallen in with an Eng-
lish ship Jones would have been able to persuade
his men to action, and with anything like an
equal force the results would have been satis-
factory.
CHAPTER XIV.
HONORS AND REWARDS QUARREL WITH LANDAIS
RELINQUISHES THE ALLIANCE.
THE tremendous nervous strain which Jones had
undergone, the constant labor and exposure neces-
sitated by the circumstances of his hard cruising
and righting, and the recent exposure in the severe
winter weather had broken down his health. His
spirit had outpaced his body, and in a very ill and
weak condition, with his eyes so inflamed that he
was almost blinded, he went on shore in search
of rest. Meanwhile preparations were made thor-
oughly to overhaul the Alliance and load her with
a large quantity of valuable and much-needed mili-
tary supplies which had been purchased for the
army of the United States, among them the bat-
tery which had been cast for the Bon Homme
Richard, which had arrived after her departure.
Hard by the Alliance in the harbor lay the hand-
some Serapis. With perfectly natural feelings
Jones longed to get possession of her again. He
wrote immediately to Franklin, detailing the repairs
necessary to put the Alliance in shape, which were
very extensive and correspondingly expensive, and
asked that he might have leave to sheath the Alli-
ance with copper, and that the Serapis might be
268
FRANKLIN ENJOINS ECONOMY. 269
purchased and turned over to him. He hoped that
the repairs to the Alliance might be made by the
French Government, perhaps that they would also
give him the Serapis. As the condition of the Alli-
ance had been justly attributed by Jones to the neg-
ligence and incompetence of Landais, and not to
any accident of the cruise under the auspices of
France, there did not seem to be any good reason
for having the ship repaired at the expense of the
French Government. Franklin stated that the
whole expense would have to fall upon him, and
begged him in touching words to be as economical
as possible, as his financial resources, as always,
were limited. For the same reason it was impos-
sible to secure the Serapis.
He says :
" I therefore beg you would have mercy on me ;
put me to as little charge as possible, and take noth-
ing that you can possibly do without. As to sheath-
ing with copper, it is totally out of the question. I
am not authorized to do it if I had money ; and I
have not money for it if I had orders."
As the demand in America for the military sup-
plies which Franklin had procured was pressing,
Jones was ordered to hasten the repairs to the
Alliance. In spite of Franklin's strict injunction
to economize, Jones proceeded to overhaul, refit,
and remodel entirely the frigate in accordance
with his ideas and experience. As his ideas were
excellent and his experience had been ample, when
the repairs had been completed they left noth-
ing to be desired. But the bills were very heavy.
COMMODORE PAUL
Franklin protested, but paid. As a matter of fact,
it must be admitted Jones did not stint himself when
it came to outfitting a ship or anything else, for
that matter. His experience with the Ranger, the
Richard, and the Alliance had naturally disgusted
him with inadequately provided ships of war. The
beautiful little boat was the superior of any of her
size upon the ocean, and subsequently, under the
command of Captain John Barry, she did brilliant
and noteworthy service. If it had not been for Jones
she would have been worthless.
The charge of extravagance, however, is fairly
substantiated. Jones was, in fact, as indifferent in
the spending of other people's money as he was with
his own, and I have no doubt the bills, although he
paid them, almost broke the harassed commis-
sioner's heart. Jones, however, was in a very dif-
ferent position from that he had occupied previ-
ously. He had demonstrated his capacity in the
most unequivocal manner. He was not a man to
be dealt with slightingly, nor did Franklin, who un-
doubtedly cherished a genuine admiration and re-
gard for him, which the sailor fully reciprocated by
an enthusiastic admiration amounting to veneration,
wish to do anything to humiliate him.
While the repairs were progressing the financial
status of the crew was in no way amended. There
was no money forthcoming to them on the score
of wages ; the sale of the prizes was delayed, and
serious differences arose between the agents of the
crews, de Chaumont as representing the king, and
Jones himself. Finally, in order to further the set-
tlement of the matter, Jones decided to go to Paris
ARRIVAL OF ARTHUR LEE. 2^1
and see what he could do personally to hasten the
sale of the prizes, and perhaps secure some funds
with which to pay the wages of the crews, in part
at least.
Early in April, therefore, he left the Alliance at
L'Orient and repaired to the capital. From one
point of view it was an unwise thing to do, for he
left behind him a discontented and mutinous crew,
which only his own indomitable personality had
been able to repress and control. It is likely, how-
ever, that affairs at L'Orient would have remained
in statu quo had it not been for the advent of Arthur
Lee. This gentleman is perhaps the only member
of the famous family whose name he bore upon
whose conduct and character severe judgment must
be passed. Jealous, quarrelsome, and incompetent,
his blundering attempts at diplomacy had worked
more harm than good to the American nation. By
his vanity and indiscretion he had continually
thwarted the wise plans and brilliant policy of
Franklin, with whom he had finally embroiled him-
self to such an extent that it became necessary for
him to return home. Not only had he lost the
esteem of Franklin, but through his petty meanness
he had also forfeited the confidence of Congress,
which had superseded him by John Jay at the court
of Spain, to which he had been accredited previ-
ously.
Franklin desired Jones to give him a passage
home in the Alliance. Jones had a great dislike to
his proposed passenger. When his draft upon the
commissioners for twenty-four thousand livres had
been dishonored, it was largely through the influ-
272 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ence of Lee that the money had been refused him.
Lee was fully acquainted with the circumstances
which caused Jones to apply, and he might have
secured payment. At least that was the opinion
of Jones. With his usual frankness, Jones had not
hesitated to express his opinion to Lee in a very tart
letter, which had not improved the situation. In
the face of the request of Franklin, Jones had no
option but to receive Lee and his suite on the
Alliance. He objected, however, most strenuously
to allowing the ex-commissioner to take his car-
riage and other equipage on the frigate, stating with
entire accuracy that articles of such bulk would
take up much room, which could be better devoted
to other and more important freightage. This,
no doubt, further incensed Lee against Jones.
He was ever inclined 'to put his personal comfort
before the welfare of his country.
Landais had been summoned, as we have seen,
to Paris. The commissioners, with the documents
prepared in the Texel before them, had discussed
his case, and had decided to send him to America
for trial. Franklin, who had not yet expressed any
public judgment in the premises, though his private
opinion was well known, had presented Landais
with a sum of money for his voyage to the United
States, and the \vhole correspondence, including the
charges, had been transmitted to Congress.
Arthur Lee, with his usual captious spirit, and
inspired by his hatred of Jones and the desire to
disagree with Franklin at the same time, had dis-
sented from the view and decision of his colleagues.
He had maintained that Landais was legally en-
LEE AND LANDAIS MAKE TROUBLE.
273
titled to continue in the command of the Alliance,
and that Franklin had not the power to supersede
him a contention not substantiated by the facts,
nor, as was afterward shown, supported by Con-
gress itself.
When Jones went to Paris, therefore, Lee, realiz-
ing his opportunity, at once began to. foment addi-
tional disorder in the already demoralized crew.
Coincident with Jones' departure, Landais also
made his appearance. Had Lee summoned him?
Lee did not hesitate to express the opinion to that
gentleman himself, his officers, and crew, that Lan-
dais was legitimately entitled to the command of the
Alliance, and could not be removed therefrom ex-
cept by specific direction of Congress. Things,
therefore, developed with painful rapidity at L'Ori-
ent, until Landais addressed a note to Franklin de-
manding that he be reinstated in the command of
the Alliance a curious procedure for a man who
claimed that Franklin was without power to dis-
place him !
Meanwhile Jones was having a brilliant recep-
tion in France. While he had incurred the hostility
of the French naval officers, who fancied that he had
deprived them of commands to which they were
better entitled, and in the enjoyment of which he
had gained distinction through opportunities which
might possibly have fallen to them and which they
might have embraced, he was everywhere received
with the highest honors, as well by the court as the
people. To the populace, indeed, he was a hero
who had humbled the enemy whom they hated with
the characteristic passion of Frenchmen. Franklin
19
274 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
took him to call upon his old tormentor, the dilatory
de Sartine, and, owing perhaps to naval prejudice,
his first reception was extremely cool ; but, as it be-
came evident that he was a popular hero, the tone
of the minister was lowered, and his actions were
modified, so that he afterward extended him a warm
welcome and professed extreme friendship for the
commodore. The king and queen accorded him
the favor of an audience, and his majesty, falling
in with the popular current, was pleased to declare
his intention of presenting him with a magnificent
gold-mounted sword, to be inscribed with the fol-
lowing flattering motto :
"VINDICATI MARIS LUDOVICUS XVI. REMUNE-
RATOR STRENUO VINDICI." *
He also signified his royal purpose, should the
Congress acquiesce therein, of investing Jones with
the cross of the Order of Military Merit, a distinc-
tion never before accorded to any but a subject of
France, and only awarded for heroic conduct or con-
spicuous and brilliant military or naval services
against the enemy. Nothing could have been more
grateful to a man of Jones' temperament than the
appreciation of the French people, and these evi-
dences of admiration and esteem from the hand of
the king. On his previous visit to Paris, after the
capture of the Drake, he had been made much of ;
in this instance his reception greatly surpassed his
former welcome. He became the lion of the day,
* " Louis XVI, the rewarder, to the mighty deliverer, for
the freedom of the sea."
HONORS AND REWARDS. 275
the attraction of the hour. Great men sought his
company, and held themselves honored by his
friendship ; while the fairest of the ladies of the gay
court were proud to receive the attentions of the
man who had so dramatically conquered the hated
English. In all these circumstances he bore himself
with becoming modesty. On one occasion he was
invited to the queen's box at the opera. When he
entered the theater he was loudly cheered, and at
the close of the act a laurel wreath was suspended
over his head, whereupon he changed his seat. This
natural action has been quaintly commented upon
by various biographers, and the statement is made
that for many years it was held up before the
French youth as an exhibition of extraordinary
modesty !
One of the most admirable of Jones' traits was
a chivalrous devotion to women. To a natural grace
of manner he added the bold directness of a sailor,
which was not without its charm to the beauties
of Versailles, sated with the usual artificial gallantry
of the men of the period. Jones spoke French
rather well, and had a taste for music and poetry.
There were, therefore, many who did not disdain to
draw the " sea lion " in their train. On account of
the favors he had received he was a person of dis-
tinction at the court. Among his voluminous cor-
respondence which has been preserved are numbers
of letters to and from different women of rank and
station, dating from this period and from his pro-
longed stay in Paris after the war had terminated.
Among others, he corresponded with a lady who,
after the romantic fashion of the time, at first en-
276 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
deavored to hide her identity under the name of
Delia. Between Jones and Delia there seems to
have sprung up a genuine passion, for the letters
on both sides breathe a spirit of passionate, heart-
felt devotion. It has been discovered that Delia
was but another name for Madame de Telison, a
natural daughter of Louis XV, with whom Jones
frequently corresponded under her own name, and
who is referred to in his biographies as Madame
T , and the identification is definite and com-
plete. He was catholic in his affections, however,
for he by no means confined his epistolary rela-
tions to the gentle and devoted Madame de Telison.
It is interesting to note that in all these letters
there is not a single indelicate or ill-bred allusion.
That is what would be expected to-day, but when
we remember that so great an authority as Robert
Walpole suggested that everybody at his table
should " talk bawdy," as being the only subject
every one could understand, the significance of his
clean letters is apparent. In his correspondence,
except in the case of Aimee Adele de Telison, he
never appears to have passed beyond the bounds
of romantic friendship. In later years, however, it
is possible to infer from his letters that Madame de
Telison bore to him a son, whose history is entire-
ly unknown. Among others who honored him with
their friendship were three women of high rank,
the Duchess de Chartres, Madame d'Ormoy, and
the Countess de Lavendahl, who painted his por-
trait in miniature.
An English lady, Miss Edes, sojourning in
France at this time, thus refers to him in two letters
'AN AGREEABLE SEA WOLF."
277
which she wrote for publication in the English
journals :
" The famous Paul Jones dines and sups here
often ; he is a smart man of thirty-six, speaks but
little French, appears to be an extraordinary genius,
a poet as well as hero; a few days ago he wrote
some verses extempore, of which I send you a copy.
He is greatly admired here, especially by the ladies,
who are wild for love of him ; but he adores the
Countess of Lavendahl, who has honored him with
every mark of politeness and distinction.
" ' Insulted freedom bled ; I felt her cause,
And drew my sword to vindicate her laws
From principle, and not from vain applause.
I've done my best ; self-interest far apart,
And self-reproach a stranger to my heart.
My zeal still prompts, ambitious to pursue
The foe, ye fair ! of liberty and you ;
Grateful for praise, spontaneous and unbought,
A generous people's love not meanly sought ;
To merit this, and bend the knee to beauty,
Shall be my earliest and latest duty.'
" Since my last, Paul Jones drank tea and supped
here. If I am in love for him, for love I may die.
I have as many rivals as there are ladies, but the
most formidable is still Lady Lavendahl, who pos-
sesses all his heart. This lady is of high rank and
virtue, very sensible, good-natured, and affable.
Besides this, she is possessed of youth, beauty, and
wit, and every other form of female accomplishment.
He is gone, I suppose, for America. They corre-
spond, and his letters are replete w r ith elegance, sen-
timent, and delicacy. She drew his picture, a strik-
278 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ing likeness, and wrote some lines under it which
are much admired, and presented it to him. Since
he received it he is, like a second Narcissus, in love
with his own resemblance ; to be sure, he is the
most agreeable sea wolf one would wish to meet
with."
In all this, however, Jones did not for a moment
neglect the business which had called him to Paris.
He moved heaven and earth to effect the sale of
the prizes, bringing to bear all his personal popu-
larity and making use of his new-found friends, both
men and women, to accomplish the desired results.
In all his attempts he was zealously supported by
Franklin, who, I have no doubt, greatly enjoyed the
popularity of his protege.
Finally, on the last day of May, having received
positive assurance that the prizes would be sold and
distribution made immediately, he set out for L'Ori-
ent. On leaving Paris he carried with him a per-
sonal commendation from Franklin and a letter
from de Sartine to the President of Congress, as
follows :
" PASSY, June /, 1780.
" Samuel Hnntington, Esq., President of Congress.
" SIR : Commodore Jones, who by his bravery
and conduct has done great honour to the American
flag, desires to have that also of presenting a line
to the hands of your Excellency. I cheerfully com-
ply with his request, in recommending him to the
notice of Congress, and to your Excellency's pro-
tection, though his actions are more effectual rec-
ommendations, and render any from me unneces-
COMMENDED TO CONGRESS.
279
sary. It gives me, however, an opportunity of
shewing my readiness to do justice to merit, and of
professing the esteem and respect with which I am,
etc. B. FRANKLIN."
From M. de Sartine to Mr. Huntington, Presi-
dent of the Congress of the United States :
" VERSAILLES, May jo, 1780.
" Commodore Paul Jones, after having shown to
all Europe, and particularly to the enemies of
France and the United States, the most unques-
tionable proofs of his valor and talents, is about re-
turning to America to give an account to Congress
of the success of his military operations. I am
convinced, Sir, that the reputation he has so justly
acquired will precede him, and that the recital of his
actions alone will suffice to prove to his fellow
citizens that his abilities are equal to his courage.
But the king has thought proper to add his suffrage
and attention to the public opinion. He has ex-
pressly charged me to inform you how perfectly he
is satisfied with the services of the Commodore,
persuaded that Congress will render him the same
justice. He has offered, as a proof of his esteem, to
present him with a sword, which can not be placed
in better hands, and likewise proposed to Congress
to decorate this brave officer with the cross of Mili-
tary Merit. His Majesty conceives that this par-
ticular distinction, by holding forth the same hon-
ours to the two nations, united by the same inter-
ests, will be looked upon as one tie more that con-
nects them, and will support that emulation which
is so precious to the common cause. If, after hav-
2 8o COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ing approved the conduct of the Commodore, it
should be thought proper to give him the command
of any new expedition to Europe, His Majesty will
receive him again with pleasure, and presumes that
Congress will oppose nothing that may be judged
expedient to secure the success of his enterprises.
My personal esteem for him induces me to recom-
mend him very particularly to you, Sir, and I dare
flatter myself that the welcome he will receive from
Congress and you will warrant the sentiments with
which he has inspired me."
While all this had been going on, however,
Franklin had been having serious trouble with the
men of the Alliance. On the I2th of April the offi-
cers dispatched a letter to Franklin demanding
their prize money and wages. Franklin had previ-
ously advanced them twenty-four thousand livres,
and he wrote them that everything was being done
to hasten the sale of the prizes, and that they would
have to be content with what he had given them,
and receive the balance when they reached the
United States. On the 2Qth of May Landais wrote,
repeating his application of the I7th of March, and
inclosing a mutinous letter signed by one hundred
and fifteen of the crew of the Alliance, declaring
that they would not raise an anchor nor sail from
L'Orient till they had six months' wages paid to
them, and the utmost farthing of their prize money,
including that for the ships sent into Norway, and
until their legal captain, Pierre Landais, was re-
stored to them.
Landais had added the phrase " until their legal
TROUBLE ON THE ALLIANCE. 28 1
captain, P. Landais, is restored to us," himself.
With this letter was another communication from
fourteen of the original officers of the Alliance, to
the effect that the crew were in favor of Landais,
who was a capable officer, whose conduct had been
misrepresented, and whom they considered them-
selves bound to obey as their legal captain. These
officers can not be relieved of a large share of the
odium attaching to the conduct of the Alliance dur-
ing the battle between the Richard and the Serapis.
The reason for their dislike of Jones is therefore ap-
parent. To carry out their designs they had circu-
lated among the crew statements to the effect that
Jones had received the prize money and was enjoy-
ing himself at their expense. The fine Italian hand
of Mr. Lee is to be seen in the documents they for-
warded to Franklin. Franklin's reply to this dis-
gracefully insubordinate batch of letters was re-
markable for its tact, acumen, and good sense.
After keenly expressing his surprise that the very
officers who had testified against Landais a short
time before, and whom Landais had stated were all
leagued against him, were now desirous of being
placed again under his command, he writes as fol-
lows :
" I have related exactly to Congress the manner
of his [Landais'] leaving the ship, and though I
declined any judgment of his maneuvers in the fight,
I have given it as my opinion, after examining the
affair, that it was not at all likely either that he
should have given orders to fire into the Bon
Homme Richard, or that his officers should have
2g2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
obeyed such an order should it have been given
them. Thus I have taken what care I could of
your honour in that particular. You will, therefore,
excuse me if I am a little concerned for it in an-
other. If it should come to be publicly known that
you had the strongest aversion to Captain Landais,
who has used you basely, and that it is only since
the last year's cruise, and the appointment of Com-
modore Jones to the command, that you request to
be again under your old captain, I fear suspicions
and reflections may be thrown upon you by the
world, as if this change of sentiment may have
arisen from your observation during the cruise, that
Captain Jones loved close fighting,* but that Cap-
tain Landais was skilful in keeping out of harm's
way ; and that you, therefore, thought yourself safer
with the latter. For myself, I believe you to be
brave men and lovers of your country and its glori-
ous cause ; and I am persuaded you have only been
ill-advised and misled by the artful and malicious
representations of some persons I guess at. Take
in good part this counsel from an old man who is
your friend. Go home peaceably with your ship.
Do your duty faithfully and cheerfully. Behave re-
spectfully to your commander, and I am persuaded
he will do the same to you. Thus you will not
only be happier in your voyage, but recommend
yourselves to the future favours of Congress and of
your country."
At the same time he specifically directed Lan-
dais to refrain from meddling with the men or creat-
* Italics mine.
FRANKLIN'S WISDOM AND FIRMNESS. 283
ing any disturbance on the Alliance at his peril. To
this letter Landais paid no attention. This was the
situation when Jones reached L'Orient. Franklin
wrote him concerning the letters and batch of docu-
ments from Landais and the crew, which had arrived
after his departure, and advised him what had been
done in consequence. The commissioner had pro-
cured an imperative order to the authorities at
L'Orient for the arrest of Landais, who was to be
tried for his life as an emigrant without the king's
permission. Franklin also directed Jones to with-
hold from the signers of the mutinous letter any
portion of the money he had advanced on account
of the prizes, and he added the firm and decided in-
junction that if any one was not willing to trust his
country to see justice done him he should be put
ashore at his own charges to await the sale of the
prizes.
The situation was most critical, and that Frank-
lin appreciated it fully is shown by the following
citation from one of his letters to Jones :
"... You are likely to have great trouble. I
wish you well through it. You have shown your
abilities in fighting ; you have now an opportunity of
showing the other necessary part in the character
of a great chief, your abilities in policy."
Before this letter was received, however, mat-
ters had risen to a climax, which resulted in the
ejection of Jones and the assumption of the com-
mand by Landais. Immediately he arrived at
L'Orient, Jones hastened to get ready for leaving.
The Ariel, a small ship of twenty guns, had been
284 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
loaned by the French Government to carry such
supplies as could not be taken on the -Alliance.
Several American vessels with valuable cargoes
were awaiting his departure also, to sail under his
convoy.
Jones had gone on board the Alliance as usual,
as his duty demanded, and had been received
respectfully and his orders promptly obeyed. On
the morning of the 13th of June, being now for the
first time informed of the mutinous action of the
crew and the letters to Franklin, he mustered the
crew and caused his commission and Franklin's
first order to him to take command of the ship in
the Texel, and his last one, to carry her to Phila-
delphia, to be read to the men. He then addressed
the seamen, pointing out to them the obligations
they had assumed, the consequences of a refusal
to obey him on their part, and urged them to a
faithful performance of their duty. He asked them,
if any one had any complaints to make against him,
that they be made now. No reply was made to this
address, and no complaints were brought forward.
The men were then dismissed to their stations.
Shortly after this incident Jones went ashore.
Landais was advised of the whole situation imme-
diately, and sent a letter to Degges, the first lieu-
tenant, ordering him to assume the command of
the ship and retain it in the face of Jones or any one
else until Landais should receive an answer to his
demand to Franklin to be replaced in the command
of the Alliance. When he received this order, Lan-
dais stated that he would at once come on board and
take over the ship. Degges mustered the crew
LANDAIS SEIZES THE ALLIANCE. 285
again and read this letter. The adroit suggestions
of Mr. Lee and the insinuations as to Jones' alleged
betrayal of their interests by making off with the
prize money had so worked on the feelings of the
men that they at once declared for Landais, who,
on being notified, promptly repaired to the ship
and formally assumed command.
Dale and the officers of the Richard on the Alli-
ance, w r ho had not been aware of these last proceed-
ings, for they had been adroitly timed for their din-
ner hour when they were below, were apprised of
Landais' arrival by the cheering on deck. They pro-
tested against his assuming command, and were all
sent ashore without ceremony. Mr. Lee seems to
have suggested and approved of the action of Lan-
dais ; indeed, without his sanction the latter would
never have dared to take command of the ship.
On the afternoon of the same day Jones dis-
patched a letter to Franklin by express, relating
the circumstances, and then immediately followed in
person, which was an unnecessary thing to do. On
his arrival at Paris he found that peremptory orders
had already been sent post haste to L'Orient to de-
tain forcibly the Alliance, and reiterating the com-
mand to arrest Landais. Franklin, appreciating the
meddling of Lee, withdrew his request to Jones to
receive him as a passenger, and stated that he might
return to America in some of the other ships going
home under the convoy of the Alliance. Finding
nothing more to be done, after staying but two days,
Jones returned to L'Orient as quickly as possible.
He arrived on the morning of the 2Oth of June, hav-
ing been absent six days.
286 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
During this time the Alliance had been warped
out of the inner roads into the narrow strait called
Port Louis, which was inclosed by rocks and com-
manded by batteries, which she would have to pass
before she could reach the outer roads of Groix.
The peremptory orders to stop the ship had not ar-
rived, but the commander of the port under his pre-
vious orders had caused a barrier to be drawn across
the narrow strait of Port Louis, and had ordered
the forts to sink the frigate if she attempted to pass
out. When Jones arrived, a boat was sent off to
the ship by the port officer, carrying the king's
order for the arrest of Landais. He positively re-
fused to surrender himself. Franklin's latest orders
to Landais and the officers and men were then de-
livered, and were treated with equal contempt.
All this was another evidence of Landais' folly,
for the Alliance was completely in Jones' power.
He had but to give the word to have caused the bat-
teries to open fire and sink her. She could neither
have escaped nor made adequate reply. Indeed, it
is probable, from the character of her captain, offi-
cers, and crew, that she would have made little or
no fight. But, according to Jones' specific state-
ment, for France, the avowed ally of America, to
have opened fire upon an American ship, and to
have killed and wounded American sailors, would
have been a terrible misfortune, a thing greatly to
be deplored, and to be avoided if possible, lest the
present friendly relations between the two countries
should be impaired by this action. The aid of
France was vital to the American cause at this
juncture, and it was patent that every effort should
LANDAIS DEFIES THE COMMODORE. 287
be made to promote harmony rather than sow dis-
cord ; therefore Jones reluctantly requested the com-
mander to secure his batteries, open the barrier,
and allow the Alliance to get through the strait. The
French officers accordingly, in the absence of other
orders, stopped the preparations they had made to
detain the frigate, and expressed their admiration
for the magnanimity of Jones in allowing the Alli-
ance to go free. As soon as he received permission,
Landais warped the Alliance through the passage
between the rocks and anchored in Groix roads.
Safe out of harm's way, he had reached a position
from which he really could defy Jones and France at
last, and defy them he did, more boldly than ever.
It is impossible entirely to approve of Jones'
conduct in this complicated affair. He might have
gone on board the Alliance the day of the outbreak
and confronted Landais. His own personality was
so strong that it seems probable he could have re-
gained possession of the ship in despite of anything
the weak Landais could say or do. However, if
the spirit of the men had been so turned against him
that in his judgment this would have been imprac-
ticable, he certainly had the situation entirely in
his own hands when the Alliance lay under the guns
of the batteries. It was not necessary for the bat-
teries to open fire. If he had simply kept the pass
closed Landais would have been unable to get away,
and it is difficult to see how he could have avoided
surrendering himself and yielding up his ship
eventually. All that would have been necessary for
Jones to do would be to have patience ; that was a
thing, however, of which he had but little through-
288 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
out his life. If he did not desire to wait, he could
have opened fire upon the ship, taking the risk of
a rupture, or allowing the blame, if any arose, to fall
upon those who had put him in command of the
Alliance originally, and had continued him therein.
I venture to surmise that the first broadside would
have brought down the flag of the Alliance. In this
action he would have been entirely within his rights.
If Jones really wanted her, he could have easily se-
cured possession of the ship.
Instead of doing any of these things, he let Lan-
dais and the Alliance go. For this he is distinctly
censurable. It is, perhaps, not difficult to see why
he permitted her to escape. I have no doubt he
loathed the officers and men upon her. He was
probably sick of the sight of her. He could con-
template with no satisfaction whatever a cruise upon
her, especially with Arthur Lee as a passenger, and
he was a gentleman whom it would have been diffi-
cult to dispose of.
There was, it has been surmised, still another
and more pertinent reason. The Serapis was still in
the harbor. She had just been purchased by the
king. Jones' desire for her was as strong as ever
stronger, if anything. Upward of five hundred tons
of public stores and munitions of war still remained
to be taken to America. The Ariel could not begin
to carry it all. His dream was to beg or borrow
the Serapis, which, in conjunction with the Ariel,
should transport the stores to the United States, and
then be refitted for warlike cruising under his com-
mand. If he retained the Alliance this hope would
vanish. When the Alliance was warped out of the
THE ALLIANCE DEPARTS. 289
harbor he promptly wrote to Franklin suggesting
this plan. Meanwhile, he kept up a hot fire of orders
and letters upon Landais, who, being now out of
his power, treated his communications with silent
contempt. When Jones directed that his personal
baggage be sent off from the Alliance, Landais sent
it to him in disgraceful condition, trunks broken
open, papers scattered, and much of his private
property missing.
On the 28th he wrote to Landais ordering him
not to sail without his permission, and directing him
to send eighty of his best seamen riggers to assist
in equipping the Ariel. Landais sent him twenty-
two people, of whom he wished to be rid, with an
insolent note. When Jones wrote to him for the
balance of the men he had ordered, Landais would
not allow the officer carrying the order to come on
board. A few days after this he sailed for America,
with many of the men of the Bon Homme Rich-
ard, who still adhered to Jones, and who refused to
assist him in getting the ship under way, in irons in
the hold.
To close a troublesome subject, it may be stated
that the Alliance reached Boston in August. The
peculiar conduct of Landais on this cruise so
alarmed the officers and jeopardized the safety of
the ship, that by the advice of the meddlesome Lee
who was in this single instance justified in his
suggestions he was summarily deprived of the
command of the ship on the plea of insanity, and
kept closely confined till they reached Boston. No
one was more incensed against him than his whilom
upholder and defender, Lee. Landais was formally
20
290 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
tried by court-martial when he arrived in the United
States and dismissed the service. He got off lightly.
He should have been hanged from the yardarm of
his own ship as an example and a warning to muti-
nous traitors.
CHAPTER XV.
THE CRUISE OF THE ARIEL.
EARLY in the month of July Jones received the
sword which had been bestowed upon him by the
king. He commented enthusiastically upon its
beauty and its value, saying that it had cost twenty-
four hundred dollars a large sum for that day.
The month was passed in preparing the Ariel for de-
parture, and in a vigorous correspondence with
Franklin and his friends, feminine and otherwise.
On the 2d of August, in a note to the Prime Min-
ister, the Count de Vergennes, Jones informed him
that he was nearly ready to sail. The last of July
Franklin had sent him his final dispatches with the
Count de Vauban, who expected to sail with him,
but for unexplained reasons Jones did not take
his departure until the 4th of September, when the
Ariel was warped out to the open roads of Groix.
From the 4th of September to the 7th of October
he was detained, partly by contrary winds and partly
by a rumor, to which, perhaps, he should not have
given credence, that further dispatches were to be
sent to him. On the 7th of October, at two o'clock
in the afternoon, he weighed anchor and put to
sea, convoying three merchant ships. The wind,
291
292 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
being from the north-north.west, blew fair for their
departure, and the weather was mild and pleasant.
The next morning the wind shifted and came in
violent squalls from the southward. The ship was
not yet clear of the land. The island of Groix lay
about fifteen miles to the northeastward, and, as the
weather became very thick and the wind increased
until it was blowing a tremendous gale, they soon
lost sight of the shore to the leeward. In spite of
their efforts, they were unable to make any headway
against the storm, and were accordingly carried
down toward the Penmarque Rocks, a series of
sharp, low reefs, jagged needles of the sea, terminat-
ing the southeastern extremity of the peninsula of
Brittany, among the most dangerous in the world.
The ship was in that position above all others
dreaded by the mariner drifting upon a lee shore
in a gale of wind. The Ariel had been put under
close-reefed fore and main sails, and her head laid to
the northwest in the hope that she might stretch
along and clear the reefs ; but the wind, increasing
to a perfect hurricane, in the language of Mackenzie,
" smothered " the ship, at last obliging Jonec to furl
the courses and prevented him from showing even
a storm staysail.
In the report of the officers it is stated that the
storm had become so violent that " the lee fore
yardarm was frequently under water ; the lee gang-
way was laid entirely under water, and the lee side
of the waist was full." The water in the hold flowed
into the cockpit, notwithstanding the utmost efforts
of the chain pumps. The ship was very heavy laden,
and lay deep in the water, dipping her yardarms with
A TERRIFIC STORM.
293
every roll. As the tempest rose in violence it be-
came impossible to tell just where they were, as the
murky darkness of the s,torm hid every landmark.
It was evident, however, from an inspection of the
compass that they were still drifting toward the
shore. This fact was confirmed by the rapid shoal-
ing of the water, a fact Jones established by person-
ally taking successive casts with the hand lead.
There was no room to veer and get the ship headed
the other way. If there had been, the result would
probably have been no different. In the face of
such a storm she would have continued to drift to-
ward the reef. Their progress to leeward was fright-
fully rapid. The ship was leaking badly, and one
of the chain pumps had become choked and refused
to work. Destruction seemed inevitable. In all his
varied experiences Jones had seen nothing like the
storm. In his report he says that never before did
he fully conceive the awful majesty of a shipwreck.
In their distress, as a last resort, he determined to
anchor.
.A hasty consultation was had among the offi-
cers on the quarter-deck, and this desperate resort
was agreed upon. At eleven o'clock in the morn-
ing the best bower anchor w ? as let go with thirty
fathoms of cable. The effect was not perceptible.
The ship was not brought to, and continued to drift
broadside on toward the land in the trough of the
sea. She dragged her anchor as if it had been a
straw. Two other cables were spliced on and veered
out. Still she drove on. The pressure of the gale
upon the bare spars was tremendous. The wind
roared through the top-hamper with amazing ve-
294 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
locity. The masts quivered and buckled under the
awful strain to which they were subjected; the
standing rigging to windward stood out as taut and
rigid as if it had been cut from bars of steel. As the
frigate lay in the trough of the sea the mighty
waves tossed her about like a cockboat. Broad
sheets of foam swept over the deck, washing away
everything not tightly secured. To relieve the pres-
sure and get the ship to ride to her anchor, Jones
now ordered the weather shrouds of the foremast
to be cut, and the wind instantly snapped off the
mast above the deck ; with all its weight of spars and
rigging it fell to leeward and carried away the other
bower anchor and a kedge anchor, and smashed
up the head badly.
This afforded some relief, for immediately after
the anchor took hold and the ship gradually swung
head to the wind at last. Her drift toward the rocks
was not entirely checked, but while they were
hesitating as to what to do next, the mainmast, the
heel of which had been jerked out of its step by the
violent motion of the ship, so that it had been vi-
brating to and fro like a smitten reed, parted just
where it entered the main deck. The wind hurled
the immense mass of timber and cordage aft, where
it fell across the decks, carrying with it the mizzen-
mast, smashing the lee quarter gallery, and gener-
ally wrecking the after part of the vessel. The ship
was thus stripped of her spars except the bowsprit,
and they could do no more. If she did not bring to
her anchor and cease her drag toward the rocks,
over which the breakers could now be seen crashing
w ? ith terrible force, and with a roar heard above the
IN GOD'S HANDS.
295
mad noises of the tempest, they were lost. They
hastily cleared the wreck as they were able, letting it
drift to leeward, and waited with still hearts and
bated breaths for the next happening. No mere
seamanship, no human skill could save them now.
They were in God's hands. Since their other an-
chor had been lost by the fall of the foremast, if
their present anchor gave way they were helpless.
Fortunately the stripped ship, relieved of the tre-
mendous pressure of the wind upon her top-hamper,
at last rode to her anchor, and her drift on the rocks
was stopped. For the present they were saved.
They could do nothing now but wait and trust to
the strength of the iron fluke and the hempen
cable. Fortunately, both held.
For two days and three nights the Ariel swung
to that single anchor, and passively endured the tre-
mendous buffeting of wind and waves within a short
distance of the mighty reefs upon which, if she had
struck, every soul on board must have perished.
For the greater part of this time the motion of
the mastless ship was so violent that the most
experienced seaman could not keep his legs upon
the deck. On the I2th the gale had sufficiently
moderated to permit the crew to erect jury masts
under which they could regain the harbor. The
cable was hove short, but the anchor could not be
weighed, as it was probably caught upon a rock.
Indeed, nothing but a rock hold would have
saved them; so the cable was cut, and the bat-
tered Ariel limped back to L'Orient, which she
reached on the I3th of October. The gale was one
of the most severe with which that storm-bound
296 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
coast had ever been visited within the memory
of man. The whole shore was strewed with
wrecks and the bodies of drowned men. The
merchant ships of the convoy were lost, with hun-
dreds of other vessels. That the Ariel, in the most
dangerous position which could possibly have been
imagined even, escaped without loss of life was due
to the Providence of God and the brilliant seaman-
ship of her captain. Long afterward Richard Daie
wrote thus of his commander's conduct in these
trying circumstances :
" Never saw I such coolness and readiness in
such frightful circumstances as Paul Jones showed
in the nights and days when we lay off the Pen-
marques, expecting every moment to be our last;
and the danger was greater even than we were in
when the Bon Homme Richard fought the Serapis."
Two months were required to put the Ariel in
shape for sea once more. All the arms which she
was carrying out for the use of the army had been
so damaged by water as to be useless. They were
left behind and their place supplied by other cargo.
During this interval, when not occupied in superin-
tending the repairs to the ship, Jones amused him-
self with his usual prolific correspondence. He had
also a spirited encounter with one Thomas Truxtun,
afterward the distinguished naval officer, at that
time master of a privateer called the Independence.
Truxtun entered the harbor of L'Orient flying a
pennant, the use of which was restricted by act of
Congress to regularly commissioned vessels of war,
except in the case of privateers cruising alone. A
TRUXTUN RECEIVES A LESSON.
297
sharp correspondence was carried on between Jones
and Truxtun, who was a mere boy at the time.
Truxtun at first refused to haul down the offending
pennant, but was finally induced to do so by Richard
Dale and two heavily armed boats' crews from the
Ariel. Jones was not to be trifled with, and Trux-
tun received a good lesson in subordination and
obedience to law always of value to a privateer.*
While the Ariel was being refitted, Jones, with
his usual longing for a first-class ship of war a
thing he never enjoyed during the whole course of
his life through some influential friends made an
attempt to get the French Government to lend him
the new and handsome frigate Terpsichore, but his
request, as usual, was not complied with. Just be-
fore the Ariel sailed, Jones gave a grand entertain-
ment on board of her, to which he invited all his
friends, which closed with an exercise at general
quarters, followed by a representation of battle,
which greatly alarmed his fair visitors.
On the 1 8th of December he took his departure
once more. His last letters to Madame d'Ormoy
are very characteristic of Jones in his capacity as a
squire of dames, and well indicate his feelings at this
time:
" I can not leave France without expressing how
much I feel myself honoured and obliged by the
* Evidently Truxtun learned the lesson well, for in
the war with France he became one of the sternest and most
severe disciplinarians in the naval service, in spite of which
his crews adored him. See my books, Reuben James, A
Hero of the Forecastle ; and American Fights and Fighters.
298 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
generous attention that you have shown to- my repu-
tation in your journal. I will ever have the most
ardent desire to merit the spontaneous praise of
beauty and her pen ; and it is impossible to be more
grateful than I am for the very polite attentions I
received at Paris and Versailles. My particular
thanks are due to you, madam, for the personal
proofs I have received of your esteem and friend-
ship, and for the happiness you procured me in the
society of the charming countess, and other ladies
and gentlemen of your circle. But I have a favour
to ask of you, madam, which I hope you will grant
me. You tell me in your letter that the inkstand I
had the honour to present to you, as a small token
of my esteem, shall be reserved for the purpose of
writing what concerns me ; now I wish you to see
my idea in a more expanded light, and would have
you make use of that inkstand to instruct mankind,
and support the dignity and rights of human
nature."
In another letter to the same lady he says :
" It is impossible to be more sensible than I
am of the obligation conferred on me by your
attentions and kind remembrance, joined to that
of the belle comtesse, your fair daughters, and
the amiable ladies and gentlemen of your soci-
ety. I have returned without laurels and, what
is worse, without having been able to render
service to the glorious cause of liberty. I know
not why Neptune was in such anger, unless he
thought it was an affront in me to repair on his
ocean with so insignificant a force. It is cer-
A VAIN ATTEMPT.
2 99
tain that till the night of the 8th I did not fully
conceive the awful majesty of tempest and ship-
wreck. I can give you no just idea of the tremen-
dous scene that Nature then presented, which sur-
passed the reach even of poetic fancy and the pencil.
I believe no ship was ever before saved from an equal
danger off the point of the Penmarque rocks. I am
extremely sorry that the young English lady you
mention should have imbibed the national hatred
against me. I have had proofs that many of the first
and finest ladies of that nation are my friends. In-
deed, I can not imagine why any fair lady should be
my enemy, since, upon the large scale of universal
philanthropy, I feel, acknowledge, and bend before
the sovereign power of beauty. The English may
hate me, but / will force them to esteem me too." *
The voyage was uneventful. Jones chose the
southern passage, which was less frequented by
ships than the more direct route ; the value of his
cargo being so great and the force of his vessel so
small, he did not wish to run any risk of being cap-
tured on this cruise. When they had reached a
point about twelve hundred miles east of Florida
and nine hundred miles north of Barbadoes, in lati-
tude 26 N., longitude 60 W., they were chased
by a sail, which appeared to be a large frigate.
Jones, for the reasons mentioned, endeavored by
crowding sail on the Ariel to escape his reputa-
* That was beyond his power. They never did and to
this day do not "esteem" him other than a pirate. His
courage and ability are, however, alike unquestioned by
friends and foes.
300 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
tion for courage and intrepidity was sufficiently high
to allow him to run away without any imputation
being warranted by this action but the stranger
had the heels of the Ariel, and gradually over-
hauled her. Night came on before she came
within range, and Jones hoped to run away from
her in the darkness ; but his efforts to elude his
pursuer were unavailing, and when day dawned
she was still close at hand.
The wind fell during the morning, and the
two ships maintained their relative positions all day.
Toward evening the breeze became stronger again,
and the stranger began to draw up on the Ariel. As
she came nearer, Jones discovered that she was not
so formidable a vessel as he had imagined, and he
determined to effect her capture. Making a great
show of endeavoring to escape, therefore, he cleared
ship for action, sent his men to quarters, and per-
mitted his pursuer to overhaul him. She ranged
alongside the lee beam just at nightfall. Both ships
were flying the English flag. Jones was ready for
action, the other ship was not. The quartermaster
of the Ariel, whose duty it was to hoist the flags, had
unfortunately allowed one end of the halliards to
escape him. Jones had intended, as the stranger
ranged alongside, to haul down the English flag
and substitute the American colors, then, crossing
the enemy's bows, pour in a broadside and capture
her by boarding; but this petty neglect, or trifling
accident, on the part of the quartermaster made it
impossible to haul down the flag at the appointed
time, so the opportunity was lost and the project
had to be given over. Vessels of war, when maneu-
ACTION WITH THE TRIUMPH. 301
vering for position, frequently sail under strange
colors, but it is a point of honor, invariably observed,
which, so far as my knowledge goes, has not been
disregarded in civilized warfare if that phrase be
permissible to fight under one's own flag.
Having lost his opportunity from this unfortu-
nate mischance, Jones necessarily entered into a con-
versation with the other ship, while he made prep-
arations for further maneuvering. What is. known
in sea parlance as " a regular gam " ensued. The
conversation lasted for some time, during which he
discovered that their pursuer was the Triumph, an
American-built ship of twenty guns, Captain John
Pindar, an equal match for the Ariel. She was
a British privateer, though Jones and his men con-
sidered her a man-of-war. Pindar probably told
them so to increase his prestige. After learning all
that he could about English affairs in America from
the garrulous captain of the privateer, who must
have beemextraordinarily stupid, Jones directed him
to lower a boat and come on board with his com-
mission to prove that he was really an Englishman.
Pindar refused to do this, and Jones, watch in hand,
said he would allow him just five minutes for reflec-
tion as to the disastrous consequences of a refusal
to comply with this request. During this interval
the Englishman endeavored to clear ship for action,
his men not having gone to quarters before a
great piece of carelessness and neglect.
At the expiration of the appointed time, Pindar
still proving obdurate, Jones backed his ship on the
weather quarter of the Triumph, put his helm up,
crossed her stern, and poured in a broadside which
3Q2 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
raked her at short range and naturally did much
execution. He then ranged alongside the lee beam
of the privateer, and for ten minutes poured in a
vigorous fire. The resistance of the enemy, at first
spirited, had grown more feeble, until at the end of
that time Pindar hauled down his flag and begged
for quarter, saying when he surrendered that half
his crew were killed or wounded. The Ariel's men
left their stations and gave three cheers, but the
erstwhile stupid Pindar proved to be a more wily
antagonist than they imagined. His ship had
gradually moved ahead of the Ariel during the con-
test, and now, suddenly putting up his helm and
throwing out his studding sails, he ran off dead be-
fore the wind, with all his killed and wounded. The
unsuspecting and astonished Americans on the Ariel
endeavored to follow the man who had so cleverly
eluded them, but their overloaded ship was no
match in sailing for the swift privateer, which soon
made good her escape in the night.
Jones was naturally much disgusted at the out-
come of this engagement, and in his journal he
properly comments upon Pindar's action as follows :
" The English captain may properly be called
a knave, because, after he surrendered his ship,
begged for and obtained quarter, he basely ran
away, contrary to the laws of naval war and the
practice of civilized nations."
Jones stated that he never had seen a ship bet-
ter fought by a crew than the Ariel had been in
this instance. However, the usual conspiracy to
rise and take the ship was discovered among the
ARRIVAL AT PHILADELPHIA. 303
English members of the crew later on. It was
thwarted by his vigorous measures, and on the i/th
of February, 1781, the Ariel dropped anchor in the
harbor of Philadelphia, just three years, three
months, and sixteen days from the departure of the
Ranger at Portsmouth.
CHAPTER XVI.
CAREER IN THE UNITED STATES TO THE CLOSE OF
THE WAR.
WHEN Jones arrived at Philadelphia, the Board
of Admiralty was engaged in investigating the delay
in bringing the stores from France. Franklin,
Jones, and Landais were under discussion. For his
share in the performance, and for other actions men-
tioned, Landais had already been punished, as we
have seen. Jones, therefore, was at once summoned
before the board, but before he reported to them
they dismissed the summons and instead requested
him to answer in writing an exhaustive series of
questions covering his actions from the time of his
arrival at L'Orient the year before. Jones immedi-
ately set about preparing his replies, meanwhile
sending Franklin's note and De Sartine's letter to
the President to Congress, which, on the 2/th of
February, adopted the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That the Congress entertain a high
sense of the distinguished bravery and military con-
duct of John Paul Jones, Esq., captain in the navy
of the United States, and particularly in his victory
over the British frigate Serapis on the coast of Eng-
land, which was attended with circumstances so
304
THANKED BY CONGRESS. 305
brilliant as to excite general applause and admira-
tion.
" That the Minister Plenipotentiary of these
United States, at the Court of Versailles, communi-
cate to his Most Christian Majesty, the high satis-
faction Congress has received from the conduct and
gallant behaviour of Captain John Paul Jones,
which have merited the attention and approbation
of his Most Christian Majesty, and that his Majes-
ty's offer of adorning Captain Jones with a Cross
of Military Merit, is highly acceptable to Congress."
In accordance with the permission conveyed by
these flattering resolutions, the French Minister, M.
de la Luzerne, gave a splendid entertainment, to
which the members of Congress and the principal
citizens of Philadelphia were invited. Before this
distinguished company, in the name of the king, the
commodore, wearing his beautiful sword, was in-
vested with the cross of a Knight of the Order of
Military Merit. It is stated that Jones habitually
wore this decoration thereafter, and referred to him-
self, and desired to be addressed, by the title of
Chevalier, which was conferred with it.
On the 28th of March, having carefully consid-
ered his answers to the questions, the board de-
clared itself as fully satisfied that the delay had not
been owing to Jones or Franklin, and stated to Con-
gress in an enthusiastic document that the conduct
of Jones merited some distinguished mark of appro-
bation. In accordance with this recommendation,
on the 1 4th of April the following resolution was
passed :
306 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" That the thanks of the United States, in Con-
gress assembled, be given to Captain John Paul
Jones, for the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity with
which he hath supported the honour of the Ameri-
can flag ; for his bold and successful enterprises, to
redeem from captivity the citizens of these States,
who had fallen under the power of the enemy ; and,
in general, for the good conduct and eminent serv-
ices by which he has added lustre to his character
and to the American arms.
" That the thanks of the United States, in Con-
gress assembled, be also given to the officers and
men who have faithfully served under him from
time to time, for their steady affection to the cause
of their country, and the bravery and perseverance
they have manifested therein."
The thanks of Congress, the highest honor an
officer can receive, were given to but five other offi-
cers during the Revolution viz., to Washington, for
the capture of Boston ; to Gates, for taking Bur-
goyne ; to Wayne, for the storming of Stony Point ;
to Morgan, for the victory at the Cowpens ; and to
Greene, for his success at Eutaw Springs. Jones,
therefore, stood in distinguished company.
On the igih of May, to all of these honors was
added a further evidence of esteem, which was per-
haps as valuable as any that he had received. It
came in the shape of the following letter from
Washington :
" SIR : My partial acquaintance with either our
naval or commercial affairs makes it altogether im-
possible for me to account for the unfortunate delay
WASHINGTON'S TRIBUTE. 307
of those articles of military stores and clothing
which have been so long provided in France. Had
I any particular reasons to have suspected you of
being accessory to that delay, which I assure you
has not been the case, my suspicions would have
been removed by the very full and satisfactory an-
swers, which you have, to the best of my judgment,
made to the questions proposed to you by the Board
of Admiralty, and upon which that board have, in
their report to Congress, testified the high sense
which they entertain of your merit and services.
" Whether our naval affairs have, in general,
been well or ill conducted it would be presumptuous
for me to determine. Instances of bravery and good
conduct in several of our officers have not, however,
been wanting. Delicacy forbids me to mention
that particular one which has attracted the admira-
tion of all the world, and which has influenced a
most illustrious monarch to confer a mark of his
favour which can only be obtained by a long and
honourable service, or by the performance of some
brilliant action.
" That you may long enjoy the reputation you
have so justly acquired is the sincere wish of, Sir,
your most obedient and very humble servant,
" GEORGE WASHINGTON."
An attempt was made in Congress to promote
him to the grade of rear admiral which he certainly
deserved and a resolution to that effect was intro-
duced. Owing, however, to jealousy among certain
other officers whom he would have superseded, the
effort fell through. This would have settled the
308 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
long and tiresome contention on the question of
relative rank, and naturally would have been most
agreeable to Jones. However, the matter was set-
tled in a more indirect but perhaps equally satisfac-
tory way.
On the 23d of June, Robert Morris became Min-
ister of Marine in succession to the Board of Ad-
miralty, which was abolished, arid on that same day
Congress resolved to take a ballot three days later
to designate the commander of the America, a mag-
nificent ship of the line, building at Portsmouth,
which was then believed to be nearly ready for
launching. On the 26th of June, the ballot being
taken, it was found that Paul Jones had been unani-
mously chosen for the position. Since the act of
Congress on the I5th of November, 1776, made a
captain of a ship of from twenty to forty guns equal
to a lieutenant colonel, while a captain of a ship of
forty guns and upward was made equal to a colonel,
and as he was the only officer intrusted with so large
a command, Jones was thus in effect placed at the
head of the navy list. He certainly belonged there.
With his usual good sense he notes in his journal
his satisfaction, as follows :
" Thus Congress took a delicate method to avoid
cabal and to do justice. It was more agreeable
to Captain Jones to be so honourably elected cap-
tain of the line than to have been, as was pro-
posed by the committee, raised at once to the
rank of rear admiral, because Congress had not
then the means of giving a command suitable to
that rank."
COMMANDS THE AMERICA.
309
By direction of Robert Morris, at this time he
presented his accounts to Congress. He had re-
ceived no pay and but little prize money since his
entry into the service, and, as has been stated, had
advanced large sums of money from his private
funds for the payment of officers and crew. The
Government indebtedness to him amounted to some
twenty-seven thousand dollars, but no money was
forthcoming, consequently on the 28th of July he
was actually compelled to ask for an advance of four
hundred pounds to pay current expenses and small
debts in Philadelphia, and enable him to proceed to
New Hampshire and enter upon his duties. This he
appears to have received. He stopped en route at
New Rochelle, where he was handsomely enter-
tained by Washington and de Rochambeau, both
of whom he had great pleasure in meeting. As he
received a hint at the army headquarters that his
decoration and title might be obnoxious to the
sturdy New Englanders, he thereafter discontinued
wearing the cross for a space. He reached Ports-
mouth toward the last of August, and found that
the America was still on the ways and would not be
ready to put to sea for months. This was a great
disappointment to him, but he set to work with his
usual zeal to further the work of getting the ship
ready for launching.
During his wanderings he had collected a most
valuable professional library, and he now found lei-
sure to devote a good part of his time to study, some
of the results of which appeared in the improve-
ments which he carried out on the America. As
usual, he also resumed his correspondence. In his
310 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
letters of this period are many excellent suggestions
looking to the welfare and future development of
the naval service. Many of these suggestions were
subsequently adopted in the service. The following
letter, dated August 12, 1782, which he received
from John Adams, then minister at The Hague, is
pleasant reading:
" The command of the America could not have
been more judiciously bestowed; and it is with im-
patience that I wish her at sea, where she will do
honour to her name. Nothing gives me so much
surprise, or so much regret, as the inattention of my
countrymen to their navy ; it is a bulwark as essen-
tial to us as it is to Great Britain.* It is less costly
than armies, and more easily removed from one end
of the United States to the other.
" Rodney's victory has intoxicated Britain again
to such a degree that I think there will be no peace
for some time. Indeed, if I could see a prospect
of half a dozen line of battle ships under the Ameri-
can flag, commanded by Commodore John Paul
Jones, engaged with an equal British force, I appre-
hend the event would be so glorious for the United
States, arid ay, so sure a foundation for their pros-
perity, that it would be a rich compensation for a
continuance of the war."
When Jones heard of the movement which re-
sulted in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown,
he had expressed a desire to serve as a volunteer
* The remarks of John Adams as to the need of a great
navy are even more apposite now than they were then.
LETTER FROM LAFAYETTE. 311
in the army for the campaign under Lafayette. He
pined for action always. On this subject he received
the following affectionate letter from that gallant
Frenchman :
" December 22, 1781.
" I have been honoured with your polite favour,
my dear Paul Jones, but before it reached me I was
already on board the Alliance, and every minute ex-
pecting to put to sea. It would have afforded me
great satisfaction to pay my respects to the inhab-
itants of Portsmouth, and the State in which you
are for the present. As to the pleasure to take you
by the hand, my dear Paul Jones, you know my af-
fectionate sentiments, and my very great regard for
you, so that I need not add anything on that subject.
" Accept of my best thanks for the kind expres-
sions in your letter. His Lordship's [Lord Corn-
wallis] downfall is a great event, and the greater
as it was equally and amicably shared by the two
allied nations. Your coming to the army I had the
honour to command would have been considered as
a very flattering compliment to one who loves you
and knows your worth. I am impatient to hear that
you are ready to sail, and I am of opinion that we
ought to unite under you every Continental ship
we can muster, with such a body of well-appointed
marines [troupes de mer] as might cut a good figure
ashore, and then give you plenty of provisions and
carte blanche."
It would appear from the letters that both
Adams and Lafayette held a similar opinion of the
capacity of the great commodore,
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
On the occasion of the rejoicings at Portsmouth
over the surrender of Cormvallis he ventured to
assume his cross of knighthood again, and, finding
that no objections were made, he continued to wear
it on all occasions, and he also resumed the title
of Chevalier. The fall, the winter, and the follow-
ing summer passed quietly and pleasantly for the
little captain, busily engaged in writing, waiting,
working, planning, and drawing. On the whole I
think this must have been, after Paris, the happiest
period of his life. He made many friends, and was
much looked up to by the people of Portsmouth and
vicinity. There was a spice of excitement about his
work as well, which relieved the monotony, for the
enemy conceived various projects to destroy the
America, which could not be put in operation owing
to the vigorous watchfulness of Jones, who armed
and drilled and exercised his workmen for guarding
the ship. The birth of the French Dauphin was
celebrated elaborately in the summer of 1782.
Toward the last of August the ship w r as about
ready for launching, and Jones cherished high
hopes of soon getting to sea in her. Unfortunately,
however, a squadron of French ships of the line,
under the Marquis de Vaudreuil, entered the harbor
of Boston at this time, and one of them, named the
Magnifique, was stranded on a rock and lost. Con T
gress. by a resolution dated the 3d of September,
presented the America to the French king as a rec-
ompense for the loss of the Magnifique, and on the
4th of September Morris sadly acquainted Jones
with the decision. To be compelled to turn over the
great ship, in which he had hoped to do such bril-
THE INDIEN AGAIN.
313
liant service, to the French was a tremendous disap-
pointment to the commodore, but he wrote in so
noble and magnanimous a manner to Morris on the
subject that the latter at once said to him that the
sentiments which he had expressed would always re-
flect the highest honor upon his character. In fact,
Jones' words made so strong an impression upon
the mind of Morris that he immediately submitted
his letter to Congress.
The America was launched on the 5th of No-
vember. The operation of getting her into the
water was a difficult one on account of the peculiar
lay of the land opposite the ways, but Jones accom-
plished it with his usual skill and address. When
the ship was safely moored he turned her over to
the Chevalier de Martigne, the former captain of
the Magnifique, and on the next day he started for
Philadelphia. The America was reputed to be one
of the most beautiful and effective ships afloat.
Morris, who was a great admirer and an old
friend of Jones, now desired to place him in com-
mand of that vessel which had been the object of his
desire for so many years, the frigate Indien, which,
by a queer combination of circumstances, had
finally been brought to Philadelphia. The King of
France, having no use for the ship, had lent her
to the Chevalier de Luxembourg, who had entered
into a business arrangement with a certain sea cap-
tain named Gillon, who was employed by the State
of South Carolina to command a small naval force
which had been equipped for the protection of her
coasts, Gillon assuming the title of commodore.
The Indien, now called the South Carolina, had
314 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
been a rather fortunate cruiser. Gillon had captured
a number of merchantmen, and had joined in an-
other successful expedition to New Providence.
He had then proceeded to Philadelphia. As he was
indebted to the United States for advances of large
sums of money, and as he had made no accounting
to the Chevalier de Luxembourg for his share of
the prizes, it was thought by Robert Morris and
Luzerne, the French Minister, who represented
Luxembourg, that if they could get control of this
frigate, by placing it under Jones' command with
other ships, they could create a formidable force to
cruise against the enemy.
But Gillon contrived to evade the legal process
by which the claimants sought to insure the pay-
ment of their dues, and, in spite of the efforts made
to detain him, he succeeded in carrying the Indien
to sea, where she was promptly captured just as she
cleared the capes of the Delaware by the Diomede,
the Astrea, and the Quebec, three English frigates
stationed particularly to intercept her.
Disappointed again in his hope of getting a com-
mand by these untoward circumstances, Jones re-
quested permission to embark as a volunteer in the
squadron of De Vaudreuil, which was destined to
take part in a proposed grand expedition to France
and Spain against Jamaica. Morris forwarded Jones'
request to Congress with a strong recommendation,
and that body at once passed the following resolu-
tions :
" Resolved, That the agent of marine be informed
that Congress, having a high sense of the merit and
REJOICING IN PEACE. ^5
services of Captain J. P. Jones, and being disposed
to favor the zeal manifested by him to acquire im-
provement in the line of his profession, do grant
the permission which he requests, and that the said
agent be instructed to recommend him accordingly
to the countenance of his Excellency, the Marquis
de Vaudreuil."
Admiral de Vaudreuil was graciously pleased to
receive the chevalier on his flagship, the Triom-
phante, where he treated him with the highest
consideration, even sharing his cabin with him.
The expedition came to nothing, and though
Jones probably enjoyed ample opportunity for ob-
serving the handling of the fleet, he saw no actual
service, to his great disappointment ; instead of
which he became seriously ill with intermittent
fever. At Porto Cabello, on the 4th of April, 1783,
he received the news of the signing of the treaty of
peace, and this stern warrior, who was supposed to
live only for fighting, thus expressed himself con-
cerning the subject :
" The most brilliant success, and the most in-
structive experience in war, could not have given
me a pleasure comparable with that which I re-
ceived when I learned that Great Britain had, after
so long a contest, been forced to acknowledge the
independence and sovereignty of the United States
of America."
Jones shortly thereafter left the French fleet and
returned to Philadelphia, where he arrived on the
1 8th of May, 1783. He was still very ill. He car-
316 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ried with him the two following letters to the
French Minister from de Vaudreuil and the Baron
de Viomenil, who commanded the land forces on
board the fleet.
From the Marquis de Vaudreuil :
" M. Paul Jones, who embarked with me, re-
turns to his beloved country. I was very glad to
have him. His well-deserved reputation caused me
to accept his company with much pleasure, and I
had no doubt that we should meet with some occa-
sions in which his talents might be displayed. But
peace, for which I can not but rejoice, interposes an
obstacle which renders our separation necessary.
Permit me, sir, to pray you to recommend him to
his chiefs. The particular acquaintance I have
formed with him since he has been on board the
Triomphante makes me take a lively interest in his
fortunes, and I shall feel much obliged if you find
means of doing him services."
From the Baron de Viomenil :
" M. Paul Jones, who will have the honour of
delivering to you, sir, this letter, has for five months
deported himself among us with such wisdom and
modesty as add infinitely to the reputation gained
by his courage and exploits. I have. reason to be-
lieve that he has preserved as much the feeling of
gratitude and attachment toward France as of pa-
triotism and devotion to the cause of America.
Such being his titles to attention, I take the liberty
of recommending to you his interests, near the
President and Congress."
VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS.
317
lie was in some doubt as to his future career,
but for the present the state of his health rendered
it necessary for him to abstain from active duty.
As a matter of fact, there was practically no Ameri-
can navy in existence at the close of the war, and
no duty for him to undertake. The commodore's
constitution was much shattered, and the wasting
fever still clung to him. He removed, therefore,
by the advice of his physician, to the village of
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he passed the sum-
mer in rest and retirement, and his health gradually
improved under the careful treatment he received.
He seems to have had in mind the project of set-
tling down and forming an establishment some-
where, and marrying " some fair daughter of lib-
erty," and he wrote to some friends in regard to an
estate he desired to purchase near Newark, New
Jersey. However, the design fell through, mainly
because he was unable to realize upon his resources,
as his expense account had not been paid by Con-
gress, and no prize money was yet forthcoming.
While awaiting the complete restoration of his
health he prepared several .plans for organizing a
navy for the new country, all of which are distin-
guished by his usual insight and skill. Many of the
plans, including the germ of a proposed naval
academy in the shape of a schoolship filled with
cadets, were adopted with profit to the naval serv-
ice and the country in after years. But the new na-
tion was too poor and the central government too
weak at that time to accept any of these suggestions.
Finally, by an act of Congress, dated November I,
1783, in accordance with the report of a committee
318 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of which Mr. Arthur Lee was a member sin-
gular revolution of time which put him in the posi-
tion of upholding Jones ! he was appointed a spe-
cial commissioner to solicit and receive the money
due from France for the prizes taken by the Bon
Homme Richard and his squadron. He was, of
course, to act under the direction of the American
Minister, Franklin, and was required to give bond
to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars for
the faithful performance of his duty. It is an evi-
dence of his high reputation for probity and honor
that he found no difficulty in securing signers to his
bond.
CHAPTER XVII.
PRIZE AGENT IN FRANCE AND DENMARK LAST
VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES A BLOT ON THE
ESCUTCHEON FAMOUS PASSAGE OF THE BALTIC.
ON the loth of November Jones sailed from
Philadelphia to Havre in the packet Washington.
Being detained by contrary winds, however, he put
into Plymouth on the 3Oth of November, his first
visit to England, save as an enemy, for many years.
He there left the ship and went to London for a con-
ference with Adams, the minister, who informed him
that his dispatches for Franklin probably contained
instructions for concluding the commercial treaty
with England, and advised him to hasten. He there-
fore repaired immediately to Paris, where he arrived
on the 4th of December. He was most kindly re-
ceived by the Marechal de Castries, the new Min-
ister of Marine, and by the king and queen. So-
ciety, too, welcomed him with open arms. He im-
mediately set about the task which had been allotted
to him, with his characteristic energy. For a year
and a half he successfully combated the various
efforts of the French Government to make deduc-
tions from the amount realized from the sale of the
prizes on one pretext or another, and on the 23d of
319
320 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
October, 1784, de Castries at last approved of the
account.
There were further delays, as usual, and the mat-
ter dragged until January, 1785, when he wrote to
de Castries as follows :
" From the great number of affairs more impor-
tant that engage your attention, I presume this, little
matter which concerns me, in a small degree per-
sonally, but chiefly as the agent of the brave men
who served under my orders in Europe, may have
escaped your memory. My long silence is a proof
that nothing but necessity could have prevailed on
me to take the liberty of reminding your Excellency
of your promise."
As usual, his persistence at last received its re-
ward in the shape of an order on the Royal Auditor
at L'Orient for the money. He set out for L'Orient
in July, and there stirred up a further nest of
troubles, which, however, he managed to triumph
over by the display of his usual qualities, and at the
end of September, 1785, the account, amounting to
one hundred and eighty-one thousand livres, etc.,
was paid to him.* He charged no commission for
collecting this money, but his expenses for the
period of his sojourn in France were placed at the
large sum of forty-eight thousand livres; to this
was added thirteen thousand livres as his share of
the prize money, making a total of sixty-one thou-
sand livres, which he appropriated to himself. After
* Nearly $40,000, equivalent in that day to much more
than at present.
TftE PRIZE MONEY IS PAID.
321
paying certain persons then living in France who
were entitled to share in the prize money, he turned
over to Thomas Jefferson, who had succeeded
Franklin, the sum of one hundred and twelve thou-
sand livres, to be returned to the United States
for the use of the officers and men entitled to par-
ticipate in the distribution.
The charges that he made for his personal ex-
penses were certainly very large, but there is not
the slightest reason to infer, as has been insinuated,
that "he falsified the account every reason to think
the contrary, in fact. I have no doubt that he actu-
ally spent all that he claimed to have done prob-
ably more, for he was as apt to spend as he was to
fight but the amount is greatly in excess of what
should have been properly expended, or at least
charged against the total for legitimate living ex-
penses. As I have stated, however, he was su-
premely indifferent to money, his own or other
people's, and it passed easily through his hands;
although, so far as is known, he avoided debts
and promptly paid his bills. He had great ideas
as to the exalted nature of his position and the
dignity of the country he represented, and he
did not stint himself in anything. It was an
expensive court, and he ruffled it royally with
the best. He moved as an equal in an extrava-
gant and gay society, and he allowed no considera-
tions as to economy to restrain him from standing
among the freest and highest. We need not cen-
sure him too severely in the premises, for the ac-
count was afterward investigated by Congress and
his expenditures approved.
22
322 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
During his long stay jn France the fertile mind
of the chevalier was busied with various projects to
advance his fortunes, among which was a design
which he conceived in conjunction with the famous
navigator and explorer Ledyard, who had gone
around the world with the more famous Captain
Cook. The two men proposed to engage in the
fur trade in the then comparatively unexplored
and unknown waters of the Pacific Ocean. The
affair assumed a considerable state of forwardness,
but was finally dropped on account of lack of
necessary funds, the expenses proving much
greater than either of the projectors had imagined
they would be. In view of the vast fortunes
which have been made subsequently in pursuance
of this very idea, the conception throws an in-
teresting light upon the keen business quality of
the commodore's mind.* As a light relaxation he
had his bust made by the celebrated sculptor Hou-
don, copies of which he presented, with wide gener-
osity, to a number of his friends. The bust was
made at the instance of the French Masonic lodge
of Three Sisters, of which he was an honored
member.
Early in 1787, upon the advice of Jefferson, he
determined to repair to Denmark to see what he
could do to further the payment of the claim for
indemnity, amounting to forty thousand pounds,
caused by the delivery of the prizes of his famous
squadron to the English at Bergen. He had
* Quite what might have been expected from a "canny
Scot." But it must not be forgotten that the chevalier had
been a trader before he became a fighter.
RETURNS TO THE UNITED STATES.
323
reached Brussels on his journey to Copenhagen
when he decided to return to America for two
reasons: In the first place, Jefferson had no author-
ity to approve the account of the commodore in
the matter of prize money recently received from
France. He had simply acted as a medium of trans-
mittal of the balance handed him to the United
States. The Treasury Board of Audit, to which the
account and the accompanying balance had been
submitted, strongly disapproved of the large item
covering personal expenses, and Jones, when he
heard their views, felt it incumbent upon him to
return to America immediately to insure the ac-
ceptance of his statement and the adjustment of
the account. In the second place, another mo-
tive for his return was on account of lack of funds.
He had expected to receive at Brussels remittances
from some investments in bank stock in the United
States to enable him to proceed to Copenhagen,
but they were not forthcoming. It would appear
that he had spent all of his prize money, etc., which
indicates his careless extravagance in monetary
matters.* Accordingly, he abandoned his Danish
trip for the time, and returned to the United States
in the spring of 1787.
His explanations of his personal expenditures,
while they may not have convinced the auditors,
were apparently satisfactory to Congress, to which
the matter had been referred, for his accounts were
soon approved, and Congress did him a singular
honor in passing the following resolutions, which
* Very unlike a "canny Scot" in this instance.
324 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
certainly could never have been adopted if there
had been in the minds of any of the members the
least cloud upon his financial reputation :
" Resolved, That a medal of gold be struck, and
presented to the Chevalier Paul Jones in commem-
oration of the valor and brilliant service of that
officer in the command of a squadron of American
and French ships under the flag and commission of
the United States, off the coast of Great Britain, in
the late war; and that the Honourable Mr. Jeffer-
son, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States
at the court of Versailles, have the same executed
with the proper devices."
The fact that eight years had elapsed since the'
event commemorated shows that this action of Con-
gress was not the result of any sudden enthusiasm,
but was deliberate and. therefore more valuable.
In addition to this unique tribute to his worth
and services, the same august body addressed the
following personal letter to the king, Louis XVI :
" Great and beloved Friend : We, the United
States, in Congress assembled, in consideration
of the distinguished mark of approbation with
which your Majesty has been pleased to honour the
Chevalier John Paul Jones, as well as from a sense
of his merit, have unanimously directed a medal of
gold to be struck and presented to him, in com-
memoration of his valour and brilliant services
while commanding a squadron of French and
American ships, under our flag and commission,
off the coast of Great Britain in the late war.
LETTER TO THE KING.
325
" As it is his earnest desire to acquire knowledge
in his profession, we cannot forbear requesting your
Majesty to permit him to embark in your fleets of
evolution, where only it will be probably in his
power to acquire that knowledge, which may here-
after render him most extensively useful.
" Permit us to repeat to your Majesty our sin-
cere assurances that the various and important
benefits for which we are indebted to your friend-
ship will never cease to interest us in whatever may
concern the happiness of your Majesty, your family,
and people. We pray God to keep you, our great
and beloved friend, under his holy protection.
" Done at the City of New York, the sixteenth
day of October, in the year of our Lord 1787, and
of our sovereignty and independence the twelfth."
This \vas presumably a reply to the official
communication of De Sartine which has been cited
before. So far as I know, Jones remains to this day
the only officer so commended. Before this action
of Congress he had written the following letter to
Jay, the Secretary of State, which may have sug-
gested the official letter to the French king:
"... My private business here being already
finished, I shall in a few days re-embark for Europe,
in order to proceed to the court of Denmark. It is
my intention to go by the way of Paris, in order
to obtain a letter to the French Minister at Copen-
hagen, from the Count de Montmorin, as the one I
obtained is from the Count de Vergennes. It would
be highly flattering to me if I could carry a letter
with me from Congress to his most Christian Ma-
326 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
jesty, thanking him for the squadron he did us the
honour to support under our flag. And on this oc-
casion, sir, permit me, with becoming diffidence, to
recall the attention of my sovereign to the letter of
recommendation I brought with me from the court
of France dated 3Oth of May, 1780. It would be
pleasing to me if that letter should be found to merit
a place on the journals of Congress. Permit me also
to entreat that Congress will be pleased to read the
letter I received from the Minister of Marine, when
his Majesty deigned to bestow on me a golden-
hilted sword, emblematical of the happy alliance, an
honour which his Majesty never conferred on any
other foreign officer. . . .
'* It is certain that I am much flattered by re-
ceiving a gold sword from the most illustrious mon-
arch now living; but I had refused to accept his
commission on two occasions before that time,
when some firmness was necessary to resist the
temptation ; he was not my sovereign. I served the
cause of freedom, and honours from my sovereign
would be more pleasing. Since the year 1775, when
I displayed the American flag for the first time with
my own hands, I have been constantly devoted to
the interests of America. Foreigners have, perhaps,
given me too much credit, and this may have raised
my ideas of my services above their real value ; but
my zeal can never be overrated.
" I should act inconsistently if I omitted to men-
tion the dreadful situation of our unhappy fellow citi-
zens in slavery at Algiers. Their almost hopeless
fate is a deep reflection on our national character in
Europe. I beg leave to influence the humanity of
THE PRISONERS IN ALGIERS.
327
Congress in their behalf, and to propose that some
expedient may be adopted for their redemption. A
fund might be raised for that purpose by a duty of a
shilling per month from seamen's wages throughout
the continent, and I am persuaded that no difficulty
would be made to that requisition."
This is the first mention of a matter which had
recently come to his notice, and ever after engaged
his attention the dreadful situation of the Ameri-
cans held captive in the Barbary States. The first
public agitation for the amelioration of their unfor-
tunate condition came from him, and the glorious
little struggle by which the United States, a few
years after his death, broke the power of these
pirates, and alone among the nations of the world
made them respect a national flag, had its origin
in the love and sympathy of Paul Jones for the
prisoner wherever he might be a significant fact
generally forgotten.
On the 25th of October Congress passed some
strong resolutions on the subject of the failure of
Denmark to pay the claim referred to above, and
instructed Jefferson to dispatch the Chevalier Paul
Jones to prosecute the claim at the Danish court,
stating, however, that no final settlement or adjust-
ment must be made without the approval of the
minister. There was a decided difference between
the two commissions with which Congress honored
Jones.
In the first instance, in France, he was simply
to obtain what had been actually received by the
French Government from the sale of certain prizes ;
328 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the amount in question was not in negotiation save
for some allowances or deductions which did not
greatly affect the total one way or the other. In
other words, he was simply to collect, if he could, a
just and admitted debt, and, after deducting ex-
penses, divide it in accordance with a certain recog-
nized principle so far as his own share, or the share
of any one in Europe, was concerned, and remit the
balance to Congress for action. In the second in-
stance, he was charged with the more delicate and
responsible work of pressing a claim for heavy dam-
ages based on the estimated value of prizes which
the Danish Government had illegally returned to
their original owners, the whole transaction on
their part constituting an unfriendly and unlawful
act, which could easily be magnified into a casus
belli. In the first case he was to collect a bill for
forty thousand dollars ; in the second, to secure an
admittance of obligation, establish the justice of a
claim for five times the first amount, and force a
payment. The second commission was the more
honorable because the more responsible, and is an-
other proof of the continued and, in fact, increased
confidence in him which was felt by Congress.
The propriety, therefore, of associating him with
Thomas Jefferson, by requiring the approval of the
latter to any final settlements, can not be questioned.
It can not be considered in any sense as a reflection
upon Jones. It was the usual and common practice
under such important circumstances to associate
several negotiators to conduct the affair. The ac-
tion was unfortunate, however, as it was made a pre-
text by the Danish Government for delaying the
CAPTAIN LANDAIS AGAIN.
329
settlement. They had already compromised their
contention of the legality of their action in giving
up the ships by offering to settle with Franklin for
ten thousand pounds, which offer had been re-
fused.
One other incident of his stay in his country
the last visit he was destined to pay to it, by the
way brings upon the scene for the last time one of
the principal actors in the drama of Jones' life.
During his stay in New York, in the month of
October, he was conversing with a friend while
standing on Water Street, when Captain Landais,
who had made his home in Brooklyn since his dis-
missal from the navy, approached them. Jones'
back was turned, and when Mr. Milligan, his friend,
told him of the advent of the Frenchman, he con-
tinued his conversation without turning around.
Landais approached slowly, wearing a vindictive
smile. When a few yards away from the two gentle-
men, he halted, spat upon the pavement, remarked,
" I spit in his face," and passed on. Mr. Milligan
asked Jones if he had heard Landais' remark, and
he replied that he had not. Nothing further was
said about the incident at that time. Landais, how-
ever, circulated reports of the meeting derogatory
to Jones' character, and in reply the chevalier pub-
lished a statement of the occurrence signed by Mr.
Milligan, and added that his respect for the public
had induced him to establish the falsity of Landais'
report by the testimony of the only witness present ;
he also stated that he should not condescend to take
notice of anything further which might be said or
done by his antagonist. From this circumstance
330 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
arose the rumor that he. had been publicly in-
sulted caned, in fact without resenting it ! *
* After his dismissal Landais resided in Brooklyn, where
he lived in very straitened circumstances on a small annu-
ity, the income upon an advance of four thousand dollars
from Congress on account of arrears of prize money due
him, which amount was to be deducted from his share of
whatever was recovered from Denmark. His income was
about two hundred dollars a year, but by strict economy it
sufficed him. He is reputed to have cherished a high feeling
of independence, and would never consent to receive a gift
he was unable to return. Toward the close of his life he
was a constant petitioner for five thousand dollars with
interest, which he conceived to be still due him on account
of the Danish claim. Every other year he contrived to visit
the seat of government to plead his cause in person. On
one occasion,' having heard that a member of Congress had
spoken slightingly of him, he put on his faded Continental
uniform, buckled on his small sword, repaired to the gal-
lery of the House of Representatives, and expressed his
readiness to meet any gentleman who wished for an honorable
satisfaction. His quaint figure, so attired, was often seen on
the streets of New York. He used to carry his hat in his hand
for hours in the street, ou{ of respect to his lawful monarch,
executed by the rebels of France ! He never ceased to affirm
that he, and not Paul Jones, had captured the Serapis. He
died in 1818 at the age of eighty-seven years, and was buried
in St. Patrick's Cathedral churchyard. He had probably
returned to the Roman Catholic Church, which he is said to
have abjured on his entry into the American service. One of
his biographers tells us that he was a cadet of the family of
a younger son of the youngest branch of one of the oldest,
proudest, and poorest families in Normandy ; that, owing to
his lack of court interest, which was due to his poverty, he
was kept for thirty years a midshipman in the French navy.
The same ingenious apologist makes the following quaint
comment on the respective actions and qualities of Landais
and Jones :
THE END OF LANDAIS. 331
During this period Jones, as usual, kept up his
correspondence, especially with Madame de Telison,
with whom his relations had evidently reached that
intimate point to which I have referred on page 276.
On June 23d she advised him of the death of her
friend and protectress at court, the Marquise de
Marsan. He wrote immediately, commending her
" Paul Jones, by his impetuous and undisciplined gal-
lantry, earned the reputation of a hero, and poor Landais,
by a too scrupulous attention to the theory of naval science,
incurred that of a coward. I believe that naval authority is
against me, but I venture to assert meo pericido and on the
authority of one of my uncles, who was in that action as a
lieutenant to Paul Jones, that Landais erred not through any
defect of bravery, but merely from his desire to approach his
enemy scientifically, by bearing down upon the hypothenuse
of the precise right-angled triangle prescribed in the thirty-
seventh ' manoeuvre' of his old text-book."
Surely the author of this extraordinary paragraph must
have been more than an unconscious humorist !
A stone erected over his remains, which has long since
disappeared, bore the following inscription :
A la Memoire
de
PIERRE DE LANDAIS
Ancien Contre-Amiral
au service
DBS TATS UNIS
Qui Disparut
Juin 1818
Age 87 ans.
There is something pathetic in the picture of the "Ancien
Contre-Amiral," in his faded Continental uniform and the
proud independence of his old age ; and perhaps after all we
may charitably attribute his colossal blunders to insanity
and incompetency rather than to malice or treachery.
332 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to Jefferson, and at once, dispatched the following
letter to the lady herself :
" NEW YORK, September 4, 1787.
" No language can convey to my fair mourner
the tender sorrow I feel on her account ! The loss
of our worthy friend is indeed a fatal stroke ! It is
an irreparable misfortune, which can only be alle-
viated by this one reflection, that it is the will of
God, whose providence has, I hope, other blessings
in store for us. She was a tried friend, and more
than a mother to you ! She would have been a
mother to me also had she lived. We have lost
her ! Let us cherish her memory, and send up
grateful thanks to the Almighty that we once had
such a friend. I can not but flatter myself that
you have yourself gone to the king in July, as he
had appointed. I am sure your loss will be a new
inducement for him to protect you, and render you
justice. He will hear you, I am sure ; and you may
safely unbosom yourself to him and ask his advice,
which can not but be flattering to him to give you.
Tell him you must look on him as your father and
protector. If it were necessary, I think, too, that
the Count d'A , his brother, would, on your
personal application, render you good services by
speaking in your favour. I should like it better,
however, if you can do without him. Mr. Jefferson
will show you my letter of this date to him. You
will see by it how disgracefully I have been detained
here by the Board of Treasury. It is impossible for
me to stir from this place till I obtain their settle-
ment on the business I have already performed ; and,
WAS THIS HIS SON? 333
as the season is already far advanced, I expect to be
ordered to embark directly for the place of my des-
tination in the north. Mr. Jefferson will forward
me your letters. I am almost without money, and
much puzzled to obtain a supply. I have written to
Dr. Bancroft to endeavour to assist me. I mention
this with infinite regret, and for no other reason than
because it is impossible for me to transmit you a sup-
ply under my present circumstances. This is my fifth
letter to you since I left Paris. The two last were
from France, and I sent them by duplicates. But
you say nothing of having received any letters from
me ! Summon, my dear friend, all your resolution !
Exert yourself, and plead your own cause. You
can not fail of success ; your cause would move a
heart of flint! Present my best respects to your
sister. You did not mention her in your letter, but
I persuade myself she will continue her tender care
of her sweet godson, and that you will cover him
all over with kisses from me ; they come warm to
you both from the heart ! "
The Count d'A referred to was the Count
d'Artois, subsequently King Charles X. Madame
de Telison was his natural aunt, and that Jones
should fear any evil consequence to her from her
speaking to him is a hideous commentary on the
morals of the times. Mackenzie infers the possibil-
ity that the Marchioness de Marsan was really the
mother of Madame de Telison, and from the assur-
ance that she would have been a mother to him
also, had she lived, he thinks it possible that Jones
might have contemplated marrying his correspond-
334 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ent. The godson was possibly Jones' own child.
Shortly after this, correspondence with Madame
de Telison ceased temporarily. But when Jones
finally returned to France their relations were re-
sumed. Before he died he provided for her, and
she was with him to the end.
On the nth of November Jones left America for
the last time, taking passage at New York on a ves-
sel bound for Holland. He was landed in England,
however, and after another interview with Adams at
London, he repaired to Paris on the nth of De-
cember, and presented his dispatches to Jefferson.
Jefferson now communicated to him a project which
had been under discussion between himself and de
Simolin, the Russian ambassador at Versailles, look-
ing to a demand for the services of Jones by the Em-
press Catherine II of Russia. Some recent disasters
to the Russian fleet in the Black Sea in the war
which she had been waging against the Turks had
caused the minister to consider the possibility of se-
curing the services of the distinguished sea captain.
No definite action was taken by either party at that
time, although Jones, after some persuasion, ex-
pressed his willingness at least to consider the situa-
tion. Indeed, the prospects were sufficiently brilliant
to have dazzled any man ; but nothing came of the
matter then. Jones had other business to attend to.
At the close of January, 1788, he received his cre-
dentials from Jefferson, and on the morning of the
2d of February, the day of his departure for Den-
mark, he breakfasted with a Mr. Littlepage, cham-
berlain to the King of Poland, and the Russian Min-
ister, who informed him that he had seriously pro-
RUSSIAN SERVICE PROPOSED. 335
posed to his sovereign that Jones be intrusted with
the command of the Black Sea fleet. He had, in
fact, written to her as follows :
" That if her Imperial Majesty should confide to
Jones the chief command of her fleet on the Black
Sea, with carte blanche, he would answer for it that
in less than a year Jones would make Constanti-
nople tremble."
He also informed the commodore that the em-
press had been much impressed with the proposi-
tion, and was disposed to l6ok favorably upon it.
Jones in reply said that he would undertake the
command, under certain conditions, if the empress
continued in the same mind, and set out with high
hopes for Copenhagen. He reached that city on the
4th of March, and was royally received by the king
and queen and principal people of the country ;
but in spite of every effort he found it utterly im-
possible to procure a satisfactory settlement of the
claim. The shuffling Danish Government seized
upon the flimsy pretext that he was not a plenipo-
tentiary, since his powers were limited by the clause
referred to above, and that since Congress had re-
quired that everything be referred to Paris, and final
action should be taken at that point, there was
no use negotiating with an agent. Completely
thwarted in his attempts by this unfortunate clause,
and having received a definite summons through
Baron Krudner, the Russian ambassador at Copen-
hagen, to repair to Russia, Jones transferred the
negotiations to Jefferson at Paris, which was, in
fact, all he could do under the circumstances, and
336 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
prepared to assume his new command.* On the
8th of April, 1788, he wrote to Jefferson as follows :
" SIR : By my letters to the Count de Bernstorf,
and his excellency's answer, you see that my busi-
ness here is at an end. If I have not finally con-
cluded the object of my mission, it is neither your
fault nor mine ; the powers I received are found in-
sufficient, and you could not act otherwise than was
prescribed in your instructions. Thus it frequently
happens that good opportunities are lost when the
supreme power does not place a sufficient confi-
dence in the distant operations of public officers,
whether civil or military. I have, however, the
melancholy satisfaction to reflect that I have been
received and treated here with a distinction far
above the pretensions of my public mission, and
I felicitate myself sincerely on being, at my own
expense (and even at the peril of my life, for my
sufferings from the inclemency of the weather, and
my want of proper means to guard against it on
the journey, were inexpressible ; and I believe, from
what I yet feel, will continue to affect my constitu-
tion), the instrument to renew the negotiation be-
tween this country and the United States ; the more
so as the honour is now reserved for you to display
your great abilities and integrity by the completion
* Negotiations on this claim were protracted for over sixty
years. In June, 1847, the Danish Government formally and
finally denied the validity of the claim, and it has not been
paid. Congress, however, on March 21, 1848, provided for the
payment of the prize money involved, to the heirs of Paul
Jones and other persons entitled to share in the distribution
of the fund.
LETTER TO JEFFERSON. 337
and improvement of what Dr. Franklin had wisely
begun. I have done, then, what perhaps no other
person would have undertaken under the same cir-
cumstances ; and while I have the consolation to
hope that the United States will derive solid ad-
vantages from my journey and efforts here, I rest
perfectly satisfied that the interests of the brave men
I commanded will experience in you parental atten-
tion, and that the American flag can lose none of its
lustre, but the contrary, while its honour is confided
to you. America being a young nation, with an
increasing commerce, which will naturally produce
a navy, I please myself with the hope that in the
treaty you are about to conclude with Denmark
you will find it easy and highly advantageous to in-
clude certain articles for admitting America into the
armed neutrality. I persuade myself beforehand
that this would afford pleasure to the Empress of
Russia, who is at the head of that noble and humane
combination ; and as I shall now set out immediately
for St. Petersburg, I will mention the idea to her
Imperial Majesty and let you know her answer.
" If Congress should think I deserve the promo-
tion that was proposed when I was last in America,
and should condescend to confer on me the grade
of rear admiral from the day I took the Serapis (23d
of September, 1/79), I am persuaded it would be
very agreeable to the empress, who now deigns to
offer me an equal rank in her service, although I
never yet had the honour to draw my sword in her
cause, nor to do any other act that could directly
merit her imperial benevolence. While I express,
in the warm effusion of a grateful heart, the deep
"3
338 COMMODORE PAUL JONtS.
sense I feel of my eternal obligation to you as the
author of the honourable prospect that is now be-
fore me, I must rely on your friendship to justify to
the United States the important step I now take,
conformable to your advice. You know I had no
idea of this new fortune when I found that you had
put it in train, before my last return to Paris from
America. I have not forsaken a country that has
had many disinterested and difficult proofs of my
steady affection, and I can never renounce the glori-
ous title of a citizen of the United States!
" It is true I have not the express permission of
the sovereignty to accept the offer of her Imperial
Majesty; yet America is independent, is in perfect
peace, has no public employment for my military
talents ; but why should I excuse a conduct which I
should rather hope would meet with general appro-
bation? In the latter part of the year 1782 Con-
gress passed an act for my embarkation in the fleet
of his most Christian Majesty ; and when, a few
months ago, I left America to return to Europe, I
was made the bearer of a letter to his most Christian
Majesty requesting me to be permitted to embark
in the fleets of evolution. Why did Congress pass
those acts? To facilitate my improvement in the
art of conducting fleets and military operations. I
am, then, conforming myself to the views of Con-
gress ; but the role allotted me is infinitely more high
and difficult than Congress intended. Instead of re-
ceiving lessons from able masters in the theory of
war; I am called to immediate practice, where I must
command in chief, conduct the most difficult opera-
tions, be my own preceptor, and instruct others.
LETTER TO JEFFERSON. 339
Congress will allow me some merit in daring to en-
counter such multiplied difficulties. The mark I men-
tioned of the approbation of that honourable body
would be extremely flattering to me in the career I
am now to pursue, and would stimulate all my am-
bition to acquire the necessary talents to merit that,
and even greater favours, at a future day. I pray
you, sir, to explain the circumstances of my situa-
tion, and be the interpreter of my sentiments to the
United States in Congress. I ask for nothing; and
beg leave to be understood only as having hinted,
what is natural to conceive, that the mark of appro-
bation I mentioned could not fail to be infinitely
serviceable to my views and success in the country
where I am going.
" The prince royal sent me a messenger, re-
questing me to come to his apartment. His royal
highness said a great many civil things to me
told me the king thanked me for my attention and
civil behaviour to the Danish flag while I com-
manded in the European seas, and that his Majesty
wished for occasions to testify to me his personal
esteem, etc. I was alone with the prince half an
hour. I am, with perfect esteem, etc."
It is a quaint letter, but not conspicuous for
modesty on the part of the writer. But it is mem-
orable for its passionate and determined assertion
of citizenship, and evidence that his entry into the
Russian service, temporarily, was due not to his
own motion, but to the suggestion of Thomas Jef-
ferson, who highly approved of his acceptance of
the offer of Catherine. Inasmuch as his action has
340 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
been called in question, such approbation as that of
Jefferson is of great value. Congress did not confer
upon him the desired rank, as should have been
done, and, besides, his statement was not quite cor-
rect.
Krudner had offered him the rank of captain
commandant, equal to that of major general in the
army, and placed at his disposal one thousand ducats
for the expenses of his journey. He promptly de-
murred at the proposed rank of captain comman-
dant, or major general, and refused to accept the
sum offered for his traveling expenses. It was
forced upon him by the insistence of Krudner, how-
ever, and he finally received it. He made no use
of it at that time, keeping the money intact, and in-
tending to return it in case he should find it neces-
sary on his arrival in Russia to decline the prof-
fered station. He made but few stipulations with
her Majesty's agent before entering upon the
journey to St. Petersburg, and these were that in
the service of the empress he should never be com-
pelled to bear arms against either the United States
or France ; that he should be at all times subject to
recall by Congress ; and, as we have seen in his
letter to Jefferson, he was particular to assert that
under no circumstances would he renounce " the
glorious title of a citizen of the United States." The
man of the world and the disinterested lover of
human liberty had long since come to a local habi-
tation and name, and henceforth he never failed to
assert his citizenship in America.
As he left the court of Denmark and entered
upon his journey to Russia he carried in his pocket
A SERIOUS MISTAKE. 341
a patent for a pension issued to him by the Danish
Government for the sum of fifteen hundred crowns
a year, which was presented to him as an acknowl-
edgment of the " respect he had shown to the Dan-
ish flag while he commanded in the North Sea,"
etc. ! Curiously enough, the pension is dated the
day it was decided to transfer to Paris the negotia-
tions which he had come to further. The transac-
tion is a most peculiar one. The coincidence of
dates is, to say the least, unfortunate. The reasons
assigned are inadequate, and the statement of cause
is puerile. For a negotiator to accept pecuniary re-
ward from the person against whom he presses a
claim is a very remarkable thing to do.
It has been urged in justification of his accept-
ance : First, that he never received any money from
it, for the pension was never paid ; that, however,
was a fact which, while it was potential, was not
then actual, and has no bearing upon his accept-
ance. Second, it has also been claimed that the
pension was given because the Danish Government
supposed such an evidence of appreciation of the
qualities of her appointee would be acceptable to
the empress; but if a nice sense of honor would
dictate a refusal of the pension, the bestowal could
not be considered a compliment, therefore the ac-
ceptance could not enhance his reputation. Third,
it has been ingeniously surmised that his accept-
ance of the pension was for the purpose of com-
mitting the Danish Government to the payment of
the claim ; but if that were true, he should have
communicated his acceptance and his reasons to
Jefferson at once. The fact that the government
342 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
absolutely refused to conclude negotiations with
him, and that he was of necessity obliged to per-
mit the transfer of the negotiations to Paris, takes
away some of the odium which attaches to his
action, yet it does not completely clear him. As
the Russian prospect had matured he was more
and more desirous of quitting Denmark, and the
transfer of the claim to Paris quite accorded with
his wishes.
This is the most painful incident in his career,
and I am extremely sorry that it occurred. I do not
suppose that he realized the situation quite as it is
presented in these pages, or that he imagined it
would have so damaging an effect upon his reputa-
tion when it became known. His valuation of his
own services was so high that it was not difficult to
persuade him or for him to persuade himself that
he was entitled to a pension, or at least that it was
not out of keeping with his merits. Though how
he had ever shown any particular respect for the
Danish flag when he commanded the Bon Homme
Richard is a question.
Two circumstances incline me to believe that he
was ashamed of it, however, and that he had no
primary intention of making use of it. His vanity
might lead him to treasure it as an evidence of
appreciation, where his sense of honor would re-
strain him from enjoying it. Of these two circum-
stances, the first is that he never mentioned it to
anybody for three years, and he was never chary
of letting the news of evidences of appreciation be
disseminated ; the second is that he made no attempt
to draw anything on it until he was a sick, worn-
AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION.
343
out, broken man, some years after, when he looked
at life under different circumstances and with differ-
ent eyes. His letter to Jefferson, when he finally did
communicate the news to him three years after, is
as follows :
" The day before I left Copenhagen the Prince
Royal had desired to speak with me in his apart-
ment. His Royal Highness was extremely polite,
and after saying many civil things remarked he
hoped I was satisfied with the attention that had
been shown to me since my arrival, and that the
king would wish to give me some mark of his
esteem. ' I have never had the happiness to render
any service to his Majesty ! ' ' That is nothing ; a
man like you ought to be excepted from ordinary
rules. You could not have shown yourself more
delicate as regards our flag, and every person here
loves you.' I took leave without further explana-
tion. I have felt myself in an embarrassing situa-
tion with regard to the king's patent, and I have not
yet made use of it, though three years have nearly
elapsed since I received it."
It is all that he could say for himself. I am glad
he had the grace at last to be ashamed. That is the
best defense that I can make for him, and I can
only close the reference to this unpleasant incident
by saying again that I am very sorry indeed that it
occurred.
About the middle of April, 1788, he set forth for
Stockholm, where, on account of his desire to reach
St. Petersburg without delay, he remained but a few
hours, and then pressed on to Grislehamn (Gres-
344 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
holm), Sweden, the nearest port to the Aland
Islands, via which he hoped to cross the Gulf of
Bothnia and reach Russia. The ice, however, was
so thick that he found it impossible to cross the
gulf or even to reach the islands, so he determined
to pass through the open Baltic Sea to the south-
ward. He hired an open boat about thirty feet long,
and, taking a smaller boat in tow, to be used in case
of emergency, he started upon a journey which
proved to be one of the most romantic and adven-
turous of his whole career. Realizing that in the
severe winter weather prevailing it would be im-
possible to get boatmen to attempt the passage, he
carefully concealed his destination from the men
whom he had employed to ferry him over.
Having first attempted once more to reach the
Aland Islands, and thence proceed to the Gulf of
Finland, and being balked as before by heavy
masses of drifting ice, he started to the southward
between the Swedish shore and the ice floes, which,
being driven toward Sweden by a strong east wind,
scarcely left him a sufficient channel to pass in
safety. By nightfall he was nearly opposite Stock-
holm, and the water seemed clear enough to sea-
ward for him to attempt to cross. The men, by
this time alarmed for their safety, determined, in
defiance of his orders, to put into Stockholm ; but
Jones, seizing the helm himself and drawing his
pistols, resolutely commanded them to beat out to
sea and obey his orders under pain of instant death.
He was not a man to be trifled with by a few Swe-
dish boatmen, and by his directions the terrified men
headed the boat offshore, The wind fortunately
CffiSAR AND HIS FORTUNES. 345
shifted to the westward, and during the whole of
the long night, in the midst of a driving snowstorm,
they threaded their way through the floating ice,
steering for the Gulf of Finland.
Jones had a pocket compass, and the lantern
from his traveling carriage enabled him to choose
the course. He naturally took command of the
boats himself. The next day, baffled again by the
ice in an attempt to land on the north shore of the
Gulf of Finland, they continued to the westward
and southward under circumstances of extreme
danger and hardship. The second night was worse
than the first. The wind came in violent squalls,
and the cold was intense. The second boat was
crushed in the ice floes, and the men in it rescued
with great difficulty. Their own boat narrowly
escaped being crushed between the huge pieces of
ice or swamped in the squalls on several occasions.
Only by Jones' seamanship and rare skill did they
avoid one or the other danger. The men were so
terrified as to be helpless between the storm, the
cold, and the thought of the incarnate little demon
who sat grimly in the stern sheets, pistol in hand,
and neither slept nor took rest apparently, and who
handled the boat with as much dexterity as if it
had been a toy. One thinks instinctively of the
little bark which could not sink because it carried
Caesar and his fortunes.
At any rate, after four days of incredible diffi-
culties the passage was made, and the boat landed at
Reval, a Russian port on the southern shore of the
Gulf of Finland. They had sailed in one way and
another about five hundred miles. Those who had
346 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
known of his departure from Sweden had no
thought but that he and all with him had perished
in the attempt. He was, as he stated to Jefferson,
in wretched health, and the exposure alone might
have killed him. That he went on is highly char-
acteristic of him, and exhibits his entire indifference
to personal hardships. The passage presents a fine
evidence of his audacity. When he determined to
do a thing, he never allowed anything to stop him.
Having paid the boatmen for the loss of their boat,
and remunerated them handsomely for their labors,
he dismissed them to return at their leisure, and
proceeded to the Russian court, where he arrived on
the fourth day of May. His great reputation, his
adventurous passage, his strange and attractive
personality, and the fact that he stood high in the
good graces and enjoyed the favor of the empress,
rendered him an object of universal interest and
attraction.
On the 6th of May he was presented to the
empress, who immediately conferred upon him
the rank he coveted, of rear admiral. Catherine
treated him with such distinction that he states
in his journal that " I \vas overcome by her cour-
tesies (je me laissai seduirc), and put myself into
her hands without making any stipulation for my
personal advantage. I demanded but one favor,
that I should never be condemned unheard." Poor
fellow ! It was the one right not favor, but rights
went by favor then in Russia which was not ac-
corded him. He little knew what the future that
looked so promising had in store for him, but for
the present everything w ; as most delightful. He
AT CATHERINE'S COURT.
347
remained, recuperating and preparing for his com-
mand, for two weeks, during which period he was
magnificently entertained by the highest nobility of
Russia and the distinguished foreigners in attend-
ance at the court. Among his papers the cards of
many of them are still preserved. There was one
exception to his welcome. The English officers in
the service of Catherine, and they were many in
number and high in quality, affected to describe
him as a pirate and a smuggler, and are said to have
threatened to resign in a body rather than serve
under his command. While I have no doubt as to
their feelings, I think it improbable that the threat
was ever seriously meant, or that it reached the ears
of the empress, for two reasons : first, it was appar-
ently never contemplated that Jones should com-
mand the Cronstadt fleet, in which those English-
men who were highest in rank and reputation were
stationed he had been designated for the Black
Sea fleet, and specifically called into service to war
against the Turks ; and second, it is extremely un-
likely that they should have carried such a threat
to the throne, for Catherine was not one whom it
was safe to threaten for a moment. Such an action
in all probability would have resulted in an apology
and retraction, or a call for a resignation. It is most
improbable that the English protesters would have
relinquished the honorable and lucrative positions
to which they had attained in the Russian service,
with the great opportunities of advancement and
pecuniary reward presented, for such a cause. As
a matter of fact, Englishmen did serve with credit
under Jones' command in the Black Sea, and we
348 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
hear of no resignations from his squadron there.
The story may have gained currency by the gossipy
repetition of indiscreet remarks about the court, and
from the fact that thirty of the English-Russian
officers signed a memorial addressed to Admiral
Grieg, their senior in rank, threatening various
things if they were associated with Jones. It is
hardly possible, however, that Catherine ever saw
or heard the petition. At any rate, nothing came of
it. Jones enjoyed the anger of the English he
would not have been human if he had not but as
for the rest, he snapped his fingers at them. He
could afford to defy them at that hour. He was
then in the " high topgallant of his fortunes." In
a letter to Lafayette he writes, apropos of this
feeling :
" The empress received me with a distinction
the most flattering that perhaps any stranger can
boast of. On entering into the Russian service her
Majesty conferred on me immediately the grade of
rear admiral. I was detained against my will a fort-
night, and continually feasted at court, and in the
first society. This was a cruel grief to the English,
and I own that their vexation, which I believe was
general in and about St. Petersburg, gave me no
pain."
As I have said, I have no doubt as to the
feelings of the English officers.
On the 1 8th of May the admiral left St. Peters-
burg for Elizabethgrad, the headquarters of Pa-
tiomkine. In addition to the sum recently re-
ceived from Krudner, he was provided with an-
CATHERINE'S LETTER. 349
other purse of two thousand ducats for the expenses
of his journey, and his salary was fixed at eighteen
hundred roubles a year.* As he started for the
Black Sea, Catherine handed him this letter :
" SIR : A courier from Paris has just brought
from my envoy in France, M. de Simolin, the in-
closed letter to Count Besborodko. As I believe
that this letter may help to confirm to you what I
have already told you verbally, I have sent it, and
beg you to return it, as I have not even had it
copied, so anxious am I that you should see it. I
hope that it will efface all doubts from your mind,
and prove to you that you are to be connected only
with those who are most favorably disposed toward
you. I have no doubt that, on your side, you will
fully justify the opinion which we have formed of
you, and apply yourself with zeal to support the
reputation you have acquired, for valor and skill, on
the element on which you are to serve.
" Adieu ! I wish you happiness and health.
" CATHERINE."
The letter to Besborodko referred to by Cath-
erine was a request from Patiomkine that Jones
might be induced to come immediately to his head-
quarters, that his talents might be employed in the
approaching campaign. Patiomkine promised to
to do all in his power to give him an opportunity for
displaying his ability and courage, f Jones had pro-
* The rouble was then worth about one dollar, and, as
has been mentioned, a dollar was greater then than now.
f In after years Jones indorsed upon this letter a grim
comment : " Has he kept his word ? "
350 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
tested against being under anybody ; Catherine re-
fused to consider his protest, hence the reason for
her farewell epistle and her inclosure of Patiom-
kine's promise to be all that he should be to Jones.
He arrived at Elizabethgrad on the 3Oth of May
and was most kindly received. But before enter-
ing upon the story of his campaign it will be well
to consider the situation of the country in which
he found himself, and the characters of those with
whom he was to be associated in service.
A'ote with reference to the Danish pension.
The most recent biographer of Paul Jones, whose book
was issued simultaneously with this one, makes no mention
of the Danish pension, and states that his reasons for omit-
ting any reference to it were " because it was never accepted,
never paid, and never was intended to be paid." I am forced
to disagree with this statement. Certainly, it never was paid,
though what the Danish government may have intended it
is impossible to say. Probably if Jones had continued in
favor in Russia the pension would have been paid. Cer-
tainly the commodore accepted the pension, and he endeav-
ored to procure its payment, and estimated it as an asset in
the schedule of property which accompanied his will. See
Appendix V, page 473.
CHAPTER XVIII.
IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE OTCHAKOFF AND THE
CAMPAIGN IN THE LIMAN.
FAR to the north is Russia. Extending through
no less than one hundred and seventy-three degrees
of longitude, and covering forty parallels of latitude,
from the Baltic to the Pacific, and from the Black
Sea to the Arctic Ocean, with an area of eight and
a half million square miles, lies this great lone land.
This gigantic empire, touching on the one hand the
ice-bound shores of Nova Zembla, and on the other
the caravan trails of Bokhara, stretches from the
Gulf of Finland in* the west to Kamtchatka on the
east. Within its boundaries are comprised bleak
deserts and fertile plains. Verdant valleys, unscala-
ble mountains, and vast steppes break the monotony
of the landscape, and diversify a surface watered by
great rivers from the arctic Yenisei to the Oriental
Oxus. Great among the powers is this mysterious
Colossus, her head white with the snows of eternal
winter and her feet laved in the sunlight of tropic
streams. The land of the seafarers so its name
indicates developing enormously and steadily- in
power, wealth, and civilization, in the nine hundred
years which have elapsed since Rurik the Viking
first stepped upon its shores, has not yet reached its
352 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
zenith. It is to-day the home of more diverse
nationalities than any other existent country, and
foreshadowings of unlimited predominance are
apparent. Its sway extends over more races and
peoples than any other power has governed since
the days of Augustus Caesar, and the end is not yet.
Well do its rulers arrogate to themselves the im-
perial title of the ancient head of the Roman Em-
pire. Holy Russia, the home of the Orthodox
Church, the country of the White Czar, the land of
the once despised Slav, yet contains within its bor-
ders, in Lithuania, the focal point of that Aryan
race which has filled Europe with its splendor.
This Russia, the land of the Tartar, the Mongol, the
Samoyede, the Cossack, the Finn, and the Pole ; this
Russia, the land of Ivan the Terrible, of Peter the
Great, was now in the hands of a woman of Cath-
erine II.
The little maiden, born on the 2d of May, 1729,
in the quaint old town of Stettin, and of the insig-
nificant house of Anhalt-Zerbst, christened Sophia,
was received into the Greek Church on her mar-
riage with Peter of Holstein, grandson of the Ro-
manoff Peter the Great, under the name of Cath-
erine. She had assumed the reins of government
after the-murder of her wretched impotent husband,
against whom she had conspired in conjunction
with the Orloffs. When she had deposed and im-
prisoned him, unable to strike a blow for himself,
he had stipulated that in his confinement he might
have the undisputed enjoyment of his mistress, his
monkey, and his violin ! Even these kingly pleas-
ures were soon of little use to him, for on the i8th
CATHERINE II.
353
of July, 1762, but a few days after the revolution
which had hurled him from his throne, Peter lay
dead in the palace with some ominous and inefface-
able black marks around his throat, telling of the
manner of his death from the giant hands of the
terrible Orloffs and his wife was privy to the mur-
der and consenting to it! That her husband had
been a knave and a fool almost a madman does
not excuse her. Catherine was then immediately
proclaimed empress in her own right. As the Nea-
politan Caraccioli said, the Russian throne was
neither hereditary nor elective, but occupative!
Catherine occupied it, and as long as she lived Rus-
sia knew no other master. The world marveled at
her audacity, and trembled for the consequences of
her usurpation, but men soon found that, gigantic
as had been her assurance, and tremendous as was
her task, she was entirely equal to the undertaking.
She had a genius for reigning as great as had been
exhibited by Elizabeth Tudor good Queen Bess !
In spite of her bad qualities and evil beginning,
Russia never progressed more than while under her
sway. She fairly divides honor as a sovereign, in
Slavonic history, with Peter the Great. True it is
that Catherine had " woven out of the bloody vest-
ments of Peter III the most magnificent imperial
mantle that a woman had ever worn."
Some one wrote to Madame Vigee le Brun, who
essayed to paint her picture :
" Take the map of the empire of Russia for can-
vas, the darkness of ignorance for background, the
spoils of Poland for drapery, human blood for col-
24
354 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
oring, the monuments of her reign for the car-
toon, and for the shadow six months of her son's
reign."
A singular and complex character was that of
this famous despot, this " Semiramis of the North."
Never more than a half-educated woman and in
that she corresponded with her empire she learned
her politics from Montesquieu, drew her philosophy
of life from Voltaire, and shaped her morals after
Brantome ! A creature of singular contradictions,
she loved liberty, favored the struggle of the United
States, and ruled an absolute despot; she wrote
charming fairy tales for children and rode horse-
back astride like a man ; she was one of the greatest
sticklers for morals in other people the world
has ever known, and yet was herself one of the most
colossal examples of unblushing and shameless pro-
fessional sensuality that ever sat upon a throne.
Other rulers and sovereigns have had their favor-
ites, she alone made favoritism a state institution.
" What has ruined the country," she naively writes,
" is that the people fall into vice and drunkenness,
and the comic opera has corrupted the whole na-
tion ! " As a corrupter by example she surpassed
all the comic operas ever written. The morals of
Russia, in her day, were rotten from the head down-
ward. Yet in spite of all this she was a great
princess. She was allowed to occupy that throne
because she made Russia greater with each succes-
sive year ; not alone by force of arms either, and the
Russian destiny makers loved her. Education, the
arts, and sciences, all felt the stimulus of her in-
PATIOMKINE.
355
terest and responded to her efforts. Progress was
the word of this imperious woman. She had a
faculty for ruling as remarkable as her exploitation
of favoritism. Yet she governed her empire with
a sublime indifference to public opinion, and squan-
dered its revenues in a shameless prostitution of her
own person, which ceased only with her death, in
1794, at the age of sixty-five ! The fact that Cather-
ine made an official business out of favoritism, and
that she was so utterly oblivious to the moral in-
consistency of it for she was a faithful member of
the Holy Orthodox Church seems to lift it upon a
plane of its own, so simple and brazen was it.
Upon the chief of her favorites alone she had
bestowed more than fifty million roubles, vast
estates carrying with them nearly one hundred
thousand serfs, and in addition orders, titles, privi-
leges, and decorations innumerable. The name
of this favorite was Gregory Alexandrovitch Pati-
omkine, commonly called Potemkin. He was the
second of the gre^t Vrcmicnchtchick, as the favorites
were called, the word meaning " men of the mo-
ment ! " He succeeded the gigantic Orloff, whose
term as the favorite was longer than that of any
successor, for he had enjoyed a tenure of almost ten
years the usual period being about two. Patiom-
kine's personal association with the empress was
only for that short time, when he was supplanted by
another object of royal regard. Unlike all the other
favorites, Patiomkine was not relegated to prompt
obscurity, and he continued to be the power be-
hind the throne for practically the remainder of his
life. He was greater than all the others too great
356 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to be done away with, in fact. If he could not be
the favorite, he would, like Warwick the king-
maker, make the favorite, and for fifteen years he
continued to do so. During this period he swayed
the destinies of the empire as a sort of mayor of the
palace.
The analogy is not altogether accurate, for
Catherine was no supine Merovingian to commit
the administration of the state to others while she
passed hours of dalliance in the secret chambers of
the palace; she was too strong and too great for
that, and she always retained her grasp upon the
helm ; but it is certain that none of her favorites had
ever enjoyed such power and wielded it so openly as
this princely pander.
As to Patiomkine himself, the world did not
know whether he was a genius or a madman. At
times he seems to have passed over that slender
line which divides these two antitheses of character,
and appears now on one side, now on the other.
Personally he was a man of huge bulk and great
strength, with the natural instincts of an animal and
a veneer, more or less strong on occasion, of re-
finement. He, too, typified Russia, a giant rising
through barbarism into the civilization of the cen-
tury and not yet arrived, either now inclining
to the one side or the other. Catherine usually chose
her favorites among men of great physical vigor.
Patiomkine was a giant in size. His vast frame was
capable of sustaining the most tremendous hard-
ships. He was a black-haired, swarthy, hot-tem-
pered man, not pleasant to look upon, for he had
lost an eye in a fist fight after a % drunken revel with
PATIOMKINE.
357
the Orloffs. He squinted with the other, and even
had not a figure to redeem him, for he was mark-
edly knock-kneed. He, like his mistress and his
country, was a creature of contradictions. In his
palace in St. Petersburg we find him trifling with
the most delicate creations of the most skilled chef,
and on his journeys eating rapaciously of anything
that came to hand. He sent his adjutants thousands
of miles for perfumes which caught his fancy, and
galloped madly himself across half Europe without
rest or sleep for days in pursuance of duty, and
then spent weeks in dalliance with his harem.
With the one hand he wrote poetic letters that
quiver and thrill with tenderness and beauty, pathos
and passion, and with the other he calmly consigned
thousands of people to death. One day we find
him raging because his soldiers are not better cared
for, and on the next day remarking cynically, when
the absence of ambulances was brought to his
notice, that so much the better they would not have
to bother with the wounded ! Sometimes cowardly,
sometimes bold to the point of recklessness ; atheist
and devotee, debauchee and ascetic, coarse and re-
fined, imperious and cringing, brutal and gentle,
king and slave, Christian and pagan his life re-
mains a mystery.
After he died of a frightful attack of indigestion,
brought on by gorging himself with coarse food,
Catherine's son, upon succeeding to the throne,
treated his body with great indignity ; and it was not
until seventy years later that his remains were dis-
covered and interred in the Cathedral of Kherson.
Prince of Taurida, the conqueror of the Crimea, and
358 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
under Catherine the originator of that tremendous
and irresistible Russian policy which will some day
replace the Greek cross upon the temple of Justinian
in Constantinople, Patiomkine is one of the most
remarkable figures in the history of the world.
In the service of the first of these two person-
ages, and under the specific orders of the last, Paul
Jones was to make a campaign. It w r as foredoomed
to failure. Jones was not a good subordinate to
any one. His temper, his lack of self-control, his
pride, and his vanity rendered any ultimate suc-
cessful association with a man like Patiomkine im-
possible. Patiomkine had all Jones' faults and a
thousand more. They harmonized like flint and
steel. To further complicate matters, Jones was to
be associated in his command, with the limits of
authority not clearly defined between them always
a prolific source of trouble, and certain to cause
failure with Prince Otto of Nassau-Siegen, of
whom we have heard before. He had asked
to serve under Jones in the Indien, and when
that project fell through he had failed to an-
swer Jones' letters, and had treated him with dis-
courtesy and indifference. In Catherine's army and
navy thousands of soldiers of fortune found a con-
genial atmosphere and a golden opportunity. They
were all made welcome, and, with anything like suc-
cess to warrant them, they generally achieved a
handsome reward in her generous service. The
most noted among them, and one of the most worth-
less, is this man, whom Waliszewski calls " the last
notable condotticrre of Europe ; a soldier without
country, without home, and almost without family,
NASSAU-SIEGEN.
359
his very name is the first of his conquests." His
father was the illegitimate son of a princeling, but
the Parliament of Paris, in 1756, gave the young
Otto, then eleven years of age, the right, so far as
they had the power, to bear the name of his ances-
tors, to which he had no legitimate claim. They
could not, however, do anything for his patrimony.
He had been a lieutenant of infantry, a captain of
dragoons, and finally a sailor under Bougainville
when he made his famous voyage around the world.
Later he appears as an unsuccessful explorer in
Africa. In fact, he was not successful at anything.
Unlike Crichton, he did everything equally ill.
In 1779, as a colonel of French infantry, he made
an unsuccessful attempt upon the island of Jersey.
The next year, in the Spanish service, he com-
manded, unsuccessfully as usual, some floating
batteries before Gibraltar. Among other exploits
and it was his one triumph he seduced the Queen
of Tahiti, so he said, and the reputation of the un-
fortunate lady found no defenders in Europe. He
married a homely Polish countess with a great for-
tune, and after meddling (unsuccessfully) with all
sorts of things got himself appointed to the com-
mand of a flotilla of Russian gunboats operating
against the Turks.
But to return to the story; the long distance
seven hundred and fifty miles as the crow flies and
probably twice that by road between St. Peters-
burg and Elizabethgrad, was covered by Jones in
twelve days. He was in a hurry, as always, to get
to sea. The object of the Prince Marshal's attack
was the fortified town of Otchakoff, commonly
360 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
spelled in contemporary manuscripts Oczakow.
This important place was situated on the Russo-
Turkish frontier of that day, on the Black Sea, not
far from the present city of Odessa, and occupied a
commanding position at the confluence of the great
river Dnieper and the smaller river Bug. South-
ward of the mainland the peninsula of Kinburn, a
narrow, indented point of land, projects for perhaps
twenty miles to the westward, forming a narrow
estuary of the Black Sea about fifty miles long and
from five to ten miles wide, into which the two
rivers pour their vast floods. This estuary is some-
times called the Dnieper Bay, but more commonly
the Liman, and the undertaking hereafter described
is referred to as the campaign in the Liman. The
bay or inlet is very shallow. Sand banks and shoals
leave but a narrow, tortuous channel, which is of no
great depth at best. The end of the peninsula of
Kinburn terminates in a long and very narrow strip
of land, a point which reaches up toward the north-
ward and almost closes the opening of the estuary ;
the distance between the point and Fort Hassan, the
southernmost fortification of Otchakoff, is possi-
bly two miles. This narrow entrance is further
diminished by a long shoal which extends south
from Fort Hassan toward the point, so that, except
for one contracted channel, the passage is prac-
ticable for vessels of very light draught only.
Otchakoff lies between the Bug and a smaller
river called the Beresan, deep enough near its
mouth for navigation by small vessels. It was
strongly fortified and garrisoned by ten thousand
men. While it remained in the hands of the Turks
OTCHAKOFF. 361
it menaced the Russian communications and ren-
dered it difficult for them to hold the great penin-
sula of Taurida, now known as the Crimea, which
Patiomkine had conquered previously, and from
which he had taken the name of Taurichevsky, or
Tauricien, or Taurida, with his dukedom. Patiom-
kine, therefore, decided to besiege and capture this
place.
To prevent this, the Turks had re-enforced it by
one hundred and twenty armed vessels, ranging
from ships of the line to gunboats, under the com-
mand of one of the ablest of their admirals, a dis-
tinguished old sailor, who had been recalled from
service in Egypt, which had been brilliantly success-
ful, to conduct this operation. So long as they
could keep open communication by sea with Otcha-
koff its power of resistance would be prolonged
and its capture a matter of extreme difficulty. The
object of Jones' campaign was to hold the Liman
till Patiomkine could invest Otchakoff, then to de-
feat the Turkish naval forces in the bay, and to
blockade the town. Incidentally he was required to
cover the Russian towns on the Dnieper and pre-
vent any descent upon them by the Turks ; a hard
task for any man with the force available and likely
to be placed under his command.
Having stayed but one day at Elizabethgrad,
Jones, accompanied by one of the staff officers of
Patiomkine, set out for Kherson, which is located
near the point where the Dnieper enters the Liman,
and is the principal Russian naval depot in that
section of the country. The two officers spent but
one day at Kherson, but the time was sufficient to
^62 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
develop the fact, as Jones said, that he had entered
" on a delicate and disagreeable service."
Mordwinoff, the Russian Chief of Admiralty,
treated him with the utmost coolness and indiffer-
ence, and, though he had been ordered by Patiom-
kine to give Jones full information as to the situa-
tion, he told him nothing of importance, and even
failed to provide him with a rear admiral's flag, to
which he was entitled. However, the day after his
arrival at Kherson, Jones repaired to the town of
Gluboca, off which, in one of the deeps of the river
between the Dnieper and the mouth of the Bug
called Schiroque Roads, his command was anchored.
It comprised a single line of battle ship, the Wolodi-
mer which, on account of its great draught and the
shoal water of the Liman, could only mount twenty-
six guns five frigates, five sloops of war, and fodr
smaller vessels, making a total of fifteen sail.* The
ships were badly constructed, " drew too much
water for the navigation of the Black Sea, were too
crank to carry the heavy guns that were mounted
on them, and sailed badly." They were makeshift
craft constructed by people who since Rurik's ad-
vent have exhibited surprisingly little aptitude for
the sea. I can imagine Jones' disgust and disap-
pointment as he inspected his squadron with a sea-
man's quick and comprehensive glance. In addi-
tion to this force, there was a large flotilla of light-
draught gunboats, each carrying a single heavy
gun, and sometimes smaller pieces, manned by
* Some authorities say fourteen ; the difference is imma-
terial.
SQUADRON AND FLOTILLA. 363
from thirty to forty men each, and propelled mainly
by oars.
The command of the flotilla had been committed
to the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, and, although
Jones had been repeatedly assured that he was to
have supreme charge of all naval operations in the
Liman, he found that Nassau exercised an inde-
pendent command, and instead of being subordinate
to him, had only been requested to co-operate with
him. Jones' command will be called the squadron,
Nassau's the flotilla, hereafter in these pages, to
prevent confusion. The squadron had been hith-
erto under the command of a cowardly Greek cor-
sair named Alexiano, reputed a Turkish subject,
who had attained the rank of captain commandant,
or brigadier, equivalent to commodore. He was a
man of little capacity, great timidity, and was tricky
and unreliable in his disposition.
Jones immediately proceeded on board the Wolo-
dimer and exhibited his orders. He found that
Alexiano had assembled all the commanders of the
ships, and endeavored to persuade them to rebel
against his authority. The attempted cabal came to
nothing, however, and on receiving a letter from
Patiomkine Alexiano relinquished the command to
Jones, and with a very ill grace consented to serve
as his subordinate he had to. On the same day in
which he arrived, in order to ascertain the topog-
raphy of the situation, Jones left the Wolodimer and
rode over to Kinburn Point, opposite Otchakoff.
After a careful examination of the water which he
was to defend and the town he was to blockade, so
far as he could make it from the shore, he returned
364 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to the Wolodimer, and finding, as he says, " all the
officers contented," he hoisted his rear admiral's
flag on that ship on the evening of the 6th of June,
1788.* The Prince of Nassau-Siegen called upon
him promptly, and apparently recognized his supe-
riority in rank, if not his right to command. He
had an immediate foretaste of the character of his
new associates when the prince informed him that
if they gained any advantage over the Turks it
would be necessary to exaggerate it to the utmost !
Jones replied that he had never adopted that method
of heightening his personal merits. He might have
added that a true recital of his exploits was suf-
ficiently dazzling to need no embellishment by the
wildest imagination.
The celebrated General Stivorof was in com-
mand of the strong fortress of Kinburn, which was
supposed to command the entrance of the Liman,
but it was too far inland to menace Otchakoff, or,
indeed, to command anything effectively. It is an
evidence of Jones' quick perception and fine mili-
tary instinct that as soon as he inspected the posi-
tion he discovered the advantage of placing a
battery on Kinburn Point, opposite the shoal to
which I have referred : and his first act upon
assuming the command was to point out to
Suvorof, who was perhaps the greatest of all
Russian soldiers, the absolute necessity for a bat-
tery there. Realizing the fact, Suvorof immedi-
ately mounted a formidable battery on the point,
* All dates given, except in letters, are new style, eleven
days in advance of Russian dates.
A STRATEGIC POINT. 365
and he magnanimously credited Jones with the idea,
in spite of the fact that the previous neglect to for--
tify the point was a reflection on his military skill.
Before the guns were in position the capitan pasha
as the Turkish admiral was styled, with twenty-one
frigates and sloops of war, and several smaller ves-
sels, entered the Liman and anchored before Otcha-
koff. He was followed by a flotilla of gunboats
about equal in number and individual efficiency to
the Russian flotilla. The ships of the line and
heavier frigates of the Turks, unable to approach
near the town, remained at anchor in the open roads
to the westward, and as they took no part in the
subsequent actions they may be dismissed from
further notice. Even as it was, however, the Turk-
ish force greatly overmatched the Russian.
Jones had fifteen ships, the Turks twenty-one,
and ship for ship the advantage was entirely in
favor of the Turks. In number the two flotillas
of gunboats were about the same,. and there was not
much choice in their quality. The poor quality of
Nassau's leadership could hardly be surpassed by
any Turk, however incompetent, but the capitan
pasha in critical moments led his own flotilla, and,
as Jones practically did the same for the Russian
gunboats, Nassau's incompetency did not matter so
much as it might.
On the Qth of June, having meanwhile received
re-enforcements of soldiers to complete the crews,
the squadron, followed by the flotilla, got under
way and stood toward the entrance of the Liman.
The combined force anchored in two lines, the
squadron forming an obtuse angle in the channel
366 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
"with the opening toward Otchakoff, so as to be able
to pour a cross fire upon any approaching ships.
On the right and left flanks in the shallow water
divisions of gunboats were stationed, with another
division immediately in the rear of the squadron,
and a reserve division at hand to re-enforce any
threatened point of the line. The station was just
in front of the mouth of the Bug, and commanded
the entrance to that river and the Dnieper as well,
thus protecting Kherson from any attack by the
Turks, and affording Patiomkine's troops a free and
unimpeded passage of the Bug when they marched
to invest the town. The position was most advan-
tageously chosen by Jones. His force was too
weak to attack the Turks with any hope of success
at present, and he had been ordered by Patiomkine
not to enter upon any operation until the Russian
army arrived. Absolutely no fault can be found
either with his location or his dispositions.
The Turks made no movement to attack them,
and Nassau, who was good at proposing aggressive
movements when no dangers threatened, suggested
that they abandon their position and move forward
nearer the town. Nothing would be gained by this
maneuver, and opportunities for a successful attack
by the Turks would have been greater than in their
present position. Jones realized that the Turks
must of necessity attack them sooner or later ; that
no commander could afford to throw away such
'advantage in force as the Turks enjoyed, when any
hour might bring re-enforcements to the Russians,
and the battery which Suvofof had completed would
prevent further re-enforcements being received by
THE FIRST ATTACK.
367
the Turks. So Jones grimly held to his position in
spite of Nassau's remonstrances, which were sec-
onded by those of Alexiano, and waited. To wait
is sometimes braver than to advance.
Finally one of the reasons for Nassau's desire to
advance transpired. He wished to remove from
his position near the Turkish shore, upon which bat-
teries were being erected in the absence of any
Russian land force to prevent them, which would
subject the right wing of his flotilla to a land fire ;
and he desired to take a position where he would
be protected by the new fort at Kinburn Point and
by the ships of the squadron. Suvorof had made
Jones responsible for the safety of the fort on Kin-
burn Point, by the way, while awaiting the advance
of the army. Having received no orders from Pati-
omkine, Jones assembled a council of war on the
Wolodimer, at which Nassau was present. Jones'
supremacy was fully recognized by Nassau. The
council approved of the position in which Jones had
placed his squadron, and commended his resolution
to maintain that position, and in obedience to urgent
pleadings from Jones the officers of the flotilla and
squadron agreed to co-operate and work together
for the common good in the event of being attacked.
They did not have long to wait for the inevitable
encounter.
On the afternoon of the i8th of June, the Turk-
ish flotilla in two divisions made a dash at the Rus-
sian gunboats on the right flank, and a sharp en-
gagement began. The Russians, greatly outnum-
bered, began to give ground, and, though the reserve
was immediately sent to support the right wing, be-
368 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
fore the dashing attacks of the Turkish gunboats the
retreat was not stayed. A battery of artillery which
had been unmasked on the adjacent shore also seri-
ously annoyed the extreme flank of the Russians.
On account of the shoal water the ships of the
squadron could not enter the engagement. Jones,
therefore, with his instinctive desire to get into a
fight, left the Wolodimer and embarked in Nassau's
galley. That commander had entirely lost his head.
He could think of nothing to do of value, but im-
plored Jones to send him a frigate which was im-
-possible, for all the frigates drew too much water;
failing this, he threatened to withdraw his right
wing, in which case the Turkish gunboats probably
would have taken the squadron in reverse, and
might have inflicted serious damage. Jones con-
vinced him that a return attack was not only neces-
sary but inevitable, and, as Nassau made no
objection, he assumed the direction of the vessels
himself. Summoning the unengaged center and
left divisions, he brought them up through the
squadron to attack the approaching Turkish galleys
on the flank. The diversion they caused so in-
spirited the broken right and reserve divisions that
they made a determined stand and stopped their
retreat. The capitan pasha, seeing himself in dan-
ger of being taken between two fires and his retreat
cut off, withdrew precipitately before the center and
the left fairly came into action. Had Jones been in
command of the flotilla from the beginning, a most
disastrous defeat would have been inflicted upon
the Turks. As it was, they retreated in confusion,
leaving two gunboats in the hands of the enemy.
ACTION OF JUNE i8TH. 369
As the affair had been conducted entirely be-
tween the different flotillas, Nassau claimed all the
credit for the brilliant maneuvers of the Russians.
Jones contemptuously allowed him to make any
claims he pleased in his report to Patiomkine, and
gave Nassau credit for at least having taken his ad-
vice. It would have been better for Nassau's fame
if he had continued to take Jones' advice. Having
obtained this slight success, Nassau, who knew how
well his urgency would look in the reports, again
proposed to Jones that they should advance and at-
tack. The Russian army had not yet invested the
place, and the success they had gained was so slight
that circumstances had not changed. Jones still re-
fused to be moved from the position he had as-
sumed, which the experience of the i8th of June
had justified, and calmly awaited the further pleas-
ure of the enemy. It takes a high quality of moral
courage for a stranger, who has a reputation for
audacity and intrepidity, absolutely to refuse to
do that thing to which a subordinate urges him,
and which has the appearance of courage and dar-
ing; and I count this refusal, in the interests of
sound strategic principles, not an unimportant
manifestation of Jones' qualities as an officer.
Meanwhile, the Russian army, having passed
the Bug, invested the city on the 28th of June, and
the Turkish fleet was forced to attack or withdraw.
The capitan pasha elected to do the former. Hav-
ing re-enforced his crews by some two thousand
picked men from the great fleet outside the Liman,
he advanced down the bay to attack the Russians.
The wind was free, and the Turkish fleet came on
25
370 COMMODORE PAUL JON 7 ES.
in grand style, the capitan pasha leading in the
largest ship, with the flotilla of gunboats massed
on his left flank, making a brilliant showing. Nas-
sau's desire to advance suddenly vanished, and he
clamored for a retreat. Jones paid no attention to
him, but weighed anchor, and, as it was impossible
for him to advance on account of the wind, he
waited for the enemy. Fortunately for the Russians,
at one o'clock in the afternoon the Turkish flagship,
which had been headed for the Wolodimer, took
ground on the shoals near the south shore of
the Liman. The advance of the fleet was immedi-
ately stopped, and the Turkish vessels came to an-
chor about the flagship.
A council of war was at once convened on the
Wolodimer, and Jones at last persuaded the Rus-
sians, although inferior in force, to attack the Turks
as soon as the wind permitted. During the night
the wind fortunately shifted to the north-northeast,
and at daylight on the 2Qth the squadron stood for
the Turkish fleet. The Wolodimer led the advance.
By hard work the Turkish admiral had succeeded
in floating his flagship, but his ships were huddled
together without order. Jones immediately dashed
at him, opening fire from his bow guns as he came
within range. The squadron was formed in echelon
by bringing the van forward on the center, making
another obtuse angle, with the opening toward the
crowd of Turkish ships in fact, Jones was attempt-
ing with his smaller force to surround them. In
the confusion caused by the bold attack, the Turks,
who seem to have been taken completely by sur-
prise, again permitted the ships of the admiral and
BATTLE OF JUNE 28x11 AND 2 9 TH. 37 [
of his second in command to take ground. Jones'
prompt approach and the heavy fire poured upon
them made it impossible to float the stranded ships.
They both of them keeled over on the shoal and
could make no defense. Their flags were struck,
and they were abandoned by their crews. The
other Turkish ships were so discouraged by this
mishap that they withdrew toward Otchakoff, their
flight being accelerated by the tremendous fire
poured upon them by the Wolodimer and the other
Russian ships. Just as the Wolodimer reached the
stranded ship of the capitan pasha, Alexiano, who
found himself sufficiently near to the enemy,
ordered the anchor of the Wolodimer to be let go
without informing Jones. As the order was given
in Russian, Jones knew nothing about it until the
motion of the ship was stopped.
There was plenty of fight in the Turkish admiral,
who seems to have i^een a very gallant old fellow,
for after the loss of the flagship he hoisted his flag
on one of the gunboats and brought up the flotilla,
which poured a furious fire from its heavy guns
upon the right division of Jones' squadron, to which
the lighter guns of the ships could make but little
reply. The situation became dangerous for the
squadron. One of the Russian frigates, the Little
Alexander, was set on fire and blown up by the
Turkish shot, and the fortune of the day trembled
in the balance.
The light-draught gunboats each carried a large
.gun, heavier, and therefore of greater range, than
any on the ships. The shallow water would not
permit the ships to draw near enough to the flotilla
372 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to make effective use of their greater number of
guns. Hence, under the circumstances, the squad-
ron was always at the mercy of the flotilla unless by
some means they could get into close action, in
which case the ships would have made short work
of the gunboats. Jones' position was therefore one
of extreme peril untenable, in fact, without the
help of his own flotilla. The Russian flotilla had
followed the squadron in a very leisurely and dis-
orderly manner, so slowly that Jones had twice
checked the way of his ships to allow them to come
within hailing distance. He now dispatched a re-
quest to Nassau to bring up his gunboats on the
right flank and drive off the Turkish gunboats,
thus enabling him to take possession of the two
frigates, which had been abandoned by their crews,
and continue the pursuit of the flying Turkish
ships.
No attention was paid to this and repeated re-
quests, and Jones finallytook his boat and went him-
self in search of Nassau's galley to entreat him to
attack the Turkish flotilla. He found Nassau in the
rear of the left flank, far from the scene of action,
and bent only upon attacking the two ships which
were incapable of defense. Unable to persuade him
to act, Jones at last appealed to Nassau's second,
Brigadier Corsacoff, who finally moved against the
Turks and drove them off with great loss after a
hard fight. Jones meanwhile returned to the Wolo-
dimer both journeys having been made under a
furious fire, in the midst of a general action, in
which upward of thirty-six ships of considerable
size and possibly a hundred gunboats were partici-
NASSAU'S FOLLY.
373
pating but before he could get under way Nassau,
with some of his flotilla, surrounded the two aban-
doned ships and set fire to them by means of a
peculiar kind of a bomb shell called brandkugcls
(hollow spheres, filled with combustibles and per-
forated with holes, which were fired from a piece
called a I iconic). The Turkish fleet and flotilla,
very much shattered, retreated to a safe position
under the walls of Otchakoff, thus ending the fight-
ing for that day. Nassau's action was inexcusable.
The two ships he so wantonly destroyed would have
been a valuable addition to the Russian navy, and, as
they were commanded by the Wolodimer and the
rest of the squadron, they could not have been re-
captured, and could easily have been removed from
the shoals.
The Turkish defeat had been a severe one, but
the only trophy which remained in the hands of the
Russians was the flag of the capitan pasha. A shot
from one of the gunboats having carried* it away, it
fell into the water, whence it was picked up by some
Zaporojian boatmen, who brought it to the Prince
of Nassau's boat. Jones happened to be on board
of it at the time. The flag certainly belonged to
him, but he magnanimously yielded it to Nassau
in the hope of pacifying that worthless individual.
It was by this time late in the afternoon, but Jones
gave orders to get under way toward Otchakoff.
Now was the proper time to advance and deliver
a return blow upon the broken enemy, but now
Nassau desired to remain where he was. Jones was
inflexible as usual, and determined to finish the job
so auspiciously begun. Accordingly, the anchor of
374
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the Wolodimer was lifted and she got under way,
followed by the remaining ships of the squadron.
Having approached as near to Otchakoff as the
shoal water permitted, Jones anchored his vessels
across the channel in such a position as to cover the
JTu.6i.rn fl>inS, I** 1 -''''"' ,''' "^J^S
BtW\ ., .' ~~ *-
MAP OF THE
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
ON THE
LIMAN
II Central Action June 28-29.
III Dettruftim of Turkieh Fleet
after the battle .
IV Attack an Turtitlt yalleft
Iff Jona and theHuainn FotUla
passage to the sea. If the Turkish vessels attempted
to escape, they would have to pass under the guns
of the squadron, and would find themselves within
easy range of the formidable battery at Kinburn
Point. Nassau's flotilla at last following, the squad-
ron was massed on the right flank.
The Turkish fleet and flotilla were drawn up in
line parallel to the Russians, under cover of the
A BOLD RECONNOISANCE.
375
Otchakoff batteries ; they still presented a threat-
ening appearance, but the severe handling they had
received during the day had taken much of the fight
out of them. Having disposed his squadron and
flotilla to the best advantage, and being unable to
proceed further without coming under the fire of
the heavy Otchakoff batteries, there was nothing
left for Jones but to hold his position and wait
another attack.
In order, however, to familiarize himself with the
field of future operations, and see if he had properly
placed his force, just before sunset he took sound-
ings in a small boat all along the Turkish line within
range of case shot from the Otchakoff batteries, and
from the Turkish ships as well. His action was a
part of his impudent hardihood. His dashing at-
tack had so discouraged the Turks, and his success
of the morning had so disheartened them, that not
a single gun was fired upon him. Having com-
pleted his investigations to his satisfaction, he re-
turned to the flagship.
That night the Turkish admiral attempted to
escape with his remaining ships and rejoin his main
fleet on the Black Sea outside of Kinburn Point.
In an endeavor to avoid Jones' squadron on the one
hand, and the battery on the point on the other, nine
of his largest ships ran on a shoal. The attempt to
escape was made under the fire of the fort and
ships, in which the flotillas and Fort Hassan joined.
A few of the ships succeeded in getting to sea ; the
rest were forced to return to their position of safety
under the walls of Otchakoff.
When morning came, the plight of the nine ships
376 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
aground was plainly visible. Suvorof, who had
commanded the Kinburn battery in person that
night, immediately signaled Jones to send vessels
to take possession of the Turkish ships. Jones de-
cided to send the light frigates of his squadron, but
it being represented to him by Brigadier Alexiano
that the place where the Turks had grounded was
dangerous and the current running like a mill
stream with the ebb tide, upon the advice of his
captains he turned over the duty of taking posses-
sion of the Turkish ships to the flotilla. Alexiano,
having received permission, went with the Prince of
Nassau.
The boats of the flotilla soon reached the Turkish
ships. When they came within range of them they
opened a furious fire, to which the latter made no
reply. In their helpless position, heeling every way
upon the shoal, it was impossible for them to make
any defense. They struck their flags and surren-
dered their ships. The Russian gunboats paid no
attention whatever to this circumstance, but con-
tinued to fire upon them, drawing nearer and nearer
as they realized the helplessness of the Turks. Re-
sorting to brandkugcls again, they at last set the
ships on fire. The hapless Turks in vain implored
mercy, kneeling upon the decks and even making
the sign of the cross in the hope of touching the
hearts of their ruthless and bloodthirsty antagonists.
Seven frigates and corvettes were burned to the
water's edge with all their crews. It is estimated
that about three thousand Turks perished in this
brutal and frightful butchery. Nassau and Alexiano
enjoyed the situation from a galley at a safe dis,-
RUSSIAN CRUELTY. 377
tance in the rear of the attacking force. By chance
two of the vessels were not consumed, and were
hauled off later and added to the squadron.
' Jones viewed the dreadful slaughter of the Turks
with unmitigated horror and surprise. A man of
merciful disposition and kindly heart, who never in-
flicted unnecessary suffering, he was shocked and
revolted at the ferocity of his new associates. He
protested against their action with all his energy,
and laid the foundation thereby of an utter break-
down of the relations between Nassau and himself.
Besides being horribly cruel, the whole perform-
ance was unnecessary. Like the two ships burned
the day before, it was possible to have saved them,
and they could have been added to Jones' command
and would have doubled his effective force. After
the destruction of the Turkish vessels Nassau and
Alexiano immediately dispatched a report of the
operations to Patiomkine. They claimed that the
flotilla had captured two and burned nine ships of
the line !
Patiomkine, who was at this time extremely fond
of Nassau, forwarded this preposterous statement to
the empress, with strong expressions of approbation
of Nassau's conduct. He gave him the whole credit
of the victory, which was entirely due to Jones, and
suppressed the fact of his ruthless and reckless de-
struction of the surrendered ships, which would
have been so valuable a re-enforcement to the gov-
ernment. In this report Patiomkine also spoke fa-
vorably of the rear admiral, saying that he had done
his duty, but that the particular glory of and credit
for the success was due to the princeling who had
378 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
hung on the outskirts and lagged behind when there
was any real fighting to be done.
For some ten days the naval force remained in-
active, waiting for Patiomkine to complete his in-
vestment of the town. On the night of the 8th of
July the marshal sent orders to Nassau to advance
with his flotilla and destroy the Turkish flotilla un-
der the walls of Otchakoff. Jones was commanded
to give him every assistance possible. The weather
prevented the carrying out of the orders for a few
days. On the night of the I2th of July, however,
at one o'clock in the morning, the advance began.
The plan of attack had been arranged by the mar-
shal himself, but circumstances prevented its being
followed. But that did not matter ; Patiomkine was
not a military genius, and Jones knew very much
better than he what could or should be done in a
naval engagement. As it was impossible to use
the ships of the squadron, Jones manned all his
boats, and led them to tow the gunboats.
As day broke on the I2th of July, the flotilla,
having advanced within gunshot distance of the
walls, began firing upon the Turkish boats and on
Otchakoff itself. After assisting in placing the Rus-
sian gunboats in an advantageous position, Jones,
with the boats of the Wolodimer, made for five of
the enemy's galleys which lay within easy range of
the heavy guns of Fort Hassan. These galleys were
subjected to a cross fise from the Russian flotilla on
one side and Fort Hassan on the other. They were
also covered by the guns of the Turkish flotilla and
the citadel of Otchakoff. Their position made the
attack a most hazardous one. Jones was far in ad-
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING.
379
vance of the gunboats, which, under the supine
leadership of Nassau, did not manifest a burning
anxiety to get into close action. In spite of a furi-
ous fire which was poured upon them, Jones dashed
gallantly at the nearest galley. It was taken by
boarding after a fierce hand-to-hand fight. Turn-
ing the command of the galley over to Lieutenant
Fabricien with instructions for him to tow her out
of action, Jones then assaulted the next galley, which
happened to be that of the capitan pasha. This boat
lay nearer the fort and was much better defended,
but the Russians, under the inspiring leadership of
their admiral, would not be denied, and the galley
was presently his prize. The cable of this boat was
cut without order, and she immediately drifted to-
ward the shore and took ground near Fort Hassan,
where she was subjected to a smashing fire from the
Turkish batteries close at hand. Jones was deter-
mined to bring out the boat as a prize if possible.
He caused the galley to be lightened by throwing
everything movable overboard, and meanwhile dis-
patched Lieutenant Fox to the Wolodimer to fetch
a kedge and line, by which he could warp her into
the channel.
While waiting for the return of this officer he
again manned his boats and endeavored to bring
up the Russian flotilla. He was partially successful
in this attempt, for they succeeded in compelling the
three other galleys of the group with which he had
been engaged to strike their flags and in forcing the
other gunboats to retreat with severe loss. When
Fox returned from the Wolodimer a line was run
from the galley to the burned wreck of a Turkish
380 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ship, but, before the galley could be moved, Jones,
who had re-entered his barge, was intensely sur-
prised and annoyed to see fire break out on the two
vessels he had captured. They had been deliber-
ately set on fire by the orders of Alexiano. The
other three Turkish galleys were also burned by the
use of the deadly brandkugcls. Tt was brutal cruelty
again. Not one was saved from the five galleys ex-
cept fifty-two prisoners whom Jones personally
brought off in his boats from the two which he had
captured by hard hand-to-hand fighting. These
galleys appear to have been propelled by oars which
were driven by slaves on benches, in the well-known
manner of the middle ages. As they were Turkish
galleys, the slaves were probably captive Christians.
They perished with the Turks left on board. Two
more ships belonging to the squadron which had
endeavored to escape the w r eek previous, were set
on fire and burned under the w-alls of Fort Hassan.
The rest of the flotilla effected nothing, and under
the orders of Nassau withdrew to their former posi-
tion.
This action ended the general naval maneuvers
which were undertaken. In this short and brilliant
campaign of three weeks Jones had fought four
general actions, all of which he personally directed.
With fifteen vessels against twenty-one he had so
maneuvered that the enemy lost many galleys and
no less than thirteen of his ships ; a few had escaped,
and a few were locked up in the harbor, so that the
Turkish naval force in the Liman was not only de-
feated but practically annihilated by Jones' brilliant
and successful leadership and fighting. Eleven
A BRILLIANT CAMPAIGN. 381
ships might have been prizes had it not been for
the cruelty and criminal folly of Nassau. Jones had
captured by hand-to-hand righting two of the
largest of the enemy's galleys. He had shown him-
self a strategist in his disposition of the fleet at the
mouth of the Bug, and later, when he had placed it
to command the mouth of the Liman. He had
demonstrated his qualities as a tactician in the two
boat attacks, and had shown his usual impetuous
courage at all times. Nassau had done nothing that
was wise or that was gallant. When Jones was not
with him his tendency was always to retreat. The
orders which brought the flotilla into action which
made the brilliant combination on the first day's
fight, by which the Turks were outflanked, were
issued by Jones himself.
Nassau, like Landais, was " skilled in keeping out
of harm's way," and he did not personally get into
action at any time. His services consisted in the
useless burning of the nine ships and the five gal-
leys, but he had a ready tongue, and he still enjoyed
the full favor .and confidence of Patiomkine. As
soon as the flotilla had retired from the last conflict,
he and Alexfano hastened to the army headquarters
to report their conquests and exploits. They lost
nothing in the telling. In accordance with Nassau's
previous statement to Jones, they were very much
exaggerated, and the actions of the rear admiral
were accorded scant notice.
Patiomkine received the two cowards graciously,
and, as usual, forwarded their reports. Jones was
not accustomed to this performance, and in igno-
rance of their actions took no steps to establish the
382 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
value of his services beyond making a report of what
he had done in the usual way a report quietly
suppressed. Two days after Alexiano returned on
board the Wolodimer in the throes of a malignant
fever, of which he died on the iQth of July. It had
been asserted that every Greek in the squadron
would immediately resign upon the death of Alexi-
ano, but nothing of the kind took place. The
Greeks, like the English and the Russians, remained
contentedly under the command of the rear admiral.
On the day he died Catherine granted Alexiano a
fine estate in White Russia. At the same time Nas-
sau received a valuable estate with several thousand
serfs in White Russia, and the military order of St.
George. The empress also directed him to hoist
the flag of a vice admiral when Otchakoff surren-
dered. Jones received the minor order of St. Anne,
an- order with which he would have been perfectly
satisfied if the other officers had been awarded noth-
ing more.
All the officers of the flotilla were promoted one
step, and received a year's pay with a gold-mounted
sword. They were most of them soldiers. The offi-
cers of the squadron, who were all sailors, and who
had conducted themselves gallantly and well, ob-
tained no promotion, received no pecuniary reward,
and no mark of distinction was conferred upon
them. They were naturally indignant at being so
slighted, but when Jones promised them that he
would demand justice for them at the close of the
campaign, they stifled their vexation and continued
their service.
It is evident that the failure to ascribe the vie-
RUPTURE WITH NASSAU. 383
tory to Jones was due to Patiomkine, and his action
in giving the credit to Nassau was deliberate. Jones
and Nassau had seriously disagreed. The scorn
which ability and courage feel for inefficiency and
cowardice had not been concealed by the admiral ;
he had been outspoken in his censure, and not re-
served in his strictures upon Nassau's conduct. He
had treated the ideas and suggestions of that foolish
commander with the indifference they merited, and
had allowed no opportunity to pass of exhibiting
his contempt which was natural, but impolitic.
He seems to have made the effort in the begin-
ning to get along pleasantly with Nassau, and to
work with him for the good of the service ; but, after
the demonstration of Nassau's lack of character and
capacity in the first action, and after the repeated
failure of the prince to maneuver the flotilla in the
most ordinary manner, Jones lost all patience with
him. Patiomkine had endeavored to establish har-
mony and good feeling between the two, not only by
letters, but by a personal visit which he paid the rear
admiral on the Wolodimer on the 29th of June. He
did everything on that occasion to persuade Nassau
to' make an apology for some remarks he had ad-
dressed to Jones previously, and, having done so,
effected some kind of a reconciliation, but the dif-
ferences between them were so wide Nassau was
so worthless and Jones so capable, while both were
hot-tempered that the breach between them was
greater than before.
Between the two Patiomkine, while not at first
unfriendly to Jones, much preferred Nassau.
Hence his action. Not only did Patiomkine enjoin
384 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
harmony, but Littlepage, the American, whom we
have seen before as the chamberlain of the King
of Poland, who had accepted the command of one
of the ships under Jones, also wrote him to the
same effect.
Jones received his letter in the spirit in which it
was written, and assured the writer that he had
borne more from Nassau than he would have done
from any other than a madman, and he promised to
continue to try to do so. The effort was a failure.
Littlepage himself, unable to endure the animosities
engendered between the squadron and the flotilla,
threw up his command and returned to Warsaw.
His parting counsel to Jones showed that he well
understood the situation.
" Farewell, my dear admiral ; take care of your-
self, and look to whom you trust. Remember that
you have rather to play the part of a politician than
a warrior more of a courtier than a soldier."
Jones indorsed upon this note the following re-
mark :
" I was not skilled in playing such a part. I
never neglected my duty."
To resume the narrative : After the defeat in the
Liman, the grand Turkish fleet sailed away from
Otchakoff, which was then strictly blockaded by
Jones' squadron, assisted by thirty-five armed boats
which had been placed under his command. At
the end of July the Turkish fleet, having had an
indecisive engagement with the Russians at Sebas-
topol, returned to Otchakoff. Preparations were
BLOCKADING OTCHAKOFF. 385
made by Jones to receive an attack, but none was
delivered. Three ships attempted to run the block-
ade : one was sunk, and the others got in with dif-
ficulty. Nothing of importance happened during
the months of August and September, in which
Jones continued an effective blockade, although he
undertook some minor operations at the request of
the marshal.
Patiomkine carried on the siege in a very des-
ultory manner. In accordance with his contradic-
tory nature he sometimes pressed operations vigor-
ously, and then for weeks did nothing. He seems to
have had a harem in his camp, which perhaps ac-
counts for his dawdling. Nassau, with his usual
boastfulness, sent word to Patiomkine that if he had
permission he would take the boats of the flotilla
and knock a breach in the walls of Otchakoff big
enough to admit two regiments ; whereupon Pati-
omkine asked him wittily how many breaches he
had made in Gibraltar, and removed him from his
command. He was sent northward, where he still
managed to hold the favor of the empress. This
did not greatly improve Jones' situation, however,
for the relations between him and Patiomkine had
become so strained as to be impossible.
On the 24th of October Patiomkine sent him
the following order :
" As it is seen that the capitan pasha comes in
his kirlangich from the grand fleet to the smaller
vessels, and as before quitting this he may attempt
something, I request your excellence, the capitan
pasha having actually a greater number of vessels,
26
386 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
to hold yourself in readiness to receive him cour-
ageously, and drive him back. I require that this
be done without loss of time ; if not, you will be
made answerable for every neglect."
Indorsing this insulting document as follows :
" A warrior is always ready, and I had not come
there an apprentice," Jones immediately returned a
spirited answer, part of which is quoted :
" MONSEIGNEUR : I have the honour to transmit
to your highness a plan of the position in which I
placed the squadron under my command this morn-
ing, in conformity to your orders of yesterday. . . .
I have always conformed myself immediately, with-
out murmuring, and most exactly, to the commands
of your highness ; and on occasions when you have
deigned to leave anything to my own discretion I
have been exceedingly flattered, and believe you
have had no occasion to repent. At present, in case
the capitan pacha does resolve on attempting any-
thing before his departure, I can give assurance be-
forehand that the brave officers and crews I have
the honour to command will do their duty ' cour-
ageously,' though they have not yet been rewarded
for the important services they have already per-
formed for the empire under my eyes. I answer
with my honour to explain myself fairly on this deli-
cate point at the end of the campaign. In the
meantime I may merely say that it is upon the
sacred promise I have given them of demanding
justice from your highness in their behalf that they
have consented to stifle their grievances and keep
silent."
QUARREL WITH PATIOMKINE. 387
This provoked a reply from Patiomkine and an-
other tart rejoinder from Jones. The correspond-
ence, in which on one occasion Jones had stated
that " every man who thinks is master of his own
opinion, and this is mine " good doctrine for the
United States, impossible in Russia terminated by
another order from Patiomkine, which closed as
follows :
" Should the enemy attempt to pass Oczakow,
prevent him by every means and defend yourself
courageously."
Jones' indorsement on this document was as
follows :
" It will be hard to believe that Prince Potem-
kin addressed such words to Paul Jones ! "
But the patience of the prince had reached its
limit, and on the 28th he summarily relieved Jones
of his command, and replaced him by Vice-Admiral
Mordwinoff, who had received him so coldly when
he arrived at Kherson six months before.
The order relieving him is as follows :
" According to the special desire of her Imperial
Majesty, your service is fixed in the northern seas ;
and as this squadron and the flotilla are placed by
me under the orders of the vice admiral and the
Chevalier de Mordwinoff, your excellency may in
consequence proceed on the voyage directed ; prin-
cipally, as the squadron in the Liman, on account of
the season being so far advanced, can not now be
united with that of Sevastopol."
388 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The northern sea service was only a pretext, but
on the 3Oth Jones replied with the following brief
note :
" I am much flattered that her Majesty yet
deigns to interest herself about me ; but what I shall
ever regret is the loss of your regard. I will not
say that it is not difficult to find more skilful sea
officers than myself I know well that it is a very
possible thing; but I feel emboldened to say that
you will never find a man more susceptible of a
faithful attachment or more zealous in the discharge
of his duty. I forgive my enemies who are near
you for the painful blow aimed at me ; but if there
is a just God, it will be difficult for Him to do as
much."
Patiomkine was intensely angered by this note,
and he took serious exception to the implication
that he had been influenced against Jones by any
one. Jones states in one of his letters that when he
took leave of Patiomkine a few days afterward, the
prince remarked with much anger :
" Don't believe that anyone leads me. No one
leads me ! " he shouted, rising and stamping his
foot, " not even the Empress ! " which was correct.
The jesting interrogation with which Catherine
closes one of her letters to Patiomkine by saying,
" Have I done well, -my master ? " contained much
truth. However, he moderated his tone somewhat
in the face of the sturdy dignity of Jones, and, before
the admiral started for St. Petersburg, Patiomkine
gave him the following letter to the empress :
RETURNS TO ST. PETERSBURG.
389
" MADAM : In sending to the high throne of your
Imperial Majesty Rear-Admiral M. Paul Jones, I
take, with submission, the liberty of certifying the
eagerness and zeal which he has ever shown for the
service of your Imperial Majesty, and to render
himself worthy of the high favour of your Imperial
Majesty."
Having given the officers he commanded, who
seem to have become much attached to him, testi-
monials as to the high value of their services, Jones
embarked in a small open galley on the ist of De-
cember for Kherson. He was three days and three
nights on the way, and suffered greatly from the
extreme cold. He arrived at Kherson dangerously
ill, and was unable to proceed upon his journey until
the i /th of December. When he reached Eliza-
bethgrad he received word that Otchakoft" had been
taken by storm the day he had departed from Kher-
son ; over twenty thousand Turks were put to the
sword on that occasion. He arrived at St. Peters-
burg on the 8th of January, 1789, and was ordered
to appear at court on the nth, when the empress
awarded him a private interview, at which he pre-
sented the letter of Patiomkine. A few days after-
ward Catherine sent him word that she would wait
the arrival of the prince before deciding what to do
with him.
CHAPTER XIX.
SLANDERED IN RUSSIA A SLAVONIC REWARD FOR
FAITHFUL SERVICES.
PATIOMKINE did not reach St. Petersburg until
the middle of February, and while waiting for him
Jones busied himself with formulating suggestions
for a political and commercial alliance between
Russia and the United States, one feature of which
involved an attack upon Algiers. In addition to
holding a large number of American prisoners in
captivity, the Algerines had made common cause
with the Turks, and had been present in large num-
bers before Otchakoff. When Patiomkine did ar-
rive, the project was submitted to him, but it was
not thought expedient to attempt it at the time, lest
it should result in the irritation of England. Dur-
ing this time the commodore wrote to Jefferson and
learned for the first time that all the letters he had
written since he entered the Russian service had been
intercepted. When he examined the official reports
concerning his actions, which had been forwarded
from the Liman, he found that he had been grossly
misrepresented, and the reports were false even to
the most trifling details.
His situation was very different from what it
had been when he entered St. Petersburg before.
390
AN AWFUL CHARGE.
391
Antagonized secretly by Patiomkine, and openly by
Nassau and the English at court, his favor appre-
ciably waned. The old story about the insubordi-
nate carpenter whom he had punished in the West
Indies was revived, and in its new version the car-
penter became his nephew, and it was stated that he
had flogged him to death. This was the precursor
of a more deadly scandal. His occasional invita-
tions to court functions became less and less fre-
quent, and the coldness in official circles more
and more marked. Finally, in the month of April,
when he appeared at the palace to pay his respects
to the empress, he was refused admittance, and
unceremoniously ordered to leave the precincts.
This deadly insult, this public disgrace, which
of course at once became a matter of general knowl-
edge, was due to a most degrading accusation
made against his character. To discover the origin
of this slander is difficult indeed. In the first flush
of his anger Jones specifically charged that his Eng-
lish enemies, whose animosities were not softened
by time, were the authors of the calumny. It is im-
possible to believe that any English officer could
descend to such depths, nor is it necessary to credit
the report that his disgrace was due to them. The
Russian court was as full of intrigue as that of an
Oriental despot. Jones was out of favor. He had
succeeded in creating powerful enemies for himself
in Nassau and Patiomkine. The latter gentleman
had negatived a promising plan in the hope of there-
by pleasing England, with whom Russia was now
coquetting. If he were the instigator of the cabal
against Jones, he might have thought the disgrace
392 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of the man they hated would gratify the English
people. If he could bring this about without com-
promising himself he would not hesitate to take the
required action. Nassau had very strong reasons
for hating Jones, who made no secret of his con-
tempt for that pseudo princeling. At any rate,
whatever the source or origin, there is no doubt
as to the situation.
Jones was accused of having outraged a young
girl of menial station, who was only ten years old !
The charge was false from beginning to end. It
had absolutely no foundation, but with the peculiar
methods in vogue in Russia, it was not easy to estab-
lish his innocence. He was not only presumed, but
was declared guilty, without investigation. The
advocate he employed was ordered to abandon his
case, and he found himself in the position of one
condemned beyond hope with no opportunity for
justification. He- was ever jealous on the point
of his personal honor, and to see himself thus
cruelly stigmatized at the close of a long, honor-
able, and brilliant career nearly drove him frantic.
After exhausting unavailingly every means to force
a consideration of his case and an examination
of evidence which he succeeded in securing with
great difficulty, he fell into despair and seriously
contemplated suicide. He was not the man that
he had been. Already within a few years of his
death, although only forty-one, his constitution
was so broken that his strength was seriously
undermined.
Providence raised up for him a friend in the
person of de Segur, the French ambassador at
APPEAL TO PATIOMKINE.
393
Catherine's court. This man should be held in eter-
nal gratitude by all Americans nay, by all who
love honor and fair play for he did not permit him-
self to be influenced, as is the wont of courtiers,
by the withdrawal of royal favor from the chevalier,
whom he had known in happier days and under
more favorable circumstances. He had been Jones'
friend when he had been in the zenith of his ca-
reer, and he remained his friend in this nadir of
his misfortunes. The part that he played in the
transaction can be best understood by his own
statement, confirmed by 'two letters written by
Jones. The first letter is addressed to Patiomkine.
It had been written before the visit of de Segur:
" ST. PETERSBURG, April 13, 1789.
" MY LORD : Having had the advantage to serve
under your orders and in your sight, I remember,
with particular satisfaction, the kind promises and
testimonies of your friendship with which you have
honoured me. As I served all my life for honour,
I had no other motive for accepting the flattering
invitation of her Imperial Majesty than a laudable
ambition to distinguish myself in the service of a
sovereign so magnanimous and illustrious ; for I
never yet have bent the knee to self-interest, nor
drawn my sword for hire. . . .
" A bad woman has accused me of violating her
daughter ! If she had told the truth I should have
had candour enough to own it, and would trust my
honour, which is a thousand times dearer to me than
my life, to the mercy of the empress. I declare,
with an assurance becoming a military character,
3Q4 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
that I am innocent. Till, that unhappy moment I
have enjoyed the public esteem, and the affection of
all who knew me. Shall it be said that in Russia a
wretched woman, who eloped from her husband and
family in the country, stole azi'av her daughter, lives
here in a house of bad fame, and leads a debauched
and adulterous life, has found credit enough on a
simple complaint, unsupported by any proof, to
affect the honour of a general officer of reputation,
who has merited and received the decorations of
America, of France, and of this empire ?
" If I had been favoured with the least intima-
tion of a complaint of that nature having found its
way "to the sovereign, I know too well what belongs
to delicacy to have presented myself in the presence
of the empress before my justification.
" My servant was kept prisoner by the officers of
police for several hours, two days successively, and
threatened with the, knout.
" After the examination of my people before the
police, I sent for and employed Monsieur Crimpin
as my advocate. As the mother had addressed her-
self to him before to plead her cause, she naturally
spoke to him without reserve, and he learned from
her a number of important facts, among others, that
she was counselled and supported by a distinguished
man of the court.
" By the certificate of the father, attested by the
pastor of the colony, the daughter is several years
older than is expressed in the complaint. And the
complaint contains various other points equally false
and easy to be refuted. For instance, there is a con-
versation I am said to have held with the daughter
APPEAL TO PATIOMKINE.
395
in the Russian language, of which no person ever
heard me pronounce two words together; it is
unknown to me.
" I thought that in every country a man accused
had a right to employ advocates, and to avail him-
self of his friends for his justification. Judge, my
prince, of my astonishment and distress of mind,
when I yesterday was informed that the day before
the governor of the city had sent for my advocate,
and forbidden him, at his peril, or any other person,
to meddle with my cause!
" I am innocent before God, and my conscience
knows no reproach. The complaint brought
against me is an infamous lie, and there is no cir-
cumstance that gives it even an air of probability.
" I address myself to you with confidence, my
prince, and am assured that the friendship you have
so kindly promised me will be immediately exerted
in my favour ; and that you will not suffer the illus-
trious sovereign of this great empire to be misled
by the false insinuations and secret cabals of my
hidden enemies. Your mind will find more true
pleasure in pleading the cause of an innocent man
whom you honour with your friendship than can
result from other victories equally glorious with
that of Oczakow, which will always rank among the
most brilliant of military achievements. If your
highness will condescend to question Monsieur
Crimpin (for he dare not now even speak to me), he
can tell you many circumstances which will eluci-
date my innocence. .1 am, with profound respect,
my lord, your highness's devoted and most obedient
servant," etc.
396 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
This letter was accompanied by certificates
which fully established the character of the wretched
woman by whose agency his ruin had been sought.
The letter is dignified and touching. It is the pas-
sionate protest of an innocent man against an ac-
cusation concerning that which he had ever held
dearer than life his honor. It carries conviction
with it. Incidentally it throws much light upon the
Russian legal methods of that day. Never does
Jones appear in a better light. But it was sent to an
utterly unresponsive man. Honor, justice, inno-
cence, were idle words to Patiomkine. No reply
was made to the note, and Jones abandoned him-
self to despair. The narrative of de Segur is taken
from his memoirs, and, excepting in some minor
details, is substantially correct :
" The American rear admiral was favourably
welcomed at court ; often invited to dinner by the
empress, and received with distinction into the best
society in the city; on a sudden Catherine com-
manded him to appear no more in her presence.
" He was informed that he was accused of an
infamous crime : of assaulting a young girl of four-
teen, of grossly violating her; and that probably,
after some preliminary information, he would be
tried by the courts of admiralty, in which there were
many English officers, who were strongly preju-
diced against him.
" As soon as this order was known every one
abandoned the unhappy American ; no one spoke
to him, people avoided saluting him, and every
door was shut against him. All those by whom
DE SEGUR'S FRIENDSHIP. 397
but yesterday he had been eagerly welcomed now
fled from him as if he had been infected with a
plague ; besides, no advocate would take charge of
his cause, and no public man would consent to listen
to him ; at last even his servants would not con-
tinue in his service ; and Paul Jones, whose exploits
every one had so recently been ready to proclaim,
and whose friendship had been sought after, found
himself alone in the midst of an immense popula-
tion ; Petersburg, a great capital, became to him a
desert.
" I went to see him ; he was moved even to tears
by my visit. ' I was unwilling,' he said to me, shak-
ing me by the hand, ' to knock at your door and
to expose myself to a fresh affront, which would
have been more cutting than all the rest. I have
braved death a thousand times now I wish for it.'
His appearance, his arms being laid upon the table,
made me suspect some desperate intention. .
" ' Resume,' I said to him, ' your composure and
your courage. Do you not know that human life,
like the sea, has its storms, and that fortune is even
more capricious than the winds ? If, as I hope, you
are innocent, brave this sudden tempest ; if, unhap-
pily, you are guilty, confess it to me with unreserved
frankness, and I will do everything I can to snatch
you, by a sudden flight, from the danger which
threatens you.'
" ' I swear to you upon my honour,' said he,
' that I am innocent, and a victim of the most in-
famous calumny. This is the truth. Some days
since a young girl came to me in the morning, to
ask me if I could give her some linen or lace to
398 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
mend. She then indulged in some rather earnest
and indecent allurements. Astonished at so much
boldness in one of such few years, I felt compassion
for her; I advised her not to enter upon so vile a
career, gave her some money, and dismissed her;
but she was determined to remain.
" ' Impatient at this resistance, I took her by the
hand and led her to the door; but, at the instant
when the door was opened, the little profligate tore
her sleeves and her neck-kerchief, raised great cries,
complained that I had assaulted her, and threw her-
self into the arms of an old woman, whom she called
her mother, and who certainly \vas not brought
there by chance. The mother and the daughter
raised the house with their cries, went out, and de-
nounced me ; and now you know all.'
' Very well/ said I, ' but can not you learn the
names of those adventurers ? ' ' The porter knows
them,' he replied. ' Here are their names written
down, but I do not know w r here they live. I was
desirous of immediately presenting a memorial
about this ridiculous affair, first to the minister and
then to the empress ; but I have been interdicted
from access to both of them.' ' Give me the paper,'
I said ; ' resume your accustomed firmness ; be com-
forted ; let me undertake it ; in a short time we shall
meet again.'
" As soon as I returned home I directed some
sharp and intelligent agents, who were devoted to
me, to get information respecting these suspected
females, and to find out what was their mode of
life. I was not long in learning that the old
woman was in the habit of carrying on a vile
DE SEGUK'S ADVICE.
traffic in young girls, whom she passed off as
her daughters.
" When I was furnished with all the documents
and attestations for which I had occasion, I hastened
to show them to Paul Jones. ' You have nothing
more to fear/ said I ; ' the wretches are unmasked.
It is only necessary to open the eyes of the empress,
and let her see how unworthily she has been de-
ceived ; but this is not so very easy ; truth encoun-
ters a multitude of people at the doors of a palace,
who are very clever in arresting its progress ; and
sealed letters are, of all others, those which are in-
tercepted with the greatest art and care. Never-
theless, I know that the empress, who is not igno-
rant of this, has directed under very heavy penalties
that no one shall detain on the way any letters which
are addressed to her personally, and which may be
sent to her by post ; therefore, here is a very long
letter which I have written to her in your name ;
nothing of the detail is omitted, although it contains
some rough expressions. I am sorry for the em-
press ; but since she heard and gave credit to a
calumny, it is but right that she should read the
justification with patience. Copy this letter, sign
it, and I will take charge of it ; I will send some
one to put it in the post at the nearest town. Take
courage ; believe me, your triumph is not doubt-
ful.' "
The contents of the letter which Jones was ad-
vised to copy and send are not now ascertainable,
but the following letter was written to the empress ;
and, while it is so evidently in Jones' own peculiar
400 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
and characteristic style as to admit of no doubt as
to its authorship, he probably embodied in it the
suggestions of de Segur and substituted it for the
copy proposed :
" ST. PETERSBURG, May 17, ijSg.
" MADAM : I have never served but for honour ;
I have never sought but glory ; and I believed I was
in the way of obtaining both when I accepted the
offers made me on the part of your Majesty, of en-
tering into your service. ... I sacrificed my dear-
est interests to accept an invitation so flattering, and
I would have reached you instantly if the United
States had not entrusted me with a special com-
mission to Denmark. Of this I acquitted myself
faithfully and promptly. . . . The distinguished re-
ception which your Majesty deigned to grant me,
the kindness with which you loaded me, indemni-
fied me for the dangers to which I had exposed my-
self for your service, and inspired me with the most
ardent desire to encounter more. ... I besought
your Majesty never to condemn me unheard. You
condescended to give me that promise, and I set
out with a mind as tranquil as my heart was satis-
fied. . . .
" At the close of the campaign I received orders
to return to court, as your Majesty intended to em-
ploy me in the North Seas, and M. le Comte de
Besborodko acquainted me that a command of
greater importance than that of the Black Sea . . .
was intended for me. Such was my situation, when,
upon the mere accusation of a crime, the very idea
of which wounds my delicacy, I found myself driven
from court, deprived of the good opinion of your
A SOLDIER'S WORD.
401
Majesty, and forced to employ the time which I
wish to devote to the defence of your empire in
cleansing from myself the stains with which cal-
umny has covered me.
" Condescend to believe, madam, that if I had
received the slightest hint that a complaint of such
a nature had been made against me, and still more,
that it had come to your Majesty's knowledge, I
know too well what is owing to delicacy to have
ventured before you till I was completely excul-
pated.
" Understanding neither the laws, the language,
nor the forms of justice in this country, I needed an
advocate, and obtained one ; but, whether from ter-
ror or intimidation, he stopped short all at once, and
durst not undertake my defence, though convinced
of the justice of my cause. But truth may always
venture to show itself alone and unsupported at the
foot of the throne of your Majesty. I have not hesi-
tated to labour unaided for my own vindication ; I
have collected proofs ; and if such details might ap-
pear under the eyes of your Majesty I would pre-
sent them ; but if your Majesty will deign to order
some person to examine them, it will be seen by
the report which will be made that my crime is a
fiction, invented by the cupidity of a wretched
woman, whose avarice has been countenanced, per-
haps incited, by the malice of my numerous enemies.
Her husband has himself certified and attested to
her infamous conduct. His signature is in my
hands, and the pastor, Braun, of the district, has as-
sured me that if the College of Justice will give him
an order to this effect he will obtain an attestation
402 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
from the country people that the mother of the girl
referred to is known among them as a wretch ab-
solutely unworthy of belief.
" Take a soldier's word, madam ; believe an offi-
cer whom two great nations esteem, and who has
been honoured with flattering marks of their appro-
bation. ... I am innocent ; and if I were guilty I
would not hesitate to make a candid avowal of my
fault, and to commit my honour, which is a thou-
sand times dearer to me than my life, to the hands
of your Majesty.
" If you deign, madam, to give heed to this
declaration, proceeding from a heart the most frank
and loyal, I venture from, your justice to expect that
my zeal will not remain longer in shameful and
humiliating inaction. It has been useful to your
Majesty, and may again be so, especially in the
Mediterranean, where, with insignificant means, I
will undertake to execute most important opera-
tions, the plans for which I have meditated long and
deeply. But if circumstances, of which I am igno-
rant, do not admit the possibility of my being em-
ployed during the campaign, I hope your Majesty
will give me permission to return to France or
America, granting, as the sole reward of the services
I have had the happiness to render, the hope of re-
newing them at some future day. . . ."
Catherine, to her credit be it stated, took the
" soldier's word," examined the convincing proofs,
and, being satisfied of his innocence, publicly re-
ceived him at court again and thus openly vindi-
cated him. New projects immediately began to take
VINDICATED.
403
shape in his fertile brain. No bodily weakness could
apparently impair his mental activity. With a half
dozen East Indiamen armed for warlike purposes he
offered to cut off the food traffic between Egypt and
Constantinople ; an idea as old as the days of the
Caesars, when upon the arrival of the corn ships from
Alexandria depended the control of the Roman
plebeians ; but the idea was as good now as it was
then, and if he had been intrusted with the meager
force he requested he would have compelled the
Turks to detach ships from the Black Sea fleet, and
thus relieve the pressure on the Crimea.
Count Besboroclko was pleased with the project,
and promised to submit it to the empress, propos-
ing, af the same time, if this plan fell through, to
give him another command in the Black Sea, with
an adequate fleet, by which he might force his way
into the Mediterranean. About the middle of June,
on his applying to this minister again, he was prom-
ised an answer in two days as to the pleasure of the
empress concerning him. Besborodko stated that
Catherine would either give him a command or
grant the leave of absence w^hich he had asked in his
letter of the i/th. The minister had a court mem-
ory, however, and not two days, but many, passed
without the information. On the 5th of July Jones
wrote again to the minister in the usual direct way
he employed when he was irritated, and asked for
an immediate declaration of intentions regarding
him. It was a high-handed way to address the Rus-
sian court, but it brought an immediate reply. On
the 8th of July he was officially informed that his re-
quest for a leave of absence was granted for two
404 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
years, with permission to go outside the limits of
the empire. His salary was to be continued during
that time.
On the 1 8th of July he had a farewell audience
with the empress, who treated him very nicely on
this occasion. As he kissed her hand in good-by
she wished him bon voyage, which was politic but
unsubstantial. He did not leave St. Petersburg im-
mediately, and it was not until the last of August
that he took his final leave of the Russian capital.
During this interval he was detained partly by the
difficulty in collecting his arrears in pay and al-
lowances, and partly for the reason that he un-
dertook, in spite of the rebuffs he had received, again
to lay before Besborodko and others a project for
a war against the Barbary States, which, of course,
came to nothing. He left Russia a bitterly disap-
pointed man.
The disinterested friendship of de Segur had
not been exhausted by his previous actions, and he
gave additional proofs of his affection by supplying
Jones with letters of introduction to the representa-
tives of the French Government at the different
courts of Europe which he proposed to visit, and
the two following statements addressed to the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs :
" ST. PETERSBURG, July 21, 1789.
" The enemies of the Vice-Admiral * Paul Jones
having caused to be circulated reports entirely desti-
tute of foundation concerning the journey which
this general officer is about to undertake, I would
* This is a mistake, he was never a vice admiral.
LEAVES RUSSIA.
405
wish the inclosed article, the authenticity of which
I guarantee, should be inserted in the Gazette de
France, and in the other public papers which are
submitted to the inspection of your department.
This article will undeceive those who have believed
the calumny, and will prove to the friends and to
the compatriots of the vice admiral that he has sus-
tained the reputation acquired by his bravery and
his talents during the last war ; that the empress de-
sires to retain him in her service; and that if he ab-
sents himself at this moment it is with his own free
will, and for particular reasons, which can not leave
any stain on his honour.
" The glorious marks of the satisfaction and
bounty of the king toward M. Paul Jones, his at-
tachment to France, which he has served so usefully
in the common cause, his rights as a subject, and as
an admiral of the United States, the protection of
the ministers of the king, and my personal friend-
ship for this distinguished officer, with whom I
made a campaign in America, are so many reasons
which appear to me to justify the interest which I
took in all that concerned him during his stay in
Russia.
"Article to be inserted in the Public Prints, and particularly in
the Gazette de France.
"Sr. PETERSBURG, July .?/, 1789.
11 The Vice-Admiral Paul Jones, being at the
point of returning to France, where private affairs
require his presence, had the honour to take leave
of the empress, the 7th * of this month, and to be
* Old style.
406 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
admitted to kiss the hand- of her Imperial Majesty,
who confided to him the command of her vessels of
war stationed on the Liman during.the campaign of
1788. As a mark of favour for his conduct during
this campaign the empress has decorated him with
the insignia of the order of St. Anne ; and her Im-
perial Majesty, satisfied with his services, only
grants him permission to absent himself for a lim-
ited time, and still preserves for him his emoluments
and his rank."
Jones did not lack other friends either, for
M. Genet, Secretary of the French Legation at St.
Petersburg, and subsequently Minister from France
to the United States his extraordinary conduct
while he enjoyed that office will be remembered
whose father had been an old friend of the com-
modore's, gave him a most cordial and gratifying
letter of introduction to the celebrated Madame
Campan, in which he specifically states the un-
founded nature of the charges which had been
made, and, describing the circumstances in which
Jones left Russia, authorized her to correct any
rumors to his disadvantage which might be put in
circulation at Versailles. He also consented to act
as Jones' financial representative, and transmitted to
him from time to time such amounts on his' pay as
he could wrest from the Russian Government.
CHAPTER XX.
LAST YEARS AND DEATH.
THE next year of his life the commodore passed
in travel. His destination when he left Russia was
Copenhagen ; perhaps he had in mind the possibility
of resuming the negotiations with the Danish Gov-
ernment on the old claim, and it is possible that his
deferred pension may have had something to do
with this intention. He had no especial place to
go ; one city was as good as another to him. In his
busy wandering life he had never made a home for
himself, and, while his mind and heart turned with
ever more intensity of affection to the United States,
yet he loved America in an abstract rather than a
concrete way. The principles for which the United
States stood, and upon which they were constituted
and organized, appealed to him, but those personal
ties which he had formed in his brief sojourn be-
fore the Revolution were weakened by absence or
had been sundered by death. There was no em-
ployment for him there, for his country had abso-
lutely no navy. Besides, he needed rest. He who
had fought throughout a long life for liberty and
freedom, for honor and fame, was doomed to strug-
gle for that last desire for the few remaining years
left him.
407
4 o8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
He traveled leisurely, from St. Petersburg to
Warsaw, where he was kindly received at the court
of Poland, and where he busied himself preparing
journals of his American service and of the Liman
campaign, copies of which he sent to Catherine.
There, too, he met the great Pole, Kosciusko, and
the acquaintance between the veteran sailor and the
old soldier of the Revolution speedily ripened into
intimacy. 'Sweden had declared war against Rus-
sia. Kosciusko, who was the inveterate enemy of
this gigantic empire, which finally wrote finis Polonicc
across the story of his country, would have been
most happy if he could have seen the fleets of
Sweden led by so redoubtable a warrior as Jones.
But of course such a proposition was not, and could
not be, entertained by Jones.*
* Nassau was then in command of the Russian fleet in
the Baltic, and an encounter with him had a Swedish com-
mand been tendered Jones, and if he could have accepted it
would have been interesting. There would have been a final
demonstration, which probably would have convinced even
Nassau, as to the merits of the rival commanders in the
Liman. Nassau, by accepting the advice of the English and
other foreign officers associated with him, succeeded with a
superior force in beating the Swedes, whereupon honors
were showered upon him more land, more peasants, more
roubles, more rank. His favor was higher than ever; but
he was magnificently beaten a short time after by a very in-
ferior Swedish fleet, and his defeat was as decisive as it was
disgraceful. He lost fifty-three vessels, fourteen hundred
guns, and six thousand men. He had refused to take any-
body's advice on this occasion and had conducted the battle
himself. His cowardice and incapacity therefore were en-
tirely apparent. He tried to attribute this defeat, which
compelled Catherine to make peace upon terms not advan-
tageous to her, to the cowardice of the Russians whom he
KOSCIUSKO'S DESIRE.
409
On leaving Warsaw for Vienna, it is suggested
that he made the detour necessitated by visiting that
point, rather than proceeding directly to Copen-
hagen via Berlin, at the instigation of Catherine,
who desired to remove him from the vicinity of the
Swedes. She might not use him herself, but she
could not contemplate with any degree of equanim-
ity the possibility of his serving against her. There
is not the slightest evidence that he ever thought of
entering the service of Sweden. He repels the idea
with indignation, and the sole foundation for it arose
from Kosciusko's ardent desire. Jones' conduct in
the affair is beyond criticism ; indeed, he was too ill
at that time, although he did not realize it, to be
employed by any one. In his papers the following
declaration is found. It is undated, and the docu-
ments to which it was attached give no clew as to
when it was written, or whether it was ever pub-
lished, but from its contents it must have been pre-
pared while he was on this leave of absence from
Russia. It is a notable little document, for it re-
peats his assertion of American citizenship, ex-
presses his intention of never warring against the
United States or France, -and clearly defines the
tenure of his connection with the Russians :
commanded. The Russians were not cowards. He fell from
favor, left the court, and passed the remainder of his life
on his estate in Poland in the society of his homely but de-
voted wife. It is to be hoped that she made things interest-
ing for him, but it is hardly likely. He died in obscurity
and poverty in 1809, unregretted and forgotten.
410 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" NOTICE.
" The Rear-Admiral Paul Jones, desirous of
making known unequivocally his manner of think-
ing in relation to his military connection with Rus-
sia, declares :
" i st. That he has at all times expressed to her
Imperial Majesty of Russia his vow to preserve the
condition of an American citizen and officer.
" 2d. That, having been honoured by his most
Christian Majesty with a gold sword, he has made a
like vow never to draw it on any occasion \vhere war
might be waged against his Majesty's interest.
" 3d. That circumstances which the rear ad-
miral could not foresee when he wrote on the last
occasion make him feel a presentiment that, in spite
of his attachment and gratitude to her Imperial
Majesty, and notwithstanding the advantageous
propositions which may be made to him, he will
probably renounce the service of that power, even
before the expiration of the leave of absence which
he now enjoys."
To return to his trip.. After staying some time in
Vienna, where he seems to have been received with
favor in high social circles, though the illness of the
emperor prevented his being presented, he w-ent to
Amsterdam ria Hamburg. Here he remained for
some time, engaged, as usual, in correspondence.
He still seems to have cherished the sailor's dream
of buying a farm and passing his remaining years
thereon, for we find among his letters an inquiry
addressed to Mr. Charles Thompson, the Secretary
RKTURNS TO PARIS.
411
of Congress, about an estate near Lancaster, Penn-
sylvania, which he thought of purchasing from
funds invested in the United States. But in view
of his anomalous connection with Russia he thought
it well to remain in Europe until it had either
ceased or been renewed. This was the time, being
in need of funds, that he wrote to his old friend
Krudner to endeavor to secure payment of the
Danish pension.
Krudner readily undertook Jones' commission,
and the Danish Government promised to pay the
pension at Copenhagen to any one whom Jones
would authorize to receive it. They never paid it.
Krudner always retained his friendship for Jones,
and one of his letters closes with these words :
" At all events, I flatter myself, as a good Rus-
sian, that your arm is still reserved for us."
At the end of April, 1790, he crossed over to
London on some financial business, which he set-
tled to his satisfaction. He remained but a brief
time in England his visits there were always brief
and devoid of publicity ; he seems to have felt keen-
ly the hatred with which the English regarded him,
and under such circumstances his action was wise.
Toward the close of May he returned to Paris,
which was perhaps the place where his happiest
hours had been spent, and at Paris he continued to
reside until the last scene in his eventful history.
It was no longer the gay and pleasure-seeking re-
sort of his earlier and happier years. The grim
shadow of the Revolution, as yet no larger than a
man's hand, was already lowering on the horizon.
412 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
A year before his arrival the States-General had
been summoned for the first time in a hundred and
seventy-five years. On the I4th of July, eight
months before his coming, the drums of the sections
rolled the knell of the Bastile, and a little later still
the old feudal constitution, which had endured the
vicissitudes of a thousand years of change, was
abrogated, and the rule of the people began. Louis
XVI, poor puppet of fortune, " imponderous rag of
circumstance," was driven hither and thither by the
furious blasts of liberated passion charged with cen-
turies of animosity, for a few aimless, pitiful years,
and then the guillotine !
For two years Jones lived in quiet retirement.
He made but one other public appearance, in July,
1790, in connection with the first anniversary of the
taking of the Bastile. Paris, inspirited with the first
breath of freedom, drawn from the first labor pains
of the Revolution, determined to celebrate in fitting
style this grand anniversary. Different groups of
foreigners residing in France sent delegates to
appear before the National Assembly and ask per-
mission to take part in the national fete. Paul Jones
headed the Americans, and made an address to the
Assembly. Thenceforward he did nothing of a
public character.
His traveling had brought him neither surcease
of care nor restoration to health. His hardy con-
stitution, shattered by constant exposure in all
weathers and every climate, and worn out by the
chafings of his ardent and impatient temperament
throughout the course of a career checkered by pe-
riods of alternate exaltation and depression, and
AN ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICAN.
413
filled with hopes and disappointments in equal
measure, was rapidly yielding to the pains and ail-
ments which were ushering in the fatal moment
which should put an end to all his dreams and
aspirations. His time, however, was not passed un-
happily, and returns from investments provided him
with enough for his simple needs. During the stir-
ring hours of the beginning of the Revolution he
busied himself in writing his journals, arranging the
great mass of papers he had accumulated, and in
his never-failing correspondence. Sometimes he
attended the Sorbonne, and held discussion with
philosophers. Madame de Telison was with him.
He was drawn in two ways by the condition of
France. His sympathies were ever with humanity
struggling for freedom ; but he had received so
many marks of favor from the French king, to
whom he owed his great opportunities for achieve-
ment and advancement, that he could scarcely view
with equanimity the dangers and harassments of
that unhappy monarch. He was a republican
through and through in principle, but by instinct
and association, if not by birth, he was one of the
proudest and most thoroughgoing of aristocrats
as Washington was n aristocrat. Like many other
people, his theory of life and government was dif-
ferent from his practice. Besides, the liberty which
the French were striving to establish was already
perilously verging on that unbounded license into
which it soon degenerated, and that his disciplined
soul abhorred. His associates in France were main-
ly among the Girondists, with whom he was more
nearly affiliated than with other political parties.
414 COMMODORE PAUL' JONES.
He did not realize that he was so broken in
health, for he still clung to his tenuous connection
with Russia, sending repeated letters to Catherine
and Patiomkine, with demands, requests, and sug-
gestions of various plans for service. Patiomkine,
as usual, took no notice, but the last letter to Cather-
ine having been forwarded through Baron Grimm,
she directed him, rather curtly by the way, to in-
form Jones that jf she had service for him she would
let him know. After that Jones seems to have dis-
continued his letters to Russia. He found, how-
ever, two new outlets for his restless zeal. Early in
1792, chancing to meet an Algerian corsair, who had
captured many Americans now held for ransom in
Algiers, he learned much of the unfortunate con-
dition of those unhappy sailors, to whose fate their
country was apparently oblivious. The corsair in-
formed him that if these captives were not ransomed
promptly they would be sold into slavery. Jones
wrote immediately to Jefferson, then Secretary of
State, and with all his power urged that something
be done for them, either by sending a force to com-
pel restitution or by means of ransom. The letter,
as we shall see, was not without result.
The second object of interest was a claim which
he entertained against the French Government for
salary due him while in command of the Bon
Homme Richard and the squadron. The United
States had paid him his salary as an officer during
that period, but he felt that since his services had
been asked by France, and the squadron had been
at the charge of the French Government, a further
amount \vas due him from the French, and he wrote
CLAIM AGAINST FRANCE.
415
to de Bertram!, Minister of Marine, demanding the
balance due. The claim was the subject of acrid
correspondence, and the matter was pending when
he died.* From the letters written during the last
years of his life I quote portions of three the first
two to his sister, Mrs. Taylor, and the last one to
Lafayette :
" AMSTERDAM, March 26, fjgo.
" I wrote you, my dear friend, from Paris, by
Mr. Kennedy, who delivered me the kind letter you
wrote me by him. Circumstances obliged me to
return soon afterward to America, and on my arrival
at New York Mr. Thomson delivered me a letter
that had been intrusted to his care by Mrs. London.
It would be superfluous to mention the great satis-
faction I received in hearing from two persons I so
much love and esteem, and whose worthy conduct
as wives and mothers is so respectable in my eyes.
Since my return to Europe a train of circumstances
and changes of residence have combined to keep me
silent. This has given me more pain than I can ex-
press ; for I have a tender regard for you both, and
nothing can be indifferent to me that regards your
happiness and the welfare of your children. I wish
for a particular detail of their age, respective talents,
characters, and education. I do not desire this in-
formation merely from curiosity. It w r ould afford
me real satisfaction to be useful to their establish-
ment in life. We must study the genius and inclina-
tion of the boys, and try to fit them, by a suitable
* A portion was subsequently paid to his heirs by the
French Government.
416 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
education, for the pursuits, we may be able to adopt
for their advantage. When their education shall be
advanced to a proper stage, at the school of Dum-
fries for instance, it must then be determined
whether it may be most economical and advantage-
ous for them to go to Edinburgh or France to finish
their studies. All this is supposing them to have
great natural genius and goodness of disposition;
for without these they can never become eminent.
For the females, they require an education suited to
the delicacy of character that is becoming in their
sex. I wish I had a fortune to offer to each of them ;
but though this is not the case, I may yet be useful
to them. And I desire particularly to be useful to
the two young women, who have a double claim to
my regard, as they have lost their father. Present
my kind compliments to Mrs. London, her hus-
band, to Mr. Taylor, and your two families, and de-
pend on my affectionate attachment. . . ."
" PARIS, December 27, ijgo.
" I duly received, my dear Mrs. Taylor, your
letter of the i6th August, but ever since that time I
have been unable to answer it, not having been
capable to go out of my chamber, and having been
for the most part obliged to keep my bed. I have
now no doubt but that I am in a fair way to perfect
recovery, though it will require time and patience.
" I shall not conceal from you that your family
discord aggravates infinitely all my pains. My grief
is inexpressible that two sisters, whose happiness
is so interesting to me, do not live together in that
mutual tenderness and affection which would do so
IN A NOBLE LIGHT.
417
much honour to themselves and to the memory of
their worthy relations. Permit me to recommend
to your serious study and application Pope's Univer-
sal Prayer. You will find more morality in that
little piece than in many volumes that have been
written by great divines :
" ' Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see ;
That mercy I to others show,
Such mercy show to we.'
" This is not the language of a weak, supersti-
tious mind, but the spontaneous offspring of true
religion, springing from a heart sincerely inspired
by charity, and deeply impressed with a sense of
the calamities and frailties of human nature. If the
sphere in which Providence has placed us as mem-
bers of society requires the exercise of brotherly
kindness and charity toward our neighbour in gen-
eral, how much more is this our duty with respect
to individuals with whom we are connected by the
near and tender ties of nature as well as moral obli-
gation. Every lesser virtue may pass away, but
charity comes from Heaven, and is immortal.
Though I wish to be the instrument of making
family peace, which I flatter myself would tend to
promote the happiness of you all, yet I by no means
desire you to do violence to your own feelings by
taking any step that is contrary to your own judg-
ment and inclination. Your reconciliation must
come free from your heart, otherwise it will not
last, and therefore it will be better not to attempt it.
Should a reconciliation take place, I recommend
28
4 i 8 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
it of all things, that you never mention past griev-
ances, nor show, by zvord, look, or action, that you
have not forgot them."
" PARIS, December 7, /7<?/.
" DEAR GENERAL : My ill health for some time
past has prevented me from the pleasure of paying
you my personal respects, but I hope shortly to
indulge myself with that satisfaction.
" I hope you approve the quality of the fur lin-
ings I brought from Russia for the King and your-
self. I flatter myself that his Majesty will accept
from your hand that little mark of the sincere attach-
ment I feel for his person ; and be assured that I
shall be always ready to draw the sword with which
he honoured me for the service of the virtuous and
illustrious ' PROTECTOR OF THE RIGHTS OF HUMAN
NATURE.'
" When my health shall be established, M.
Simolin will do me the honour to present me to his
Majesty as a Russian admiral. Afterward it will be
my duty, as an American officer, to wait on his
Majesty with the letter which I am directed to pre-
sent to him from the United States."
Jones appears in a very pleasant light in all of
these letters, and I am glad to read the evidences of
gentleness and of affection and kindly feeling which
they present. In March, 1792, his disease, which
had developed into a lingering form of dropsy, be-
came complicated with a disorder of the liver. He
grew much worse, lost his appetite, became very
jaundiced, and was confined to his bedroom for two
months. Under treatment he grew temporarily bet-
THE APPROACHING END.
419
ter, until the beginning of July, when he became sud-
denly worse again and the dropsy began to manifest
itself once more. The disease attacked his chest.
His legs became much swollen, and the enlargement
extended upward so that he could not button his
waistcoat and had great difficulty in breathing.
He was not, as has been asserted, in poverty and
want, deserted by his friends. He lived in a com-
fortable apartment in the second story of No. 42
Tournon Street, and enjoyed the services of one of
the best physicians in France, who was, in fact,
physician to the queen. Gouverneur Morris, the
American Minister, was a warm friend of his, and
paid him many visits during his dying hours. He
had no lack of other friends either, for he was at-
tended by two gentlemen, ex-American army offi-
cers, Colonels Swan and Blackden, and by a French
officer, M. Beaupoil. They all seem to have been
fond of the little commodore, and to have visited
him constantly. They did everything possible to
lighten his dying hours. His symptoms became so
alarming about the middle of July that Colonel
Blackden took upon himself the duty of advising
him to make his will and settle his affairs. He put
off this action until the i8th of the month. On the
afternoon of that day Morris drew up a schedule of
his property from Jones' own dictation, and his
friends having sent for a notary, he made his will,
which was drawn in English by Morris, and tran-
scribed in French by the notary. The will was wit-
nessed by Swan, Blackden, and Beaupoil.* In this
* See Appendix No. V.
420 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
document the last of all .his writings dictated in
those solemn hours when he looked Death in the
face in final glance, the real value of earthly honors
and titles became apparent to him ; he describes him-
self with touching simplicity, not as Commodore,
Chevalier, or Admiral titles he had loved but in
greater words as " John Paid Jones, a citizen of the
United States."
At eight o'clock in the evening his friends bade
him good by, and perhaps " Good night " were the
last words any one heard him speak. They left him
seated in his armchair in his parlor in the second
story. A short time after their departure the physi-
cian arrived to pay his regular evening visit. The
armchair was empty, and the door of the chamber
adjoining the parlor was open. He walked over to-
ward it and stopped in the entrance, and this is what
he saw : the figure of the great commodore lying
prone upon the bed, his feet touching the floor and
his hands outstretched before him. There was no
sound in the still room. The physician stepped
softly to the bedside, turned him over, and laid his
hand upon his heart. He felt no responsive throb.
The little captain of the Bon Homme Richard was
dead, worn out, fretted away, broken down, at the
age of forty-five ! " The hand of a conqueror whom
no human power can resist had been laid upon his
shoulder, and for the first time in his life the face of
Paul Jones was turned away from the enemy." *
Fitting, indeed, would it have been if from the deck
of the war ship the soul of the sea king had taken
* From my book, American Fights and Fighters.
LAST SCENE OF ALL.
421
its flight ; but, after all, he was at rest at last " in
peace after so many storms, in honor after so much
obloquy."
The peculiar position in which he was found, as
I have thought upon it, has suggested to me the
possibility that, when he felt the last crisis coming
upon him, he may have attempted to sink down by
his bedside, that the call of his Maker might find
him as years after it found David Livingstone in
the heart of dark Africa on his knees in prayer.
And then sometimes I think and this is perhaps
more likely that he may have risen to his feet to
face death, as was his wont, and have fallen forward
when it came. No one can tell. A century has fled
away since they found him there, but the sorrow of
it all is still present with me as I write. An exile
from his native land, far from the country of his
adoption, in the prime of life, he dies. There was
not a woman with him to whisper words of comfort,
to give him that last touch of tenderness that comes
from a woman's hand. Alone he had lived alone
he died. Oh, the pity of it ! The man of the world,
become the citizen of the hew republic, had found
another country let us hope a heavenly one. He
did much and he suffered much, and for such we
may be sure there is much charity, much forgive-
ness.
By the terms of his will all his property,
amounting to some thirty thousand dollars, was left
to his two surviving sisters and their children the
same to whom he had sent those sweet words coun-
seling forbearance and consideration. The fact that
he had shown but little of the one and had re-
422 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
ceived but little of the other in his life only accen-
tuates his sense of their need. One other honor his
country had in store for him, but it arrived too
late. He had been long buried when a commis-
sion appointing him to negotiate the release of
the prisoners in Algiers arrived in France. It
was an honor he would have appreciated, and
in carrying it out he would have found a con-
genial task.
The National Assembly honored his memory by
sending a deputation, headed by its president, to
represent them at his funeral, which took place on
the second day after his death, at eight o'clock in
the evening. All his friends, including the Ameri-
cans, were there as well. A French Protestant
clergyman named Marron conducted the services
and delivered a eulogy, but one sentence of which
is worthy of quotation : " The fame of the brave
outlives him ; his portion is immortality."
It has been determined recently that the inter-
ment was made in the little cemetery reserved for
those who died in the Protestant faith, situated at the
corner of the Rue de la Grange aux Belles and Rue
des Ecluses Saint Martin then in the suburbs, now
in the heart of the city. The cemetery was officially
closed on January i, 1/93. A canal was afterward
cut through it and buildings erected upon the other,
lots. The exact location of Jones' grave is un-
known, and, as there were at least ten thousand
people buried there, it would probably be a matter
of great difficulty to find it, should the effort be
made ; and the expense would be considerable. The
body, clad in an American uniform, was incased in a
FORGOTTEN.
423
leaden coffin, with sword,* etc., and unless all
the elements have been dissipated by the action of
the water it might be possible to identify his re-
mains. Certainly there is no question, if satisfactory
settlement could be had, that his remains should be
brought to the United States, with all naval honors,
here to be suitably interred and his grave marked by
an appropriate monument. So far as I know, there
has not even been so much as a memorial tablet
erected to his memory in any part of the great coun-
try toward whose independence he contributed so
much. A serious and ungrateful omission this, and,
whether his remains be found or not, it is to be
hoped that it may be soon rectified, f
* This sword was, of course, not that presented to him by
the King of France. After Jones' death his heirs gave this
famous sword to Robert Morris. Morris, in turn, presented
it to Commodore John Barry, at that time senior officer of
the United States Navy. By him it was bequeathed to his
friend Commodore Richard Dale, once of the Bon Homme
Richard, and it now remains in the possession of his great-
grandson, Mr. Richard Dale, of Philadelphia.
f Why a monument has not been erected to Jones I can
not understand, it would be a noteworthy object for indi-
vidual and national effort, and in no better way could we
commit ourselves to the fame and achievements of the great
captain, and forever stamp with disapproval those calumnies
with which envy seeks to sully the name of our first great
sailor.
CHAPTER XXI.
PERSONAL APPEARANCE CHARACTERISTICS WAS
HE A PIRATE? FAREWELL.
PAUL JONES was a small, slender man, some-
what under the middle stature, or about five feet
five inches in height. As is frequently the custom
with seamen, who pass much of their lives between
decks, his shoulders were slightly rounded, and at
first glance he seemed smaller than he was. In
physique he was active and graceful, well propor-
tioned and strong. Many portraits of him exist,
some of them gross caricatures, representing him as
the proverbial pirate of early days clad in fantastic
costurhe, his belt bristling with pistols and knives,
and depicting him in the act of slaying some terrified
and helpless sailor; but it is from such representa-
tions as the painting by Peale,* the bust by Hou-
don, the naval medal, and the miniature by the
Countess de Lavendahl, that we get a correct idea
of his appearance. His features were regular; his
nose was straight, prominent, and slightly enlarged
at the tip ; his lips were elegantly curved. His head
was well proportioned, and set firmly upon his
shoulders ; in spite of his stoop he held it erect,
* The frontispiece of this volume.
424
PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 423
which gave him an intent, eager expression. His
large black eyes were set deep in their sockets
under heavy, arched eyebrows ; in moments of ac-
tion they sparkled with fire and passion. His hair
was black and plentiful, and the darkness of his
complexion had been intensified by years of ex-
posure to wind and weather. His hands and feet
were small and of good shape. He was always par-
ticular in his dress, which was of material as rich
and in cut as elegant as his means permitted. With-
out being handsome, therefore, he was a man of dis-
tinctly striking and notable appearance in any so-
ciety.
His habitual expression was thoughtful and
meditative. His face was the face of a student
rather than that of a fighter. As it looks out at us
from the canvas of the past in Peale's portrait, there
is a little touch of wonder and surprise in the soft,
reflective 'eyes. The mystery of life is there. We
feel that the man is speculating upon us, measuring
us, wondering who and what we are. There is a
gentle gravity about the face which is most attrac-
tive. In the profile on the medal and in the Hou-
don bust other qualities predominate. You catch a
glimpse of the proud, imperious, dashing sailor in
the uplifted poise of the head, the tense, straight
line of the lips, and the firm, resolute chin ; and
there is a suggestion of humor, grim enough, in the
whole face. The Countess de Lavendahl apparently
depicts him in the role of a lover, fashionably attired
and arrayed for conquest. In each of these repre-
sentations we have the broad, splendid brow which
typifies the mind that was in him. It is probable
426 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
that these different portraits were each good like-
nesses, and that each artist, in accordance with his
insight, wrought into his presentment what he saw
in the man.
A man of abundant self-confidence, he was not
easily embarrassed, and we find him at home as
well in the refined and cultivated colonial society of
North Carolina as upon the decks of a ship manned
by the rudest and roughest of men. He bears him-
self with easy dignity at the courts of Russia and
France, and is not discomfited in the presence of
king, queen, or empress. His manners were easy
and polite. There was a touch of the directness of
the sailor and the fighter in his address, I doubt
not, but his behavior was certainly that of a gen-
tleman quiet, dignified, somewhat haughty, but
pleasing. This is established by the testimony of
those who knew him, including the Englishwoman
mentioned above; by traditions which have come
down to us ; by the fact that he was admitted into
the most exclusive circles in various courts of Eu-
rope, and that he retained the place which had been
accorded him through years of acquaintanceship.
He has been called low, brutal, common, and vul-
gar, but such accusations are incompatible with the
position he occupied. He might have been received,
of course, but he never would have been not merely
tolerated, but admired and sought after, if the
charges were correct.
In saying this, I do not wish to be understood
as being oblivious of his faults. As occasion has
demanded, I have not hesitated to call attention to
them. He was irritable and impatient, captious
INTELLECTUAL ACQUIREMENTS. 427
and quarrelsome, at times variable and inconsistent.
We find him addressing a superior at one time in
terms that are almost too respectful, and in his next
communication writing with a blunt frankness of
a superior to an inferior. This frequently caused
him trouble, inasmuch as he usually had to deal
with men who were his superiors in birth and sta-
tion, though not to be compared with him in talents
and education. The limitations of his humble ori-
gin account for this variant attitude to the world's
so-called great.
His great fault was his vanity. It was a weak-
ness, like some of his other qualities, colossal. It
manifested itself in every way that vanity can
manifest itself. No defense can be uttered. We
recognize the fact and note it with pain, but in
the presence of his great qualities pass it by, after
calling attention to the strange fact that other and
more famous sailors, including the greatest man
who ever fought a ship or squadron, Lord Nelson,
were under the spell of the same weakness and
other greater weaknesses. No character in history
is without weakness. There was but One who
manifested no weakness, not even on a cross.
His mind was a w'ell-furnished one. From boy-
hood he had cultivated the studious habit with
which he was endowed in large degree, with the
assiduity and perseverance of a Scotsman. He was
thoroughness itself ; whatever he attempted he did so
well that he usually left nothing further to be de-
sired. His brain was alert and active. He was
quick-witted, and not devoid of humor, although
there is always a touch of sternness in his persiflage.
428 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
His letters fall into two classes. When he wrote
under pressure of strong emotion or excitement, he
expressed his personality with his pen as adequately
as he did in his actions ; his remarks were short,
sharp, direct, logical, and in good taste ; his style
was vigorous and perspicuous. On the other hand,
he frequently descended, especially when address-
ing women, into verbosity, and verbosity of that
most intolerable species known as fine writing
witness his letter to Lady Selkirk. As a phrase
maker many of his sentences ring with his spirit.
" I do not wish to have command of any ship that
does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way " ;
"I have not yet begun to fight"; "I have ever
looked out for the honor of the American flag " ;
" I can never renounce the glorious title of a citizen
of the United States," are some of his sayings which
have passed into history, and might appropriately
serve for inscriptions on the four sides of his monu-
ment, when a too tardy people pay him the honor of
erecting one.*
He spoke French well and wrote it better. He
found no difficulty in making himself understood in
France, and that language was used entirely in his
Russian campaign. In an age when everybody
scribbled verse he wrote poetry which is creditable
to him. It has been remarked that it was much
better verse than Nelson wrote. Like many other
naval officers of that day, he played the flute
and had a taste for music. He was undoubtedly a
* Some of his phrases in his Russian letters remind me
of Shakespeare's Henry V.
RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.
429
member of the Presbyterian Church by baptism in
infancy, and although, so far as is known, he was
not actively in communion with any religious or-
ganization during his life, he was in no sense an
irreligious man. " They that go down to the sea in
ships that do business in great waters," who see
" the works of the Lord, and his wonders in
the deep," are rarely ultimately indifferent to re-
ligion. They are superficially careless, perhaps, but
they are neither skeptics nor atheists.* Nothing
could be sweeter and more gentle than his letters to
his sisters with their unequivocal recognition of the
Power above which shapes our ends.
In a day when seamen and no less the naval
officer than the merchantman considered a capa-
city for picturesque and plentiful profanity a mark
of professional aptitude, he was distinguished by re-
fraining from oaths and curses. Mark the words :
" Do not swear, Mr. Stacy in another moment we
may all be in eternity but let us do our duty." Ut-
tered in the heat of action, and in a critical moment,
the sentence is as rare as it is beautiful, and it some-
how reminds me of the dying words of Nelson in
the cockpit of the Victory. He was clean-mouthed
and clean-hearted. I do not wish to say that he was
immaculate, a saint, or anything of that sort, but
there is no man of similar upbringing, who lived in
his day, and under such circumstances, whose life
appears to be cleaner. There is a total absence of
sensuality in his career. In over thirteen hundred
* I have known hundreds of sailors more or less inti-
mately, and I have never met one who might be included in
either of those melancholy classes.
43O COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
letters which have been examined, there is not a
coarse or indelicate allusion ; no double entendre
ever sullies his pages, and the name of no woman is
mentioned save in terms of respect. It is probable
that his amour with Madame de Telison passed the
bounds of Platonic friendship or romantic admira-
tion, and it is possible that they did have a child ;
but even this is by no means certain, and the con-
clusion may do him an injustice.
When one remembers that from a tender age
he was deprived of those gentle restraints imposed
by pious and loving family ties, his character is re-
markable. I have observed in much experience
with men that when the check put upon humanity
by the Church, by association with good women,
and by keeping in touch with law-abiding society
is removed, and men are assembled far from these
things in camps or ships, where the principal re-
quirement is a stern obedience to law, and the at-
mosphere strictly masculine, they are apt to think,
say, and do things to which they would never de-
scend under ordinary circumstances. Jones had
been a sailor an .apprentice boy at that at twelve
years of age ; for sixteen years thereafter he had
never been off blue water for more than a few
months. Five years of that time he had been on
a slaver, beginning as third mate at sixteen and
quitting as chief mate at twenty-one, and of all the
degrading, brutal influences to which humanity
could be subjected there was nothing that equaled
the horrors of a ship in the slave trade. The tough
moral fiber of the Scotsman stood him in good stead
here, for the thing which with a boy's indifference
LOVE OF LIBERTY.
431
he could countenance, he could not endure as a
man.
And this brings us to another of his qualities,
which awakens our interest his intense love of lib-
erty. Probably it began with the slave trade ; at any
rate, it was always and everywhere present with
him. Practically his first military effort was an at-
tempt to set free American prisoners, and his last
commission from the United States was the ap-
pointment to effect the release of the unfortunate
Americans held by the Barbary States. Thus he
fought not merely for the establishment of civil
liberty and national independence, but with an eye
single to the individual prisoner, and his spirit was
sufficiently catholic to make him kindly disposed
even when the prisoners were trophies of his
prowess. His pleading at L'Orient, when he was
left with the dishonored draft, mutinous crew, and
over one hundred prisoners, was as much for those
Englishmen whom the fortune of war had thrown
into his power as for his own people.
Like most men of fierce passions and quick tem-
per, he did not long cherish animosities. He was
not a good hater, and this very quality sometimes
led him into mistaken kindness. He was a humane
man, in no sense the cruel and bloodthirsty warrior
of popular imagination. He is thankful, for in-
stance, after the descent on Whitehaven, that there
was no loss of life on either side, and we have no
reason to doubt the genuineness of his outburst of
gratitude when peace was declared, although it left
him without occupation.
He had a good head for business also. In spite
432 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
of his roving life he succeeded in amassing consid-
erable property, and his success as a trader before
he entered the naval service had been better than
the average. In fact, his merchant services resulted
in an unbrokn line of testimonials not only to his
capacity but to his probity and trustworthiness as
well. As a negotiator or diplomatist he was open,
straightforward, persistent, and unusually success-
ful. A solid foundation of good qualities must have
been laid by his homespun mother in those twelve
years in which she watched over and shaped the
future character of the boy.
While he was too much of a wanderer ever to
form those deep and abiding social ties which are
the delight of old age and reflection though to
youth matters of indifference yet his various
duties brought him into intimate association with
great men all over the world, and there is a uni-
versal testimony from them as to his worth. They
were not blind to his faults, but they saw the worthi-
ness of the man beneath them. Franklin, the keen
philosopher and diplomat, who knew him best, es-
teemed him most ; but Robert Morris, the incor-
ruptible financier; Thomas Jefferson, the great
Democrat ; Gouverneur Morris, the accomplished
man of the world ; John Adams, the shrewd states-
man ; and Washington, the first of them all, es-
teemed and admired him, and considered them-
selves honored in his friendship. Richard Dale, his
great subordinate, who had been with him in times
that tried men's souls, entertained the most devoted
feelings of attachment toward him, and Cooper,
who knew Dale personally, tells us that to the day
HIS FRIENDS.
433
of his death he never lost his affectionate regard for
his old captain. The terms of their intimacy when
not on duty permitted Dale to address Jones by
the friendly name of Paul, and Cooper chronicles
the peculiar tenderness with which he uttered the
word in his old age.
Among the French who respected and admired
him, the gallant and impetuous Lafayette is pre-
eminent. That warm-hearted representative of the
haute noblesse of France sought opportunities for
service with the commodore, and never failed to ex-
press his affection for him in the most unequivocal
words. Among others were Rochambeau, the sol-
dier; Malesherbes, the great advocate, defender of
his king ; the Baron de Viomenil, who led the French
assaulting column at Yorktown ; and Admirals
d'Orvilliers, de Vaudreuil, and d'Estaing. Among
other foreign friends were van der Capellen, the
Dutch statesman and diplomat and friend of Amer-
ica ; of Russians, Krudner and Grimm ; and the im-
mortal Kosciusko, of Poland. His acquaintance
with these men was no mere passing contact, but
was intimate and personal ; and his relations in most
instances were not temporary and casual, but last-
ing and permanent. Langhton, the English au-
thority in naval history, in his famous sketch enti-
tled " Paul Jones, ' the Pirate,' " * says that Jones'
moral character may be summed up in one word
detestable! He calls him a renegade and a calcu-
* Studies in Naval History, by John Knox Laughton, M. A.,
Professor of Modern History at King's College, London, and
Lecturer on Naval History at the Royal Naval College,
Greenwich, etc., 1887.
29
434 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
lating liar, incapable of friendship or of love, and
says that, " Whenever his private actions can be
examined, they must be pronounced to be discredit-
able; and as to many others that appear to be so,
there is no evidence in favor except his own unsub-
stantial and worthless testimony." It is not an in-
dictment against Jones alone that Professor Laugh-
ton so lightly writes, but against the great men who,
with infinitely better opportunities for observation
than any of his biographers have enjoyed, have not
been slow to call him their friend. Is it to be con-
ceived for a single moment that Franklin, Jefferson,
Lafayette, the Morrises, or any of the others, would
have associated with, corresponded with, and pub-
licly praised a vulgar blackguard? Would such a
man, however successful, have been admitted to any
society whatsoever? Or, having in the first flush of
joy at the news of his tremendous victory been so
admitted, could such a man have retained his posi-
tion for thirteen years until he died, in fact ? Non-
sense! He looked like a gentleman; he wrote like
a gentleman; whenever his words have been re-
corded we find he spoke like a gentleman, and he
certainly fought like one.
Never was a man so calumniated. His actions
were so great that intense interest was felt in his
career from the day of his arrival in Europe, and
after his death quantities of sketches of him ap-
peared, many of which are still extant. They are
of the chap-book order the dime novel of the day
and usually contain an awe-inspiring picture, and
relate a tale in which smuggling, gambling, false-
hood, theft, rape, murder, and everything else that
WAS HE A PIRATE?
435
is vile, are included. Laughton seems to have ar-
rived at his estimation of Jones by accepting these
scandalous tales as authentic, and building his biog-
raphy of material culled from these disgraceful and
discredited sources. No man can conceal his real
character for any great length of time, especially
a man in official station, who lives in the white light
of public criticism. If Jones were the creature that
Laughton describes him, it would appear some-
where in some serious page of his own. He was a
most voluminous correspondent Philip II was
not a more indefatigable letter writer than he
and he spoke of the subjects under discussion
with a sailor's frankness. Why is it that none of
these things are evident? He was foolish some-
times, but never base. It is too late to write down
in a few careless words the great men who enter-
tained so high an opinion of the commodore. But
Professor Laughton is not alone in his opinions.
Indeed, his conclusions appear to represent a general
English sentiment. So great a novelist as the
gentle Thackeray calls Jones a traitor, and the popu-
lar opinion even in this day does not seem to have
changed. In the current number of the London
Academy * he is again called a " pirate." Let us
settle this question at least.
What is a pirate? Says President Woolsey:
" Piracy is robbery on the sea, or by descent from
the sea upon the coast, committed by persons not
holding a commission from, or at the time pertain-
ing to, any established state. It is the act (i) of
* July 6, 1900.
436 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
persons forming an organization for the purpose of
plunder, or with malicious intent ; but who, inas-
much as such a body is not constituted for political
purposes, can not be said to be a body politic; (2)
of persons who, having in defiance of law seized
possession of a chartered vessel, use it for the pur-
pose of robbery ; (3) of persons taking a commission
from two belligerent adversaries. The reason for
ranking these latter among pirates is that the
animus fnrandi is shown by acting under two re-
pugnant authorities. It has been held by some that
a vessel which takes commissions even from two
allies is guilty of piracy, but others regard such an
act only as illegal and irregular." *
Chancellor Kent calls piracy " robbery, forceful
plunder, or murder by marauders on the high seas
in the spirit and intent of universal hostility" The
Century Dictionary defines it as follows : " Specifi-
cally in the law of nations, the crime of depredations
or willful and aggressive destruction of life and
property, committed on the seas by persons having
no commission or authority from any established
state. As commonly used, it implies something
more than a simple theft with violence at sea, and
includes something of the idea of general hostility
to law."
By any of these definitions can Paul Jones be
called a pirate? It will be readily seen that the
charge hangs upon the question as to whether Jones
held a commission from an established state. In
fact, the determination of that point settles the mat-
* Woolsey, International Law, section 144, page 233.
WAS HE A PIRATE?
437
ter. He was regularly commissioned a captain in
the navy of the United States, as we have seen.*
Was the United States an established power, a sov-
ereign state? The United States began to be with
the Declaration of Independence. To quote Wool-
sey again : " The sovereignty of a state dates from
its dc facto existence, and does not depend upon its
recognition by foreign powers. Thus the sover-
eignty of the United States was complete from July
4, 1776, not 1782, when the English Government
recognized, not granted, its independence." If the
United States had not a legal existence as a sover-
eign power competent to wage war, and therefore
to issue commissions to naval officers, until the
treaty of peace, England would have granted in-
dependence thereby, instead of which she recog-
nized a long-accomplished fact. Moreover, the
British Government, long before peace was declared,
had conceded belligerent rights to the revolted
colonies, after much protestation. But necessary
privileges of belligerency are those of raising forces
and commissioning officers whose status as indi-
vidual belligerents is determined by the recognition.
None of the American prisoners taken from time
to time were hanged as rebels or traitors, nor would
such action have been permitted by the British
people, if it had been seriously entertained by
the king. Even if they had captured Paul Jones,
the English, in all their fury, would not have dared
to treat him as a pirate. Upon the point of law
* And not a captain of a special ship, as was sometimes
the case, but a captain in the service, and therefore eligible
to command any ship. See page 75.
438 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
there is no justification for -the charge. Paul Jones'
commission was as valid a document as any under
which a naval officer ever sailed. The sovereignty
of the United States had been recognized long be-
fore the termination of the war by France, Spain,
and Holland, and Frederick the Great, by opening
the port of Dantzic to American ships, had prac-
tically committed himself to that side ; although the
failure of any or all of these to do so would not
have abrogated our dc facto existence as a nation.
But, turning from the subject of the commission
as established, let us examine the other phases in-
'volved in the charge. Piracy consists of murder
and robbery in a spirit of universal hostility toward
humanity (the animus furandi of Woolsey's para-
graph). Jones directed his attacks at England
alone. There was no killing unless in open combat ;
no robbery except by taking ships and property
in open warfare, and surely Jones' conduct with re-
gard to Selkirk's plate was not that of a robber or
a pirate ! By the law of nations a pirate, whatever
his nationality, is subject to the jurisdiction of any
country. Thus, an English pirate caught by the
French Government, or a French pirate caught by
the English Government, would be summarily dealt
with without the slightest reference to the country
of his nationality. If Jones had been a pirate France
would either have made short work of him, or else
have incurred the odium of humanity as an abettor
of piracy.
His acts were not those of an irresponsible per-
son or a body of people who sent him forth with
malicious intent, but were undertaken for distinctly
WAS HE A PIRATE? 439
political purposes at the instance of an undoubted
body politic. These purposes were : (i) The protec-
tion of our coasts by showing the vulnerability of
the coasts of England. (2) The stoppage of the
ravages on our seaboard, by demonstrating some of
their horrors in the land of the ravagers. (3) The
securing of prisoners by which the principle of ex-
change should be established, and thus our citizens
released from a captivity in which they were treated
with scant regard to the laws of humanity. (4) The
breaking up of the enemy's commerce and the im-
pairment of his material resources, so that the bur-
den of consequences would induce him to end the
war and recognize our independence. (5) The mak-
ing of a diversion in the north which would facilitate
the proposed grand operations of the French and
Spanish fleets in the south. These are legitimate
motives in the highest sense. They are of the deep-
est importance, and they constitute a brief catalogue
of his accomplishments. Add to the list the shat-
tering of British prestige by his hard and successful
fighting, and mention the way he contrived to force
the Netherlands finally to declare for the United
States, and we have a catalogue of achievements of
which any one might be proud.*
* The following interesting document was found in his
papers ; it enumerates a few of the things he did : " In 1775,
J. Paul Jones armed and embarked in the first American ship
of war. In the Revolution he had twenty-three battles and
solemn rencontres by sea; made seven descents in Britain
and her colonies ; took of her navy two ships of equal, and
two of superior force, many store ships, and others ; con-
strained her to fortify her ports ; suffer the Irish volunteers ;
desist from her cruel burnings in America, and exchange, as
440 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
There was no thought in Jones' mind of private
gain. Prize money had accrued from captures from
time immemorial, but Jones was ambitious of dis-
tinction, and as anxious to worthily serve his coun-
try as Farragut or Sampson, and the question of
prize money was purely a minor one with him. If
gain had been his object, a privateering commission
which he was urged to accept in France and which
he could undoubtedly have received in America
but which he rejected with disdain, would have
given him greater opportunity than he ever enjoyed
of acquiring wealth. His whole career, in fact,
shows him to have been absolutely indifferent to
money. He never hoarded or amassed it, and,
though he received large sums from time to time,
he usually spent it in generous profusion as fast as
it came in. Had professional advancement been his
sole desire, he would have accepted the rank of
Capitaine de Vaisseau that is, a captain of a ship
pf the line which d'Orvilliers had offered to pro-
cure for him, from which he might have progressed
to the highest naval rank, instead of which he chose
to remain in command of the petty little Ranger.
How Laughton can deny his enthusiasm for Amer-
ica when, with but little hope of reward, he periled
his liberty and his life in her service, and absolutely
refused under any circumstances to withdraw from
that service, I fail to understand.*
prisoners of war, the American citizens taken on the ocean,
and cast into the prisons of England, as ' traitors, pirates,
and felons ! ' '
* Notwithstanding this, he was as ambitious of glory,
WAS HE A PIRATE? 441
He did not, in defiance of law, charter a vessel
for the purpose of waging private war. On the
contrary, his ship was provided by the French king,
and commissions for those officers who had not
been commissioned directly by Congress, as had
Jones himself, were issued by Franklin, who pos-
sessed the unquestioned ppwer to do this by the
specific action of Congress. Indeed, such was
Franklin's power, that when he displaced Landais
from his command he did not hesitate to overrule a
commission issued by Congress under circum-
stances of peculiar importance, and he was upheld
by that body when his action was called in ques-
tion.
Nor did Jones take a commission from two bel-
ligerent adversaries that is, he had no commission
from England which he threw up to accept that of
the United States. He had never served in the
English navy in any capacity. There were officers in
the United States land service who had held Eng-
lish commissions and yet accepted American com-
mands, but Jones was not one of them. He had
never, until he entered the Russian service, sailed
under any commission save that of the United
States, and one of the noblest acts of his life was his
indignant repudiation of a French letter of marque
when his acceptance of it was considered the only
way of saving his head. Nothing could induce
honor, and fame to himself in the service of his country as
Nelson was. They were both of them
" Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel.
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth."
442 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
him to declare the Alliance a French ship in those
hazardous moments in the Texel when he was men-
aced by the Dutch fleet on one side and the Eng-
lish fleet on the other, nor would he even tempora-
rily hoist the French flag on that ship. He did not
even commit the so-called illegal and irregular act
of accepting a commission from two allies, for he
refused a French commission again and again.
This certainly constitutes a clear and overwhelming
refutation of the charge of piracy. Indeed, on the
question of piracy, Jones' own ingenious comment
is not without interest. Laughton has called atten-
tion to it in the following words :
" Paul Jqnes strongly objected to the word as
applied to himself; he had, he said, looked in the
dictionary and found the definition of pirate to be
' an enemy against mankind.' Now, he was not the
enemy of mankind, but only the enemy of England.
With a tu quoquc argument, not wanting in ingenu-
ity, he urged that, as England was then at war with
the whole of America, the greater part of Europe,
and much of Asia, not to speak of a part of Africa,
she, in point of fact, came as near being the enemy
of mankind as could well be conceived that Eng-
land was therefore the pirate, not Paul Jones."
Why was it that the English called him a pirate,
put a price on his head, and attempted to compass
his death or capture by private hands ? Why was it
that he evoked such widespread animosity, and be-
came the object of a hatred which has not exhausted
itself to this day ? Surely not because he had been
a British subject ! All who fought on the American
side had been British subjects. Jones had removed
WHY THEY HATE HIM.
443
to America and had determined to settle there before
the war broke out. Why should any one attempt
to insinuate that the same feelings which actuated
Adams, Washington, and Patrick Henry did not
operate to make him espouse the colonial cause?
He was as fond of freedom as they, and as anxious
to promote it.
Many of the most distinguished colonists were
not only British subjects, but they had worn the
king's uniform, fought under the king's flag, and
eaten the king's bread ; as, for instance, the great
Washington. Richard Montgomery, an Irishman,
who laid down a life valuable to his adopted coun-
try when he fell in the assault on Quebec, had been
a British officer ; and there were many others, some
of whom, like the traitor Charles Lee and the worth-
less Gates, were actually half-pay officers in the Brit-
ish army when they entered the American service !
Among the naval officers, the heroic Biddle, who
matched the little Randolph, of thirty-two small
guns, against the huge line of battle ship Yarmouth,
and fought until his ship was blown to pieces, and he
and all his crew were lost except four men, had been
a midshipman in the British navy with Nelson.
Stout old John Barry, who commanded the Alliance
when he captured the Atlanta and the Trepassy,
and fought the last action of the w y ar by beating the
frigate Sibylle, of superior force, was an Irishman.*
The most bigoted Englishmen to-day speak of those
men with respect which they will not accord to
Jones. Why is this?
* See my book, American Fights and Fighters.
444 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
The reason for the strange exception lies in the
brilliant success with which he cruised and fought.
The English claimed and exercised an absolute and
practically undisputed supremacy on the high seas.
Their arrogant navy for more than a hundred years
had been invincible. In single ship actions they
had always conquered. No enemy had landed on
their shores for over a century. They could stand
being beaten on land they were accustomed to it.
With few notable exceptions England does not pro-
duce great soldiers Carlyle feelingly refers to the
average English commander as a " wooden hoop
pole wearing a cocked hat " * but such a line of
sailors as had sprung from their shores has never
been equaled in the history of the world. Such sea
leadership and such sea fighting has never been ex-
ceeded, or even equaled, by any nation, f
The capture of the Serapis was a trifling circum-
stance ; it did not impair the naval efficiency or
abridge the maritime supremacy of England an ap-
preciable degree; but it had a moral significance
* The recent war in South Africa demonstrates the accu-
. racy of Carlyle's perspicuous observation.
f The United States has shown that it possesses in full
measure the sea adaptability and capacity of the Anglo-
Saxon, but opportunity for demonstrating that capacity, ex-
cept upon a small scale, has never been afforded us. The
almost unbroken line of victories on the sea, however, which
we have won with anything like equality of force from Eng-
lish, French, and Spaniards, enables us to confidently await
the issue of any future naval action under conditions of equali-
ty ; and the names of Jones, Dale, Biddle, Barry, Preble,
Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, Lawrence, Stewart, MacDonough,
Perry, Farragut, Dewey, and Sampson will not be outshone
by any galaxy.
THE STATUS OF THE RICHARD.
445
that could not be misunderstood by the nations of
the world. They saw and approved.* English
ships had been beaten in fair fight, in one instance
by a ship of equal, and in the other instance of
inferior, force. The English coasts, in spite of
swarms of great ships of the line, had been shown
to be as vulnerable as any other, f The affront had
been to her pride, and never since the days that
brave old Tromp gallant Dutchman, for whose
character I have the greatest admiration swept the
narrow seas with a broom at his masthead, and actu-
ally entered the Thames under that same provoking
emblem, had England suffered such, naval humilia-
tion. The English cheek tingles still from the blow
dealt upon it by the hot-handed sailor. Naturally,
they did not love Paul Jones. The hatred, which
after a hundred years still rankles, is evidence of
what they feel and what he did ! As for us, we
love the bold little captain for the enemies he has
made.
It has been stated by unthinking people that the
Bon Homme Richard was a privateer or a letter of
marque : in one case an armed vessel owned by pri-
vate individuals and authorized, under certain re-
strictions, to cruise at private expense to prey upon
the commerce of the enemy ; in the other case, an
armed vessel engaged in trade, but possessing the
right to capture ships of the enemy should she hap-
* So careful and accurate an historian as John Fiske
makes the mistake of saying that Russia bestowed the order
of St. Anne on Jones for this action.
t Paul Jones and his men were the last foreign foemen
to land on the shores of England.
446 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
pen to fall in with them.- There is nothing dis-
graceful about either of these commissions, though,
to be sure, their essence consists in making war for
individual gain. The Bon Homme Richard was
purchased and converted into a man-of-war by the
French Government, and then loaned to the Ameri-
can Government for the time being. De Chaumont
acted only as the representative of the king that,
is, of the Government. There was no question of
individual gain in the matter. The "money for the
sale of the prizes was received, and the share of
Jones was paid, by the French Government.
Therefore it was a Government ship, not a private
vessel. France and the United States were allies in
a war against England when she was commissioned,
and the transaction was customary and legitimate.
The Bon Homme Richard was as bona fide an
American man-of-war as the Constitution. Of
course, there could be no exception to the status of
the Ranger or any of the earlier ships in which Paul
Jones sailed.
I have considered the personal character and
professional status of Paul Jones, now let me say
a few words as to his qualities as an officer. Here
at last we reach a field in which there is practically
little disagreement. First of all, he was a thorough
and accomplished seaman. His experiences had
been many and varied. His handling of the Provi-
dence in the Gut of Canso, of the Alfred along the
coast of Cape Breton, his splendid seamanship in
the Ariel in the terrific gale off the Penmarques, his
daring passage of the Baltic amid the winter gales
and ice, not to speak of the way he maneuvered the
AS A SEAMAN. 447
Richard in the battle with the Serapis, all tell the
same story of skill and address. Not only did he
understand the sailing of ships, but he acquired no
small familiarity with the principles of naval archi-
tecture. Witness his remodeling of the Alliance,
the improvements he introduced in the America,
and the skillful way he managed the launching of
that ship. Some of his suggestions were radical,
and some of the principles he laid down were em-
bodied in shipbuilding by naval architects until the
advent of the ironclad age.
He was a stern disciplinarian, and usually man-
aged to work his very indifferent crews into some-
thing like fair shape. In none of his commands did
he have a first-class crew of American seamen, such
as the 1812 frigates exhibited. His sway on his
ships was absolute. His officers were generally
creatures of his own making (Simpson being an
exception), and completely under his domination ;
with few exceptions, like Dale, whom he loved and
respected, they were poor enough. In his passion-
ate impatience with their stupidity or inefficiency,
he sometimes treated them with great indignity,
even going to the length of kicking them out of the
cabin when they displeased him.* He was a fierce
commander, who brooked no interference, needed
no suggestions, and had no tolerance for- ignorance
and incapacity. Notwithstanding all this, he was a
, merciful captain in an age in which the gospel of
* See Park Benjamin's History of the Naval Academy
for similar instances on the part of less famous captains.
Personal abuse was a custom of the service, apparently.
448 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
force, punctuated by the .cat-o'-nine-tails, was the
only one in vogue on ships of war. He resorted but
rarely to the practice of flogging, and in comparison
with most commanders of the period his rule was
not intolerable. He did not, however, inspire affec-
tion in his crews ; they respected his talents, trusted
to his skill, and admired his courage, but nothing
more. His men were drilled and exercised inces-
santly, and target practice was had as frequently as
the poverty of his supplies permitted. His ships
were all notably clean and orderly.
As a commander we may consider his achieve-
ments from three points of view: as a strategist,
as a tactician, and as a fighter. Strategic operations
tend to bring you where sound policy dictates you
should be, while tactical maneuvers refer to the
manipulation of your force at the point of contact.
A man may be a brilliant strategist and a poor tac-
tician, or the reverse ; or he may be both, and yet not
be a hard, determined fighter. Jones was all three
in large measure. His strategic conceptions were
excellent. His successful destruction of the fishery
industry at Canso, and his attempt upon the coal
fleet in the Alfred ; the brilliant plan which would
have resulted in the capture of Lord Howe by
d'Estaing if it had been carried out in time ; the
project he conceived for taking the homeward-
bound East Indiamen by capturing St. Helena as a
base of attack, and the other enterprises he urged
upon the French Government indicate these things ;
but the conception which lifted him above the ordi-
nary sea officer was his acute realization of the great
principle that should regulate commerce destroying,
AS A STRATEGIST.
449
which is one of the legitimate objects of warfare, and
merciful in that it tends to end the conflict, and is
aimed at property rather than life.
His idea was that, to be successfully accom-
plished, it could not be committed to the cruiser or
commerce destroyer, but that attacks on centers of
trade must be made by forces sufficiently mobile
to enable them to cover great distances rapidly, and
sufficiently strong to defeat any reasonable force,
and then crush the enemy's commerce at vital
points. A single ship may catch a single ship upon
the high seas, or from a fleet in convoy perhaps cut
out two or three ; but a descent upon a great body
of shipping in a harbor unprotected as were the
harbors of those days would result in an infinitely
greater loss to the enemy. Mahan has demon-
strated that the necessary preliminary to the destruc-
tion of the enemy's commerce is to batter his navy
to pieces then it is at one's mercy. So far as
I know, Jones is the only sailor of his day, or of
many subsequent days in any navy, who had a
glimmer of an idea in this direction ; and, without
detracting from Mahan's originality, in a limited
sense Jones forestalled him. Mahan, indeed, gives
him full credit for his genius on this very point.
The beginning of strategy is to determine the
vital point at which to aim, and Jones began well.
He tried to carry out his idea of commerce destroy-
ing with the Ranger in the Irish Channel, and he
came near enough to success to demonstrate the ab-
solute feasibility and value of his conception, given
adequate force to carry it out. He had a greater
force, of course, under his partial command in his
30
450 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
famous cruise in the Bon H-omme Richard, but the
peculiar constitution of that squadron, which was an
assemblage of co-operative ships rather than a com-
pact body responsive and obedient to one will, also
prevented him from carrying out his plans. Sup-
pose, for instance, that the Alliance had obeyed his
orders, and that the Vengeance, the Cerf, and the
privateers had remained with the Pallas under his
command, and that all had been well officered and
manned ! He would have taken the Serapis in half
an hour or less, and the great Baltic fleet, worth mil-
lions of dollars, would have been at his mercy.
What he attempted at Leith he could have carried
out at Newcastle and Hull.
The largest force under his command was the
Russian squadron in the Liman. He chose his ad-
mirable position there with an eye to its strategic
possibilities, and it was due to him, and not to the
trained and veteran soldier Suvorof, that the fort
was placed on Kinburn Point, which practically de-
termined the fate of Otchakoff, since it prevented
the Turks from re-enforcing their fleet, and kept
them from escaping after Jones had defeated them.
Fortune never gave him an opportunity, but it can
not be doubted from what he did accomplish with
an inferior force that if he had been given a chance
he w r ould have made a name for himself as a sea
strategist not inferior to that of Nelson or Sampson.
As a tactician he was even more able perhaps
because he enjoyed better opportunities. It was
seamanship and tactics which enabled him to escape
from the Solebay, and it was seamanship and tactics
by which he diverted the Milford from the pursuit
AS A TACTICIAN. 451
of his prizes and insured their safety. His tactics
when he fought the Drake were admirable. In his
famous battle with the Serapis they were even more
striking. One never ceases to wonder how he suc-
ceeded in maneuvering his slow, unwieldy ship so
as to nullify the greater speed and gun power of
the Serapis. His action in laying the Bon Homme
Richard aboard the English frigate was the one
chance that he had of success, "and he made that
chance himself.
His tactics in the Liman were even higher than
elsewhere. It was he who so maneuvered the boats
of the flotilla on June I7th as to precipitate the
flight of the Turks ; it was he who again, on June
28th and 29th, so placed his ships that he drove the
Turks from their stranded flagships. It was he who
dispatched the flotilla to clear the right flank, which
would have enabled the Russians to take possession
of the two frigates if Nassau had not foolishly
burned them. It was he who, by his splendid dis-
position of his ships and the battery on the point,
forced the Turkish ships to take ground upon the
shoals, in their attempt to escape, where Nassau de-
stroyed them. On the other hand, he was never
reckless. He coolly calculated chances and judi-
ciously chose the right course, and he was happy in
that the right course was usually the bold and dar-
ing one.
In the third capacity of an officer, there is no
question as to his willingness and ability to fight.
No one ever called him a coward. He certainly
exhibited the very highest reach of physical brav-
ery. It. was not the courage of the braggart, for he
452 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
was not continually thrusting it in the face of people
on all occasions. Having established his reputa-
tion, he was content to rest upon it, and did not seek
opportunity which he did not need for further
demonstration. Nothing could surpass the per-
sonal courage and determination with which he
fought his ships. Unlike most commanders, who
confine their efforts to direction, he labored and
fought with his own hands.
We find him heading the boarders on the fore-
castle of the Richard, and, p : ke in hand, repelling
those from the Serapis ; he assists in lashing the two
ships together ; he takes personal command of the
quarter-deck guns, one of which, with the assistance
of a few resolute souls, he dragged across the deck
from the unengaged side. When the Ariel was
drifting in deadly peril upon the Penmarques, with
his own hand he heaves the lead. At Kinburn,
after repeated efforts to get the galley fleet to move,
he leads it forward himself. To ascertain the depth
of water, he goes in a small boat under the walls of
Otchakoff, within easy range of the cannon. He
takes his barge on the Liman in the midst of the
hottest engagement, and rows about through the
contestants. When the assault is made on the
flotilla under the walls of that town, he leads in
person, and captures two gunboats by boarding.
At Whitehaven, alone he confronts a mob and keeps
them in check until the fire which he started him-
self has gained sufficient headway. The bullying
of the Dutch admiral in the/Texel can not move him
a single foot.
While he did not alwavs exhibit the same
AS A FIGHTER. 453
amount of moral courage, yet in some very interest-
ing situations he showed that he possessed it in
large measure. His physical courage was, of
course, natural. His moral courage seems to have
arisen in part from an absolute confidence in his
own ability and an habitual reliance upon the ac-
curacy of his own judgment. He showed this moral
courage when, at the peril of his commission, he
assumed the responsibility of piloting the Alfred to
her anchorage in the Bahama expedition. He
showed it particularly when, after assuming the
proper position demanded by good strategy in the
opening of the Liman campaign, he refused to be
moved from it by the representations of such fire
eaters as Nassau and Alexiano. His declining to
hoist the French flag, or to sail under a French
letter of marque, were evidences of this quality, and
he showed it again by sending a present to Louis
XVI in the dark days of the Revolution, when re-
spect to the king in his hours of humiliation marked
a man immediately.
On the other hand, he showed ? sad lack of
moral courage if de Segur's statement be true that
he found him, pistol in hand, in his apartments in
St. Petersburg, apparently contemplating suicide.
Moral courage is perhaps a more universal requisite
for true greatness of character than any other vir-
tue, and he did not rise in this sphere quite to the
height he attained in the others. In other words,
he was greater as a commander and as an officer
than as a man.
As a commander he made mistakes. What com-
mander did not? His quickness to imagine or to
454 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
resent a slight was marred by too great a will-
ingness to forgive. His treatment of the mutinous
Simpson was entirely too gentle and forgiving for
the maintenance of that discipline necessary to the
welfare of the service. It was certainly a mistake
to yield to Landais' importunities and leave the
advantageous situation off Limerick, and, as I have
stated, the excuse was worse than the action. His
failure to keep his promise to his men after leaving
Corunna in the Alliance was a more serious blunder.
There are few professions in which the word of an
officer is so implicitly relied upon by his inferiors as
in the naval service. The lives of the crew are so
entirely in the hands of the officers that without
confidence the situation is impossible. His extrava-
gant outfitting of the Alliance was also a wrong to
Franklin under the circumstances. His method of
dealing with the mutiny on the Alliance and with
Landais' successful attempt to get command of her
was weak, and can only be explained by the postula-
tion that he did not really desire to get possession
of her ; but even the explanation leaves him in a bad
position. His dawdling at L'Orient is also censur-
able. This, however, is a small catalogue in view of
what he attempted and accomplished. Otherwise
in his campaigns and in his military life he made no
blunders.
He has been severely censured for choosing
localities with which he was familiar from childhood
as the scene of his military operations. The war
of the Revolution was practically a civil war, with
all the rancorous passions attendant thereon super-
added to those ordinarily engendered in conflict. In
A CIVILIZED WARRIOR.
455
America, friend met friend in deadly hatred, and
not one royalist or rebel hesitated to use his local
knowledge for the advancement of his cause. In
accordance with his duty, by his oath as an officer,
Jones was bound to put all the information as well
as the ability he possessed at the services of the
country under whose flag he fought. He was not
born at Whitehaven, and, while he had sailed from
the port many times, he had no special attachment
for the place and people which comes from long
association in society and business. When he made
his famous descent upon the place it was seven
years since he had set foot in it. At any rate, he
was only doing in England what other people on
both sides were doing in America without censure,
and he was .doing it with so much more respect to
the laws of civilized warfare, and with so much
more mercy, that there is no comparison between
his forays and those, let us say, of Lord Dunmore,
for instance, or Mowatt at Portland. The journal
of an officer of the Serapis, who was killed in the
action, was found after the battle was over. He
had been under Dunmore's command in Virginia
at the outbreak of the Revolution, and such a tale
of maraudings, accompanied by destruction of
property, murdering, and outraging of women as
the volume contained would have been incredible
had it not been confirmed by the statement of
hundreds of witnesses in America. None of this
kind of warfare was waged where Jones com-
manded.
A century and a decade, lacking two years, have
elapsed since the lonely little commander entered
456 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
upon his long, long rest ; and the country whose
first banner was hoisted by his hands at the mast-
head of the Alfred, whose permanent standard was
flung to the breeze by the same hands from the
truck of the Ranger, whose ensign was first saluted
by one of the greatest powers of the world through
his address and determination, whose flag was made
respectable in the eyes of the world by the desper-
ate gallantry with which he fought under it, which
alone among the powers that sailed the sea through
him demonstrated its ability to meet successfully
the Mistress of the Ocean, has done nothing to per-
petuate the memory of this founder of the Republic
and rescue him from oblivion. The place of his
grave is known, but squalid tenements and cheap
stores have been erected over his remains. Com-
merce, trade, and traffic, restless life with its pas-
sions, noble and ignoble, flows on above his head,
and it is probable that so it will be until the end of
time. " So runs the world away ! "
It is all so mournful in some strange way. In
spite of his glory and his heroism, in spite of his
strenuous life and his strugglings, the note that
lingers in my mind as I write these concluding
words is one of sadness. I read of hopes that
brought no fruition ; of plans made and abandoned ;
of opportunities that could not be embraced ; of
great attempts frustrated by inadequate means ; of
triumphs forgotten. I see a great life that might have
been greater, a man of noble qualities marred by
petty faults, and yet I love him. I can not tell why
exactly, but the \vords of Solomon come into my
mind as the vision of the little captain appears be-
FAREWELL.
457
fore me, dying alone of a broken heart, fretted away
Vanitas vanitatem.
And yet he did not live in vain, and his exploits
shall live forever in the minds of his countrymen.
So long as we possess that masculine virility which
is the heritage of a great nation whose rugged coasts
are washed by thousands of leagues of beating seas ;
so long as the beautiful flag we love waves above
the mighty Republic, which, true to the princi-
ples of its founders, stands in every quarter of the
globe for freedom of person, for liberty of con-
science, for respect to law, so long shall the story
be told of the little captain from the far land who
loved these things, and who fought so heroically
to establish and to maintain them.
APPENDIX I.
CONCERNING JOHN PAUL'S ASSUMPTION OF THE
NAME OF JONES.
A.
Letter of Mr. W. M. dimming, of Wilmington, N. C. t
May ji, 1899.
" John Paul adopted the name of Jones in token of
affectionate regard for the Honorable Willie (pro-
nounced Wylie) Jones, of North Carolina, and his beau-
tiful and charming wife, who had both been very kind to
him in his days of obscurity. He was particularly de-
voted to Mrs. Jones, and called himself her son. It was
through the influence of Honorable Willie Jones (mem-
ber of Congress, I think, from North Carolina), that John
Paul obtained his commission in the navy of the young
Republic, and it was about this time that he adopted the
name of his friend and patron."
B.
Letter of Mr. Junius Davis, of Wilmingtnn, N. C.,
February 23, 1900.
" I first heard from my father, the late Hon. George
Davis, who was a devoted student of the history of North
Carolina, and perhaps the highest authority in the State
upon such subjects, that Paul, shortly after going to Vir-
ginia to take the estate left him by his brother, met
Willie Jones of this State; that Jones took a fancy to him
and invited him to pay him a visit in North Carolina; that
Paul did so and remained quite a long time with him and
became so attached to Jones and his wife that he adopted
their name. Willie pronounced Wylie Jones and his
459
460 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
brother Allan were educated at Eton, and were gentlemen
of large means, high ability, and devoted Whigs. They
were prominent in every movement and assembly in this
State prior to and during the Revolution. Allan lived
upon his plantation, ' Mount Gallant,' in Halifax County,
and Willie upon his, ' The Grove,' in the adjoining county
of North Hampton. They were warm friends and asso-
ciates of Joseph Hewes, of Edenton, one of the dele-
gates from North Carolina to the first and second Pro-
vincial Congresses. Wheeler, the historian of North
Carolina in his Reminiscences and Memoirs of North
Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians, says as follows:
' The daring and celebrated John Paul Jones, whose
real name was John Paul, of Scotland, when quite young
visited Mr. Willie Jones at Halifax, and became so fasci-
nated with him and his charming wife that he adopted
their family name. Under this name, John Paul Jones,
he offered his services to Congress and was made a lieu-
tenant, December 22, 1775, on the recommendation of
Willie Jones.' . . . Jones in the very outset of his Auto-
biography says: 'I at the same time acquainted Mr.
Hewes, a member of Congress and my particular friend,
with the project for seizing the island of St. Helena,' etc.
This is the Mr. Hewes mentioned above. In the second
Congress Hewes was at the head of the committee in
charge of naval affairs, and was virtually the first Secre-
tary of the Navy. Paul could only have known Hewes,
whom he calls his particular friend, through the Joneses,
and it has always been one of the traditions of this State
that it was the Jones influence with Hewes that got
Paul his lieutenancy in the American navy. In a let-
ter received recently from my aged kinsman, Colonel
Cadwallader Jones, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, a
lineal descendant of Allan Jones, I find that Colonel
Jones' mother was a granddaughter of General Allan
Jones, was raised by him, married in 1810, and lived
in Halifax until 1826. Up to this time she was a fre-
quent visitor at ' The Grove,' the residence of Willie
Jones, as was also Colonel Cadwallader Jones. The lat-
ter, who is now eighty-six years of age, has always heard
that John Paul assumed the name of Jones as a mark
of respect and affection for these brothers, Willie and
Allan Jones, and for the wife of the former, whose vir-
tues might well win the admiration of any man. Colonel
APPENDIX I. 461
Jones remembers his aunt, Mrs. Willie Jones, perfectly;
she survived her husband many years. The statement that
John Paul was invited by Willie Jones to visit ' The Grove '
while he was looking after his property in Virginia is cor-
roborated by Colonel Jones. ... I quote the following
from newspaper clippings:
" i. From the Charleston Observer of November, 1899:
" ' FREDERICKSBURG, VA., November i&tb.
' The announcement that the remains of that distin-
guished naval hero, John Paul Jones, have been located
in Paris, France, brings to light that the deceased was
once a resident of this city. According to the records of
the county court, he came here in 1773 to administer on the
records of his brother, William Paul, who lived here in
1772. William Paul came here in 1760 and shortly afterward
entered the mercantile business, in which he was engaged
up to the time of his death. The store occupied by him
is on the corner of Main and Market Streets, and is the
same building in which George Washington was made a
Mason. Tradition also says that one of the rooms in the
building was used by John Paul during his residence here,
which was nearly two years, as his lodging quarters. It
was also during his citizenship here that he received his
appointment from the Colonial Congress as lieutenant
in the navy. It was here, too, that he added Jones to his
patronymic, which, it is said, was in token of the friendly
act of Colonel Willie Jones, of North Carolina, who be-
came his bondsman for five hundred pounds when he ad-
ministered on his brother's estate.'
" 2. The State, Columbia, S. C, Monday, November
6, 1899:
" 'SARATOGA, BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, VA., February 22, 1899.
" ' . . . While no Revolutionary biography can boast
more public events of vivid and intense interest than that
of Paul Jones, none is so bare and meager in personal
detail. Even the fact that he has immortalized a name
which was his only by selection and adoption is slurred
over in history with the calm statement that " he changed
his name for unknown reasons." As the reasons were not
unknown, and, however difficult to obtain later, were
then easily accessible, it appears to have been rather a
lack of careful and intelligent investigation than of facts
462 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
which caused their suppression. They are now for the
first time given to the public. ... In 1773, the death of
his brother in Virginia, whose heir he was, induced him
to settle in America. It was then he added to his name
and thenceforth was known as "Paul Jones." This was
done in compliment to one of the most noted statesmen
of that day, and in the love and gratitude it shadows forth
is a scathing reproach and a touching example to a people
who could neglect in life and forget in death. It appears
that before permanently settling in Virginia, moved by
the restlessness of his old seafaring life, he wandered about
the country, finally straying to North Carolina. There he
became acquainted with two brothers, Willie and Allan
Jones. They were both leaders in their day, and wise
and honored in their generation. Allan Jones was an
orator and silver-tongued; Willie Jones, the foremost
man of his State, and one of the most remarkable of his
time. . . .
' His home, " The Grove," near Halifax, was not only
the resort of the cultivated, the refined, but the home of
the homeless, Mrs. Jones having sometimes twenty orphan
girls under her charge, and it was here the young adven-
turer, John Paul Jones, was first touched by those gentler
and purer influences which changed not only his name
but himself, from the rough and reckless mariner into the
polished man of society, who was the companion of kings
and the lion and pet of Parisian salons. The almost wor-
shiping love and reverence awakened in his hitherto wild
and untamed nature by the generous kindness of these
brothers found expression in his adoption of their name.
The truth of this account is ... attested by the descend-
ants of Willie Jones.
' ' In addition to the above, I would say that General
Allan Jones of the Revolution was my great-great-grand-
father. My grandmother was raised by him, and was
often at " The Grove," the residence of her great-uncle,
Willie Jones. My father, Colonel Cadwallader Jones,
now eighty-six years of age, in his youth was also often
an inmate of " The Grove," and heard the facts spoken
in both families.
' ' A. I. ROBERTSON,
' ' Secretary Columbia Chapter, D. A. R.' "
APPENDIX I. 463
C.
Letter of Mrs. A. I. Robertson, of Columbia, S. C.,
April 14, igoo.
" John Pa,ul was thrown more with Mr. and Mrs.
Willie Jones, I think, than Allan, as he was more at ' The
Grove ' (the residence of Willie Jones) than at ' Mount
Gallant ' (the residence of Allan Jones), though a great
deal at both places. I have an exact facsimile of the com-
mission which these brothers got for him, which appeared
in the World, February n, 1900.
" Mrs. Allan Jones was Mary Haynes, married 1762;
their daughter Sarah married General William R. Davis.
" Mrs. Willie Jones was Mary Mumford, daughter of
Joseph Mumford, son of Robert Mumford and wife Anne,
daughter of Robert Bland. These two Mrs. Jones are
spoken of in Mrs. Elliot's Women of the Revolution,
Wheeler's History of North Carolina, and Appletons'
Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
" I quote you the following from the family book of my
father: ' When the army of Cornwallis passed through
Halifax to Virginia, his officers quartered for some time
in the town. Colonel Tarleton was at " The Grove," the
residence of Willie Jones. He had been wounded in the
hand at Cowpens by a sabre cut by Colonel William
Washington. Speaking of Colonel Washington, Tarleton
said he was a common, illiterate fellow, hardly able to
write his name. " Ah, colonel," said Mrs. Jones, " you
ought to know better, for you bear upon your person
proof that he knows very well how to mark his mark." '
I inclose a MS. of my father on the subject, which you
are at liberty to copy."
MS. of Colonel Cadivallader Jones inclosed in
above Letter.
" Paul Jones Why he changed his name Colonel Hubard's account.
" A recent sketch of the life of Paul Jones in the Cen-
tury has revived the memory of his gallant achievements,
and rekindled public interest in this famous hero. There is
much inquiry as to his reason for adopting the name of
Jones. It is not a little remarkable that such an incident
in the life of one so renowned should be so soon forgotten.
464 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" Let me tell you what I know about this man and how
I know it; the public mind needs to be refreshed. When
John Paul came to Virginia, some three years before the
war of the Revolution, looking after an estate left him
by his brother, he visited Halifax, North Carolina, at that
time a place of considerable repute. Here he made the
acquaintance of those grand old patriots, Allen and Willie
Jones; he was a young man but an old tar, with a bold,
frank sailor bearing that attracted their attention; he be-
came a frequent visitor at their homes, where he was
always welcome; he soon grew fond of them, and as a
mark of his esteem and admiration, he adopted their name.
Why John Paul became John Paul Jones it was his
fancy. . . ."
D.
Letter of General Edward McCrady, of Charleston, S. C.,
April j, 1900.
" Mrs. McCrady was the granddaughter of General
William R. Davie, of Revolutionary fame, who married
the daughter of General Allan Jones, of Mount Gallant,
Northampton, North Carolina. Tradition in her branch
of the family has been that it was Allan Jones who be-
friended John Paul, and not his brother Willie pro-
nounced IVylie, not Willie. It was in honor of Allan
Jones that he adopted the name of Jones as surname to
that of Paul. . . .
E.
In a subsequent letter from Mr. Jiinius Davis, Wil-
mington, North Carolina, dated April 24, 1900, he writes
as follows:
" In respect to the name of Jones, I never heard the
question raised in the State as to whether Willie or Allan
was the man, who, as it were, picked up John Paul and
was his closest friend. Beyond all question, H r illie
was the man, but above Willie in the affection of John
Paul was Mrs. Willie Jones. Undoubtedly it was his affec-
tion for her that induced him to change his name. She
was a Miss Montford, daughter of Colonel Joseph Mont-
ford, and had a sister who married Colonel John Baptiste
Ashe, a distinguished soldier of this State, during the war
of the Revolution. In regard to the retort made by Mrs.
APPENDIX II. 465
Willie Jones to Tarleton, you will find it mentioned in
Mrs. Elliot's Women of the Revolution. It is also men-
tioned by Wheeler in vol. ii, page 186, of his History of
North Carolina. It is a little singular that Mrs. Ashe,
sister of Mrs. Willie Jones, also retorted upon Tarleton.
On one occasion, when he said with a sneer that he would
like to meet Colonel Washington, she replied, ' If you had
looked behind you at the battle of Cowpens you would
have had that pleasure.' These two ladies were both very
beautiful women, highly gifted in mind and character, and
highly educated."
F.
On this subject see also Appletons' Cyclopaedia of
American Biography, vol. iii, under Jones.
APPENDIX II.
CONCORDAT MADE BETWEEN CAPTAIN JOHN
PAUL JONES AND THE OFFICERS OF THE
SQUADRON.
" Agreement between Messieurs John Paul Jones, cap-
tain of the Bon Homme Richard; Pierre Landais, cap-
tain of the Alliance; Dennis Nicholas Cottineau, captain
of the Pallas; Joseph Varage, captain of the Stag; and
Philip Nicholas Ricot, captain of the Vengeance; com-
posing a squadron that shall be commanded by the oldest
officer of the highest grade, and so in succession in case
of death or retreat. None of the said commanders, while
they are not separated from the said squadron, by order
of the minister shall act but by virtue of the brevet, which
they shall have obtained from the United States of Amer-
ica, and it is agreed that the flag of the United States shall
be displayed.
" The division of the prizes to the superior officers and
crews of said squadron, shall be made agreeable to the
466 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
American laws; but it is agreed that the proportion of
the whole coming to each vessel in the squadron shall be
regulated by the Minister of the Marine Department of
France, and the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States of America.
" A copy of the American laws shall be annexed to the
present agreement, after having been certified by the com-
mander of the Bon Homme Richard; but, as the said laws
can not foresee or determine as to what may concern
the vessels and subjects of other nations, it is express-
ly agreed that whatever may be contrary to them should
be regulated by the Minister of the French Marine, and
the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of
America.
" It is likewise agreed that the orders given by the
Minister of the French Marine, and the Minister Pleni-
potentiary of the United States be executed.
" Considering the necessity there is of preserving the
interests of each individual, the prizes that shall be taken
shall be remitted to the orders of Monsieur le Ray de
Chaumont, honorary intendant of the Royal Hotel of In-
valids, who has furnished the expenses of the armament
of the said squadron.
" It has been agreed that M. le Ray de Chaumont be re-
quested not to give up the part of the prizes coming to
all crews, and to each individual of the said squadron, but
to their order, and to be responsible for the same in his
own and proper name.
" Whereas the said squadron has been formed for the
purpose of injuring the common enemies of France and
America, it has been agreed that such armed vessels,
whether French or American, may be associated therewith
by common consent, as shall be found suitable for the
purpose, and that they shall have such proportion of the
prizes which shall be taken as the laws of their respec-
tive countries allow them.
" In case of the death of any of the before-mentioned
commanders of vessels, he shall be replaced agreeably to
the order of the tariff, with liberty, however, for the suc-
cessor to choose whether he shall remain on board his own
vessel, and give up the next in order, the command of the
vacant ship.
" It has, moreover, been agreed, that the commander of
the Stag shall be excepted from the last article of this
APPENDIX III. 467
present agreement, because in case of a disaster to M. de
Varage he shall be replaced by his second in command,
and so on by the other officers of his cutter, the Stag.
" J. PAUL JONES.
" P. LANDAIS.
" DE GOTTINEAU.
" DE VARAGE.
" LE RAY DE CHAUMONT.
" P. RICOT."
APPENDIX III.
ON THE FLAG OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD.
The statement is frequently made that the flag under
which the Bon Homme Richard fought the Serapis is still
in existence, and the following letter from the assistant
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution gives a history
of the claim:
" I am authorized by the secretary to acknowledge the
receipt of and reply to your letter of the 27th instant, in
which you ask whether the identical flag used by John
Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard is the one now in
the custody of the Smithsonian Institution.
" Your letter has been referred to Mr. A. H. Clark,
Custodian of the Section of American History in the
National Museum, who has submitted the following facts,
which I submit to you as the opinion of this institution in
the case.
" ' The evidence appears conclusive that the flag in the
National Museum is the identical one used by John Paul
Jones on the Bon Homme Richard. This flag was pre-
sented to James Bayard Stafford in 1784, by the Marine
Committee, with the following letter. The sword and
musket are exhibited with the flag together with the ori-
ginal letter:
468 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" ' " PHILADELPHIA, Monday, December 13, 1784.
" James Bayard Stafford.
" SIR: I am directed by the Marine Committee to
inform you that on last Thursday, the gth, they decided
to bestow upon you, for your meritorious service thro'
the late war, Paul Jones' Starry Flag of the Bon Homme
Richard which was transferred to the Alliance a board-
ing sword of said ship, and a musquet captured from the
Serapis.
" ' " If you write to Captain John Brown, at the Yard,
what ship you wish them sent by to New York, they will
be forwarded to you.
" ' " Your humble servant,
" ' " JAMES MEYLER,
" ' " Secretary, pro tern."
" ' In the United States Senate, May i, 1872, the Com-
mittee on Revolutionary Claims favorably reported a bill
(S. 1060) for payment to Sarah S. Stafford, for the serv-
ices of her father, James Bayard Stafford, an officer of the
Revolution. In the committee's report, Commodore Barry,
of the Alliance, certified to the service of Lieutenant Staf-
ford, and the report further states that " it fully appears
from the testimony before the committee that James Bay-
ard Stafford entered the navy at the beginning of the
War of Independence, and was in constant and active
service, and in frequent battles, and remained in the serv-
ice until the close of the war; that his ship was captured
by a British cruiser, and subsequently recaptured by John
Paul Jones, when he volunteered on the Bon Homme
Richard, where he received wounds, which, owing to un-
skillful treatment, broke out after a time, disabling both his
arms."
(Signed.) " ' A. H. CLARK,
" ' Custodian, Section of American History,
United States National Museum.'
" Yours very respectfully,
(Signed.) " RICHARD RATHBUN,
" Assistant Secretary."
This is an opinion with which I must disagree.
Stafford, it is claimed, had been a sailor in the American
armed ship Kitty, which had been captured by a British
cruiser, said cruiser and her prize being subsequently
APPENDIX III.
469
taken by the Richard, whereupon Stafford volunteered for
service on the Richard, was warranted a midshipman, and
is alleged to have performed several heroic deeds in con-
nection with the flag during the action.* There is no
authority whatever for any of these statements in any
existing contemporary account of the battle, yet the oc-
currence was sufficiently important to be mentioned some-
where, surely, if it had occurred. Stafford's name does not
appear in any of the lists of the officers and crew, and the
Richard certainly did not capture any British cruiser and
her prize. But we have evidence which is more than
negative, for Jones explicitly states that when the Richard
went down, a flag presumably that which had been shot
from the staff, or had fallen with it, during the action,
and had been recovered the next day was left flying at
the peak. In subsequent letters, though, he takes oc-
casion to refer specifically to the fact that he sailed
under American colors in the Alliance he calls them
" my very best American colors," a phrase certainly in-
appropriate for the battle-torn ensign of the Richard
he never makes the slightest reference to their having been
used in the famous battle. Again, the Alliance sailed finally
under the command of Landais, and no mention of any
particular flag appears thereafter. It may be possible,
however, though doubtful, that the flag which was given
to Stafford was the " best American colors " under which
Jones sailed from the Texel, and, if so, it is an interesting
relic. The last circumstance that militates against the
claim is the size of the flag in question. It is so small that
it is highly improbable it was ever used for a battle flag!
* See Preble's History of the American Flag, where the
story of Stafford is given in extenso.
47O COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
APPENDIX IV.
SONG AND MUSIC.
" Here comes brave Paul Jones, Oho!
He's a jolly good fellow.
His ship has sunk 'neath the sea,
On a bold English cape, O.
" Here comes brave Paul Jones, Oho!
He's a jolly good fellow.
Born an American true,
And English not a bit, O.
" Here comes brave Paul Jones, Oho!
He's a jolly good fellow.
He does so many brave deeds
For the good of his friends, O.
CHORUS.
" Oh, had we him here,
Or had they him there,
He'd well know what to try for
And luck he'd let go by, sir! "
HIER KOMT PAUL JONES AAN.
Niet te snel.
^jj |- -_v s~ ^
=f"3-
-J
^a
{Qd*- L --f* m *
1. Hicr konit Pau-wel Jo - nes
2. llier komt Pau-wel Jo- 7ies
3. Hier komt Pau-wel Jo - lies
-L - ^ m _
aan, 't Is zoo'n aar - din
aan, 't Is /.(iii'n aar - dig
aan, 't Is zoo'u aar - dig
vent -
vent -
vent -
==5:
Je
!"
-II
i
i
i
2 * ?
x * r ^ 5
f
"\
^U
~n
:b :jr
: 1-\
m
=U
P2
i
Ziju scliip is na de grond j*e - gaan, Ob ecu Enijelscli ent - je !
Een pe - bo - ren A - nio - ri-l<aan. (Jantscli ren En<:e]cli vent-je!
Het doet zoo vee - le liel - den-diicn Tot wclstant van ziju vrint-je!
Had - den wij horn liit-r,
Had - den zij hem daar, liij
-i i =q i= ^
^ * - ^
: F = r"^"
3
') Het scbip van don Amorikaanscben knperkpitein P.M'L JOXF.S was in Oct.
1779 in een strijd met de Enjielsclien bij k;in]> Lanilscnd (Kn<relscli eutjf) L:C-
zonktMi. Hij heesch toen zijne vlag nan booru vuu het veroverdc scbip tie apis
eu liep'met ziju suialdecl Texel binueu.
471
472 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
APPENDIX V.
" Testament of Paul Jones, July /<?, 1792.
" Before the undersigned notaries, at Paris, appeared
Mr. John Paul Jones, citizen of the United States of
America, resident at present in Paris, lodged in the street
of Tournon, No. 42, at the house of Mr. Dorberque,
huissier audiancier of the tribunal of the third arrondisse-
ment, found in a parlour in the first story above the door,
lighted by two windows opening on the said street of
Tournon, sitting in an armchair, sick of body, but sound
of mind, memory, and understanding, as it appeared to the
undersigned notaries, by his discourse and conversation,
" Who, in view of death, has made, dictated, and
worded, to the undersigned notaries, his testament as fol-
lows:
" I give and bequeath all the goods, as well movable
as heritable, and all, generally, whatever may appertain to
me at my decease, in whatever country they may be situ-
ated, to my two sisters, Janette, spouse to William Taylor,
and Mary, wife to Mr. Loudon, and to the children of
my said sisters, to divide them into as many portions as
my said sisters and their children shall make up indi-
viduals, and to be enjoyed by them in the following
manner:
" My sisters, and those of their children who on the
day of my death shall have reached the age of twenty-
one, will enjoy their share in full property from the date
of my decease. As for those of my nephews and nieces who
at that period of time may not reach the age of twenty-
one years, their mothers will enjoy their shares till such
time as they attain that said age, with charge to them to
provide for their food, maintenance, and education: and
as soon as any of my nephews or nieces will have reached
the age of twenty-one years, the same will enjoy his share
in full property.
" If one or more of my nephews and nieces should
happen to die without children before having reached the
age of twenty-one, the share of those of them who may
have deceased shall be divided betwixt my said sisters and
my other nephews and nieces by equal portions,
APPENDIX V.
473
" I name the Honourable Robert Morris, Esq., of
Philadelphia, my only testamentary executor.
" I revoke all other testaments or codicils which I may
have made before the' present, which alone I stand by as
containing my last will.
" So made, dictated, and worded, by said testator, to
the said notaries undersigned, and afterward read, and
read over again to him by one of them, the others being
present, which he well understood, and persevered in, at
Paris, the year 1792, the i8th July, about five o'clock,
afternoon, in the room heretofore described, and the said
testator signed the original of the present, unregistrated,
at Paris, the 25th of September, 1792, by Defrance, who
received one livre, provisionally, save to determine defin-
itively the right after the declaration of the revenue of
the testator. The original remained with Mr. Pottier, one
of the notaries at Paris, undersigned, who delivered these
presents this day, 26th September, 1792, first of the French
Republic.
(Signed.) " POTTIER.
" L'AVERNIER."
(COPY.)
" Schedule of the Property of Admiral John Paul Jones,
as stated by him to me, this i8th of July,
" I. Bank stock in the Bank of North America, at
Philadelphia, six thousand dollars, with sundry dividends.
" 2. Loan-Office certificate left with my friend Mr.
Ross, of Philadelphia, for two thousand dollars, at par,
with great arrearages of interest, being for ten or twelve
years.
" 3. Such balance as may be in the hands of my said
friend John Ross, belonging to me, and sundry effects
left in his care.
" 4. My lands in the State of Vermont.
" 5. Shares in the Ohio Company.
"6. Shares in the Indiana Company.
" 7. About eighteen thousand pounds sterling due to
me from Edward Bancroft, unless paid by him to Sir
Robert Herries, and is then in his hands.
" 8. Upward of four years of my pension due from
Denmark, to be asked from the Count de Bernstorf,
474 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
" 9. Arrearages of my pay from the Empress of Rus-
sia, and all my prize money.
" 10. The balance due to me by the United States of
America, of sundry claims in Europe, which will appear
from my papers.
" This is taken from his mouth.
" GOUVERNEUR MORRIS."
This property was estimated as being worth about
thirty thousand dollars at the date of Jones' death.
APPENDIX VI.
RANGER, NANTES \\th Dec. 1777.
"HONORED SIR : I think it my duty to give you some
account of my Passage from Portsmouth to this place,
as this may perhaps find you at home in the Bosom of
domestic happiness. I had passed the Western Islands
before a Sail appeared within our Horizon from the Mast
head; but this Halcyon Season was then interrupted, and
changed into continued alarms Night and day till the
Ranger cast Anchor here the 2d Current, this afforded
me excellent opportunities of exercising the Officers
and Men especially in the Night, and it is with much
Pleasure that I assure you their behaviour was to my
entire Satisfaction. I fell in with an Enemies Fleet of
Ten Sail off Ushant, bound up Channel, but notwith-
standing my best endeavours^ I was unable to detach any
of them from the strong Convoy under which they sailed.
I fell in with and brought too a number of other Ships
and Vessels none whereof proved to be British Property
except two Brigantines with fruit from Malaga for Lon-
don which became Prizes, the one is arrived here, the
other I am told in Quiberon Bay. The Rangers sailing
does not answer the general expectation, o \veing in a great
measure to her being too deep, very foul and over Masted,
her Ballast laid too high, on account of its improper qual-
ity, for a Ship of this construction, this with the extraordi-
APPENDIX VI.
475
nary weight of her lower Masts; occasioned her being
very Crank, I am paying my whole Attention to remedy
these inconveniences as much as Possible, I am short-
ening the lower Masts, shifting the Main Mast further
aft, and mean to ballast with Lead; as that Article will
store under the lower tier of Water the less quantity will
be sufficient, of course the Ship will be so much the
lighter, and Sail so much the faster, and we shall then, I
hope, be able to store the Cables under the Platform.
Tho' I have yet received no Letter from the Commis-
sioners, I understand that they had some time ago pro-
vided for me one of the Finest Frigates that can be im-
agined, calculated for Thirty two, Twenty four Pounders,
on One deck, and longer than any Ship in the Enemies
Fleet, but it seems they were unfortunately under the
necessity of giving her up on Account of some difficulties
which they met with at Court, however I esteem the in-
tention as much as tho' it had succeeded, as I shall
always cherish the grateful remembrance of the Honor
which Congress hath conferred on me by this and every
other instance of their generous Approbation, I shall be
the happiest of Men if a Life of services devoted to the
Intrests of America can be rendered instrumental in se-
curing its Independance.
" My particular thanks are due to you Sir, as one of the
four Members of that Honorable Committee to whose
generous intention, and Approbation I more immediately
owe this great and unsolicited Obligation, but I hope for
Opportunities of proving by my Conduct the deep sense
I entertain of that favor.
" The inclosed letter, and its consequences hath given
me real concern. Malice is a stranger to my Nature. I
hate domestic broils, or misunderstandings, and would
do, or suffer much, as a private Person to prevent them.
But as an Officer, honored with the Approbation of Con-
gress, and conscious of having at no time exceeded even
in Thought the delicate lines of my duty, or express letter
of my Orders; I am in the highest degree tenacious of
the respect due to my Signature; and I bid the most
contemptuous defiance to the insinuation of any Man out
of Congress.
" I have been informed in Portsmouth that the four
Oared Boat which attended the Ranger was built for the
Portsmouth Privateer, and after being rejected as mis-
476 COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
constructed and unuseful for that Ship, was assigned over
to the Ranger, be this as it may, I will boldly affirm that
she was the worst constructed and most unservicable
Boat that I ever saw, belonging to a Ship of War, for
tho' a Man stepping on her Gunnel, would bring it down
to the Waters edge, yet was her Weight equal, or nearly
so to that of the Cutter, which I planned, and had built,
capable of carrying 40 Armed Men, had I been able, which
I was not, to stow the two Boats, which I found provided
for the Ranger, I must have been reduced to the Alterna-
tives of throwing them overboard, or strikeing the Top
Masts several times, on the Passage to prevent oversetting
the Ship. I mention this matter to you in confidence as a
Friend, declaring on the Honor of a Gentleman that I
wish on my part to give it to Oblivion. I have the
Pleasure to hear that Captains Thompson and Hinman
are well at Lorient of which please to inform Mrs.
Thompson. I shall endeavour to procure the Articles
mentioned in Mrs. Whipple's Memorandum, I hope to
live in the remembrance of the few acquaintances I have
in Portsmouth, and I have the honor to be with due Re-
spect.
"Sir
" Your very Obliged
" very Obedient
" most humble Servant,
" JNO P JONES" *
THE HON'BLE
GEN'L WHII-PLE
* The above hitherto unpublished letter, with its unusual
signature, was addressed to William Whipple, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence from New Hamp-
shire, who in 1777 was a member of the Continental Congress,
and one of the four Navy Commissioners. The original of
the Commodore's interesting letter is in the collection of Mr.
Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia. EDITOR.
INDEX.
Adams, John, 19, 310, 432.
Alexiano, General, 363, 371, 376,
377, 33o. 382.
Alfred, King, the Great, 21.
Arnold, Benedict, 62.
Arnold, Rhodes, 20.
Ashe, Colonel John Baptiste,
464.
Ashe, Mrs. Colonel John Bap-
tiste, 464 ; her clever retort
upon Tarleton, 465.
Bahama project, 26, 27.
Barry, Commodore John, 21,
270, 423, 443, 468.
Battle between the Ariel and
the Triumph, 301, 302 ; be-
tween the Serapis and the
Richard, 175, 208 ; remarks
on the action, 220, 228 ; be-
tween the Solebay and the
Providence, 44-46 ; of Nas-
sau, 31, 32 ; with the Glas-
gow, 33-35 ; with the Turks,
363. 389-
Besborodko, Count, 403, 404.
Biddle, Nicholas, 20, 23, 60.
Blnckden, Colonel, 419.
Brown, Captain John, 468.
Brown, Governor, 31, 32.
Burden, Captain, 106.
Burgoyne, General, So, 306.
Burns, Robert, 4.
Burroughs, Ezekiel, 20.
Carleton, Sir Guy, 54.
Carmichael, William, 85.
Caswell, Midshipman, 205.
Catherine, Empress of Russia,
her birth, character, etc., 352-
356.
Cerf, 161.
Clark, A. H., 468.
Columbus, Christopher, 28.
Commissioning the first Amer-
ican fleet, 23-25.
Concordat between John Paul
Jones and officers of the
squadron, 156, 157, 465, 467.
Conflans, M., 84, 147.
Cook, Captain, 322.
Corsacoff, Brigadier, 372.
Countess of Scarborough, 178,
200, 244.
Cruise of the Alfred, 51, 57 ; of
the Ariel, 291, 303 ; of the
Providence, 38-49; of the
Ranger, 77, 90 ; of the squad-
ron, 156-174.
Cunningham, Captain Gustavus,
79. 2 43-
Dale, Richard, 152, 155, 180,
188, 196, 198, 200, 202, 203 ;
bravery of. 211-221, 423 ;
lifelong friendship for Paul
Jones, 432, 433.
D'Artois, Count (Charles X), 333.
Deane, Silas, 82.
De Castries, Mare'chal, 319.
De Chamillard de Warville,
Lieutenant-colonel, 153.
De Chaumont, Monsieur )e Ray,
144, 145, 156, 157, 467.
De Cottineau, 162, 172, 467.
Degges, Lieutenant, 284.
De Kersaint, 147.
477
478
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
De la Vauguyon, Due, 247.
De Lavendahl, Countess, 424,
425-
Delia , 276, 331, 332, 430.
De Luxembourg, Chevalier, 313,
314.
De Marsan, Marquise, 331.
De Rochambeau, 309.
De Sartine, M., 128, 144, 153.
De Segur, 392, 404 ; narrative
of, concerning slander of
Paul Jones, 396-399.
D'Estaing, Admiral, 82, 83, 433.
De Varage, 467.
De Vauban, Count, 291.
De Vaudreuil, Marquis, 312.
De Viomenil, Baron, 433.
De Weibert, 196, 201.
Dewey, Admiral George, I.
Dobbs, Lieutenant, 108.
" Don't tread on me," 24.
D'Ormoy, Madame, 297.
D'Orvilliers, Comte, 88.
Drake, capture of the, 93, 107.
Dumas, 256.
Dunmore, Lord, 20, 26.
Edes, Miss, 276, 277.
Empress Catherine of Russia,
334. .3 5 2-3 56.
Expedition to New Providence,
2 5-37 I against the Turks,
359-389; to Whitehaven, 91-
Fabricien, 379.
Fanning, John, 20.
Fanning, Midshipman Nathan-
iel, 207, 225, 226.
Farragut, Admiral, I.
Fishing industry, breaking up
of the, 47, 450.
Flag of the Bon Homme Ri-
chard, 467, 469.
Flag, American, saluted at sea
for the first time, 85-88.
Fort Hassan, 378-380.
Fort Mellish, capture of. 54, 56 ;
Montague, capture of, 29, 31,
32 ; Nassau, capture of, 31, 32.
Fox, Lieutenant, 379.
Franklin, Benjamin, 112, 113,
117, 145, 230.
Frederick the Great, 2.
Freeman, David, 97, 98.
Gates, General, 306.
Genet, M., Secretary of the
French Legation at St. Pe-
tersburg, 406.
George I, 2.
Gillon, Captain, 313, 314.
Glasgow, the, 33, 35, 36.
Greene, General, 306.
Grimm, Baron, 433.
Hacker, Captain Hoysted, 20,
53. 55-
Hall, Lieutenant Elijah, 99, 108.
Hancock, President, 68.
Hawke, Lord, 84, 147.
Hewes, Joseph, of Edenton, 14,
19, 460.
Hierkomt Paul Jones aan (song),
471.
Hinman, Captain, 64, 67.
Hopkins, Captain John Bur-
roughs (son of Commodore
Esek Hopkins), 20, 34.
Hopkins, Commodore Esek, 19,
20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32,
33. 35. 39- 4i, 53, 62, 66.
Hopkins, Stephen, 19.
Howe, Captain Tyringham, 34,
35-
Howe, Lord, 82, 83.
Huntington, Samuel, 278.
" I have not yet begun to fight "
194.
Incidents in Paul Jones' West-
Tndian service, 9, 10 ; amusing
encounter between the Mil-
ford and the Providence, 47,
48 ; the Richard is mistaken
for an English ship and asked
for powder and shot, 168 ;
prayer of the minister of
Kirkaldy when the Richard
neared the town, 170 ; in-
sulted by Landais, 329, 330.
INDEX.
479
Jay, John, 325, 327.
Jefferson, Thomas, 321, 322,
323, 328, 334, 432.
Johnstone, Captain, 79.
Jones, Allan, n, 12, 13, 460,
462, 465.
Jones, Colonel Cadwallader,
460 ; MS. of, concerning John
Paul Jones, 460, 463.
Jones, Mrs. \\illie, 11-13, 460-
464 ; her famous retort to
Tarleton's sneer, 12, 463.
Jones, Paul, Commodore ; an-
cestry and birth, 1-7 ; goes to
sea on the Friendship, 6; third
mate on slaver King George,
7 ; abandons slave trading,
78 ; captain and merchant at
twenty-one, 9 ; flogging of
Mungo Maxwell, 10 ; comes
to America, 11-13; assumes
the name of Jones, 11-13,
15,459-456; appointed lieu-
tenant in Continental navy, j
15-19, 460 ; his part in taking
Fort Nassau, 29-31 ; encoun- j
ter with the Cerberus and a
colonial brigantine, 41 ; com-
missioned captain, 41 ; en-
gagement between the Provi-
dence and the Solebay, 44-46 ;
fishing industry broken up,
47-50; capture of the Mel-
lish and of the coal fleet,
54-56 ; suggests naval regula-
tions, 69, 72 ; appointed to
the sloop of war Ranger, 75 ;
first to hoist the new flag
of the Republic, 76 ; first
cruise of the Ranger, 77-81 ;
first salute to the American
flag by France, 85-88 ; ordered
to attack the English coast,
90 ; second cruise of the Ran-
ger, 91-115; capture of the
Drake, 93, 107; the descent
on Whitehaven, 95, 98 ; the
attempt on Lord Selkirk, 99-
115; returns silver to Lady
Selkirk, 113; goes to Ver-
sailles to consult with com-
missioner, 127, 128; is given
the Bon Homme Richard, 144 ;
armament of the Richard, 147,
148 ; instructed to proceed to
the Texel, 150, 151 ; the con-
cordat, 156, 157, 465, 467;
joined by Richard Dale, 152 ;
insubordination and insolence
of Landais, 162-165, 172, 173,
176 ; crew of the Richard,
i S3- 1 55 1 the Richard is chal-
lenged by the Serapis the
battle, 178-227 ; / have not
yet begun to fight, 194 ; lashes
the two ships together, 197 ;
treachery of Landais, 200,
205, 206 ; both ships on fire,
206, 207 ; Pearson surrenders,
208 ; after the battle, 209 ;
meeting of Paul Jones and
Pearson, 211; the Richard
on fire, 215 ; sinking of the
Richard, 215-218; ordered to
leave the Texel, 233 ; offered
French naval letter of marque,
247 ; honors and rewards, 269,
274, 275, 305, 323 ; his rela-
tions with Madame de Telison
(Delia), 276, 331, 332, 430 ;
Louis XVI presents him with
a sword, 274, 278. 279, 291 ;
sails on the Ariel for America,
291, 303 ; receives the cross of
the Order of Military Merit,
305 ; encounter with the Tri-
umph, 301, 302; commander of
the America, 308 ; a volunteer
on Admiral deVaudreuiPsflag-
ship Triomphante, 315 ; sent
to France to collect prize
money, 319; returns to Amer-
ica, 316 ; Congress presents
him with a gold medal, 324,
325 ; goes to the Danish
court to prosecute the Amer-
ican claim, 327, 335 ; enters
the service of Russia, 351 ; is
presented to Empress Cath-
erine, 346; expedition against
480
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
the Turks, 359-389 ; unjustly
treated by Patiomkine, favor-
ite of Catherine -of Russia,
377-388, 396; slandered in
Russia, 390-395; is befriend-
ed by de Segur, 392, 396-
399, 404, 406; received again
at court of Russia, 402 ; dec-
orated with the order of St.
Anne, 406 ; last years, 407-
420; his last public appear-
ance, 412; his death "rest
at last," 420, 421 ; defended
against the charge of piracy,
435. 436 ! his last will and
testament, 419, 472, 474 ;
characteristics, personal ap-
pearance,. 424, 426 ; personal
character and professional
status, 426, 446 ; qualities as
an officer, 447-453 ; as a com-
mander, 453, 455.
Jones, Willie, 11-13, 459-465.
Keppel, Admiral A. I., 130.
King Charles X, 333.
Kosciusko, 408, 433.
Krudner, 340, 411, 433.
Lafayette, General, 142, 146,
311, 418, 433, 434.
Landais, Captain, 176, 204, 205 ;
insubordination and treachery
of, 224, 225, 227, 229, 243 ;
court-martialed, 290, 467.
Langdon, John, 75.
Ledyard, Captain, 322.
Lee, Arthur, 271-274, 281, 285.
Lee, Richard Henry, 19.
Letters to the Marine Board,
62, 65 ; to Robert Morris, 69-
71 ; to a friend concerning his
mother, 72 ; of Marine Com-
mittee to commissioners of the
United States in Europe, 73,
74 ; of Marine Committee to
John Paul Jones, 74, 75 ; to
the Marine Committee, 77,
87, 88 ; to Lady Selkirk, 109-
112 ; from Lord Selkirk, 113-
115; extract of, to the com-
missioners on his arrival in
France, 119, 120 ; private,
from Franklin, 125127; to
M. de Sartine, 131, 154 ; to
the King of France, 135-
139 ; from John Paul Jones
to Baron van der Capellen,
2 35i 2 38, 239 ; answer, 236-
238 ; from John Paul Jones
to Due de la Vauguyon, 247,
2 5> 2 53. 2 56; from Due de
la Vauguyon to Paul, 253,
254 ; extract of, to Robert
Morris, 256 ; to Madame
D'Ormoy, 297 ; to Madame
Thellison, 332, 333 ; from
John Adams, 310 ; from La-
fayette, 311 ; from George
Washington, 306, 307 ; from
John Paul to Samuel Hunt-
ington, 278, 279 ; answer, 279,
280 ; extract of, from Frank-
lin, regarding the Landais
affair, 281-283 : from Con-
gress to Louis XVI, 324, 325 ;
from John Paul Jones to John
Jay, Secretary of State, 325-
327 ; from Pearson to John
Paul Jones, 240 ; answer, 241,
242 ; to King of France, 135-
139 ; to Paul Jones from Em-
press of Russia, 349 ; extracts
of, that passed between John
Paul Jones and Patiomkine,
384-389, 393-395 ; to Em-
press Catherine from Paul
Jones, 400-402 ; from Paul
Jones to Lafayette, 418 ; to
his sister, Mrs. Taylor, 415-
417; correspondence concern-
ing John Paul's assumption
of the name of Jones, 459-465.
Liman campaign, 369, 374, 389.
Louis XV, 2, 276.
Louis XVI, 274, 278, 279, 291,
412.
Lunt, Lieutenant Henry, 175,
214, 215
Luzerne, M., 314.
INDEX.
481
MacDuff, Jean, mother of John
Paul, 3.
Mahan, Captain A. T., 224, 226,
227.
Maps : the attack on New
Providence in the Bahamas,
32 ; showing the cruise of the
first American squadron, and
of the Providence and the Al-
fred, 52 ; showing the cruises
of the Ranger and the Bon
Homme Richard, and the
dash of the Alliance from
the Texel, 160 ; (diagram)
showing the maneuvers of
Bon Homme Richard and
Serapis, 199 ; of the Liman
campaign, 374.
Maria Theresa, 2.
Marine Corps, establishment of,
30.
Marron, M. f 422.
Marsan, Madame, 333.
McDougall, Lieutenant, 20.
McKenzie, Commodore, 160,
161.
Messrs. Hortalez & Co., 73.
Meyler, James, 468.
Montgomery, Richard, 443.
Mordwinoff, 362.
Morgan, General, 62, 306.
Morris, Robert, 6), 71, 256,
419. 423-
Morris, Gouverneur, 419, 432,
474-
Mount Gallant, home of Allan
Jones, 460, 464.
Mungo Maxwell, 9, 10.
Mutiny of Mungo Maxwell, 9,
10.
Nassau, battle of, 3T, 32.
Nassau-Siegen, Prince Otto,
125, 126, 358, 359, 363, 364,
366-368, 372-374, 377-330,
383, 391, 408.
Navy, origin of first American,
16-24, 69.
New Providence, island of, 28.
Nichols, Captain, 31.
Olney, Joseph, 20.
Otchakoff, 361, 389.
Patiomkine, Gregory Alexandro-
witch, favorite of Empress
Catherine of Russia, 355,
358, 385, 3.86, 387, 388.
Paul, John, father of John Paul
Jones, 3 ; his occupation,
character, birth of his chil-
dren, 2, 3.
Paul, William, Jr. (brother of
John Paul), 3, 10, 461.
Pearson, Captain Richard, 177,
178, 182, 194, 195, 200, 202.
Pindar, Captain John, 301.
Piquet's, La Motte, command,
84, 86, 88.
Pitcher, Jonathan, 20.
Plainer, Captain John, 72.
Pompadour, Madame de, 2.
Ranger,' battle between the
Drake and the, 101, 107.
Ranger, first cruise of the, 7~
80.
Ranger, second cruise of, 91-
115-
Rhynst, Vice-Admiral, 246, 251.
Richard, battle between the
Serapis and, 175, 208 ; re-
marks on the action, 220, 228.
Ricot, Captain, 162, 467.
Robertson, Andrew, 168.
Rochambea*u, 433.
Rogers, Woodes, 28.
Saltonstall, Captain Dudley, 20,
21, 24.
Saunders, Lieutenant, 56, 58, 59.
Seabury, Benjamin, 2O.
Selkirk, Earl of, 2. 99, 115.
Selkirk, Lady, 99, loo, 113,
239-
Serapis, battle between the Ri-
chard and the, 175, 208 ; re-
marks on the action, 220,
228.
Ship> : Adventure, 49 ; Alex-
ander, 49 ; Alfred, 21-23,
4cS2
COMMODORE PAUL JONES.
29, 33-36, 51, 57 ; Alliance,
146, 148, 173, 222, 261,
264, 267, 280, 284, 443,
468, 469 ; America, 308 ;
Amphitrite, 75 ; Arethusa,
124 ; Ariel, 142 ; Andrea Do-
ria, 22, 34 ; Belle Poule, 124 ;
Betsy of London, 10 ; Black
Prince, 21 ; Bolton, 33 ;-Bon
Homme Richard (see the
Richard) ; brigantine John,
9 ; Britannia, 43 ; Cerf, 146 ;
Cabot, 34, 66, 67 ; Cerbe-
rus, 41 ; Columbus, 34, 66,
67 ; Countess of Scarborough,
178, 200, 244 ; Drake, 90-
115; Due de Broglio, 142;
Duras(Bon Homme Richard),
144, 145 ; Ebenezer, 48, 49 ;
Fly, 22, 27, 40 ; Favorite, 43 ;
Friendship, 6 ; Flora, 55 ;
Glasgow, the, 33-36.; Good
Man Richard (the Richard);
Granville, 158 ; Hampden,
41, 42, 53, 66, 67 Hawk, 33,
35 ; Hornet, 22, 27 ; Inde-
pendence, 86 ; Indicn (South
Carolina), 81, 125.. 313; In-
vincible, 74, 80 ; Katy (Provi-
dence), 22; Kingston Packet,
49 ; Kitty, 468 ; Lexington,
79 ; La Bretajne, 88 ; Mag-
nifique, 312 ; Mayflower, brig,
159; Mellish, 54; Milford,
56, 57, 58, 59 ; Monsieur, 158 ;
Pallas, 145, 148, 173 ; Provi-
dence, 22, 38-49, 53, 60, 66,
127 ; Ranger, 76-80, 91-115 ;
Reprisal, 79 ; Revenge, 79 ;
Richard, the, 144-147, 175,
208, 220, 228, 414, 445, 446,
467, 469 ; Sally (Columbus),
2T ; Sea Flower, 49 ; Sea
Nymph, 43 ; Serapis, 153,
175, 208. 220, 228, 444, 447,
4.51, 452; Solebay, 44, 46;
Somerset, 155 ; South Caro-
lina (Indien), 313 ; Success,
49 ; Surprise, 79 ; Triom-
phante, 315 ; Triumph, 301,
" 302 ; Two Friends (slaver),
7, 8 ; Vengeance, 145 ; Ver-
wagting, 159 ; Wasp, 22 ;
Wolodimer, 363, 370, 371,
.372, 379-
Simpson, Lieutenant, 79, 82,
95, 107, 108, 123.
Stacy, Captain, 197.
Stafford, James Bayard, 468,
469.
Stanhope, Lieutenant, 207.
Stirling, General Lord, 33.
St. Mary's Isle, seat ot the Earl
of Selkirk, 98.
Stormont, Lord, 116, 121.
Suvorof, General, 364-367, 376.
Swan, Colonel, 419.
Tarleton, Colonel, 12, 463, 465.
Telison, Madame de (Delia),
276, 331, 332, 430.
Thackeray, Willinm M , 223.
The Grove, home of Willie
Jones, 12, .160-463.
Thompson, Charles, 410.
Truxtun, Thomas, 296.
Van der Capellen, Baron, 235,
433-
Vaughan, Daniel, 20.
Vessels. (See under Ships.)
Wallingford, Lieutenant, 95, 96.
Walpole, Robert, 276.
Warner, Elisha, 20.
Washington, Colonel William,
12.
Washington, General George,
25- 38, 39. 54, 83, 194, 306,
307, 309, 443.
Wayne, General, 306.
W T eaver, Thomas, 20.
Whipple, Captain Abraham, 20,
22, 34, 127.
Whipple, William, 75.
Whitehaven, descent on, and
burning of, 95, 98.
Wickes, Captain, 79.
Yorke, Sir Joseph, 232, 242, 245.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
,001261981
CT 2 5 ,381
SEP 2 9 18711
J'AN 1 2
MAY 2 5 1373
Form L9-32m-8,'57(.C8680s4)444
3 1158 00721 3274