John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones is regarded as the father of the United States Navy and spent his last years as a Russian admiral. Born John Paul in Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland in 1747, the son of a gardener, he went to sea at thirteen, served in the slave trade and left it in disgust, and had his own command by twenty-one. He killed a mutinous crewman with a sword in Tobago in 1773 and fled to America rather than face a colonial court, adding Jones to his name. He was commissioned into the Continental Navy in 1775 and raided British commerce with unusual aggression, taking prizes and, in 1778, landing at Whitehaven in Cumberland to spike the guns and fire the shipping — the last hostile landing on British soil — and attempting to abduct the Earl of Selkirk. His defining action came on 23 September 1779 off Flamborough Head, commanding the Bonhomme Richard, an old converted East Indiaman given him by the French, against HMS Serapis, a newer and better-armed frigate. Two of his main guns burst on the first broadside. He lashed the two ships together so the Serapis could not use her superior gunnery at range, and fought for over three hours while his own vessel sank beneath him. Asked whether he had struck his colours, he is reported to have answered that he had not yet begun to fight. The Serapis surrendered; the Bonhomme Richard sank the next day. He served Catherine the Great as a rear admiral in the Black Sea, was undermined by intrigue, and died in Paris in 1792.
- Lived: 1747 CE – 1792 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: naval_commander, privateer
