JONES, John Paul, the first of the great American sea fighters, and not the least splen did in the long line, was born John Paul— the name Jones being a subsequent assump tion— on 6 July 1747 on the estate of Arbig land, in the parish of Kirkbean, in the county of Kircudbright, Scotland; d. Paris, 18 July 1792. His family was obscure, his circum stances narrow, his advantages meagre, his op portunities limited. At the age of 12 he be came a sailor. Genius rose superior to adverse circumstances, however, and before he died he was one of the most accomplished officers who ever served the United States. The greatest men of America and France took pleasure in his society and were proud of his friendship.
He progressed rapidly in his chosen career. At 19 he was chief mate of a slaver, a legiti mate occupation in his day,.but one that filled him with disgust. At 21 he was captain of a trader. In 1773 he came to America, forsook the sea and settled in Virginia on his brother's plantation, the latter having died childless in that year. It was at this time that he assumed the name Jones, by which he is so well known.
He was still poor and obscure when on 7 Dec. 1775 he was appointed a lieutenant in the new Continental navy, and was ordered to the Alfred, a small converted merchantman, Com modore Hopkins' flagship, on which, in the latter part of December, he had the honor of hoisting with his own hands the first naval flag of an American squadron. This was the famous yellow silk banner with a rattlesnake, and perhaps a pine tree, emblazoned upon it, with the significant legend, *Don't tread on me P See FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES.
Hopkins made an abottive expedition to New Providence, in which Jones had but one opportunity to distinguish himself. At the peril of his commission, when the regular pilots refused to do so, he volunteered to take the Alfred through a difficult and dangerous chan nel. Needless to say, he succeeded—he always succeeded! His first independent command was the little brig-ship Providence, of 70 men and 12 4-pound guns. In the fall of 1775 he made a notable cruise in this vessel; he skirmished with, and escaped from, by seamanship and daring, two heavy frigates, the Solebay and the Milford; in four months he captured 16 vessels, 8 of which were sent in as prizes, 5 burned, 3 re turned to certain poor fishermen; and he de stroyed property aggregating $1,000,000.
Later, in command of the Alfred, with a short crew of 150 when he should have had 300, he made another brilliant cruise in which he burned several British transports, captured one storeship laden to the gunwales with price less munitions of war and supplies, cut out three of the coal fleet from under the guns of the Flora frigate, and had another smart brush with the Milford.
He was commissioned captain in the navy on 10 Oct. 1776, and on 14 June 1777, in the same resolution that established the form of the American flag, he was ordered to the Ranger, a small ship-rigged corvette of 300 tons and 18 6-pounders. On her, at Portsmouth, N. H., on 4 July, he hoisted the first Stars and Stripes that ever flew from the peak aflin American man-of-war. Sailing for European waters, he carried to France the official dispatches nouncing Burgoyne's surrender, which brought about the Franco-American alliance.
In Quiberon Bay, late on the evening of 14 Feb. 1778, in the Ranger, he received the first formal recognition ever given by a foreign fleet to the United States in a salute to the American flag. As it was after sunset' when the salutes were eicchahged, in order that there should be no mistake about it, the next morn ing, 15 February, Jones transferred his flag to the Independence, a small privateer, and de liberately sailed through La Motte Piquet's fleet of battleships, saluting and receiving salutes again.
In April 1778, still on the e —ft Brest on a cruise in British waters, which took him around Ireland. During this cruise he made daring but abortive attempts to burn the shipping at Whitehaven, and to capture the Earl of Selkirk at Saint Mary's Isle. On the evening of 24 April, off Carrickfergus, he fought the British sloop-of-war Drake, of equal force and larger crew, to a standstill in an hour and five minutes. When the Drake struck her flag, her rigging, sails and spars were cut to pieces. She had 42 killed and wounded more than one-fifth of her crew — and was completely helpless. The Ranger lost 2 killed and 6 wounded.