Jones

american, serapis, service, richard, frigate, alliance, sea, ship, scarborough and pallas

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In 1779 Jones hoisted his flag on the Disc de Duras, a condemned East Indiaman, which would have been broken up had he not turned her into a makeshift frigate by mounting 40 guns in her batteries —14 12-pounders, 20 nines and 6 eighteens. This, in honor of H Franklin, he renamed the Bon Richard. Accompanied by the fine little American-built frigate Alliance, 32, commanded by Pierre Landais, an incompetent and unbalanced French naval officer in the American service, French corvette Pallas, 30, Captain de Cot tineau, with the brig V eageatice,, 12, and the cutter Cerf, 16, Jones cruised around England. and Scotland, taking many valuable prizes and striking terror all along the shore, in spite of constant mutiny and insubordination among the ships, officers and men of his heterogeneous squadron.

On the evening of 23 September, off Flam borough Head, he fell in with the valuable Baltic convoy. He was accompanied at the time only by the Alliance and the Pallas. The' Baltic convoy was protected by the Serapis and the Scarborough. The Serapis- was a brand-. new double-banked frigate of 800 tons, carrying 20 18-pounders, 20 nines and 10 sixes. Inas much as the 18-pounders on the Richard bunt and were abandoned after the first fire, the Scrapis could and did discharge nearly twice as many pounds' weight of broadsides as the ard — say 300 pounds to 175. The Pallas grappled with the Scarborough — a more equal match and Jones attacked the Serapis, which was not unwilling —quite the contrary—for the fight.

The battle was one of the most memorable and desperate ever fought upon the ocean. The RiChard was riddled like a sieve. Her rotten sides were literally blown out to starboard and port by the heavy batteries of the Serapis. ones had' several hundred English prisoners on rd. The master-at-arms released them, but With great readiness and presence of mind Jones, who was brilliantly supported by Rich ard Dale, his first lieutenant, sent them to the pumps while he Continued to fight the frigate, his own ship kept afloat by their efforts.

Captain Pearson of the Serapis was a brave man, but no match for the indomitable person ality of the American commander. After sev eral hours of such fighting as had scarcely been seen before on the narrow seas, he struck his flag. The Alliance, commanded by a jealous and incapable Frenchman, had nothing to Jones' success. Indeed, she had twice deliberately poured her broadsides into the Richard in spite of frequent warning. The American vessel was so wrecked aloes and aloft that she sank alongside, and Jones had to trans fer the survivors of his crew to the English frigate. The aggregate of the two crews was nearly 700, of which about 350 were killed or" wounded. The Scarborough was cagturedlby the Pallas after' a smart action.

Jones took his prises into the Texel, when, after showing himself as vigorous and able in statecraft in maintaining American honor in diplomatic intrigues as he was at sea in battle, he was forced to turn over the Serapis and Scarborough to France.

The poverty of America did. not permit Jones to get to sea in adequate ships thereafter, although he subsequently commanded sively the Alliance and the Ariel, a email sloop of-war, in which he caused the British letter of-rnarque Triumph to strike her flag after a brief action, from which she escaped by a clever ruse, he performed no other conspicuous service.

After the Revolution he took service under Catherine of Russia, carefully reserving .his American citizenship. In her. service, iti June and July 1788, 'he fought four brilliant actions! in the Black Sea, in which he had •to contend with the usual discouragement of indifferent Personnel and wretched material, and in which+ he displayed all his old-time qualities, winning his usual successes, too.

Worn out in unrequited service, disgusted' with Russian court intrigues •ef which he was the victim, resentful of the infamous Potem- ' kin's brutal attempts at coercion, he asked' leave of absence from Catherine's service and went to Paris, where in the companionship of his friends and in the society of the beautiful Aimee de Telison, the one woman he loved, he lived' two years, and died of dropsy on 18 July 1792, at the age of 45. • Besides the memory of his battles, Paul ' Jones left a collection of immortal sayings, which are the heritage of the American navy and the admiration of brave men the world over.

"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" "I have ever looked out for the honor of the American, Hag." "I can never renounce the glorious title of a citizen of the United States." Last, but not least, the curt phrase Nvhich comes ringing through the centuries like a trumpet call to battle; the words with which he replied to the demand of the astonished Pear son, who saw the enemy's ship beaten to a pulp, and wondered why he did not yield: °I have not yet begun to fight P Never in his long career did Jones have a decent ship or a respectable crew. His ma terials were always of the very poorest.. His officers, with the exception of Richard Dale, were but little to boast of. What he accom plished he accomplished by the exercise of his own indomitable will, his serene courage, his matchless skill as a sailor and his devotion to the cause he had espoused. After his death, among his papers, the following little memo randum of his services, written in his own hand. was found: In 1773, J. Paul Jones armed and embarked in the first American slup of war. In the Revolution he bad 23 battles and solemn rencontres by sea; made 7 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 the Irish volunteers; desist from her cruel burnings in America, and exchange, as prisoners ofwar, the American citizens taken on the ocean, and cast into prisons of England, as 'traitors, pirates, and felons!" Paul Jones was accused of being a pirate. The charge was a long time dying, but it is to-day generally withdrawn. His status was clear and unequivocal. He was a regularly commissioned officer in the navy.

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