PAUL JONES

THE BOY OF THE SOLWAY

Born by the seashore of Scotland where the tide heaves up the Solway, living on a promontory surrounded by romantic scenery, and with the words of seafaring men constantly ringing in his ears, the boy, John Paul, longed to be a sailor.

He was the son of a poor gardener. But he was of that poetic romantic temperament, which always builds gorgeous structures in the future; and no boy, with a fancy like that of John Pul could be content to live the humdrum life of a gardener’s son. So he launched forth with a strong arm and resolute spirit to hew his way among his fellows.

John Paul was only twelve or fourteen years of age, when he became a sailor on board a ship bound to Virginia.

Thus early were his footsteps directed to America, by which his whole future career was shaped.

After reaching America, he took the name of Jones. He rendered his new name immortal, and the real name John Paul is sunk in that of Paul Jones.

J. T. Headley (Arranged)

DON’T TREAD ON ME!

In 1775, when our War for Independence broke out, Paul Jones commenced his brilliant career.

Some men regard him as a sort of freebooter turned Patriot—an adventurer to whom the American War was a God-send, in that it kept him from being a pirate. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

When the War broke out, he offered to serve in the Navy. Congress accepted his offer, and appointed him first lieutenant in the Alfred.

As the commander-in-chief of the squadron came on board the Alfred, Paul Jones unfurled our National Flag—the first time its folds were ever given to the breeze.

What that Flag was, strange as it may seem, no record tells us. It was not the Stars and Stripes, for they were not adopted till two years after.

The generally received opinion is, that it was a Pine Tree with a rattlesnake coiled at the roots as if about to spring, and underneath the motto:

DON’T TREAD ON ME!

If the Flag bore such a symbol, it was most appropriate to Paul Jones, for no serpent was ever more ready to strike than he.

At all events, it unrolled to the breeze, and waved over as gallant a young officer as ever trod a quarterdeck.

Fairly afloat—twenty-nine years of age—healthy, well-knit, though of light and slender frame—a commissioned officer in the American Navy the young gardener saw with joy, the shores receding as the fleet steered for the Bahama Isles.

The result of this expedition was the capture of New Providence with a hundred cannon and abundance of military stores.

And the capture was brought about by the perseverance and daring of young Paul Jones.

J. T. Headley (Arranged)

THE FIRST SALUTE

June 14, 1777, was a great day for the United States and for Paul Jones.

On that self-same day, Congress passed two famous Resolutions;—and Commander Paul Jones and the Flag of the Nation were “born at the same hour”:—

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 John Paul Jones be appointed to command the ship Ranger.

Thus it came to pass that the gallant young Scotchman, eager to fight for Liberty, hastened to make the Ranger ready for sea. Then he sailed away under orders for France.

From the harbour of Nantes, he convoyed some American ships to place them under the protection of the French fleet in Quiberon Bay. The commander of the French fleet was Admiral La Motte Picquet, who had been ordered by his Government to keep the coast of France free from British cruisers.

And it was there in Quiberon Bay, that John Paul Jones received the first salute ever given by a foreign Nation to our Stars and Stripes—a salute that recognized the Independence of the United States.

It was on Washington’s Birthday, 1778, that Paul Jones wrote to our Government describing this great event:—

Paul Jones thus had the singular honor of being the first to hoist the original Flag of Liberty on board the Alfred; first probably to hoist the Stars and Stripes, which still wave in pride as our national emblem; and first to claim for our Flag the courtesy from foreigners due to a Sovereign State.

Alexander S. Mackenzie (Retold)

THE POOR RICHARD

Paul Jones gave up the command of the Ranger in order to take command of a larger ship, promised him by the French Government. But he had a long discouraging period of waiting for the new ship.

It was then that he wrote to a French official, those famous words:—

“I will not have anything to do with ships which do not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

After months of desperate waiting and after writing many letters, Paul Jones chanced to be reading a copy of Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack.” These words caught his eye:—

If you would have your business done, go—if not, send.

So he stopped sending letters, and hastened to Paris to plead his own cause.

With the help of Franklin himself, Paul Jones got his ship at last. He named it Bon Homme Richard, or The Poor Richard.

It was while commanding The Poor Richard, that Paul Jones gained his famous victory over the British ship, the Serapis.

MICKLE’S THE MISCHIEF HE HAS DUNE

With seven ships in all—a snug little squadron for Jones, had the different commanders been subordinate—he set sail in the Richard from France, and steered for the coast of Ireland. The want of proper subordination was soon made manifest, for in a week’s time the vessels, one after another, parted company, to cruise by themselves, till Paul Jones had with him but the Alliance, Pallas, and Vengeance.

In a tremendous storm he bore away, and after several days of gales and heavy seas, approached the shore of Scotland.

Taking several prizes near the Firth of Forth, he ascertained that a twenty-four-gun ship and two cutters were in the roads. These he determined to cut out, and, landing at Leith, lay the town under contribution.

The inhabitants supposed his little fleet to be English vessels in pursuit of Paul Jones; and a member of Parliament, a wealthy man in the place, sent off a boat requesting powder and balls to defend himself, as he said, against “the pirate Paul Jones.”

Jones very politely sent back the bearer with a barrel of powder expressing his regrets that he had no shot to spare.

Soon after this, he summoned the town to surrender, but the wind blowing steadily off the land, he could not approach with his vessel.

At length, however, the wind changed and the Richard stood boldly in for the shore. The inhabitants, as they saw her bearing steadily up towards the place, were filled with terror, and ran hither and thither in affright; but the good minister, Rev. Mr. Shirra, assembled his flock on the beach, to pray the Lord to deliver them from their enemies. He was an eccentric man, one of the quaintest of the quaint old Scot divines, so that his prayers, even in those days, were often quoted for their oddity and roughness.

Having gathered his congregation on the beach in full sight of the vessel, which under a press of canvas, was making a long tack that brought her close to the town, he knelt down on the sand and thus began:—

“Now, dear Lord, dinna ye think it a shame for ye to send this vile pirate to rob our folk o’ Kirkaldy; for ye ken they’re puir enow already and hae naething to spare.

“The wa the wind blaws he’ll be here in a jiffie, and wha kens what he may do! He’s nae too good for ony thing. Mickle’s the mischief he has dune already. He’ll burn their hooses, tak their very claes, and tirl them to the sark. And waes me! wha kens but the bluidy villain might tak their lives? The puir weemen are maist frightened out o’ their wits, and the bairns skirling after them.

“I canna think of it! I canna think of it! I hae been lang a faithful servant to ye, Lord; but gin ye dinna turn the wind about and blaw the scoundrel out of our gate, I’ll nae stir a foot. But will just sit here till the tide comes. Sae tak ye’r will o’t.”

Now, to the no little astonishment of the good people, a fierce gale at that moment began to blow, which sent one of Jones’s prizes ashore and forced him to stand out to sea.

This fixed for ever the reputation of good Mr. Shirra. And he did not himself wholly deny that he believed his intercessions brought on the gale, for whenever his parishioners spoke of it to him, he always replied:—

“I prayed, but the Lord sent the wind.”

J. T. Headley (Arranged)

PAUL JONES HIMSELF

Paul Jones was slight, being only five feet and a half high. A stoop in his shoulders diminished still more his stature. But he was firmly knit, and capable of enduring great fatigue.

He had dark eyes and a thoughtful, pensive look when not engaged in conversation; but his countenance lighted up in moments of excitement, and in battle became terribly determined. His lips closed like a vice, while his brow contracted with the rigidity of iron. The tones of his voice were then haughty in the extreme, and his words had an emphasis in them, which those who heard never forgot.

He seemed unconscious of fear, and moved amid the storm of battle, and trod the deck of his shattered and wrecked vessel, like one who rules his own destiny. He would cruise without fear in a single sloop, right before the harbours of England, and sail amid ships double the size of his own.

But with all his fierceness in the hour of battle, he had as kind a heart as ever beat.

To see him in a hot engagement, covered with the smoke of cannon, himself working the guns, while the timbers around him were constantly ripping with the enemy’s shot; or watch him on the deck of his dismasted vessel, over which the hurricane swept and the sea rolled, one would think him destitute of emotion. But his reports of these scenes afterwards, resembled the descriptions of an excited spectator. He was an old Roman soldier in danger, but a poet in his after accounts of it.

Jones had great defects of character; but most of them sprang from his want of early education. He was not a mere adventurer—owing his elevation to headlong daring—he was a hard student as well as a hard fighter, and had a strong intellect as well as strong arm. He wrote with astonishing fluency considering the neglect of his early education. He even wrote eloquently at times, and always with force. His verses were as good as the general run of poetry of that kind.

Paul Jones was an irregular character, but his good qualities predominated over his bad ones. And as the man who first hoisted the American Flag at sea, and received the first salute ever offered it by a foreign Nation, and the first who carried it victoriously through the fight on the waves, he deserves our highest praise and most grateful remembrance.

With such a Commander to lead the American Navy, and stand before it as the model of a brave man, no wonder our Navy has covered itself with glory.

J. T. Headley (Condensed)

SOME OF HIS SAYINGS

I will not have anything to do with ships which do not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

(During the fight with the Serapis) Don’t swear, Mr. Stacy, we may at the next moment be in Eternity; but let us do our duty.

I have not yet begun to fight!

I have ever looked out for the honour of the American Flag.

I can never renounce the glorious title of a Citizen of the United States.

I can accept of no honour that will call in question my devotion to America.