JONES
JONES
before a British jury, the complaint being that
lie had displayed cruelty in the punishment of
Mungo Maxwell, a carpenter on his ship, who
was the leader of a mutiny. After a delay of six
months, the jury failed to render a verdict and
to justify himself Paul made an affidavit, pro-
claiming his innocence, and charging his enemies
with a conspiracy to take his life. He was fully
acquitted, and he left the service to devote him-
self to agriculture and study in Virginia, where
he undertook the management of his brother's
estate near Fredericksburg, William Paul having
died intestate in 1773. Attracted by the early ex-
ploits of the New England navy, he went to Phil-
adelphia in 1775, and offered his services to
congress. He was commissioned senior first
lieutenant, and it was about this time that he
assumed the name of Jones, although his reason
for so doing is not definitely known. It is sup-
posed that he did so because of his admiration
for the wife of Willie Jones, of North Carolina
(q. v.). He was second officer on the Alfred and,
as Lieutenant Jones, he was the first naval
officer to hoist the American naval flag under a
salute of thirteen guns. This flag then consisted
of thirteen stripes, alternating red and wliite,
with a rattlesnake undulating across the folds,
and the motto, " Don't Tread
on Me," underneath. He
sailed under Commodore
Esek Hopkins on the expe-
dition that captured New
Providence, and on the re-
PAUL joA<ts' FLAG ' turn of the fleet to New
London, took part in his first naval fight : the
engagement of the Cabot, the Alfred, and the
Columbus, with the British frigate Glasgow off
Block Island. He was promoted captain and
given command of the Providence, May 10, 1776,
and convoyed vessels laden with cannon and
army supplies between Providence, New York and
Philadelphia. He received his commission as
captain of the Providence from John Hancock,
president of congress, Aug. 8, 1776, and cruised
with her for six weeks, capturing sixteen prizes,
and by his skilful seamanship succeeding in
evading the British frigate Solway off Bermuda
and keeping up a running fight with the British
frigate Milford. He cruised as far north as
Canso, where he captured three schooners and
nine fishing vessels, and after transferring the
valuable cargo to his own vessel and to such
crafts as he intended to take into port, he sup-
plied the remaining vessels with sufficient provi-
sions and sent the captured crews home to Eng-
land. He attacked a coal fleet at Cape Breton,
in November, 1776, and rescued the American
sailors imprisoned in the coal mines there. He
also captured a large transport laden with provi-
sions and clothing, and a privateer from Liverpool,
which, after arming and manning, he gave ta
the command of Lieutenant Saunders. Upon his
return to Boston he was relieved of command, but
did not cease to advise the government as to the
needs of the new navy, suggesting many ways in
which it could be strengthened and improved.
He was made commander of the new sloop-of-war
Ranger in May, 1777, his commission bearing
date, June 14, 1777, the same day that the new flag,
composed of thirteen stripes alternating red and
white, and a vinion of thirteen stars, white on
a blue field, was adopted by congress. This new
flag was sent to the Ranger and thus John Paul
Jones was the first American naval officer to
run up the Stars and Stripes to the masthead of
a U.S. naval vessel. He set sail in the Ranger
from Portsmovith, N.H., Nov. 1, 1777, carrying
a letter from congress to the American commis-
sioners at the court of Versailles, designating
him the commander of the American navy in
Europe. Upon his arrival at Versailles, he was
disappointed in not finding ready for him a
man-of-war with such other vessels as would
make up a fleet, and he employed his sloop in
cruising between Nantes and Brest, and in acting
as a convoy to American vessels. Tiring of this
inactivity he set sail with the Ranger, April 10,
1778, to invade the British waters. Although an
American by adoption, he was a Scotchman by
birth, and in this movement he ran the chances,
if captured, of death as a traitor or the penalties at-
tached to a pirate. On April 14, 1778, he captured
an English brigantine, and after securing her
crew, set her on fire. When off Dublin, April 17,
1778, he captured the Lord Chatham, which he
manned and sent to Brest. On the 18th he en-
countered the sloop-of-war Drake, but by skilful
manoeuvring outsailed her and put into the
harbor at Whitehaven, where he had planned to
land and capture the town. The wind shifted,
however, and he was obliged to head seaward to
avoid being blown ashore. On April 19 he
captured a schooner and a sloop, both of which he
scuttled and sank. He entered the harbor of
Whitehaven, effected a landing and leading a
party of thirty men in small boats he gained the
fort, locked the sleeping garrison in the guard
houses, spiked the guns, and set fire to a number
of vessels in the harbor. The illumination from
the burning vessels disclosed their bold operations
and the awakened inhabitants gathered on the
wharves, and Jones was obliged to return to his
sloop. He ran over to St. Mary's Isle, where the
Earl of Selkirk resided, intending to seize the earl
as hostage to insure tlie release of the American
seamen confined on the prison ships in America
and in Mill prison, Plymouth, England, but upon
landing they found the earl absent, and the
