John Paul Jones, through the friendship of Joseph Hewes, was commissioned as first lieutenant on the Alfred in the Continental navy. Jones distinguished himself capable through many actions; one being a battle against a British ship called Glasgow. While he was in command of the providence, he out witted the British twice. He sent in eight prizes, while sinking and burning eight more. He arrived to port, safely, aboard Alfred with several more prizes.
Jones, being an experienced officer of the Alfred and on the sloop Providence, was sent in 1776 to France as captain of the Ranger. He was instructed to engage enemy commerce in British waters. Jones had no problem against British merchant …show more content…
& Garraty, J. A (2009) stated, in their article, that due to his victory “the French now took note of Jones and sent him off in August 1779 in command of a fleet of five naval vessels and two privateers. This voyage carried Jones and his ships clockwise around the British Isles. Jones’s ship was the Bonhomme Richard, around nine hundred tons and slow, but the most heavily armed vessel he had commanded.” In September, Jones fought a critical battle off the Yorkshire coast. He intercepted the British ships Serapis, a sturdy, copper-bottomed frigate holding fifty guns and Countess of Scarborough, holding only twenty. Jones had a three hour ship battle. Jones denied surrendering and Jones followed up by saying, “I have not yet begun to fight.” The encyclopedia of Britannica defined how Jones's sharpshooters were driving “the enemy from the Serapis's deck with their rain of musket and grenade fire, but below the deck the enemy cannon roared on, wrecking the Bon Homme Richard's topsides.” By the end of the battle, Jones had lost a severe number of people, but he had accepted the British captain’s Surrender. The Bonhomme Richard sank from the battle, and Jones sailed aboard the Serapis to the Netherlands. France rewarded him with a gold-hilted sword and Jones had become a chevalier of France. He died in Paris as an American hero of the United States