REMEMBERING NON-REVISED HISTORY: JULY 18, 2013

John Paul Jones

Captain, United States Navy
“Father of the United States Navy”

On ‘Sea Warfare’

Biography
John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was a Scottish sailor and the United States's first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolution. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day. As such he is sometimes referred to as the “Father of the United States Navy” (an epithet he shares with John Barry). He later served in the Imperial Russian Navy.

During his engagement with HMS Serapis, Jones uttered, according to the later recollection of his first lieutenant, the legendary reply to a taunt about surrender from the British captain: "I have not yet begun to fight!" » Full Bio

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This Day In History 221 Years Ago
American Revolution
July 18, 1792

Naval Hero John Paul Jones Dies In Paris

On this day in 1792, the Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones dies in his Paris apartment, where he was still awaiting a commission as the United States consul to Algiers. Commander Jones, remembered as one of the most daring and successful naval commanders of the American Revolution, was born in Scotland, on July 6, 1747. He became an apprentice to a merchant at 13 and soon went to sea, traveling first to the West Indies and then to North America as a young man.

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One of the greatest naval commanders in history, Jones is remembered as a Father of the American Navy, along with fellow Revolutionary War hero Commodore John Barry. At the conclusion of the American War for Independence, Jones briefly served Empress Catherine II of Russia, before retiring to Paris. John Paul Jones is buried in a crypt at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, where a Marine honor guard stands at attention in his honor whenever the crypt is open to the public. » Full Article

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