Another log is also contained in the book. It immediately follows the
"List of the Officers and Crew of the _Ariel_," and is headed, "A
Journal Kept on Board the Ship _Queen of France_, from Cape Henlopen
towards Lorient." Beginning on August 20, 1782, it records the
courses, distances run, the latitudes and longitudes of each day, up
to and including September 10th, when the ship was in latitude 47°
19' N. and longitude 19° 15' W. There are no entries in the column
under "Remarks."
Importance is attached to this log because it shows conclusively that
the book was in the possession of Dale until the end of the cruise of
the _Queen of France_, in February, 1783, about the time of the end
of the Revolution.
From Cooper's "Life of Richard Dale" we learn that after his return
to the United States in the _Ariel_ Jones was anxious to take him
with him to the ship _America_, to which Jones had been appointed,
but Dale declined the service and was employed on the _Trumbull_,
which was captured by an English fleet, and for the fourth time
Dale was made prisoner, but was exchanged in November, 1781. No
new service in the regular navy offering, Dale obtained a furlough
and joined a large letter-of-marque called the _Queen of France_,
that carried twelve guns, as her first officer. Soon after he was
appointed to the command of her and, in company with several other
letters-of-marque, sailed for France, making many captures by the
way. Dale's ship, however, parted from the fleet, and, falling in
with an English privateer of fourteen guns, a severe engagement
followed, in which both parties were much cut up, and they parted by
mutual consent.[19]
[Footnote 19: See Life of Richard Dale, by J. Fenimore Cooper,
Philadelphia, 1846, Vol. II, p. 257.]
Upon the termination of hostilities, in common with most of the
officers of the navy, Dale was "disbanded," and engaged in the East
India trade until 1792, when he was restored to the navy as captain
in the reorganized marine.
It was probably during this period that our log-book passed into the
possession of Jones, who was urging his claims for rank and prize
money before Congress.[20] Failing to obtain what he termed "proper
consideration," after a cruise with the French fleet Jones was
commissioned as agent to look after the prizes made on his cruises
in European waters and sailed for France November 10, 1783, in the
_Washington_, late _General Monk_, the ship captured by Barney in the
_Hyder-Ally_ and then commanded by Barney. Jones left in the care
of a Mr. Hyslop of New York a portion of his papers, being the same
which later turned up in the keeping of the baker in New York, and
upon which Sherburne based his life of Jones, and from him the logs
of the _Ranger_ and _Bon Homme Richard_ appear to have been purchased
in 1824 by Captain Boyd, before alluded to. But Jones took with him
those papers which he deemed most important to the discharge of his
mission to France, not the least of which was the book containing
the muster-roll of the _Bon Homme Richard_, which probably was the
only authentic and official list then in existence, and indispensable
to the proceedings in the French prize courts.
[Footnote 20: For an account of Jones' efforts before Congress to
obtain higher rank on the navy list, see letter from Captain James
Nicholson to Captain John Barry, Appendix B.]
The papers and property of Jones, upon his death in Paris in 1792,
passed to his sister Mrs. Taylor, and upon them as a base followed
the Edinburgh "Life of Jones," also that by Sands--by all conceded to
be the best of the numerous biographies of Jones--while Sherburne's
book, published in 1825, is properly criticized as a chaotic
compilation, creating inextricable confusion in the mind of a reader.
There has always been some difficulty in finding a correct
muster-roll of the _Bon Homme Richard_.[21] The list published by
Sherburne he states is made from "official sources," and is shown
by the correspondence on the subject to have been made from "a
certified copy of a copy." This is undoubtedly the document now in
the Congressional Library, being a copy, written by a Frenchman,
of the muster-roll filed by Jones in the French prize courts and
certified to by him as correct. As this list corresponds with great
exactness to the muster-roll of the officers and crew of the _Bon
Homme Richard_, making due allowances for desertions, men sent away
in prizes, and possibly new enlistments, it seems evident that the
original basis of the lists was that contained in the log-book. The
names of the French volunteers and marines were not entered in the
muster-roll, but were probably ascertained by Jones in France, and
added to the copy filed by him.
[Footnote 21: See correspondence on the subject of the muster-roll
and prize money, Sherburne's Life of Jones, New York, 1851, pp. 266,
364, 365, 366.]
The editor has alluded to the fact that the logs of the _Serapis_,
_Alliance_, and _Ariel_, as well as the list of the officers and crew
of the _Ariel_, are all written by the same hand. The penmanship
is remarkably good, the orthography correct, showing the writer to
have had some pretensions to scholarship and clerical ability, much
more than that shown by either Dale or Lunt. It had been conjectured
that the writer was Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning, who served under
an appointment by Jones on the _Richard_, _Serapis_, _Alliance_,
and _Ariel_. He it was who, stationed in the maintop, threw, or
caused to be thrown, the bomb which, exploding on the gun-deck of the
_Serapis_, created such havoc as to have been largely instrumental in
bringing the action to a close.
Fanning has left a narrative of his life, in which he claims to have
been Jones' private secretary, and to have had close and intimate
relations with him. He also refers to the journal kept by him, and
the dates of the occurrences, as stated at length in his narrative,
correspond with some accuracy with the same events as recorded in the
several logs.[22] The journal of the _Ariel_ ceases when Fanning left
the _Ariel_, probably because of the slight misunderstanding recorded
in the _Ariel's_ log on the 2d of September, an occurrence which
sufficiently accounts for Fanning's severe criticisms of Jones, given
in his narrative, with frequent allusions to his ungovernable temper.
[Footnote 22: Narrative of the Adventures of an American Navy Officer
who served during part of the American Revolution under the Command
of Com. John Paul Jones, New York, Printed for the author, 1806.]
Another reason for the conjecture arose from the fact that the name
of Nathaniel Fanning, as well as that of Beaumont Groube, both in the
muster-roll of the _Richard_ and the _Ariel_, are in the unmistakable
handwriting of the penman of the logs. As opposed to the conjecture,
however, the name of Nathaniel Fanning is spelled Fenning in the
_Richard's_ list, while in that of the _Ariel_ it is correctly
spelled.
This caused the editor to make further investigations, as it was
apparent that if Fanning was not, possibly Midshipman Groube was, the
writer of the logs, particularly as he had been considered competent
to act as judge-advocate of a number of courts martial, and,
inferentially, was a better scholar than other officers under Jones'
command.
Availing himself of the cordial assistance of Mr. Putnam, the
Librarian of Congress, and Mr. Hunt, chief of the Manuscripts
Division, the editor procured a facsimile of a long letter written
by Beaumont Groube to Captain Bell, commanding the privateer
_Luzerne_, then at L'Orient, dated May 3, 1780, when both Groube and
Fanning were attached to the _Alliance_, asking his good offices in
accommodating a quarrel with Lieutenant Degge, one of the officers
then on the _Alliance_.
Upon comparison of the penmanship of this letter with that of the
logs, it was established, beyond any possible doubt, that Midshipman
Groube was the scribe of all three logs, the handwriting being
identical.[23]
[Footnote 23: For facsimiles of a page in the _Serapis'_ journal, and
letter of Midshipman Beaumont Groube, see pp. xxxvi-xxxviii.]
There is a certain amount of interest attached to Midshipman Groube,
growing out of the fact that there are a great many contemporaneous
prints which represent Jones in the act of shooting a Lieutenant
Grubb for attempting to haul down the colors of the _Richard_. As
there was no Lieutenant Grubb in the ship, Groube has been made, by
writers of numerous chap-books, the victim of this act of Jones.
These chap-books are mainly fabrications of their authors and
engravers, and may properly be called the "dime novels" of the period.
Groube probably returned to the United States with Jones in the
_Ariel_, although he discontinued keeping the log on the 14th of
October, 1780. He seems to have disappeared, as no further trace
of him can be found, nor is there any account of his previous
life. It is evident, however, that he was a young man of good
education, as shown by his handwriting and correct spelling--unusual
accomplishments of the sailors of that period--as well as from his
selection as judge-advocate of the many courts martial held on the
officers and men of the _Richard_[24] when that ship was fitting for
sea at L'Orient.
[Footnote 24: Calendar of Jones Manuscripts, in Library of Congress,
pp. 98, 99.]
The editor would call attention to the fact that, although the
greater part of Jones' voluminous correspondence is now deposited
in the Library of Congress, Mrs. Taylor, or her daughter Jeanette
Taylor, parted with many interesting documents, and there are also
to be found in the hands of individuals many others which have never
been published. Besides the log-books here printed--as well
as the log-books of the _Ranger_ and _Bon Homme Richard_ heretofore
referred to--Miss Taylor informed Mr. Cooper that she had given
Jones' original commission as lieutenant, dated August 8, 1776,
to some one in Scotland as an autograph of President Hancock. The
original certificate of Hancock, appointing him to the command of the
_Providence_, is in the editor's collection, while his commission,
dated October 10, 1776, of which Sherburne in his edition of 1851
prints a facsimile, is now in private hands.
On the following four pages are reproduced for the
purpose of a comparison of the handwriting facsimiles
of the first page of the _Serapis'_ log, and opposite
it a page from a letter by Beaumont Groube. On the two
subsequent pages are the continuation of the letter
and a page from the ship's muster-roll. Almost at a
glance it can be seen that the two signatures were
written by the same hand and that the writing in
the log and that in the letter are identical as to
penmanship.
[Illustration: Facsimiles of the first page.]
Miss Taylor also presented to a relative the original certificate
of Jones' membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, signed by
Washington, dated October 31, 1785, which is now owned by Colonel
N. Arnott of Edinburgh, a descendant of the Paul family.[25]
The original commission of Jones authorizing him to arrange the
difficulties with the Barbary powers is in the remarkable collection
of Mr. Grenville Kane, of New York. Eighteen autograph letters from
and to Jones are now offered for sale by a London dealer for the
modest sum of $5,000; these evidently escaped from the Taylor family.
[Footnote 25: See Notes on a Wax Medallion, and Relative Letter, of
Paul Jones, by Francis Caird Inglis, F.S.A. Scot., 1906, p. 18.]
The editor has deemed it not uninteresting, although not immediately
connected with the principal object of this publication, to refer to
the dispersion of Jones' letters and public documents, and to print
in the Appendix an interesting letter to Commodore Esek Hopkins,[26]
also a letter from Captain James Nicholson to Commodore John Barry
relating to Jones' efforts before Congress to be placed at the
head of the navy, both of which are in the editor's collection of
manuscripts. In the Appendix will also be found a copy of a letter
of Jones, addressed to John Wendell--which as a composition may
be considered as one of the most remarkable of all his epistolary
effusions. The original letter is now in the possession of the
Wendell family. None of these letters have ever been published.[27]
[Footnote 26: See Appendix C.]
[Footnote 27: See Appendix D.]
In concluding this preamble to the logs, it will be noted that the
editor has supplemented the ship's stories by drawing largely upon
the accounts of the events, barely touched upon in the remarks to
be found in the numerous biographies of John Paul Jones, and upon
the papers relating to his career now deposited in the Congressional
Library. This has been done because it was possible that, as the
biographies are out of print and rather scarce, they might not be
readily available to many of the readers.
The first authentic "Life of Jones," throwing aside the numerous
so-called chap-books, was that of André, published in French in
Paris, 1798, translated and republished in "Niles' Register" for
the year 1812. Following the discovery of Jones' letters, Sherburne
produced his first edition in 1825. The manuscript of this first
edition he sent also to John Murray in London, who caused it to be
edited by Disraeli, later the Earl of Beaconsfield, and published the
book in the same year, 1825.[28] The preface of this book, according
to the editor of the "Life of Disraeli," was the earliest appearance
of Disraeli as an author. Sherburne was aware of the existence of
the papers in the possession of the Taylor family, and endeavored to
obtain them; but his request was refused, as they were already in the
hands of the author of the Edinburgh "Life of Jones," published in
1830.
[Footnote 28: The Life of Paul Jones, from original documents in the
possession of John Henry Sherburne esq., Register of the Navy of
the United States. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, MDCCCXXV.
Also, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, by William
Flavelle Monypenny, New York, 1910, pp. 60-61.]
Then followed the "Life of Jones" by Robert C. Sands, from the
original letters and manuscripts in the possession of Miss Jeanette
Taylor--New York, 1830. Mackenzie's "Life," in 1845, and Cooper's
"Life," in 1846--both based upon Sands and Sherburne--contain but
few additional matters of interest. Sherburne's "Life," published in
1825, was so freely criticized that a second edition, corrected and
enlarged, was published in 1851.
Several other lives of Paul Jones, simply reproductions of the
foregoing, with illustrations, and in cheaper popular form, have also
appeared, worthy of place only in a bibliography. Later we have the
"Life" by Buell, which, although he calls it a history, is simply a
pleasing, popular romance.
The history of the logs here reproduced may be thought somewhat
obscure, being founded upon some conjectures, deductions, and
probabilities, as well as absolute facts. The editor purchased the
log-book at the sale of the library of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, of New
York, in 1889, it being item No. 2760 in the catalogue prepared by
Mr. J. O. Wright. Mr. Wright states that Mr. Barlow acquired the book
through Mr. Harrisse or Mr. Stevens, of London, some time previous to
1869.
The portrait facing the title-page has been selected from the
numerous engraved portraits of Jones as not only the best authentic
likeness taken from life, excepting perhaps the bust by Houdon, but
the earliest in point of execution, having been drawn by a celebrated
artist, Moreau le Jeune, in May, 1780, when Jones was in command of
the _Alliance_, at L'Orient.
The portrait by Charles W. Peale, now in Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, was executed seven years later, and has been
reproduced many times. A comparison of the two with the Houdon
bust demonstrates at once that the Moreau le Jeune portrait is by
far the more faithful likeness, and of a greater personality than
Peale's painting, with which we are more familiar. The great number
of engraved contemporaneous so-called portraits of Jones attest the
interest attached to his career in Europe. Many of them are purely
imaginative, and exist in all forms of engraving from the grand folio
mezzotint to the absurd caricature, and have formed the special
object of pursuit by many collectors of Americana, with the result
of extraordinary values for the rare ones, including the one here
reproduced.
The most remarkable collection of Jones' portraits, and pictures
relating to Jones' career, is that of Mr. Grenville Kane, of New York.
The picture of the engagement is a rare print, and has been selected
instead of the more familiar one taken from the painting by Richard
Paton.
The original painting by Paton is owned by the heirs of Lord Amherst,
whose ancestral estate included Flamborough Head, off which the
famous battle was fought. It has recently been offered for sale for
the sum of £3000.
In concluding this introduction to the logs, it has been the editor's
purpose to avoid repeating the incidents of Jones' life related in
his numerous biographies or quoting literally from his voluminous
correspondence, but he has referred to them only in so far as they
seemed to be connected in some measure with the log stories. The
letters given in the Appendix have been copied from the originals and
have never before been printed, while the extracts from Fanning's
narrative are taken from a book of which very few copies are in
existence.
A reprint of this narrative has been contemplated by the executive
committee as one of the future publications of the Society, it being
the only known autobiography of a man and officer who served under
Jones in European waters.
It remains for the editor to express his acknowledgments to Mr.
Robert W. Neeser, the secretary of the Society, for his very able
assistance in the preparation of this volume for the press, in
correcting and revising the proof-sheets, and in verifying the
references.
To Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of the Congressional Library, and
his able assistants Mr. Gaillard Hunt and Mr. J. C. Fitzpatrick, the
editor's thanks are due for their interest and assistance, as well as
to Mr. Charles W. Stewart, the Librarian of the Navy Department.
The absence of Rear-admiral Goodrich, at whose instance the Naval
History Society was organized, this publication undertaken, and
whose coöperation was expected, has contributed to the delay in the
publication, for which the editor begs the indulgence of the members
of the Society.
[Illustration: _Print Published in London, First of December, 1781_
_By John Harris, Sweetings Alley, Cornhill._
"_To the Merchants trading to Russia, this Print representing the
gallant Defence of Capt.n Pearson in his Majesty's Ship Serapis,
and the Countess of Scarborough Arm'd Ship Capt.n Piercy, against
Paul Jones's Squadron, whereby a valuable Fleet from the Baltic were
prevented from falling into the hands of the Enemy, is with the
greatest respect Inscribed by their Humble Servant._
_John Harris._"]
[Illustration: Ship.]