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The Riverside Biographical Series
NUMBER 12
PAUL JONES
BY
HUTCHINS HAPGOOD
* * * * *
The Riverside Biographical Series
1. ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN.
2. JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW.
3. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE.
4. PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND.
5. THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN.
6. WILLIAM PENN, by GEORGE HODGES.
7. GENERAL GRANT, by WALTER ALLEN.
8. LEWIS AND CLARK, by WILLIAM R. LIGHTON.
9. JOHN MARSHALL, by JAMES B. THAYER.
10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by CHAS. A. CONANT.
11. WASHINGTON IRVING, by H. W. BOYNTON.
12. PAUL JONES, by HUTCHINS HAPGOOD.
13. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by W. G. BROWN.
14. SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by H. D. SEDGWICK, Jr.
15. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, by HORACE E. SCUDDER.
Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure
portrait, vols. 1-9, 75 cents; other subsequent
vols., each 65 cents, _net_; _School Edition_,
each, 50 cents, _net_.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Paul Jones [signature]]
* * * * *
PAUL JONES
BY
HUTCHINS HAPGOOD
[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1901
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HUTCHINS HAPGOOD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published November, 1901_
PREFACE
The amount of material bearing on Paul Jones is very large, and consists
mainly of his extensive correspondence, published and unpublished, his
journals, memoirs by his private secretary and several of his officers,
published and unpublished impressions by his contemporaries, and a
number of sketches and biographies, some of which contain rich
collections of his letters and extracts from his journals. The
biographies which I have found most useful are the "Life," by John Henry
Sherburne, published in 1825, which is mainly a collection of Jones's
correspondence; another volume, composed largely of extracts from his
letters and journals, called the "Janette-Taylor Collection," published
in 1830; the first and only extended narrative at once readable and
impartial, by Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, published in 1845; and the
recently published "Life" by Augustus C. Buell. To Mr. Buell's
exhaustive work I am indebted for considerable original material not
otherwise accessible to me. On the basis of the foregoing mass of
material I have attempted, in a short sketch, to give merely an unbiased
account of the man.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. EARLY VOYAGES 1
II. CRUISES OF THE PROVIDENCE AND THE ALFRED 17
III. THE CRUISE OF THE RANGER 30
IV. EFFORTS IN FRANCE TO SECURE A COMMAND 44
V. THE FIGHT WITH THE SERAPIS 56
VI. DIPLOMACY AT THE TEXEL 70
VII. SOCIETY IN PARIS 80
VIII. PRIVATE AMBITION AND PUBLIC BUSINESS 91
IX. IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE 108
X. LAST DAYS 118
_The portrait is from the original by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall_
PAUL JONES
I
EARLY VOYAGES
John Paul, known as Paul Jones, who sought restlessly for distinction
all his life, was born the son of a peasant, in July, 1747, near the
ocean on which he was to spend a large portion of his time. His father
lived in Scotland, near the fishing hamlet of Arbigland, county of
Kirkcudbright, on the north shore of Solway Firth, and made a living for
the family of seven children by fishing and gardening. The mother,
Jeanne Macduff, was the daughter of a Highlander, and in Paul Jones's
blood the Scotch canniness and caution of his Lowland father was united
with the wild love of physical action native to his mother's race.
Little is known of the early life of the fifth and famous child of the
Scotch gardener. He went to the parish school, but not for long, for the
sea called him at an early age. When he was twelve years old he could
handle his fishing-boat like a veteran. His skill and daring were the
talk of the village. One day James Younger, a ship-owning merchant from
Whitehaven, then a principal seaport on the neighboring coast of
England, visited Arbigland, in search of seamen for one of his vessels.
It happened on that day that Paul Jones was out in his yawl when a
severe squall arose. Mr. Younger and the villagers watched the boy bring
his small sailing-boat straight against the northeaster into the harbor;
and Mr. Younger expressed his surprise to Paul's father, who remarked:
"That's my boy conning the boat, Mr. Younger. This isn't much of a
squall for him." The result was that Mr. Younger took Paul back with him
to Whitehaven, bound shipmaster's apprentice. A little while after that,
Paul Jones made his first of a series of merchant-ship voyages to the
colonies and the West Indies. He continued in Mr. Younger's employ for
four years; when he was seventeen he made a round voyage to America as
second mate, and was first mate a year later.
Paul left Mr. Younger's service in 1766 and acquired a sixth interest in
a ship called King George's Packet, in which he went, as first mate, to
the West Indies. The business instinct, always strong in him, received
some satisfaction during this voyage by the transportation of blacks
from Africa to Jamaica, where they were sold as slaves. The slave-trade
was not regarded at that time as dishonorable, but Jones's eagerness to
engage in "any private enterprise"--a phrase constantly used by him--was
not accompanied by any keen moral sensitiveness. He was always in
pursuit of private gain or immediate or posthumous honor, and his grand
sentiments, of which he had many, were largely histrionic in type. After
one more voyage he gave up the slave-trading business, probably because
he realized that no real advancement lay in that line.
On the John O'Gaunt, in which Jones shipped for England, after leaving
Jamaica, the captain, mate, and all but five of the crew died of yellow
fever, and the ship was taken by Paul into Whitehaven. For this he
received a share in the cargo, and in 1768, when he was twenty-one years
old, the owners of the John (a merchantman sailing from the same port)
gave him command, and in her he made several voyages to America. Life on
a merchantman is rough enough to-day, and was still rougher at that
time. To maintain discipline at sea requires a strong hand and a not too
gentle tongue, and Jones was fully equipped in these necessaries. During
the third voyage of the John, when fever had greatly reduced the crew,
Mungo Maxwell, a Jamaica mulatto, became mutinous, and Jones knocked him
down with a belaying pin. Jones satisfactorily cleared himself of the
resulting charge of murder, and gave, during the trial, one of the
earliest evidences of his power to express himself almost as clearly and
strongly in speech as in action.
Up to this time in Paul's career there are two facts which stand out
definitely: one, that his rough life, in association with common seamen
from the time that he was twelve years old, and his lack of previous
education, made difficult his becoming what he ardently desired to
be,--a cultivated gentleman. Stories told of his impulsive roughness in
later life, such as the quaint ones of how he used to kick his
lieutenants and then invite them to dinner, are probable enough. It is
even more clear, however, that in some way he had educated himself, not
only in seamanship and navigation, but also in naval history and in the
French and Spanish languages, to a considerable degree. On a voyage his
habit was to study late at night, and on shore, instead of carousing
with his associates, to hunt out the most distinguished person he could
find, or otherwise to improve his condition. His passion for acquisition
was enormous, but his early education was so deficient that his
handwriting always remained that of a schoolboy. He dictated many of his
innumerable letters, particularly those in French, which language he
spoke incorrectly but fluently.
It was during Paul's last voyage as captain of a merchantman that the
event took place which determined him to change his name and to live in
America. Several years previously his brother, who had been adopted by a
Virginia planter named Jones, had come at the death of the latter into
possession of the property, and Captain Paul was named as next in
succession. In 1773, when the captain reached the Rappahannock during
his final merchant voyage, he found his brother dying, and, in
accordance with the terms of old Jones's will, he took the name by which
he is famous and became the owner of the plantation. He consequently
gave up his sea life and settled down to "calm contemplation and poetic
ease," as he expressed it at a later period.
But Jones was very far from being contemplative, although he certainly
was rather fond of inflated poetry, and even as a planter, surrounded by
his acres and his slaves, there is no evidence that he led a lazy life.
He seems to have been partly occupied in continuing the important
acquaintances he had made at the intervals between his voyages and in
watching the progress of events leading to war with England. Jones was
given to gallantry, and while on the plantation he carried on the social
affairs which he afterwards continued, as recognized hero and chevalier
of France, on a magnificent scale. He resisted, as he did all through
his life, any benevolent efforts on the part of the colonial dames to
marry him off, and as the war grew nearer his activity in promoting it
grew greater. He made frequent visits to his patriot friends, met,
besides Joseph Hewes, whom he had already known, Thomas Jefferson,
Philip Livingston, Colonel Washington and the Lees, and was later, if
not at this time, in an intimate official relation with Robert and
Gouverneur Morris. In Jones's intercourse with these men he showed
himself one of the most fiery of Whigs. In a letter to Joseph Hewes
written in 1774, he tells how a British officer made a remark reflecting
on the virtue of colonial women. "I at once knocked Mr. Parker down,"
he adds, in a style that suggests the straightforward character of his
official reports.
Although dueling was at that time the conventional method of settling
affairs of that nature, no personal encounter resulted between Jones and
Mr. Parker. Jones, indeed, did not seem averse to such an issue, for he
sent a friend to propose pistols, with which he was a crack shot. It is
nevertheless a striking fact that Paul Jones, the desperate fighter, who
was certainly as brave as any one, and was often placed in favorable
situations for such settlements, never fought a duel. Add to this that
his temper was quick and passionate, and that he had to the full the
high-flown sentiments of honor of the time, and the fact seems all the
more remarkable. The truth is that Jones was as cautious as he was
brave. He acted sometimes impulsively, but reflection quickly came, and
he never manifested a dare-devil desire to put his life unnecessarily in
danger. When there was anything to be gained by exposing his person, he
did it with the utmost coolness, but he consistently refused to put
himself at a disadvantage. When, on at least one occasion, he was
challenged to fight with swords, with which he was only moderately
skillful, he demanded pistols. Fame was Jones's end, and he knew that
premature death was inconsistent with that consummation.
Although Jones was, at the time, in financial difficulties, he no doubt
welcomed the outbreak of the war. Service in the cause of the colonies
could not be remunerative, and Jones knew it. A privateering command
would have paid better than a regular commission, but Jones constantly
refused such an appointment; and yet he has been called buccaneer and
pirate by many who have written about him, including as recent writers
as Rudyard Kipling, John Morley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Nor is it
likely that a feeling of patriotism led Jones to serve the colonies
against his native land. The reason lay in his overpowering desire of
action. He saw in the service of the colonies an opportunity to employ
his energies on a larger and more glorious scale than in any other way.
Service in the British navy in an important capacity was impossible for
a man with no family or position. Jones accordingly went in for the
highest prize within his reach, and with the instinct of the true
sportsman served well the side he had for the time espoused.
Soon after the battle of Lexington Jones wrote a letter to Joseph Hewes,
sending copies to Jefferson, Robert Morris, and Livingston. "I cannot
conceive of submission to complete slavery. Therefore only war is in
sight.... I beg you to keep my name in your memory when the Congress
shall assemble again, and ... to call upon me in any capacity which your
knowledge of my seafaring experience and your opinion of my
qualifications may dictate." Soon after Congress met, a Marine
Committee, Robert Morris, chairman, was appointed, and Jones was
requested to report on the "proper qualifications of naval officers and
the kind of armed vessels most desirable for the service of the United
States, keeping in view the limited resources of the Congress." He was
also asked to serve on a committee to report upon the availability of
the vessels at the disposal of Congress. Jones was practically the head
of this committee, and showed the utmost industry and efficiency in
selecting, arming, and preparing for sea the unimportant vessels within
the disposition of the government.
At the beginning of the war there was no American navy. Some of the
colonies had, indeed, fitted out merchant vessels with armaments, to
resist the aggressions of the British on their coasts, and in several
instances the cruisers of the enemy had been captured while in port by
armed citizens. The colonial government had empowered Washington, as
commander in chief, to commission some of these improvised war vessels
of the colonies to attack, in the service of the "continent," the
transports and small cruisers of the British, in order to secure powder
for the Continental army. It was not, however, until October of 1775
that the first official attempt towards the formation of a continental,
as opposed to a colonial, navy, was made. The large merchant marine put
at the disposal of the new government many excellent seamen and skippers
and a good number of ships, few of them, however, adapted for war. To
build regular warships on a large scale was impossible for a nation so
badly in need of funds. It was almost equally difficult to secure
officers trained in naval matters, for the marine captains, although as
a rule good seamen, were utterly lacking in naval knowledge and the
principles of organization.
In this state of affairs Paul Jones proved a very useful man. He was not
only a thorough seaman, but had studied the art of naval warfare, was in
some respects ahead of his time in his ideas of armament, and was
familiar with the organization and history of the British navy. In the
early development of our navy he played, therefore, an important part,
not only in equipping and arming ships for immediate service, and in
determining upon the most effective and practicable kind of vessels to
be built, but also in laying before the committee a statement of the
necessary requirements for naval officers.
To the request of Congress for reports, Jones answered with two
remarkable documents. One was a long, logical argument in favor of swift
frigates of a certain size, rather than ships of the line, and showed
thorough knowledge, not only of naval construction and cost of building,
but also of the general international situation, and the best method of
conducting the war on the sea. On the latter point he wrote: "Keeping
such a squadron in British waters, alarming their coasts, intercepting
their trade, and descending now and then upon their least protected
ports, is the only way that we, with our slender resources, can sensibly
affect our enemy by sea-warfare." This is an exact outline of the policy
which Jones and other United States captains actually carried out.
Jones also made the statement, wonderfully foreshadowing his own
exploits and their effect, that, "the capture ... of one or two of
their crack frigates would raise us more in the estimation of Europe,
where we now most of all need countenance, than could the defeat or even
capture of one of their armies on the land here in America. And at the
same time it would fill all England with dismay. If we show to the world
that we can beat them afloat with an equal force, ship to ship, it will
be more than anyone else has been able to do in modern times, and it
will create a great and most desirable sentiment of respect and favor
towards us on the continent of Europe, where really, I think, the
question of our fate must ultimately be determined.
"Beyond this, if by exceedingly desperate fighting, one of our ships
shall conquer one of theirs of markedly superior force, we shall be
hailed as the pioneers of a new power on the sea, with untold prospects
of development, and the prestige if not the substance of English
dominion over the ocean will be forever broken. Happy, indeed, will be
the lot of the American captain upon whom fortune shall confer the
honor of fighting that battle!"
Jones was that happy captain, for both the events mentioned as highly
desirable he brought to pass.
In the report on the qualifications of naval officers Jones showed
himself to be quite abreast of our own times in the philosophy of naval
organization, and, moreover, possessed of a pen quite capable of
expressing, always with clearness and dignity and sometimes with
elegance, the full maturity of his thought. George Washington, one of
whose great qualities was the power to know men, read this report of
Jones and said: "Mr. Jones is clearly not only a master mariner within
the scope of the art of navigation, but he also holds a strong and
profound sense of the political and military weight of command on the
sea. His powers of usefulness are great and must be constantly kept in
view."
Jones was appointed first lieutenant in the navy on the 22d of December,
1775. He was sixth on the list of appointees, the other five being made
captains. Subsequent events showed that Jones would have been the best
man for the first place. He thought so himself, but hastened on board
his ship to serve as lieutenant, and was the first man who ever hoisted
the American flag on a man-of-war,--a spectacular trifle that gave him
much pleasure.
II
CRUISES OF THE PROVIDENCE AND THE ALFRED
The infant squadron of the United States, under the command of Ezek
Hopkins, consisting of the Alfred, of which Jones was the first
lieutenant, the Columbus, the Andria Doria, and the Cabot, sailed in
February, 1776, against Fort Nassau, New Providence Island, in the
Bahamas. The only vessel of any force in the squadron was the Alfred, an
East Indiaman, which Jones had armed with twenty-four nine-pounders on
the gun-deck, and six six-pounders on the quarter-deck. The only officer
in the fleet who, with the exception of Jones, ever showed any ability
was Nicholas Biddle of the Doria. The expedition, consequently, was
sufficiently inglorious. A barren descent was made on New Providence
Island, and later the fleet was engaged with the British sloop of war
Glasgow, which, in spite of the odds against her, seems to have had the
best of the encounter. Jones was stationed between decks to command the
Alfred's first battery, which he trained on the enemy with his usual
efficiency. He says in his journal what was evidently true: "Mr. Jones,
therefore, did his duty; and as he had no direction whatever, either of
the general disposition of the squadron, or the sails and helm of the
Alfred, he can stand charged with no part of the disgrace of that
night."
A number of courts-martial resulted from this inept affair and from
other initial mistakes. Captain Hazard of the Providence, a sloop of war
of fourteen guns and 103 men, was dismissed from the service, and Jones
was put in command of the ship. "This proves," said Jones, "that Mr.
Jones did his duty on the Providence expedition."
Jones continued to do his duty by making a number of energetic descents
on the enemy's shipping. His method was to hunt out the merchant vessels
in harbor, whence they could not escape, rather than to search for them
on the open sea. In June, 1776, he cruised in the Providence from
Bermuda to the Banks of Newfoundland, a region infested with the war
vessels of the British, captured sixteen vessels, made an attack on
Canso, Nova Scotia, thereby releasing several American prisoners, burned
three vessels belonging to the Cape Breton fishery, and in a descent on
the Isle of Madame destroyed several fishing smacks. He twice escaped,
through superior seamanship, from heavy English frigates. One of these
strong frigates, the Milford, continued to fire from a great distance,
after the little Providence was out of danger. Of this Jones wrote: "He
excited my contempt so much, by his continued firing, at more than twice
the proper distance, that when he rounded to, to give his broadside, I
ordered my marine officer to return the salute with only a single
musket."
While Jones was on this cruise his plantation was ravaged by the
British--buildings burned, live stock destroyed, and slaves carried off.
He was dependent upon the income from this estate, having drawn up to
that time only L50 from the government, not for pay, but for the expense
of enlisting seamen. On his return to port he wrote to Mr. Hewes: "It
thus appears that I have no fortune left but my sword, and no prospect
except that of getting alongside the enemy."
It was during the same cruise that Jones, by the act of Congress of
October 10, 1776, was made captain in the United States navy, an
appointment that brought him more bitterness of spirit than pleasure,
for he was only number eighteen in the list of appointees. This was an
injustice which Jones never forgot, and to which he referred at
intervals all through his life. He thought he ought to have been not
lower than sixth in rank, because, by the law of the previous year,
there were only five captains ahead of him. In the mean time, too, he
had done good service, while the new captains ranking above him were
untried. It was no doubt an instance of political influence outweighing
practical service, and Jones was entitled to feel aggrieved,--a
privilege he was not likely to forego. Rank was to him a passion, not
merely because it would enable him to be more effective, but for its own
sake. He liked all the signs of display,--busts, epaulets, medals, marks
of honor of all kinds. "How near to the heart," he wrote, "of every
military officer is rank, which opens the door to glory!"
In regard to this appointment he wrote Thomas Jefferson a bitter and
sarcastic letter. He attributed the injustice to the desire of John
Adams to create captains from among the "respectable skippers" of New
England. "If their fate," he wrote, "shall be like that of his share in
the first five captains last year, I can only say that Mr. Adams has
probably provided for a greater number of courts-martial than of naval
victories! You are well aware, honored sir, that I have no family
connections at my back, but rest my case wholly on what I do. As I
survey the list of twelve captains who have been newly jumped over me by
the act of October 10th, I cannot help seeing that all but three are
persons of high family connection in the bailiwick of Mr. Adams!"
He wrote, at this time and later, many vehement letters about these
"skippers." To Joseph Hewes: "There are characters among the thirteen on
the list who are truly contemptible--with such, as a private gentleman,
I would disdain to sit down--I would disdain to be acquainted.... Until
they give proof of their superior ability, I never shall acknowledge
them as my senior officers--I never will act under their command." He
wrote to Robert Morris: " ... Nor will I ever draw my sword under the
command of any man who was not in the service as early as myself, unless
he hath merited a preference by his superior services or abilities." In
these and similar remarks, Jones did not show that sense of absolute
subordination which he had said, in his report on the qualifications of
naval officers, was of prime importance, and which he strenuously
demanded from his inferiors in rank. He was always jealous of any
superior in his own line, but, fortunately, after his first cruise, he
was always the ranking officer on his ship.
Jones protested, however, without avail, but on the 4th of November,
1776, he was put in command of the Alfred, and with the Providence in
company made a cruise of about a month, captured seven merchant ships of
the enemy, several of them carrying valuable supplies to the army, and
again cleverly avoided the superior British frigates. Complaining of the
action of the Providence, "which gave him the slip in the night," as he
put it, Jones wrote Hewes: "If such doings are permitted, the navy will
never rise above contempt!... the aforesaid noble captain doth not
understand the first case of plain Trigonometry." On the subject of the
navy he wrote Robert Morris, at a later period: "The navy is in a
wretched condition. It wants a man of ability at its head who could
bring on a purgation, and distinguish between the abilities of a
gentleman and those of a mere sailor or boatswain's mate." In still
another letter: "If my feeble voice is heard when I return to
Philadelphia, our navy matters will assume a better face." Again, as
late as 1782, he wrote Captain O'Neill: "I am altogether in the dark
about what has been done to reestablish the credit of our marine. In the
course of near seven years' service I have continually suggested what
has occurred to me as most likely to promote its honor and render it
serviceable; but my voice has been like a cry in the wilderness."
After his return from the cruise in the Alfred, Jones served on the
Board of Advice to the Marine Committee, and was very useful in many
ways. He urged strongly the necessity of making a cruise in European
waters for the sake of moral prestige,--he, of course, to be in command
of the squadron. His energy and dashing character made a strong
impression on Lafayette, who was then in the country, and who heartily
supported Jones in the projected scheme. Lafayette was one of the
strongest advocates for an alliance between the colonies and France, and
believed that a fleet fitted out in French ports under the United
States flag would not only help out the weak colonial navy, but would
precipitate war between England and France. He wrote a letter to General
Washington strongly recommending Jones as leader of such an undertaking.
About the same time Jones had an interview with Washington to appeal
against what he deemed another injustice. The Trumbull, one of the fine
new frigates just completed and built in accordance with Jones's
recommendations, was placed under the command of Captain Saltonstall,
who had been captain of the Alfred when Jones was first lieutenant of
the same ship, and against whom the latter had made charges of
incompetence. Jones did not get the Trumbull, but the interview was
probably instrumental in procuring an order from the Marine Committee
for Jones to enlist seamen for a European cruise. On June 14, 1777,
Congress appointed him to the command of the sloop of war Ranger,
eighteen guns, and on the same day the permanent flag of the United
States was determined upon. Jones, as usual, saw his spectacular
opportunity and said: "That flag and I are twins; born the same hour
from the same womb of destiny. We cannot be parted in life or in death.
So long as we can float, we shall float together. If we must sink, we
shall go down as one!"
Jones, with the Ranger, sailed for France under the Stars and Stripes
November 1, 1777, bearing with him dispatches to the American
commissioners, the news of Burgoyne's surrender, and instructions from
the Marine Committee to the commissioners to invest him with a fine
swift-sailing frigate. On his arrival at Nantes he immediately sent to
the commissioners--Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee--a
letter developing his general scheme of annoying the enemy. "It seems to
be our most natural province," he wrote, "to surprise their defenseless
places, and thereby divert their attention and draw it from our own
coasts."
It had been the intention of the commissioners to give Jones the Indien,
a fine strong frigate building secretly at Amsterdam. But this proved to
be one more of Jones's many disappointments, for the British minister
to the Netherlands discovered the destination of the vessel and
protested to the States-General. The result was that the commissioners
were forced to sell the ship to France, to keep her out of the hands of
England, and Jones was compelled to make his invasion in the Ranger.
While proceeding in this little sloop to L'Orient, for the purpose of
fitting her out, he met the great French fleet and demanded and obtained
the first salute ever given the United States flag by the war vessels of
a foreign power. He wrote to the Marine Committee triumphantly: "I am
happy in having it in my power to congratulate you on my having seen the
American flag, for the first time, recognized in the fullest and
completest manner by the flag of France.... It was in fact an
acknowledgment of American independence." As the secret treaty between
France and the United States was signed about that time, it perhaps
needed less than the pertinacity of Paul Jones to extract a salute from
the imperial fleet. Shortly before sailing on his first famous cruise,
the restless man sent Silas Deane a letter proposing a plan of
operations for the French fleet in the coming war with England. The
scheme was for the superior French fleet to attack the English fleet
under Lord Howe, and destroy it or block it up in the Delaware. Jones
said in his journal that the plan, which was adopted, would have
succeeded if it had been put in immediate execution, and complained
because the credit of the scheme had been given to others.
This was only one of the bits of business which the energetic Jones
transacted before he sailed in the Ranger to harass England. He wrote,
as usual, innumerable letters, proposing, condemning, recommending. He
had trouble with an insubordinate first lieutenant. He began, too, his
social career in France. It was then that he met the Duchesse de
Chartres, great-granddaughter of Louis XIV. and mother of Louis
Philippe, who at a later time called Jones the Bayard of the Sea, and
whom Jones at that time promised "to lay an English frigate at her
feet." He kept his word in spirit, for years afterwards he gave her the
sword of Captain Pearson, commander of his famous prize, the Serapis.
III
THE CRUISE OF THE RANGER
Jones started on his cruise in the Ranger April 10, 1778, and, after
taking several unimportant prizes on the way to the Irish Channel,
decided to make a descent upon the town that had served him as
headquarters when he was a merchant sailor, Whitehaven, where he knew
there were about two hundred and fifty merchant ships, which he hoped to
destroy; "to put an end," as he said, "by one good fire, in England, of
shipping, to all the burnings in America."
Owing to contrary winds Jones was unable to make the attack until
midnight of April 22. His daring scheme was, with the small force of
thirty-two men in two small boats, to land in a hostile port, defended
by two forts, surprise the sleeping inhabitants, and burn the ships
before the people could assemble against him. By the time the boats
reached the outer pier, day had dawned and no time was to be lost. The
forts were surprised and taken, the guns spiked by Jones with his own
hand; but while he was thus occupied his officers had failed to fire the
shipping, in accordance with his orders, Lieutenant Wallingford stating
as an excuse that "nothing could be gained by burning poor people's
property." Jones thought otherwise, however; and although the
townspeople were beginning to assemble in consequence of the pistols
that had been fired in capturing the forts, he made fire in the steerage
of a large ship, closely surrounded by many others, and an enormous
conflagration ensued. He stood, pistol in hand, near the burning wreck,
and kept off the constantly increasing crowd until the sun was an hour
high, when he and his men retired to the Ranger, taking away with them
three of the captured soldiers, "as a sample," Jones said, and followed
by the eyes of the gaping multitude of English country folk.
Although the amount of property destroyed by this raid was small, the
importance of it was considerable, and is well stated by Jones himself,
who, if proper allowance is made for the effects of his vanity, is, as a
rule, his own best biographer: "The moral effect of it was very great,"
he writes, "as it taught the English that the fancied security of their
coasts was a myth, and thereby compelled their government to take
expensive measures for the defense of numerous ports hitherto relying
for protection wholly on the vigilance and supposed omnipotence of their
navy. It also doubled or more the rates of insurance, which in the long
run proved the most grievous damage of all."
On the same day Jones made a descent on the estate of the Earl of
Selkirk, near his old home in Kirkcudbright, with the intention of
carrying off the earl as a hostage. But the earl was not at home, and
Jones consented, he says, to let his men, mutinous and greedy, seize the
Selkirk family plate, which Jones put himself at a great deal of trouble
and some expense to restore at a later date. This incident is
interesting chiefly as it was the cause of a letter illustrative of
Jones's character, sent by him to the Countess of Selkirk, who was
present at the time of the raid. After stating in rather inflatedly
polite terms that he could not well restrain his men from the raid,
Jones promised to return the plate, condemned the brutalities of the
English, spoke of the horrors of war, boasted of his victory over the
Drake the evening following the raid, spoke of the English dead and his
chivalrous treatment of them,--"I buried them in a spacious grave, with
the honors due to the memory of the brave,"--and then made the following
rather amusing statements: "Though I have drawn my sword in the present
generous struggle for the rights of men, yet I am not in arms as an
American, nor am I in pursuit of riches. My fortune is liberal enough,
having no wife nor family, and having lived long enough to know that
riches cannot secure happiness. I profess myself a citizen of the world,
totally unfettered by the little mean distinctions of climate or of
country, which diminish the benevolence of the heart and set bounds to
philanthropy. Before this war had begun, I had, at an early time of
life, withdrawn from sea service in favor of 'calm contemplation and
poetic ease.' I have sacrificed not only my favorite scheme of life, but
the softer affections of the heart and my prospects of domestic
happiness, and I am ready to sacrifice my life also with cheerfulness if
that forfeiture could restore peace among mankind.... I hope this cruel
contest will soon be closed; but should it continue, I wage no war with
the fair. I acknowledge their force, and bend before it with
submission."
Jones was probably sincere when he wrote that letter, although it is
full of misstatements. He was not a self-conscious man and did not
analyze his motives very carefully. He always posed, with perfect
sincerity, as a hero, and when he had to do with a distinguished woman
his exalted words exactly expressed, no doubt, his sentiments.
Jones's next exploit was the famous capture of the Drake on April 23.
Previous to the attack on Whitehaven, while off Carrickfergus, he had
conceived the bold project of running into Belfast Loch, where the
British man-of-war Drake, of twenty guns, was at anchor; where he hoped
to overlay the Drake's cable, fall foul of her bow, and thus, with her
decks exposed to the Ranger's musketry, to board. He did, indeed, enter
the harbor at night, but failed after repeated efforts, on account of
the strong wind, to get in a proper position to board. Three days later,
after the Earl of Selkirk affair, Jones was again off Carrickfergus,
looking for the Drake, which, having heard of his devastations from the
alarmed country people, sailed out to punish the invader of the sacred
soil of England. The two sloops of war were very nearly matched, though
the Drake technically rated at twenty guns and the Ranger at eighteen.
When they came within range of one another they hoisted their colors
almost at the same time, but the Drake hailed:--
"What ship is that?"
Jones directed the sailing-master to answer:
"The American Continental ship Ranger. We are waiting for you. Come on.
The sun is now near setting, and it is time to begin."
The Ranger then opened fire with a full broadside. The Drake replied
with the same, and the two ships ran along together at close quarters,
pouring in broadsides for more than an hour, when the enemy called for
quarter. The action had been, as Jones said in his terse official
report, "warm, close, and obstinate." There was little manoeuvring,
just straight fighting, the victory being due, according to Jones, to
the superior gunnery of the Americans. At first Jones's gunners hulled
the Drake, as she rolled, below the water-line, but Jones desired to
take the enemy's ship as a prize, rather than to sink her, and told his
men so.
"The alert fellows," he said in a letter to Joseph Hewes, "instantly
took this hint and began firing as their muzzles rose, by which practice
they soon crippled the Drake's spars and rigging, and made her an
unmanageable log on the water. I am persuaded that if I had not advised
them to this effect, my gunners would have sunk the Drake in an hour! As
it was, we had to put spare sails over the side after she struck, to
keep her afloat, and careen her as much as we could the next day to plug
the holes they had already made between wind and water."
The Drake, indeed, was almost a wreck, while the Ranger was little
injured. Jones lost only two men killed and six wounded, to the enemy's
approximate loss of forty-two killed and wounded. It was the first
battle of the war which resulted in the capture of a regular British
man-of-war by a ship of equal if not inferior force. The Drake belonged
to a regularly established navy, not accustomed to defeat. Perhaps that
fact inspired her commander with overconfidence, but McKenzie's
statement of the cause of the victory is no doubt correct: "The result,"
he said, "was eminently due to the skill and courage of Jones, and his
inflexible resolution to conquer." That resolution, which was indeed a
characteristic of Jones, reached on at least one occasion, that of the
later battle with the Serapis, a degree of inflexibility which amounted
to genius.
The effect of this bold cruise was great. Jones had not, however, been
the only American captain, by any means, to render good service in
destroying the commerce of the enemy and in annoying the British coast.
Before the French alliance more than six hundred British vessels fell a
prey to American cruisers, mainly privateers. There were, likewise,
captains in the regular United States navy who had before this cruise of
Jones's borne the flag to Europe. The first of these was the gallant
Wickes, in the summer of 1777. Though Jones was not the first captain,
therefore, to make a brilliant and destructive cruise in the English
Channel, he was nevertheless the first to inspire terror among the
inhabitants by incursions inshore. The cruise of the little Ranger
showed that the British, when they ravaged the coast of New England,
might expect effective retaliation on their own shores; and the capture
of the Drake inspired France, then about to take arms in support of the
American cause, by the realization of what they themselves had longed to
do--to worst England on the high seas--with increased respect for their
allies. It filled Great Britain with wild, exaggerated, and unjust
condemnation of Paul Jones, who has been looked upon for more than a
hundred years, and is even to-day in England, by sober historians, as a
bloody-handed, desperate buccaneer. The persistent charge, often of late
refuted, hardly needs refutation, in view of the well-authenticated fact
that Jones never served on a war vessel except under a regular
commission. Moreover, he was a man too ambitious and too sensible to
hurt his prospects by being anything so low and undistinguished as a
pirate.
After the battle with the Drake, Jones saw that he would have to bring
the cruise to a close. His crew of 139 men had, through the necessity of
manning the several merchant prizes and the Drake, been reduced to
eighty-six men, and he consequently put into Brest, reluctantly, on the
8th of May, 1778. He was there met by the great French fleet, then
actually at war with England, and he and his prize were admired by
visiting French officers. From that time Jones, hated in England, was a
hero in France, feted whenever he was at the capital, and favored by
fair ladies.
He was a hero, however, with a thorny path all through life. He arrived
at Brest with a miserably clothed, wholly unpaid, discontented, and
partly mutinous crew. During the voyage his first lieutenant, Simpson,
had stirred up dissatisfaction among the men, and had refused to obey
orders, for which Jones had him put in irons. The unpaid men, not
assigning their troubles to the true but unseen cause, the poverty of
the government, easily believed that their captain was responsible for
all their ills. Under no conditions, however, was Jones likely to be
popular with the greater number of his men, for the energetic man was
bent on making them, as well as himself, work for glory to the
uttermost, and the common run of seamen care more for ease and pelf than
for fame. Jones's unpopularity with the crew of the Ranger is attested
by a passage from the diary of Ezra Green, one of Jones's officers, on
the occasion, at a later period, of the Ranger's sailing back to
America: "This day Thomas Simpson, Esq., came on board with orders to
take command of the Ranger; to the joy and satisfaction of the whole
ship's company."
With the impulsive inconsistency which, in spite of his shrewdness,
sometimes marked his conduct, Jones alternately demanded a court-martial
for Simpson and recommended him to the command of the Ranger, he himself
hoping for a more important vessel; it was Jones's own conduct, as much
as any other circumstance, which finally resulted in the sailing away of
the Ranger under the mutinous Simpson. With the frankness customary with
him when not writing to anybody particularly distinguished, Jones wrote
Simpson, at one stage of their quarrel: "The trouble with you, Mr.
Simpson, is that you have the heart of a lion and the head of a sheep."
Even more annoying to the imperious and high-handed Jones than the
trouble with Simpson was the manner in which, on his arrival at Brest,
the commissioners refused to honor his draft for 24,000 livres. He held
a letter of credit authorizing him to draw on the commissioners for
money to defray necessary expenses; but instead of dealing with the
regular American agent at Brest, he placed his order with a Brest
merchant, who, when Jones's draft was returned dishonored, stopped his
supplies. Jones thereupon wrote the commissioners: "I know not where or
how to provide food for to-morrow's dinner to feed the great number of
mouths that depend on me for food. Are then the Continental ships of war
to depend on sale of their prizes for the daily dinner of their men?
Publish it not 'in Gath'!"
He then, without authority, but very possibly forced by the necessities
of his crew, sold one of his prizes, with the money from which he paid
the Brest merchant. Of this act he said: "I could not waste time
discussing questions of authority when my crew and prisoners were
starving."
The point of view of the commissioners is tersely expressed in a letter
from them to the French Minister of Marine, de Sartine, June 15, 1778:
"We think it extremely irregular ... in captains of ships of war to draw
for any sums they please without previous notice and express
permission.... Captain Jones has had of us near a hundred thousand
livres for such purposes [necessaries]."
The frugality of Benjamin Franklin, the most important commissioner, is
well known, and also the financial straits of the country at that time.
That Jones was in a difficult position at Brest is certain, and he
perhaps asked for no more than he needed. But that he was naturally
inclined to extravagant expenditure there can be no doubt,--a fact that
will appear saliently in a later stage of this narrative.
IV
EFFORTS IN FRANCE TO SECURE A COMMAND
War having broken out between England and France, Jones was detained in
Europe, instead of sailing home in the Ranger, through the request of
the French Minister of Marine, de Sartine, who wished an important
command to be assigned to the famous conqueror of the Drake. The
difficulties, however, in the way of doing so were great. The
commissioners had few resources, and one of them, Arthur Lee, was
hostile to Jones. Moreover the French government naturally thought first
of its own officers, of whom there were too many for the available
vessels. Several privateering expeditions were suggested to Jones, which
he quite justly rejected. Several opportunities had also been given him
for small commands, which he had likewise rejected. His manner in doing
so could not exactly be called diplomatic. He wrote M. Chaumont, that
patriotic and benevolent gentleman whom Jones alternately flattered and
reviled, a rather typical letter: "I wish to have no connection with any
ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go _in harm's way_. You
know, I believe, that this is not every one's intention. Therefore buy a
frigate that sails fast, and that is sufficiently large to carry
twenty-six or twenty-eight guns on one deck. I would rather be shot
ashore than sent to sea in such things as the armed prizes I have
described."
The innumerable delays which consequently intervened between his arrival
at Brest, in May, 1778, and his departure on his next cruise a year
later, in June, 1779, put the active Scotchman in a state of constant
irritation. He continued his dunning correspondence with the greatest
energy, alternately cajoling, proposing, complaining, begging to be sent
on some important enterprise. He wrote innumerable letters to de
Sartine, Franklin, the Duc de Rochefoucauld, de Chaumont, and many
others, and finally to the king himself, with whom he afterwards had an
interview. The statement of his wrongs in his letter to the king,
reiterated in letters to many others, involves an account of the many
promises de Sartine had made and broken, and of Jones's various
important proposals for the public good, which had been slighted.
"Thus, sire," he writes, "have I been chained down to shameful
inactivity for nearly five months. I have lost the best season of the
year and such opportunities of serving my country and acquiring honor as
I can hardly expect again in this war; and to my infinite mortification,
having no command, I am considered everywhere an officer cast off and in
disgrace for secret reasons."
Jones's pertinacity and perseverance in working for a command are quite
on a par with his indomitable resolution in battle, and he was finally
rewarded, probably through the king's direct order, by being put in
command of a small squadron, with which he made the cruise resulting in
the capture of the Serapis and in his own fame.