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by cakebossfan on December 7th, 2010

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What kind of achievments did John Paul Jones have?

not the guitiar player, the one in the revolutionary war

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  • by Citlally_R on March 1st, 2011

    Citlally_R

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  • by byankno1 on December 8th, 2010

    byankno1

    3 Revolutionary War command
    3.1 Early command
    Jones' first assignment was aboard the frigate USS Alfred, sailing from the Delaware River in February 1776 to attack British merchant vessels in New Providence. It was aboard this vessel that Jones took the honor of hoisting the first U.S. ensign over a naval vessel. Jones actually raised the Grand Union Flag, not the later and more familiar Flag of the United States. After returning from this successful voyage in April 1776 aboard the Alfred, Jones was assigned command on the USS Providence. Congress had recently ordered the construction of thirteen frigates for the American Navy, one of which was to be commanded by Jones. In exchange for this prestigious command, Jones accepted his commission aboard the smaller Providence. During this six week voyage, Jones captured sixteen prizes and inflicted significant damage along the coast of Nova Scotia. Jones's next command came as a result of Commodore Hopkins's orders to liberate hundreds of American prisoners forced to labor in coal mines in Nova Scotia and also to raid British shipping. On November 1, 1776, Jones set sail in command of Alfred to carry out this mission. While winter conditions prevented the freeing of the prisoners, the mission did result in the capture of the Mellish, a vessel carrying a vital supply of winter clothing intended for John Burgoyne’s troops in Canada.

    3.2 Command of Ranger
    Despite his successes at sea, upon arrival in Boston on December 16, 1776, Jones's disagreements with those in authority reached a new level. While in port, the accomplished commander began feuding with Commodore Hopkins, who Jones believed was hindering his advancement and talking down his campaign plans. As a result of this and other frustrations, Jones was assigned the smaller command, the newly constructed USS Ranger, on June 14, 1777 (the same day the new Stars and Stripes flag was adopted).

    After making the necessary preparations, Jones sailed for France on November 1, 1777 with orders to assist the American cause however possible. The American commissioners in France, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Arthur Lee, listened to Jones' strategic recommendations. They assured him the command of L'Indien, a new vessel being constructed for America in Amsterdam. Britain, however, was able to divert L'Indien away from American hands by exerting pressure to ensure its sale to France instead (who had not yet allied with America). Jones was again left without a command, an unpleasant reminder of his stagnation in Boston from late 1776 until early 1777. It is thought that it was during this time Jones developed his close friendship with Benjamin Franklin, whom he greatly admired. In 1778, he was accepted, together with Benjamin Franklin, into the Masonic Lodge "Les Neuf Sœurs".

    On February 6, 1778, France signed their Treaty of Alliance with America, formally recognizing the independence of the new American republic. Eight days later, Captain Jones' Ranger became the first American Navy vessel to be saluted by the French, with a nine-gun salute fired from Admiral Piquet's flagship. Jones wrote of the event: "I accepted his offer all the more for after all it was a recognition of our independence and in the nation."

    Finally, on April 10, 1778, Jones set sail from Brest, France for the western coasts of Britain.

    3.3 Ranger attacks Britain

    After some early successes against British merchant shipping in the Irish Sea, on April 17, 1778, Jones persuaded his crew to participate in an assault on Whitehaven, the same town where his maritime career began. Jones was thinking in his later memories about the reluctance of his senior officers (having tactfully avoided such matters in his official report): "Their aim, they said, was gain not honor. They were poor: instead of encouraging the morale of the crew, they excited them to disobedience; they persuaded them that they had the right to judge whether a measure that was proposed to them was good or not." As it happened, contrary winds forced the abandonment of the attempt, and drove Ranger towards Ireland, causing more trouble for British shipping on the way.

    On April 20, 1778, Jones learned from captured sailors that the Royal Navy sloop-of-war HMS Drake was anchored off Carrickfergus, Ireland. According to the diary of Ranger's surgeon, Jones's first intention was to attack the vessel in broad daylight, but his sailors were "unwilling to undertake it" (another incident omitted from the official report). Therefore, the attack took place just after midnight, but in the dark (or perhaps because, as Jones claimed in his memoirs, the man was drunk) the mate responsible for dropping the anchor to halt Ranger right alongside Drake misjudged the timing, so Jones had to cut his anchor cable and run.

    The wind having shifted, Ranger recrossed the Irish Sea to make another attempt at raiding Whitehaven. Jones led the assault with two boats of fifteen men on April 23, 1778, just after midnight, hoping to set fire to and sink all Whitehaven’s ships anchored in harbor (numbering between 200 to 400 wooden vessels), which consisted of a full merchant fleet and many coal transporters. They also hoped to terrorize the townspeople by lighting further fires. As it happened, the journey to shore was slowed by the still-shifting wind, as well as a strong ebb tide. The spiking of the town's big defensive guns to prevent them being fired was accomplished successfully, but lighting fires proved difficult, as the lanterns in both boats had run out of fuel. To remedy this, some of the party were therefore sent to raid a public house on the quayside, but the temptation to stop for a quick drink led to a further delay. By the time they returned, and the arson attacks began, dawn was fast approaching, so efforts were concentrated on a single ship, the coal ship Thompson, in the hope that the flames would spread to adjacent vessels, all grounded by the low tide. However, in the twilight, one of the crew slipped away and alerted residents on a harbourside street. A fire alert was sounded, and large numbers of people came running to the quay, forcing the Americans to retreat, and extinguishing the flames with the town's two fire-engines. However, hopes of sinking Jones's boats with cannon fire were dashed by the prudent spiking.

    Crossing the Solway Firth from Whitehaven to Scotland, Jones hoped to hold for ransom the Earl of Selkirk, who lived on St Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright. The Earl, Jones reasoned, could be exchanged for American sailors impressed into the Royal Navy. When the Earl was discovered to be absent from his estate, Jones claims he intended to return directly to his ship and continue seeking prizes elsewhere, but his crew wished to "pillage, burn, and plunder all they could". Ultimately, Jones allowed the crew to seize a silver plate set adorned with the family’s emblem to placate their desires, but nothing else. Jones bought the plate himself when it was later sold off in France, and returned it to the Earl of Selkirk after the War.

    Although their effect on British morale and allocation of defense resources was significant,the attacks on St. Mary’s Isle and Whitehaven resulted in no prizes or profits which under normal circumstances would be shared with the crew. Throughout the mission, the crew, led by Jones's second-in-command Lieutenant Thomas Simpson, acted as if they were aboard a privateer, not a warship.

    3.4 Return to France

    John Paul Jones, Navy Issue of 1937Nevertheless, Jones now led Ranger back across the Irish Sea, hoping to make another attempt at the Drake, still anchored off Carrickfergus. This time, late in the afternoon of April 24, 1778, the ships, roughly equal in firepower, engaged in combat. Earlier in the day, the Americans had captured the crew of a reconnaissance boat, and learned that Drake had taken on dozens of soldiers, with the intention of grappling and boarding Ranger, so Jones made sure that did not happen, capturing the Drake after an hour-long gun battle which cost the British captain his life. Lieutenant Simpson was given command of Drake for the return journey to Brest. The ships separated during the return journey as Ranger chased another prize, leading to a conflict between Simpson and Jones. Both ships arrived at port safely, but Jones filed for a court-martial of Simpson, keeping him detained on the ship.

    Partly through the influence of John Adams, who was still serving as a commissioner in France, Simpson was released from Jones' accusation. Adams implies in his memoirs that the overwhelming majority of the evidence supported Simpson’s claims. Adams seemed to believe Jones was hoping to monopolize the mission's glory, especially by detaining Simpson on board while he celebrated the capture with numerous important European dignitaries.

    Even with the wealth of perspectives, including the commander's, it is difficult if not impossible to tell exactly what occurred. It is clear, however, that the crew felt alienated by their commander, who might well have been motivated by his pride. Jones believed his intentions were honorable, and his actions were strategically essential to the Revolution. Regardless of any controversy surrounding the mission, Ranger’s capture of Drake was one of the American Navy’s few significant military victories during the Revolution, and was of immense symbolic importance, demonstrating as it did that the Royal Navy was far from invincible. By overcoming such odds, Ranger’s victory became an important symbol of the American spirit and served as an inspiration for the permanent establishment of the American Navy after the Revolution.

    3.5 Bonhomme Richard

    Engraving based on the painting Action Between the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard by Richard Paton, published 1780.
    The "John Paul Jones flag" was entered into Dutch records to help Jones avoid charges of piracy when he captured the Serapis under an "unknown flag."
    "Paul Jones the Pirate", British caricatureIn 1779, Captain Jones took command of the 42-gun Bonhomme Richard (or as he preferred it, Bon Homme Richard), a merchant ship rebuilt and given to America by the French shipping magnate, Jacques-Donatien Le Ray. On August 14, as a vast French and Spanish invasion fleet approached England, he provided a diversion by heading for Ireland at the head of a five ship squadron including the 36-gun Alliance, 32-gun Pallas, 12-gun Vengeance, and Le Cerf, also accompanied by two privateers, Monsieur and Granville. When the squadron was only a few days out of Groix, Monsieur separated due to a disagreement between her captain and Jones.

    Several Royal Navy warships were sent towards Ireland in pursuit of Jones, but on this occasion, he continued right around the north of Scotland into the North Sea, creating near-panic all along Britain's east coast as far south as the Humber estuary. Jones's main problems, as on his previous voyage, resulted from insubordination, particularly by Pierre Landais, captain of the Alliance. On September 23, 1779, the squadron met a large merchant convoy off the coast off Flamborough Head, east Yorkshire. The 50-gun British frigate HMS Serapis and the 20-gun hired escort Countess of Scarborough placed themselves between the convoy and Jones's squadron, allowing the merchants to escape.

    Shortly after 7 p.m. the Battle of Flamborough Head began. The Serapis engaged the Bonhomme Richard, and soon afterwards, the Alliance fired, from a considerable distance, at the Countess. Quickly recognising that he could not win a battle of big guns, and with the wind dying, Jones made every effort to lock Richard and Serapis together (his famous quotation, "I have not yet begun to fight!" was uttered in reply to a cheerful British taunt during an odd stalemate in this phase of the battle), finally succeeding after about an hour, following which his deck guns and marksmen in the rigging began clearing the British decks. Alliance sailed past and fired a broadside, doing at least as much damage to the Richard as to the Serapis. Meanwhile, the Countess of Scarborough had enticed the Pallas downwind of the main battle, beginning a separate engagement. When Alliance approached this contest, about an hour after it had begun, the badly damaged Countess surrendered.

    With Bonhomme Richard burning and sinking, it seems that her ensign was shot away; when one of the officers, apparently believing his captain to be dead, shouted a surrender, the British commander asked, seriously this time, if they had struck their colors. Jones later remembered saying something like "I am determined to make you strike", but the words allegedly heard by crew-members and reported in newspapers a few days later were more like: "I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike."

    An attempt by the British to board Bonhomme Richard was thwarted, and a grenade caused the explosion of a large quantity of gunpowder on Serapis’s lower gun-deck. Alliance then returned to the main battle, firing two broadsides. Again, these did at least as much damage to Richard as to Serapis, but the tactic worked to the extent that, unable to move, and with Alliance keeping well out of the line of his own great guns, Captain Pearson of Serapis accepted that prolonging the battle could achieve nothing, so he surrendered. Most of Bonhomme Richard's crew immediately transferred to other vessels, and after a day and a half of frantic repair efforts, it was decided that the ship could not be saved, so it was allowed to sink, and Jones took command of Serapis for the trip to neutral (but American-sympathising) Holland.

    In the following year, the King of France honoured him with the title "Chevalier". Jones accepted the honor, and desired the title to be used thereafter: when the Continental Congress in 1787 resolved that a medal of gold be struck in commemoration of his "valor and brilliant services" it was to be presented to "Chevalier John Paul Jones". He also received from Louis a decoration of "l'Ordre du Mérite militaire" and a sword. By contrast, in Britain at this time, he was usually referred to as a pirate.

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones

    There are no [citation needed] links on source page, proving these achievements as totally true.

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