John Paul Jones (1747-1792)
"Father of the American Navy"
He was born in Scotland and went to sea at the age of thirteen, serving aboard various merchant ships. He was jailed in Scotland for unnecessary cruelty in 1770 and while on bail he changed his name from John Paul to John Paul Jones and fled to Tobago to avoid arrest. Eighteen months later, he killed a subordinate in a dispute over wages and this time fled to Virginia where on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War three years later he joined the newly established Continental Navy with whom he would cement his reputation as one of the greatest commanders in U.S. naval history. Noted for his fierce courage and refusal to surrender, he took part in several engagements against the Royal Navy before leading a campaign in the Irish and North Seas, attacking British naval and merchant vessels, and other civilian targets. As part of the campaign, he raided the English town of Whitehaven, won the North Channel Naval Duel, and the Battle of Flamborough Head, all of which won him international acclaim.
He was made a Chevalier by King Louis XVI of France and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, but being left without a command in 1787 he joined the Imperial Russian Navy, and with the rank of Rear-Admiral defeated a Turkish fleet in the Black Sea for which he was awarded the Order of Saint-Anna. Two years later at St. Petersburg in 1789, his influential connections within the American and French hierarchy saw him narrowly avoid conviction for raping a 10-year old girl, but nonetheless he was forced out of the Russian Navy under the orders of the Empress of Russia herself - Catherine the Great - who never acknowledged him again. Moving to Paris in 1790, he died there in 1792 at 19 Rue de Tournon, unmarried and without children. In 1905, his body was exhumed and brought to the United States where he was reburied with full military honors at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. His memorials include a marble and bronze sarcophagus in the academy's chapel, and a statue (1912) in West Potomac Park, Washington D.C.
He was made a Chevalier by King Louis XVI of France and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, but being left without a command in 1787 he joined the Imperial Russian Navy, and with the rank of Rear-Admiral defeated a Turkish fleet in the Black Sea for which he was awarded the Order of Saint-Anna. Two years later at St. Petersburg in 1789, his influential connections within the American and French hierarchy saw him narrowly avoid conviction for raping a 10-year old girl, but nonetheless he was forced out of the Russian Navy under the orders of the Empress of Russia herself - Catherine the Great - who never acknowledged him again. Moving to Paris in 1790, he died there in 1792 at 19 Rue de Tournon, unmarried and without children. In 1905, his body was exhumed and brought to the United States where he was reburied with full military honors at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. His memorials include a marble and bronze sarcophagus in the academy's chapel, and a statue (1912) in West Potomac Park, Washington D.C.
