Why John Paul Jones is No Longer “The Father of the US Navy”

By Bob von Bargen, Colonel USAF Retired
Excerpted from an article at veteransbreakfastclub.org.

When I was in school, textbooks told us that daring Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones was the “Father of the American Navy.” But something happened over the last thirty years, and the title is now up for grabs.

So, what went wrong with John Paul Jones?

Well, it turns out he was never much of a father or founder. He was, probably, a murderer and rapist, a fugitive from justice and an erratic leader, and his real name wasn’t even Jones. He was never a part of the Navy under the US Constitution. In fact, he left America after the Revolution, became a Rear Admiral in the Russian Navy, and died in obscurity at age 45, probably with syphilis. He’d been celebrated briefly for heroics in 1778, but Americans forgot about him.

Jones was unlike any Navy hero in our history. Born John Paul (Jones came later) in Scotland, he was apprenticed at age 13 to a merchant seaman in Whitehaven, England. In 1768, at age 21, John Paul caught his first big break. Both his captain and first mate died at sea. John Paul took charge and navigated the ship back to safe harbor. The ship owners were so grateful they made him captain.

Captain John Paul quickly gained a reputation for poor leadership. He was vain and hard driving. He took a lot of risks, and didn’t pay his crews on time or at all. His sailors grumbled always and sometimes mutinied. On one occasion, he flogged a rebellious sailor so severely the man died of his injuries. On another, John Paul ran a sword through a potential mutineer. Charged with two counts of murder, Captain Paul fled to America rather than stand trial in Britain.

Changing his name to Jones to throw authorities off his trail, John Paul arrived in America just as the Revolution was erupting. He needed a job, so offered himself to the newly christened Continental Navy, which was desperate for experienced seamen. Jones proved himself able at mundane duties and superb at privateering (the polite word for piracy). But he feuded constantly with his superiors and was relegated to the small USS Ranger and sent across the Atlantic. It was a sort of banishment away from the main action in the Caribbean and Canadian Maritimes.

First, he captured a prize when his Ranger outdueled the war sloop HMS Drake in the English Channel. Then, Jones took command of the USS Bonhomme Richard and emerged triumphant (though the Richard was sunk) in the multi-ship Battle of Flamborough Head. Legend, though not the historical record, has it that when all looked lost, and a British captain demanded the Richard’s surrender, Jones responded, “I have not yet begun to fight!”

The victory was the high point of Jones’s career, and the captain became a celebrity and ladies’ favorite in Paris. Back in America, however, the newly independent republic saw little use for Jones or the Navy.

With no other job prospects, Jones entered the service of Empress Catherine II of Russia. It didn’t take long for Jones to alienate his fellow Russian officers, and, after being accused of raping a twelve-year-old girl, Jones retired to Paris. He died in 1792 and was buried in Paris’s St. Louis Cemetery. The world largely forgot about him.