As part of the campaign, he raided the English town of Whitehaven, won the North Channel Naval Duel and fought at the Battle of Flamborough Head, gaining him an international reputation.

John Paul started his maritime career when he was 13, sailing out of Whitehaven in the northern English county of Cumberland as apprentice aboard Friendship under Captain Benson.

During his second voyage in 1770, John Paul had one of his crew flogged after trying to start a mutiny about early payment of wages, leading to accusations that his discipline was "unnecessarily cruel".

Leaving Scotland, John Paul commanded a London-registered vessel named Betsy, a West Indiaman mounting 22 guns, engaging in commercial speculation in Tobago for about 18 months.

[11] Years later, in a letter to Benjamin Franklin describing the incident, John Paul claimed that the killing was committed in self-defense, but he was not willing to wait to be tried in an Admiral's Court, which would have taken months to assemble, and where the family of his first victim had been influential.

[14][15] Jones courted Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, the future bride of Patrick Henry, and made a valuable friendship with Dr. John K. Read[16] during his time in Virginia.

From that period, America became "the country of his fond election", as he afterwards expressed himself to Baron Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol.

[24] Jones's next command came as a result of Commodore Hopkins's orders to liberate hundreds of American prisoners forced to labour in coal mines in Nova Scotia, and also to raid British shipping.

As a result of this and other frustrations, Jones was assigned the smaller command of the newly constructed USS Ranger on June 14, 1777, the same day that the new Stars and Stripes flag was adopted.

[29] Jones later wrote about the poor command qualities of his senior officers (having tactfully avoided such matters in his official report): "'Their object', they said, 'was gain not honor'.

According to the diary of Ranger's surgeon,[31] 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.

Jones led the assault with two boats of fifteen men just after midnight on April 23, hoping to set fire to and sink all of the ships anchored in Whitehaven's harbor, which numbered between 200 and 400 wooden vessels and consisted of a full merchant fleet and many coal transporters.

Dawn was breaking by the time they returned and began the arson attacks, so efforts were concentrated on the coal ship Thompson in the hope that the flames would spread to adjacent vessels, all grounded by the low tide.

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.

[32] Jones next crossed the Solway Firth from Whitehaven to Scotland, hoping to hold for ransom Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk, who lived on St Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright.

Canadian historian Peter C. Newman gives credit to the governess for protecting the young heir to the Earldom of Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, and to the butler for filling a sack half with coal and topping it up with the family silver, in order to fob off the Americans.

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.

The 44-gun British frigate HMS Serapis and the 22-gun hired armed ship Countess of Scarborough placed themselves between the convoy and Jones's squadron, allowing the merchants to escape.

With Bonhomme Richard burning and sinking, it seems that her ensign was shot away; when one of the officers shouted a surrender, believing his captain to be dead, the British commander asked, seriously this time, if they had struck their colors.

An attempt by the British to board Bonhomme Richard was thwarted, and a grenade thrown by an American sailor caused the explosion of a large quantity of gunpowder on Serapis's lower gun-deck.

[citation needed] On March 31, 1789, Jones was accused of raping a 10-year-old Russian girl named Katerina Stepanova, a "daughter of German immigrants living in St.

[50] Jones stated he had not taken her virginity and believed her to be older than was being claimed; he wrote "I love women, I confess, and the pleasures that one only obtains from that sex; but to get such things by force is horrible to me.

"[48] However, Jones later claimed the accusation was entirely false, stemming from the supposed desire of Katerina's mother, Sophia Fyodorovna, to gain financially from a prominent man.

[51] He also produced Katerina's father, Stephan Holtszwarthen, to testify in court that his daughter was 12 rather than 10 years old and that his wife had left him for another man, lived in a brothel, and was herself promiscuous.

She dismissed a tried naval commander, especially sought out by her agents abroad, during wartime, showing that she merited the allegations against Jones higher than his potential martial service.

He still retained his position as Russian Rear Admiral, with a corresponding pension which allowed him to remain in retirement until his death two years later, but he was no longer able to find a foothold in Paris society.

A New York newspaper described the papers as documents belonging to "Franklin, Hancock, La Fayette and John Adams," failing to mention Jones himself.

[64] On January 26, 1913, the captain's remains were finally re-interred in a bronze and marble sarcophagus, designed by Sylvain Salières, at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.

[68] James Fenimore Cooper wrote a historical novel The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea, published in 1823, featuring John Paul Jones as its main character.

In the episode "Not Yet Begun to Fight", Jones (voiced by Liam Neeson) helps main character Sarah see that her true loyalty lies with America during the Battle of Flamborough Head.