In 1777, American captains such as Lambert Wickes, Gustavus Conyngham, and William Day[1] had been making raids into British waters and capturing merchant ships, which they took into French ports, even though France was officially neutral.

Encouraged by such successes, and even more so by the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga that autumn, France signed two treaties with America in February 1778, but stopped just short of declaring war on Britain.

Unsuccessful, he returned to Whitehaven, and achieved another objective, landing a large party at the harbour on the night of 22–23 April, and setting fire to a merchant ship.

John Paul Jones's crew had been recruited by being offered the opportunity to "make their Fortunes",[3] a goal that could be achieved by privateering operations against British merchant ships.

The crew blamed Jones for what appeared to be a tactical error that allowed a British customs vessel to escape after being fired on by Ranger.

[7] In fact, Drake had been preparing for action since the previous visit by Ranger, taking on volunteers from the Carrickfergus area to boost the crew from 100 to about 160, many of them landsmen who were to be used only for close-quarters combat, although there was a shortage of ammunition.

[8] Jones opted to try a slight variant of the plan which had failed to capture the customs vessel a few days earlier; hiding most of the crew and the big guns.

[9] About 1pm, as Drake moved sluggishly out across Belfast Lough, a small boat came out to her, carrying another volunteer, Royal Navy Lieutenant William Dobbs, a local man who had just gotten married.

[9] With the wind and tide more favourable in the afternoon, Ranger moved slowly back out of the Lough into the North Channel, making sure never to get too far ahead of Drake.

The four-pound guns could not penetrate Ranger's toughened hull anyway,[8] so Drake tried copying the technique the Americans had been using from the start: they aimed at the masts, sails and rigging, in order to slow the opponent down.

A few minutes after the captain died, the two remaining petty officers on deck went to the master and advised him that they should strike their colours and surrender; after further consultation, he agreed.

[9] Thirty-five men were sent from Ranger to Drake to take charge and assess the damage; and the next three days were spent making repairs, while moving slowly north-westward between Ireland and Scotland.

Militia regiments were hastily redeployed to coastal areas; seaports equipped themselves with artillery to defend themselves against further raids; and the gentry banded together in volunteer battalions as a last line of defence.

[13] Thenceforward, the press paid very close attention to every move John Paul Jones made;[14] struggling to reconcile the malicious rumours[15] of his murders and piracy with the evidence of his chivalrous and far from bloodthirsty behaviour on the Ranger mission (back in France, he wrote kind and thoughtful letters to the Earl of Selkirk, and to the family of Lieut.

The naval duel in the North Channel was the unequivocally triumphant climax to his remarkable mission, which demonstrated that the world's most powerful nation was as vulnerable to attack as any other.

The press reports of his preparations for his next mission created a climate of fear and uncertainty which helped turn his return visit in 1779 into his best-remembered achievement.This account feels heavily biased in favour of the American navy.