Stories of Our Naval Heroes Part 3

I doubt if he was a very good farmer. He was too much of a sailor for that. So, when the American Revolution began, he was eager to fight the British on the seas. There was no nation at that time so powerful on the sea as England. The King had a splendid fleet of ships of war--almost a thousand. The United States had none. But soon the Americans got together five little ships, and sent them out as the beginning of the American navy, to fight the ships of England.

John Paul Jones was made first lieutenant of a ship called the _Alfred_.

He had the good fortune to hoist for the first time on any ship, the earliest American flag. This was a great yellow silk flag which had on it the picture of a pine tree with a rattlesnake coiled around it, and underneath were the words: "Don't tread on me!"

Then the grand union flag of the colonies was set. This had thirteen red and white stripes, like our present flag, but, instead of the stars, in the corner it had the British "union jack." Thus there was a link on the flag between the colonies and England. They had not quite cut apart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN PAUL JONES.]

Jones had first been offered the command of the _Providence_, a brig that bore twelve guns and had a crew of one hundred men. But he showed the kind of man he was by saying that he did not know enough to be a captain, and was hardly fit to be a first lieutenant. That was how he came to be made first lieutenant of the _Alfred_. Congress took him at his own price.

But Commodore Hopkins, who commanded the fleet, was wise enough to see that Jones knew more about his work than most of the captains in the service. So he ordered him to take command of the _Providence_, the snug little brig that had first been offered to him.

The new captain was set at work to carrying troops and guarding merchant vessels along the sh.o.r.e, and he did this with wonderful skill. There were British men-of-war nearly everywhere, but Jones managed to keep clear of them. He darted up and down Long Island Sound, carrying soldiers and guns and food to General Washington. So well did he do his work that Congress made him a captain. This was on August 8, 1776, a month and more after the "Declaration of Independence." He had a free country now to fight for, instead of rebel colonies.

The _Providence_ was a little vessel, but it was a fast sailer, and was wonderfully quick to answer the helm. That is, it turned very quickly when the rudder was moved. And it had a captain who knew how to sail a ship. All this brought the little brig out of more than one tight place.

I must tell you about one of these escapes, in which Captain Jones showed himself a very sharp sea-fox. He came across a fleet of vessels which he thought were merchant ships, and had a fancy he might capture the largest. But when he got close up he found that this was a big British frigate, the _Solebay_.

Away went the _Providence_ at full speed, and hot-foot after her came the _Solebay_. For four hours the chase was kept up, the frigate steadily gaining. At last she was only a hundred yards away. Now was the time to surrender. Nearly any one but Paul Jones would have done so. A broadside from the great frigate would have torn his little brig to pieces. But he was one of the "never surrender" kind.

What else could he do? you ask. Well, I will tell you what he did. He quietly made ready to set all his extra sails, and put a man with a lighted match at each cannon, and had another ready to hoist the union flag.

Then, with a quick turn of the helm, the little brig swung round like a top across the frigate's bows. As she did so all the guns on that side sent their iron hail sweeping across the deck of the _Solebay_. In a minute more the studding sails were set on both sides, like broad white wings, and away went the _Providence_ as swift as a racer, straight before the wind and with the American flag proudly flying. The officers and men of the frigate were so upset by the sudden dash and attack that they did not know what to do. Before they came to their senses the brig was out of reach of their shot. Off like a bird she went, now quite outsailing her pursuer. The _Solebay_, fired more than a hundred iron b.a.l.l.s after her, but they only scared the fishes.

It was not long before Captain Jones found another big British ship on his track. He was now off the coast of Nova Scotia, and as there was nothing else to do, he let his men have a day's sport in fishing for codfish. Fish are plenty in those waters, and they were pulling them up in a lively fashion when a strange sail rose in sight.

When it came well up Captain Jones saw it was a British frigate, and judged it time to pull in his fishing lines and set sail on his little craft. Away like a deer went the brig, and after her like a hound came the ship. But it soon proved that the deer was faster than the hound, and so Captain Jones began to play with the big frigate. He took in some of his sails and kept just out of reach.

The _Milford_, which was the name of the British ship, kept firing at the _Providence_, but all her shot plunged into the waves. It was like the hound barking at the deer. And every time the _Milford_ sent a broadside, Paul Jones replied with a musket. After he had all the fun he wanted out of the lumbering frigate, he spread all sail again and soon left her out of sight.

We cannot tell the whole story of the cruise of the _Providence_. In less than two months it captured sixteen vessels and burned some others.

Soon after that Jones was made captain of the _Alfred_, the ship on which he had raised the first flag. With this he took a splendid prize, the brig _Mellish_, on which were ten thousand uniforms for the British soldiers. Many a ragged soldier in Washington's army thanked him that winter for a fine suit of warm clothing.

Let us tell one more fine thing that Captain Jones did in American waters before he crossed the ocean to the British seas. Sailing along the coast of Canada he came upon a fleet of coal vessels, with a British frigate to take care of them. But it was foggy and the coalers were scattered; so that Jones picked up three of them while the frigate went on with her eyes shut, not knowing that anything was wrong.

Two days afterward he came upon a British privateer, which was on the hunt for American vessels. But when the _Alfred_ came up, before more than a few shots had been fired, down came its flag.

Captain Jones now thought it time to get home. His ship was crowded with prisoners, he was short of food and water, and he had four prizes to look after, which were manned with some of his crew.

But he was not to get home without another adventure; for, late one afternoon, there came in sight the frigate _Milford_, the one which he had saluted with musket b.a.l.l.s. He could not play with her now, for he had his prizes to look after, and while he could outsail her, the prizes could not.

So he told the captains of the prizes to keep on as they were, no matter what signals he made. Night soon came, and the _Alfred_ sailed on, with two lanterns swinging in her tops. Soon she changed her course and the _Milford_ followed. No doubt her captain thought that the Yankee had lost his wits, to sail on with lanterns blazing and make it easy to keep in his track.

But when morning dawned the British captain found he had been tricked.

The _Alfred_ was in sight, but all the prizes were gone except the privateer, whose stupid captain had not obeyed orders. The result was that the privateer was recaptured. But the _Alfred_ easily kept ahead.

That afternoon a squall of snow came upon the sea, and the Yankee craft, "amid clouds and darkness and foaming surges, made her escape."

In a few days more the _Alfred_ sailed into Boston. There his ship was given another captain, and for six months he had nothing to do. Congress was full of politicians who were looking out for their friends, and the best seaman in the American navy was left sitting at home biting his thumb nails and whistling for a ship.

I have not told you here the whole story of our greatest naval hero. I have not told you even the best part of his story, that part which has made him famous in all history, and put him on a level with the most celebrated sea fighters of all time.

The exploits of Paul Jones cover two seas, those of America and those of England, and in both he proved himself a brilliant sailor and a daring fighter. I think you will say this from what you have already read. His deeds of skill and bravery on our own coast were wonderful, and if they had stood alone would have given him great fame. But it was in the waters and on the sh.o.r.es of England that he showed the whole world what a man he was; and now, when men talk of the great heroes of the sea, the name of John Paul Jones always stands first. This is the story we have next to tell, how Captain Jones crossed the ocean and bearded the British lion in his den.

CHAPTER V

HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN

THE FIRST GREAT FIGHT OF THE AMERICAN NAVY

YOU have been told how Captain Paul Jones lost his ship. He was given another in June, 1777. This was the _Ranger_, a frigate carrying twenty-six guns, but it was such a slow old tub that our captain was not well pleased with his new craft. He did not want to run away from the British; he wanted a ship that was fit to chase an enemy.

We have one thing very interesting to tell. On the very day that Jones got his new ship Congress adopted a new flag, the American standard with its thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. As soon as he heard of the new flag, Captain Jones had one made in all haste, and with his own hands he ran it up to the mast-head of the _Ranger_. So she was the first ship that ever carried the "Stars and Stripes." Is it not interesting that the man who first raised the pine-tree flag of the colonies was the first to fling out to the breeze the star-spangled flag of the American Union?

Captain Jones was ordered to sail for France, but it took so long to get the _Ranger_ ready for sea that it was winter before he reached there.

Benjamin Franklin and other Americans were there in France and were having a fine new frigate built for Paul Jones. But when England heard of it such a protest was made that the French government stopped the work on the ship, and our brave captain had to go to sea again in the slow-footed _Ranger_.

He had one satisfaction. He sailed through the French fleet at Quiberon Bay and saluted the French flag. The French admiral could not well help returning his salute. That was the first time the Stars and Stripes were saluted by a foreign power.

What Captain Jones proposed to do was the boldest thing any American captain could do. England was invading America. He proposed to invade England. That is, he would cruise along the British coast, burning ships and towns, and thus do there what the British had done along the American coast. He wanted to let them find how they liked it themselves.

It was a daring plan. The British channel was full of war-vessels. If they got on the track of his slow ship he could not run away. He would never think of running from one ship, but there might be a fleet.

However, Paul Jones was the last man in the world to think of danger; so he put boldly out to sea, and took his chances.

It was not long before he had all England in a state of alarm. News came that this daring American warship was taking prize after prize, burning some and sending their crews ash.o.r.e. He would hide along the English coast from the men-of-war that went out in search, and then suddenly dart out and seize some merchant ship.

The English called Captain Jones a pirate and all sorts of hard names.

But they were very much afraid of him and his stout ship. And this voyage of his, along the sh.o.r.es of England, taught them to respect and fear the American sailors more than they had ever done before.

After he had captured many British vessels, almost in sight of their homes, he boldly sailed to the north and into the very port of Whitehaven, where he had "tended store," as a boy, and from which he had first gone to sea. He knew all about the place. He knew how many vessels were there, and what a splendid victory he could win for the American navy, if he could sail into Whitehaven harbor and capture or destroy the two hundred vessels that were anch.o.r.ed within sight of the town he remembered so well.

With two rowboats and thirty men he landed at Whitehaven, locked up the soldiers in the forts, fixed the cannon so that they could not be fired, set fire to one of the vessels that were in the harbor, and so frightened all the people that, though the gardener's son stood alone on the wharf, waiting for a boat to take him off, not a man dared to lay a hand on him. With a single pistol he kept back a thousand men.

Then he sailed across the bay to the house of the great lord for whom his father had worked as a gardener. He meant to run away with this n.o.bleman, and keep him prisoner until the British promised to treat better the Americans whom they had taken prisoners. But the lord whom he went for was "not at home," so all that Captain Jones's men could do was to carry off from the big house the silverware of the earl. Captain Jones did not like this; so he took the things from his men and returned them to Earl Selkirk, with a letter asking him to excuse his sailors.

Not long afterward one of the British men-of-war which were in the hunt for Captain Jones, found him. This was the _Drake_, a larger ship than the _Ranger_ and carrying more men. But that did not trouble Paul Jones, and soon there was a terrible fight. The sails of the _Drake_ were cut to pieces, her decks were red with blood, and at last her captain fell dead. In an hour after the fight began, just as the sun was going down behind the Irish hills, there came a cry for quarter from the _Drake_, and the battle was at an end. Off went Captain Jones, with his ship and his prize, for the friendly sh.o.r.es of France, where he was received with great praise.

Soon after this the French decided to help the Americans in their war for independence. After some time Captain Jones was put in command of five ships, and back he sailed to England to fight the British ships again.

The vessel in which he sailed was the biggest of the five ships. It had forty guns and a crew of three hundred sailors. Captain Jones thought so much of the great Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who had written a book of good advice, under the name of "Poor Richard," that he named his big ship for Dr. Franklin. He called it the _Bon Homme Richard_, which is French for "good man Richard." But the _Bon Homme Richard_ was not a good boat, if it was a big one. It was old and rotten and leaky, and not fit for a warship, but its new commander made the best he could of it.

The little fleet sailed up and down the English coasts, capturing a few prizes, and greatly frightening the people by saying that they had come to burn some of the big English sea towns. Then, just as they were about sailing back to France, they came--near an English cape, called Flamborough Head--upon an English fleet of forty merchant vessels and two war ships.

One of the war ships was a great English frigate, called the _Serapis_, finer and stronger in every way than the _Bon Homme Richard_. But Captain Jones would not run away.