Tag Archives: John Paul Jones

From small beginnings…

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 250 years ago this week, on 3 December 1775, the 30-gunned three-masted Continental ship Alfred was commissioned in Philadelphia, marking the first time the Grand Union Flag–  a combination of the British Flag and 13 stripes representing the thirteen Colonies– was raised over an American naval vessel.

Continental Ship Alfred (1775-1778) Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell, depicting Lieutenant John Paul Jones raising the Grand Union flag as Alfred was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 December 1775. Commanded by Captain Dudley Saltonstall, Alfred was the flagship of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Continental Navy flotilla during the remainder of 1775 and the first four months of 1776. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. Donation of the Memphis Council, U.S. Navy League, 1776. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 85212-KN

The ship, originally named Black Prince, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 and acquired by the Continental Congress in November 1775. Renamed Alfred, she had the newly minted Continental Navy LT John Paul Jones, a Scot, hoist the Grand Union Flag during the commissioning ceremony.

A Grand Union Flag, circa 1775-1776, displayed in 1926. USN 900248

The ship was outfitted with numerous small guns: 20 9-pounder smooth-bore cannon and 10 6-pounder smooth-bore cannon, and served admirably and against all odds until 9 March 1778, when, under the command of Elisha Hinsman near Barbados, she encountered the faster British warships Ariadne and Ceres and was captured, then ignobly pressed into service with the Crown.

By that time, John Paul Jones had moved on to his own command and was noted as writing, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

Bonhomme Richard, found

Posted on by Leave a comment

“BONHOMME RICHARD” Ex ‘DUC DE DURAS’ 1779 By artist E. Tufnell NH 72802-KN

Built in 1765 for the French East India Company as an armed merchantman the 152-foot Duc de Duras was placed at the disposal of one John Paul Jones of the American Continental Navy on 4 February 1779, by King Louis XVI of France by an agreement with French shipping boss Jacques-Donatien Le Ray. Less than eight months later the 42-gun frigate, under the name Bonhomme Richard, had taken 16 British merchant ships and was in turn practically destroyed by the 44-gun fifth-rate ship HMS Serapis off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire.

The battle between Continental Ship Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis, 23 September 1779 Oil on canvas, 21 x 28, by Thomas Mitchell (1735-1790), signed and dated by the artist, 1780. It depicts Bonhomme Richard (center), commanded by Continental Navy Captain John Paul Jones, closely engaged with HMS Serapis, commanded by Royal Navy Captain Richard Pearson, off Flamborough Head, England. Firing at right is the Continental frigate Alliance, while at left the British sloop-or-war Countess of Scarborough is engaging the French frigate Pallas. The original painting is in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland. It was donated by the U.S. Naval Institute in 1949. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

John Paul Jones bids goodbye to his victorious ship, Bonhomme Richard, from the deck of the captured Serapis. Painting by Percy Moran

As for Jones, he transferred his flag to the battered and captured Serapis, which he sailed to the Netherlands and handed over to the French– who commissioned her as a privateer. Serapis was lost under a French flag off Madagascar in 1781 to a fire and her remains were discovered there in 1999.

Speaking of remains, there has been a multinational effort to find Bonhomme Richard for decades and it has finally turned up the storied wreck off the English coast.

Navy SM-3 Block IIA splashes MRBM in test for first time

Posted on by Leave a comment

At approximately 10:30 p.m., Hawaii Standard Time, Feb. 3 a medium-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii. USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1D(V) radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system. Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile which intercepted the target.

“Today’s test demonstrates a critical milestone in the cooperative development of the SM-3 Block IIA missile,” said MDA Director Vice Adm. Jim Syring. “The missile, developed jointly by a Japanese and U.S. government and industry team, is vitally important to both our nations and will ultimately improve our ability to defend against increasing ballistic missile threats around the world.”

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Japan Ministry of Defense (MoD), and U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a flight test Feb. 3 (Hawaii Standard Time), resulting in the first intercept of a ballistic missile target using the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA off the west coast of Hawaii

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm’s way,” — John Paul Jones, Captain Continental Navy, letter to Le Ray de Chaumont (16 November 1778).