CAPTAIN JOHN PAUL JONES.
[Capture of the Serapis.]
JOANNI PAVLO JONES CLASSIS PRÆFECTO. COMITIA AMERICANA. (The American Congress to naval commander John Paul Jones). Bust of Captain Jones, in uniform, facing the right. On edge of bust, dupré f. (fecit).
HOSTIVM NAVIBVS CAPTIS AVT FVGATIS. (The enemy's vessels taken or put to flight.) Naval action between the United States frigate Bonhomme Richard, of forty guns, Captain John Paul Jones, and the British frigate Serapis, of forty-four guns, Captain Pearson. Both vessels are grappled, lying head and stern. The Bonhomme Richard is on fire, and her crew are boarding the Serapis. To the left, a third vessel.[59] Exergue: AD ORAM SCOTIÆ (sic) XXIII SEPT. (Septembris) M.DCCLXXVIIII. (Off the coast of Scotland, September 23, 1779.) dupré. f. (fecit).[60]
The legend on the reverse of the medal is the second of the two proposed by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. The first was, primus americanorum triumphus navalis.
The bust of John Paul Jones, on the obverse of this medal, is from a plaster cast by Houdon, the celebrated sculptor.
The Chevalier John Paul Jones was born at Arbingland, in the parish of Kirkbean, in Scotland, July 6, 1747. He went to sea when young, and settled in Virginia in 1773. In 1775 he was appointed a lieutenant in the navy, through the recommendation of General Jones, of North Carolina, and in gratitude to him, he added the name of Jones to his family name of Paul. He joined the Alfred, of thirty guns and three hundred men, and on her deck, October 10, 1776, when off Chestnut street wharf, Philadelphia, under a salute of thirteen guns, hoisted with his own hands the first American naval flag. This had thirteen stripes, but without the blue union, and bore across the field a rattlesnake with the motto "Don't tread on me." Appointed captain in October, 1776, he was soon afterward sent by Congress to France, to arrange certain naval matters with the American commissioners. Subsequently he carried terror along the coast of England, and on September 23, 1779, fought his famous action off Flamborough Head, near Scarborough, in which he took the Serapis, Captain Richard Pearson. He was enthusiastically received in France, and King Louis XVI. presented him with a sword of honor and with the cross of Military Merit. Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal, in 1787, and sent him to France, Denmark, and Sweden, as agent for prize money. The same year he entered the Russian service with the rank of rear-admiral, and received from the Empress Catherine II. the cross of St. Anne. He had a command in the squadron stationed in the Black Sea, where he greatly distinguished himself, but embittered by slanderous calumnies, he left the Russian service and settled in Paris, where he died in poverty, July 18, 1792. The National Assembly of France, then in session, expressed their regret for him by wearing mourning, and sent a deputation to attend his funeral.