Resolved: that Captain John Paul Jones be appointed to command the ship Ranger.
Thus it came to pass that the gallant young Scotchman, eager to fight for Liberty, hastened to make the Ranger ready for sea. Then he sailed away under orders for France.
From the harbour of Nantes, he convoyed some American ships to place them under the protection of the French fleet in Quiberon Bay. The commander of the French fleet was Admiral La Motte Picquet, who had been ordered by his Government to keep the coast of France free from British cruisers.
And it was there in Quiberon Bay, that John Paul Jones received the first salute ever given by a foreign Nation to our Stars and Stripes—a salute that recognized the Independence of the United States.
It was on Washington’s Birthday, 1778, that Paul Jones wrote to our Government describing this great event:—
“I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate you,” he said, “on my having seen the American Flag, for the first time, recognized in the fullest and completest manner by the Flag of France.
“I was off their bay, the 18th, and sent my boat in the next day, to know if the Admiral would return my salute.
“He answered that he would return to me, as the senior American Continental officer in Europe, the
