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 shores 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 anchored 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 nobleman, 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 shores 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.
"What ship is that?" called out the Englishman. "Come a little nearer, and we'll tell you," answered plucky Captain Jones.