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Message:: [QUOTE="jhinton, post: 1269071, member: 24410"]I would suggest to you, that if you are an American, Scottish, French, Dutch, British, Turkish or Russian that you should! Some of you may erroneously think I am referring to the musician of Led Zeppelin fame. I am in fact referring to a great American naval hero. What does he have to do with numismatics you might ask? Well, I am a numismatist; therefore I am a student of all things history. The study of our nations’ early coinage, currency and medals and therefore history has brought to my attention the Comitia Americana medal series; a very beautiful set of medals given to heroes of the American Revolutionary War. The medal I love the most is of non-other than Captain John Paul Jones and his victory over HMS Serapis. The medal pictured is an original comitia Americana medal struck by the Paris mint for the Continental Congress. There were many restrikes made by both the Paris Mint and the Philadelphia mint though all restrikes made at the Philadelphia mint lack the artist’s name, Augustin Dupre.You might be asking yourself, what did a Scottish-born, son of a farmer due to earn his way on a medal celebrating American Revolutionary War heroes? Well, I will tell you. John Paul (he added the name Jones later in life) was born on July 6, 1747, at Kirkcubright, Scotland. He first went to sea at the age of 13 serving aboard a merchant ship named Friendship. Moving thru the ranks of various merchant ships he was later made a first mate of a slaver ship by the name of Two Friends in 1766. In 1768 Jones was suddenly made a captain aboard the brig John after the captain fell ill and died from yellow fever. When John brought the ship back to port the owners made him the permanent captain. Jon ran into some trouble during December of 1773 when he had to kill a crewmember in self-defense. John traveled to his brothers estate in Virginia until a commission could be formed to hear his case. Upon arriving at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Jones discovered his brother had died so he took over the affairs and the estate. It was here that John added Jones to his name. In the summer of 1775 John travelled to Philadelphia to offer his services to the newly established Continental Navy. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant of the frigate Alfred.On December 3, 1775, Jones became the first to hoist the US flag over an American warship. Jones was given the command of the sloop Providence, with the temporary rank of captain, on May 10, 1776. During his command of Providence, Jones captured sixteen British ships in a six week period. He brought back eight for prizes and burned the other eight. This ensured his permanent promotion to the rank of captain in the US navy. Jones was reassigned commander of the ship Alfred. That fall jones captured several additional British ships and brought back winter uniforms and coal for the weakly supplied and suffering continental army.Jones, a poor politician, began feuding with his superior officers. Because of this, he was then assigned to 18 gun sloop-of-war named Ranger and was ordered to proceed to France and “assist the American cause in any way possible”. On February 14, 1778, while in Quiberon Bay, Ranger received the first recognition of the American flag by a foreign government when it was saluted by the French fleet! Tiring of his French mission, Jones sought to bring the war home to the British people and therefore forcing the Royal navy to withdraw it’s forces from American waters to protect their own. Boldly sailing into the Irish Sea, he landed his men at Whitehaven on April 22 and spiked the guns in the town’s fort as well as burned shipping in the harbor. He then landed at St. Mary’s Isle to kidnap the Earl of Selkirk who he believed could be exchanged for American POW’s. Unfortunately, the Earl was away so to placate the desires of his crew, he seized the family’s set of silver plate. On April 24, 1778 Ranger encountered the 20 gun sloop-of-war HMS Drake. Jones captured the HMS Drake after only an hour long battle. HMS Drake became the first British warship to be captured by the Continental navy! Jones returned a hero and after some struggle he acquired a former East Indiaman which he converted into a 42 gun warship. Jones named the ship Bonhomme Richard which is French for Poor Richard; a tribute to Benjamin Franklin who published an almanac titled “Poor Richards Almanac”. On September 23, while commanding a five ship squadron; Jones encountered a large British convoy off Flamborough head escorted by HMS Serapis of 44 guns and HMS Countess of Scarborough of 22 guns. Jones headed for HMS Serapis while he commanded his remaining ships to go after HMS Countess of Scarborough. It was during this famous naval battle that Jones replied to a British demand for surrender with “Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight”. Jones eventually captured the HMS Serapis while his consorts captured the HMS Countess of Scarborough. This is the battle that is engraved on the reverse of Jones Comitia Americana medal. At the end of the war, Jones was discharged from the navy and eventually grew restless. He readily accepted an offer to serve as Rear Admiral in the navy of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Arriving in Russia in 1788, he served in that year’s campaign under the name Pavel Dzhones. While at the battle of Liman he reconnoitered the Turkish Fleet in a rowboat during the night; repulsed the Turkish attacks killing about 3000 Turks, destroying 15 vessels and taking over 1600 prisoners at a cost of one frigate and 18 killed. Again, politics not being his strong point; Jones was outmaneuvered by fellow Russian officers and was recalled to St. Petersburg. Left without a command, he soon departed and returned to Paris in May of 1790. There he lived in retirement and died alone on July 18, 1792. Jones was embalmed with great care and temporarily interred in the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris with the plan to eventually bury him in the United States of America. The cemetery was abandoned after the King ordered tens of thousands of bodies removed to remote catacombs, and streets and squares soon covered the site. In 1905, 113 years later an American expedition encouraged by President teddy Roosevelt began tunneling to seek his coffin. It was actually found and an autopsy pinpointed Bright’s disease the cause of death. Jones remains were returned to United States of America with full honors aboard the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn and three other cruisers. They were met off the coast by seven battleships and as a single column sailed into Chesapeake Bay. There, the first four battleships fired a 15 gun salute while the Brooklyn sailed on to Annapolis. In 1913, his body was finally laid to rest in an elaborate crypt within the United States naval Academy Chapel at Annapolis, MD. Dies and gold strikes of his medals are displayed nearby!Sailors of the United States Navy can do no better than to emulate the spirit behind John Paul Jones’s stirring declaration: “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 (1747-1792) You can read more about this great American Hero and were I borrowed a lot of this information from at:<a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/jones_jp.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/jones_jp.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/jones_jp.htm</a><a href="http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/jpjlife.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/jpjlife.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/jpjlife.htm</a> [ATTACH]138558.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]138559.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]138560.vB[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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