John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American NavyThe New York Times bestseller from master biographer Evan Thomas brings to life the tumultuous story of the father of the American Navy. John Paul Jones, at sea and in the heat of the battle, was the great American hero of the Age of Sail. He was to history what Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey and C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower are to fiction. Ruthless, indomitable, clever; he vowed to sail, as he put it, “in harm’s way.” Evan Thomas’s minute-by-minute re-creation of the bloodbath between Jones’s Bonhomme Richard and the British man-of-war Serapis off the coast of England on an autumn night in 1779 is as gripping a sea battle as can be found in any novel. Drawing on Jones’s correspondence with some of the most significant figures of the American Revolution—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson—Thomas’s biography teaches us that it took fighters as well as thinkers, men driven by dreams of personal glory as well as high-minded principle, to break free of the past and start a new world. Jones’s spirit was classically American. |
From inside the book
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Page 13
... called a landscape architect. In eighteenth-century Scotland, he was a gardener. He had been hired—indeed, recruited all the way from Leith on Scotland's east coast—to lay out the gardens at Arbigland, a 1,400-acre estate in the soft ...
... called a landscape architect. In eighteenth-century Scotland, he was a gardener. He had been hired—indeed, recruited all the way from Leith on Scotland's east coast—to lay out the gardens at Arbigland, a 1,400-acre estate in the soft ...
Page 18
... called seasickness "that dreadful thing." Abigail Adams described it as "that most disheartening, dispiriting malady.... No person, who is a stranger to the sea, can form an adequate idea of the debility occasioned by sea-sickness ...
... called seasickness "that dreadful thing." Abigail Adams described it as "that most disheartening, dispiriting malady.... No person, who is a stranger to the sea, can form an adequate idea of the debility occasioned by sea-sickness ...
Page 19
... called a capstan, and various blocks and pulleys to take off some of the strain, eighteenth-century sailing ships relied on brute man power. The work could be perilous: men had to haul on rigid and icy ropes as they slipped and slid on ...
... called a capstan, and various blocks and pulleys to take off some of the strain, eighteenth-century sailing ships relied on brute man power. The work could be perilous: men had to haul on rigid and icy ropes as they slipped and slid on ...
Page 20
... called an octant. His ascent began the moment the master of the Friendship, Captain Robert Benson, summoned him to the rail of the quarterdeck one day when the sun was at its zenith, pointed to the horizon, and handed him the tool ...
... called an octant. His ascent began the moment the master of the Friendship, Captain Robert Benson, summoned him to the rail of the quarterdeck one day when the sun was at its zenith, pointed to the horizon, and handed him the tool ...
Page 24
... called Captain Paul brutal, but sailors of the age generally put up with flogging. Miscreants at sea fared no worse than those on land, maybe better. A thief aboard ship might get twelve lashes; ashore he could be hanged, branded, or ...
... called Captain Paul brutal, but sailors of the age generally put up with flogging. Miscreants at sea fared no worse than those on land, maybe better. A thief aboard ship might get twelve lashes; ashore he could be hanged, branded, or ...
Contents
1 | |
30 | |
Chapter Four | 67 |
Chapter Five | 87 |
Chapter | 113 |
Chapter Seven | 137 |
Chapter Eight | 168 |
Chapter | 199 |
Chapter Twelve | 235 |
Chapter Thirteen | 259 |
Chapter Fourteen | 279 |
Chapter Fifteen | 300 |
Acknowledgments | 313 |
Bibliography | 361 |
Photo Credits | 383 |
Chapter Eleven | 215 |
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Common terms and phrases
able aboard Adams Alliance American appeared arms arrived Bancroft battle become began Benjamin Franklin boat Bonhomme Richard British called captain carried close coast command Commissioners Committee Congress Continental crew deck enemy England English feelings fight fire fleet force France Franklin French frigate give guns hands head honor John Paul John Paul Jones Jones wrote Jones's JPJP JPJto July June L O C ladies Landais later letter Lieutenant London March Marine master Morison morning Morris naval navy needed never night officers once ordered Paris Pearson port Potemkin prisoners privateer prize Providence quarterdeck Ranger reported Robert Royal Russian sail sailors sent Serapis ship ship's side squadron Thomas tried turned wanted warship wind wish wounded