Commodore Paul Jones 21

Commodore Paul Jones 21

Jones was very much disappointed, naturally, with the Richard, and in

acknowledging the receipt of these instructions he made a last effort

to get the Indien. It was intimated that such might be the result of

his cruise when he arrived at the Texel, if it were successful, but

that no change could be made in his orders at present. Franklin

refused to attempt to have them modified by consulting with the

ministry, and, in a way gentle but sufficiently decided, he directed

Jones to finish repairing the ships with all speed and proceed to

carry out the orders he had received. The commodore, swallowing his

disappointment and dissatisfaction with a rather ill grace, it must be

confessed, hastened to get his ships in shape for the proposed

expedition.

 

During the cruise in the Bay of Biscay a mutinous spirit had broken

out among the English seamen, with whom in part Jones had been forced

to man his ship in default of other men, which had become sufficiently

developed to result in an organized conspiracy to take the Richard.

The plot was discovered and the ringleaders were put in irons. When

the Richard arrived at L'Orient, these men, two quartermasters, were

court-martialed; but, instead of being sentenced to death, as they

deserved, they were severely flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails.

Jones, who, if he erred, leaned to the side of mercy, seems to have

been greatly relieved at this termination of the affair. At this time

the lieutenant of the Richard, who had been in charge of the watch

during the collision, was also court-martialed and dismissed the

service.

 

These several unfortunate happenings had given De Sartine a very low

idea of the efficiency and value of the Bon Homme Richard and the

squadron, which galled Jones extremely. Indeed, I imagine De Sartine

looked upon Jones in the light of a nuisance more than anything else.

The repairs progressed very slowly, and it was not until August that

the ships were ready to proceed. Meanwhile an event of the greatest

importance had occurred in the arrival of a cartel at Nantes with one

hundred and nineteen exchanged American prisoners. Many of them

entered on the Richard, and Jones was thus enabled to weed out a large

proportion of the mutinous and disorderly element in his crew. The

fine qualities of some of these new recruits enabled him to replace

many of his petty officers--invaluable adjuncts to an efficient

crew--with experienced seamen who could be depended upon, not merely

as sailors, but as men who, fresh from the horrors and brutalities of

English prisons, were more than ready to fight against the red flag

wherever it was planted. They leavened the whole mass.

 

The re-enforcement was of the greatest value; but Jones' good fortune

did not end here, for before he sailed again he was joined by a young

American naval officer of the highest capacity and courage, named

Richard Dale, who had been captured in the Lexington and held a

prisoner in England. He had effected a most daring and romantic escape

from the Mill Prison by the assistance of an unknown woman, whose name

and the circumstances of their acquaintance remained a mystery; Dale

absolutely refused to divulge them to the day of his death.

 

Jones found in him a congenial spirit and an able subordinate. He

promptly appointed him first lieutenant of the Richard, and between

the two men there speedily developed a friendship as lasting as it was

unaffected and disinterested. Next to Jones himself, in the early

records, stands the name of this young man, then scarcely twenty-three

years of age. Aside from the great commodore, it was he who

contributed more to the subsequent success of the Richard than any

other man. At the request of De Sartine, Jones also received on the

Richard a battalion of royal marines, who were all French of course,

and who had been augmented until they numbered one hundred and

thirty-seven officers and men, under Lieutenant-Colonel de Chamillard

de Warville. It was supposed by the minister that they could at least

keep order on the ship! The time limited to the expiration of the

cruise was extended to the end of the month of September.

 

The total complement of the Richard, therefore, according to Jones'

statement, was about three hundred and eighty officers, men, and boys,

including the one hundred and thirty-seven marines. A roll of officers

and men is given by Sherburne in his Life of Jones.

 

On this list, which purports to contain the names of those who were on

board on the date of the battle with the Serapis, are enumerated the

names of but two hundred and twenty-seven officers and men. It omits

the name of de Chamillard and another colonel of infantry, de Weibert,

who were actually on board, and gives no names of the French marines.

Adding the two hundred and twenty-seven to the one hundred and

thirty-seven, we get three hundred and sixty-four, which is as near as

we can come to Jones' figures. There may have been others whose names

were added later on, but at any rate it is safe to take Jones'

statement as practically correct.

 

Assuming that the known factors fairly represented the whole crew, we

find that among the officers twenty-four were Americans, two were

Frenchmen, and six British, including Jones and two surgeon's mates.

Among the seamen fifty-five were American born, sixteen Irish,

sixty-one British, twenty-eight Portuguese, twenty who are not

described, of whom seven were probably Portuguese, and fifteen of

other nationalities, including, according to Cooper, some

Malays--possibly Filipinos learning thus early to fight for freedom

under, not against, the Stars and Stripes! Thus, scarcely more than

one fifth of the complement were native Americans. The marines, of

course, were efficiently organized and commanded, and were of the

usual character of the men in the French service. The rest of the

crew, with the exception of the Americans, who were filling the posts

of petty officers, were a hard-bitten, reckless crowd of adventurers,

mercenaries, bravos, and what not, whom only a man like Jones could

control and successfully direct. Under his iron hand they developed

into as ready a crew as ever fought a ship, and in our estimation of

his subsequent success the fact must not be lost sight of that he made

out of such a motley assemblage so efficient an organization. The

officers were fairly capable, though none of them reached the standard

of Dale, and at least one of them left the cruise with a serious cloud

upon his reputation.

 

Perhaps two thirds of the crew of the Alliance were English seamen who

had been recruited from the men of the line of battle ship Somerset,

which had been wrecked in America, and a large number of her crew

captured. They enlisted on the Alliance in the hope of capturing her

and making their escape, thus avoiding a sojourn in American prisons.

On the way to France, owing to the presence of these men on the ship,

a conspiracy had developed, the successful termination of which was

only prevented by the resolution and courage of Lafayette and the

passengers with the regular officers of the ship. There were but a

small number of Americans on the Alliance, owing to the fact that she

was commanded by a Frenchman, under whom Americans generally refused

to sail. The officers, with few exceptions, were poor in quality. Her

crew had been somewhat improved before the squadron sailed, by the

enlistment of some of the prisoners from the cartel, but it was still

far from being an efficient body of men, and under such a captain as

Landais there was no hope of it ever becoming so.

 

The officers and crew of the Pallas, Vengeance, and Cerf were French

_in toto_, the officers all holding French commissions. The squadron

was entirely at the charges of the French Government, although each of

the officers sailed with a supplementary American commission issued by

Franklin and his _confrères_, and all the vessels were under the

American flag.

 

De Chaumont had been indefatigable in fitting out the ships as best he

could, and personally he had done everything in his power to further

the success of the enterprise. If his labors had ceased there, the

results would have been better; but, probably under the direction of

the minister, and influenced by the natural reluctance of the French

officers and men to serve under the command of an officer of another

country, de Chaumont prepared a concordat, which he suppressed until

just before the time of sailing, when it was exhibited to Jones and

the other captains and their signatures demanded. By the terms of this

singular document the officers and men and the several vessels of the

squadron, instead of being under the absolute charge of Jones himself,

as is the case with every properly organized expedition, were formed

into a species of alliance offensive and defensive; and while, of

course, the headship was necessarily under Jones while he lived, he

was so hampered and restricted by the various articles of the

agreement as to feel himself scarcely more than first among his

equals. He was left with full responsibility for success, but so shorn

of power and ability to compel obedience to his orders as to render it

necessary for him to resort to persuasion to effect his end. Any

ordinary commander would have withdrawn at the last moment, but Jones

was determined upon effecting something; so, with great reluctance and

unavailing protests, he signed the concordat, and the ill-assorted

squadron proceeded on its way.[10]

 

Surely never before was such an expedition for warlike purposes put

forth upon the narrow seas! It is difficult to see what result any

sane man could have legitimately expected from it. That it

accomplished anything was due to Jones himself--commodore by virtue of

a paper agreement, just as binding and effective as any of the several

signers wished it to be! The world had long known him as a man

remarkable for audacity in conception, boldness in planning, hardihood

in carrying out, and downright courage in the supreme moment. As a

seaman and a fighter he had few equals and no masters. But the cruise

developed that he possessed other qualities of leadership which are

sometimes lost sight of in this brilliant galaxy, qualities which his

previous experience had not led us to expect him to exhibit. He was

shown to be considerate, tactful, forbearing, persuasive, holding

himself under strong restraint. Naturally of a passionate, impetuous,

uncontrollable nature, that he exhibited these qualities speaks well

for the man. He had learned to control his feelings in the bitter

school of procrastination, evasion, and disappointment of the past

year.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IX.

THE CRUISE OF THE SQUADRON.

 

 

All things being as ready as it was possible to make them, on the 14th

of August, 1779, amid the booming of cannon and the waving of flags,

the expedition set sail. Very pretty it must have looked, dropping

down the roads, as sail after sail was set on the broad yardarms

extending above the little commander on the poop deck of the Indiaman,

resolutely putting his difficulties and trials behind him, and glad to