John Paul Jones: America's Sailor: Founders of the Republic

John Paul Jones died in Paris at the age of forty-five, thousands of miles away from the country he helped to found, bitter and sad that he had not fulfilled his dream of becoming famous. Still, he had lived an exceptional life. Born John Paul in 1747, the son of a gardener on a vast Scottish estate, he went to sea at age thirteen on a merchant ship and quickly rose through the ranks. Skilled and hardworking, he also had a fiery temper. When a fight left a sailor dead, John Paul changed his name and fled to America.Jones rallied to the American cause at the outbreak of the Revolution. After years of frustration at not receiving a naval command that would earn him the glory he so desired, he was finally given command of the Bonhomme Richard. The naval battle he engaged in with the British ship Serapis in September 1779 would eventually earn him a place in the history books. The years after the war were not good to Jones, who had a talent for making powerful enemies. He traveled to Europe, where he was made a rear admiral in Catherine the Great's Russian navy, then returned to France where he died. It was not until 1905 that the remains of the man we know as the Father of the American Navy were brought back to the United States. Today he is buried in a crypt beneath the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where a marine honor guard stands watch over his remains.