‘I have not yet begun to fight!’
John Paul Jones was a Revolutionary War hero known as the father of the U.S. Navy. Born in Scotland in 1747, Jones came to America as a merchant sailor. When the American Revolution broke out, Jones sided with the colonists and joined the Continental Navy, with his greatest victory coming from his against-all-odds defeat of the British warship Serapis in 1779. After the Continental Navy disbanded, Jones found his way to Paris where he died in 1792. Over one hundred years later, his remains were brought back to the United States where he was laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland.
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‘I have not yet begun to fight!’
In 1779 Jones would go down in history as one of the greatest naval commanders of the Revolutionary War. En route to raid British shipping, Jones’ warship, Bon Homme Richard (named after Benjamin Franklin), came head to head with the more powerful English warship HMS Serapis off the North Sea.
After three hours of relentless gunfire between the two vessels, Jones slammed Bon Homme into Serapis, strategically tying them together. Legend has it that when the British asked if Jones was ready to surrender, he famously responded: “I have not yet begun to fight!”
After one of Jones’ naval officers tossed a grenade onto Serapis, causing severe damage, it was the British who ultimately surrendered. Jones’ surprise victory against the better-equipped British naval ship had turned him into an international hero.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/john-paul-jones
