John Paul Jones: The Naval Battle That Shocked Britain

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1:02Welcome to the PAS report podcast. Here's your host, Professor Nick Teardano. It's up everyone. So September 23rd 1779. Nightfall will flambarrow head on the English coast. Flames roar across the splinted Dexity, American frigate, Bonhorm, Richard. Sea water poised into the hole beneath the water line below deck. To her heaviest 18 pounder cannons have already exploded. Kill on their own crews blowing out the main deck. British cannon fire from the HMS, Sarapis, a 44 gun Royal Navy warship, tear through the temples, cutting men down by the dozens. The ships are lashed together. Through the suffocating black smoke and the screams that are wounded, the British command that Captain Richard Pearson looks across the decks at the burning sinking wreckage. He cups his hang and shouts through the roar. Have you struck? Do you as for quarter? In other words, have you surrendered? Imagine standing on that. Every standard rule of naval warfare dictates

2:06immediate surrender. Your ship is going down. If you fight on, it's over and everyone on that ship will sink into the icy notes. Yet by the time all said and done, Captain Pearson will be the one to hand this sword to the very man standing on that sinking row. So Han is an immigrant sail born to a humble Scottish gardener. Sail and Outgun converted French merchant vessel into Britain's home waters and capture a Royal Navy warship off in East Coast. To understand how John Paul Jones captured a British warship, while zone went to the bottom of the sea, you have to look at the man who carried the American Revolution straight to King George's Dosta. So welcome to the America's Founding Series, part of the PAS report podcast. I'm your host, Nick Tradano. Make sure to hit that file and subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. So you never miss an episode. And I do this series because the nation affigates the extraordinary individuals who built it inevitably lose the will required to preserve it. And I fear that's what we're witnessing today.

3:07So today, we're going to examine John Paul Jones and man who proved that when your original battle plane collapses, when defeat is staring you in the face, when your back is against a wall, victory belongs to those who refuse to give up in submit. John Paul Jones was never supposed to be an American naval hero. He was born simply John Paul in 1747 in Scotland. The son of a godma, he came from zero wealth, zero political influence, a standing. He was part of the peasant class. At age 13, he went to sea. He mastered the brutal merchant trade through discipline and grit. Now early in his career, he served the board of British slave ship. This was the grim historical reality of the era that he lived. John Paul left that trade and discussed and he permanently abandoned it by his mid-twenties yearned command of his own merchant vessel. But in 1773, of the island of a mutant his crew member confronted him during a wage dispute. Jones drew his sword and killed the man,

4:07fearing that he would get an unfair trial on a hostile local tribune. He fled to Virginia and he added the surname Jones to conceal his identity. And when the American revolution erupted, Jones saw far more than a safe home. He saw a cause worth fighting for. While others saw the continental navy as a joke, especially when you put it up against the greatest maritime power at the time, Jones understood naval strategy. He knew that America could never match Britain ship for ship. He also knew that Britain's home waters, her coastal towns, her vital merchant ship supply lines, they were entirely exposed. And in 1778, commanding the small continental slope, Ranger, Jones did something unthinkable. He sailed directly into British waters. He raided the port of White Haven, captured the royal navy's Chimestrate. This caught the British off guard and they must have been some sense of panic amongst the British. For centuries, the British believed that naval superiority and geography shielded them from foreign conflict. Now you have this

5:11joke of a navy led by Jones shattered out illusion. This bold plan is going to fuel criticism of the royal navy. And it was clear that while the war was raging across the Atlantic, it had reached Britain's own choice. So this led to calls to devote more resources to defending the home islands. And as the French alliance came to fruition, soon Jones would be provided with a larger ship, a worn out converted 40 gun East Indie Army. Jones refitted the vessel, named her Banholm Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin's poor Richard's Almanair. On September 23, 1779, Jones's small squadron spotted a massive British merchant convoy over 40 ships of the Yorkshire coast. HMS Saraphas commanded by Captain Richard Pearson, how guard the convoy alongside the smaller countis of Scarborough. Pearson moved 10 sub-Jones while the merchant ships headed for safety near Scarborough. And as Twilight faded, the two warships closed in. Early in the battle,

6:15two of Banholm Richard's heaviest cannons exploded as her crew fired a second broadside. Jones ordered the remaining 18 pounders to be left unused. These were critical weapons. But Jones could still fight. However, he couldn't use heavy cannon fire when that's going to be a problem because how do you expect to win? He tried to close the distance and board. In the first attempt failed. Then as the ships were maneuvered, Banholm Richard's bow struck Saraphas's stern. Jones grabbed the foam rope from the British ship and helped lash the vessels together. And what began as a disastrous collision became his best remaining chance. His lash chance. The ships allocked together. They cannon muzzles almost touching. British fire tears through the Banholm Richard, but Jones has changed a fight. With the vessels lashed together, his men can fire from the deck and try and board the Saraphas. Pearson still has the stronger warship, but Jones has found a way to keep the fighting with the one he has left. John Paul Jones came to the British coast,

7:20looking for a fight. Now his ship is burning beneath him. And some of his all men believe it's time to surrender. When we get back from a quick break, Captain Pearson is going to ask whether Jones has struck his colors. And what Jones does next is going to determine which captain leaves the battle with the ship. So everyone, hang tight and we'll be right back. Welcome back to the America's Founding Series, part of the PAS Report Podcast. If someone you know needs to hear this story, if they need a reminder of what real grit looks like, take five

8:24seconds right now, text them a link to the episode before the break. We left two battered warships together off the English coast. Jones burning, flooding, bond home Richard and the more heavily on British brigade HMS Saraphas through the suffocating smoke and the screens that are wounded, Captain Richard Pearson saw Jones's ship flooding beneath the waterline. By then Jones was personally firing one of his few remaining deck guns at Saraphas's name ass. Some of his all men are able to find him amid the chaos, though at the fight was lost. They cried for quarter. Pearson heard them. He shouted across the decks, have you struck? Do you wares for quarter? Had the Americans lowered their flag? Why are they surrendering? To someone like Pearson, any rational commander facing total destruction would surrender. But decades later Jones's first lieutenant Richard Dale recalled the legendary reply that echoed back across the water. I have not yet begun to fight. Now whether Jones said those exact

9:25words or something less powerful, his answer was clear. He would not surrender. And defiance is going to be important, but defiance alone is not going to be enough to save his crew. They had a fine the way to win. Jones had already made his most consequential decision. He lashed the ships together at a distance. Saraphas could use a heavier guns to battle on. Locked together, many of Pearson's guns could no longer bear on Bonhoem Richard. The British guns that could fire was still tearing her apart, but Jones had gained another way to fight across the decks and from the rigging overhead. Jones took the battle upstairs. He placed French Marines and American shop shooters high up in the rigging along the tops of the mass. Marines and sailors and Bonhoem Richards fired down on to Saraphas. Their muskifier made it dangerous for British sailors to remain exposed on deck. And it helped Jones men gain the advantage above the two ships. Then came the sheer chaos. Fire came from an unexpected direction. Alliance of frigate and Jones owned squadrons

10:28what passed the lock ships and fired into both of them. Horsharts struck Bonhoem Richard, killed some of Jones's men below deck water cap rising. Elsewhere, the crew fought fires that threatened to reach the powder magazine. But Jones had to keep fighting Saraphas while trying to save the ship beneath him. Think about how difficult that is to do. However, the climax is going to arrive from high above the decks, according to Jones's own account. A Scottish cellan named William Hamilton climbed out along the yard on above Saraphas with a lighted match and a basket of grenades. From there, he hurled the grenades onto the British deck and threw the open hatchweights. One ignited a powder charge below. Fire raced through nearby cartridges. Explosions swept the gun that killing and horribly burning British sailors knocking their guns out of action. And above them, both ships were still burning. The battle could not continue much longer. Saraphas was burning, a gun cruise had suffered terrible losses. Her main mass was close to failing. Pearson had

11:34protected the merchant convoy, but continuing the fight is going to cost more lives. At last, he holds down his colors and surrenders. In Jones's account, Saraphas's main mass fell at that very moment. Captain Pearson stepped out onto the quarter deck, reached up and tore down his own royal colors. The British captain surrendered to a man standing on a sinking ruin. Jones won the duel, but the victory came with a brutal cause. Barnholm Richard was mortally wounded. Jones and his men, they struggled to keep her afloat and they couldn't save her. On September 25, 1779, Jones watched his flagship roll over and slide beneath the icy waters of the North Sea. Now look at that iconic moment. John Paul Jones lost his ship and he hoisted the American flag over the captured HMS Saraphas. He sailed away aboard the very warship that nearly destroyed him

12:34in his crew. Pearson had succeeded in his core tactical mission. While the merchant fleet was able to escape to safety of Scarborough, strategically, Jones delivered a massive psychological blow that stunned the British Empire. An American captain had attacked and captured a royal navy warship off the English coast. This is why John Paul Jones matters to us today. He embodies the American revolutionary spirit, the grit that built America, and Jones proved that leadership is forged in chaos, especially when your original plane collapses. Jones wanted to win a conventional cannon duel, but his heaviest guns blew up in the opening minutes. Now he didn't pretend that the damage wasn't real. He didn't complain that Britain had superior weaponry. He adapted and he was able to turn catash free into victory. Look at our country right now. Too many Americans adopt an attitude of fatalism. The second they feel a challenge is insurmountable. They quit and give up. They like to

13:39blame others. We see this going on throughout our country. We also see the institutional decay that's been affecting our government for so long. bureaucrats abusing their power of fraud and corruption go unpunished. And it's easy to look at all this. It's easy to sit there and blame the uniparty. It's easy to decide that your voice doesn't matter. That America's decline is inevitable. But Jones's story challenges that instinct. He saw the damage with his own eyes. And then he is. What he and his crew can still do. Yes, America is in a difficult position right now. There's no doubt about it. And returning to the principles that made this country strong, including limited government, self-reliance, fiscal responsibility, it's not an easy task. But difficulty is not a reason to surrender. It's not a reason to give up. It doesn't mean that you don't take a stand. See, it's easy to take a stand when everything goes according to plan. But the real measure of man is not by how they behave when everything goes exactly the way it's

14:44supposed to. You measure them by what they do when the water is rising, when the debt catches fire, when the enemy demands their surrender. Jones and his crew faced that moment. They saw that their first plan had failed, but they refused to submit. Instead, they found another way to fight and ultimately captured the ship that had nearly destroyed them. That's why this story is important today. And that's why you need to share this story with others. Texting them a link to the episode. Share it with those who believe America's best days are behind us. Aston, when the challenge we face looks insurmountable, will you accept defeat and surrender? Or you find the resolve to keep fighting. At PASReport.com. And follow Professor G. Ordano on all social media platforms. At PASReport.