John Paul Jones: From the High Seas to a Lost Grave and Homecoming at Annapolis
Travel to Historic Locations with History or Drive.
Scott and Jenn recount Commodore John Paul Jones’s rise from a Scottish sailor who began at sea at 13 to a celebrated Continental Navy officer known for taking the fight to Britain, including the 1779 Bonhomme Richard battle with HMS Serapis that produced his famous refusal to surrender.
They follow the 1905–1906 detective effort to locate his remains under a paved-over Paris cemetery, their identification, Theodore Roosevelt’s battleship-escorted return to the U.S., and his 1913 reinterment in a sarcophagus beneath the Naval Academy Chapel crypt in Annapolis.
00:00 I Have Not Yet Begun
00:55 Welcome
02:04 Reviews
03:02 Annapolis Crypt Visit
05:23 Early Life At Sea
09:48 Becoming John Paul Jones
12:44 Continental Navy Rise
14:17 Privateer Or Pirate?
18:05 Serapis Legendary Battle
21:00 Russia Scandal Exile
24:42 Death And Lost Grave
26:37 Finding John Paul Jones
31:11 Crypt Legacy
33:06 Final Reflection
📍 Map to John Paul Jone's Crypt
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Transcript
Imagine standing on the deck of a burning, battered frigate in the North Sea.
Speaker:Your ship is sinking beneath your feet, your guns are bursting from
Speaker:the heat, and the British captain across the water shouts through the
Speaker:smoke, demanding your surrender.
Speaker:Most men would strike their colors, but John Paul Jones wasn't most men.
Speaker:He yells back into the teeth of the Royal Navy, "I have not yet begun to
Speaker:fight." He was a man of fierce, almost reckless bravery, a Scotsman who took
Speaker:the fight straight to the shores of Great Britain and cemented his legacy
Speaker:as a father of the United States Navy.
Speaker:But history isn't always kind to its heroes.
Speaker:Decades after his greatest triumphs, this legendary commodore would find himself
Speaker:forgotten, dying in poverty in Paris, and buried in an unmarked grave that was paved
Speaker:over and lost to time for over a century.
Speaker:Welcome to Talk With History, one filmmaker, one historian, leading
Speaker:history-inspired world travels for the curious, the history
Speaker:lovers, and the explorer in us all.
Speaker:I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jenn.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Today, we're tracing one of the most unbelievable journeys in naval history.
Speaker:We're exploring the incredible rise of the father of the US Navy, his tactical genius
Speaker:during the American Revolution, and the tragic, lonely end of his life in France.
Speaker:But more importantly, we're talking about the great historical detective
Speaker:story that brought him home.
Speaker:Jenn recently visited his final resting place, not a forgotten plot
Speaker:in Paris, but a magnificent marble and bronze crypt hidden beneath the
Speaker:chapel at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Speaker:We're sharing what it's like to stand in that chamber and dive
Speaker:deep into how a forgotten hero was finally given the honor he deserved.
Speaker:Today, we set sail with the ultimate naval adventurer, Commodore John Paul Jones.
Speaker:All right, Jenn, before we jump into this topic that is completely
Speaker:appropriate for this channel since you and I are both hardcore Navy-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who's your daddy?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, we have A five-star review.
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Speaker:Um, but we got a pod- uh, five-star review from Big Mac AD. So five stars.
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Speaker:accident." Welcome, Big Mac.
Speaker:"And I'm so glad I decided to listen.
Speaker:Love what you are doing.
Speaker:Thanks for the great insights and making history exciting.
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Speaker:All right, Jenn, so you went to my alma mater-
Speaker:Without you.
Speaker:What's up?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:without me, right?
Speaker:So you were, you were up there cruising with American
Speaker:Cruise- American Cruise Lines.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And went to Annapolis, Maryland.
Speaker:You did a couple videos there, and so we'll have a, a
Speaker:series of videos and podcasts.
Speaker:We'll be talking about the Naval Academy in Annapolis and all that stuff.
Speaker:But this is one, a very interesting topic because we all know
Speaker:Well, many Navy folks know that John Paul Jones is the father of the ... considered
Speaker:the, the father of the US Navy.
Speaker:And, but I didn't know the circumstances around his death, where he was
Speaker:originally buried, and how he was actually brought to the Naval Academy.
Speaker:Yeah, so there's two stories here, really.
Speaker:There's the story of John Paul Jones and him cementing himself in
Speaker:the history of America, and then there's the story of bringing John
Speaker:Paul Jones' body back to America.
Speaker:So there really is a, you know, a lot to be said about him.
Speaker:Uh, but going to the crypt, it's such a, such an honor to go there.
Speaker:I mean, the chapel is beautiful, the Naval Academy chapel.
Speaker:It is the dome you can see the highest in the, the city of Annapolis.
Speaker:It's even higher than the state building there, and it's a big copper
Speaker:dome, and it's a beautiful chapel.
Speaker:Lots of beautiful stained glass.
Speaker:Very, um, nautical.
Speaker:There's a lot of, like, odes to the sea and odes to-
Speaker:There's, like, a stain- stained glass of, like, the captain at
Speaker:Mobile Bay and all this stuff
Speaker:... and, like, and God basically watching over sailors, basically.
Speaker:And so, but it wasn't originally built with the crypt, and it wasn't
Speaker:originally built with the idea that John Paul Jones would be in the crypt.
Speaker:And so much so that when John Paul Jones' body is originally found and brought
Speaker:back to America, he's put in Bancroft Hall until his crypt can be completed
Speaker:underneath the Naval Academy chapel.
Speaker:And Bancroft Hall, you'll see on a subsequent video, is the
Speaker:biggest dormitory in the world.
Speaker:It's where all the
Speaker:midshipmen live.
Speaker:The biggest continuous dormitory in the world.
Speaker:It's all connected.
Speaker:And they have a memorial hall there to all the people who have served
Speaker:and sacrificed their lives to, uh, to the cause, to America, and so his-
Speaker:His crypt was, or his coffin was in there until it was put into the crypt.
Speaker:But let's talk more about how John Paul Jones really cements his name
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Te- tell me about the circumstances around him standing on a, on a burning
Speaker:ship yelling at the British, "I have not yet begun to fight," because that sounds
Speaker:like a very stubborn sailor thing to say.
Speaker:It's like, you have to think, John Paul Jones is a sailor's sailor.
Speaker:He really is a man who loves to sail.
Speaker:Uh, he becomes a sailor at 13 years old, and he really gets his chance and
Speaker:proves himself in the circumstances.
Speaker:We always say that smooth seas do not make good sailors, right?
Speaker:He loses, uh, he loses a captain, he loses a first mate, and so he has to
Speaker:kind of stand up and become these people.
Speaker:And so he's really like, you know, what do, what do you- Kind
Speaker:of thrust to the forefront.
Speaker:Yeah, right, death by fire, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is what we usually say.
Speaker:Like, you're just kind of pushed into it.
Speaker:So that's where he really proves himself.
Speaker:Now, you had said in the opening, strike your colors, and a lot of people
Speaker:don't understand what that means.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's a naval term that means surrender your colors.
Speaker:So if you strike your colors, it means you're, you're taking them down, and
Speaker:you're surrendering to somebody else.
Speaker:So when you're asked to strike your colors, basically that British captain
Speaker:is asking him for his surrender.
Speaker:Yeah, it's similar to how we talk about, um, different army battles, right?
Speaker:Different, uh, you know, when they're, when they're holding the colors, they're
Speaker:holding the flag out in front to kind of show where the front of the line is.
Speaker:If those colors fall, you know, the soldiers can kind of see that, and they
Speaker:can know, oh, well, you were faltering.
Speaker:So it's a similar concept that the colors, it's a signal.
Speaker:It's not just the symbol of your ship, of your country, or wherever you're from.
Speaker:It's also a, a symbol.
Speaker:It's also a signal to the rest of the fleet saying, "Oh, you know,
Speaker:the lead ship struck their colors.
Speaker:They, they brought them down.
Speaker:They're surrendering." Or maybe they haul up a white flag or whatever it
Speaker:is, but that's what he did not do.
Speaker:Yeah, so when you say those nautical terms that people might not know what they are,
Speaker:I want to kind of explain them sometimes because we get so used to saying them
Speaker:that people who aren't in- Ship life.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I know what that means.
Speaker:Like, are you striking- Yeah ... slapping him or something?
Speaker:I, I, I run, I run into that all the time.
Speaker:I mean, it's anybody in any, any industry, right?
Speaker:And for me and my fellow, uh, Navy brothers and sisters, you know, it
Speaker:happens to us on a fairly regular basis.
Speaker:So, uh, John Paul, as he's born with the name John Paul, uh, he's born in
Speaker:Scotland, so you can probably relate to him because Scott- uh, ancestry is
Speaker:Scottish too, in, uh, 1747, uh, July 6th.
Speaker:And again, at 13 years old, he started his maritime career.
Speaker:He sails out of Whitehaven, it's a northern Eng- English county, and he's
Speaker:apprentice on board The Friendship.
Speaker:So, um, his older brother who's kind of gotten him, him... Again, he's a, he's
Speaker:not the oldest, he's the second brother.
Speaker:You're not gonna be inheriting your family fortune.
Speaker:Well, and, and if you think about it then too, right, the, Britain
Speaker:is known for their naval power.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:If you're gonna pick a profession, being a sailor, you know, trying to go
Speaker:off and, and sail for, you know, the British Navy or, or whatever it was,
Speaker:even, even if it wasn't in the Navy, even if it was just, like, working
Speaker:a merchant ship, British naval power and that experience and that industry
Speaker:was very much a viable career path.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:So he's, he works as a sailor, uh, is aboard several merchant ships.
Speaker:And in 1764, he becomes involved in the slave trade, and he becomes a
Speaker:third mate on board a slave ship, and two years later he's, um, the
Speaker:crew of a, of a larger slave ship.
Speaker:Uh, he leaves the slave trade, though, after several voyages.
Speaker:He describes it as an abominable trade-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:in 1798.
Speaker:Um, and he books passage back to Scotland.
Speaker:He just, he doesn't want his career to be a part of the slave trade anymore.
Speaker:But it's that next brig, he's on the John, um, when both the captain and the first
Speaker:mate die of yellow fever, and the crew encourage and vote for him to navigate
Speaker:the ship back to port, which he does.
Speaker:And because he's so successful, that ship's owners make him master of the ship.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And- So that's how he worked his way up.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And that's really what you want as a captain, but it's the ship owner that has
Speaker:to instill that kind of responsibility in you because they're ultimately
Speaker:financially responsible for the ship.
Speaker:So they want a captain who's gonna bring in the goods, bring it to
Speaker:port, and not, and gonna keep the, you know, respect of the crew.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So how did he, how did John Paul Jones go from working British merchant ships or
Speaker:whatever mer- merchant ships k- to kind of becoming a, like a, an American, right,
Speaker:you know, or colonial at the time- Mm-hmm
Speaker:you know, naval officer?
Speaker:So he, you know, he's working, he's, he's working a bunch of d- ships.
Speaker:He's engaging in, um, the tobacco trade.
Speaker:He, um, there's, there's some mutinies that happen on his ship.
Speaker:He's pretty, um, he's a corporal punishment guy.
Speaker:Oh, so he's, he's kinda hardcore.
Speaker:He's hardcore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He- He, he brings, uh, he has an incident where, uh, uh, he kills
Speaker:a mutinous crew member with a sword over d- a dispute in wages.
Speaker:Years later, he's gonna write a letter to Benjamin Franklin describing the
Speaker:incident, claiming it was self-defense, but he was not willing to wait to be tried
Speaker:in an admiral's court, which would've taken months, and the family of his
Speaker:victim was very influential, so he felt compelled to flee, and that's when he,
Speaker:um, gets his, makes his way to Virginia.
Speaker:Ah, okay.
Speaker:So, so like many, many folks over there, he's got a little bit of rebel in him.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:He's come, coming over to America to get away from basically being tried.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he leaves his fortune behind.
Speaker:Boy, that's a classic Navy sail- So quick aside.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I've had sailors work for me when I f- when I first came on my very
Speaker:first ship, and people hear about this, but this is, this was a thing.
Speaker:I don't know if it's a thing anymore, but I had a sailor that worked for me.
Speaker:Sailor got in trouble, uh, while this sailor was in college, got in a fight,
Speaker:put this person in the hospital, and the judge said, "You can go to
Speaker:jail, or you can go into the Navy." And the sailor picked the Navy.
Speaker:So that is a there's, there's a little bit of, uh, a little bit of heritage,
Speaker:heritage there that, uh, I don't, again, I don't, that was 20-plus
Speaker:years ago, but, uh, it, it happens.
Speaker:It happens.
Speaker:It sounds like John Paul Jones kinda set that, set that initial standard.
Speaker:These reputations come from somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And I mean, what I can gather from, from Jones is, so this is the time
Speaker:he's gonna take up the name Jones, is when he makes it to America.
Speaker:He's fleeing after these incidences that have happened on ship where he
Speaker:claims self-defense, but he had to get away because he doesn't have the
Speaker:time to stand trial, and he doesn't think he's gonna be treated fairly.
Speaker:That's when he's gonna take up the surname Jones, also, I think, to kind
Speaker:of hide himself a little bit more.
Speaker:It's a very tough life in the Navy, in- Especially,
Speaker:especially back then
Speaker:... at this time, right?
Speaker:And you have to prove yourself as a sailor, and it's violent,
Speaker:and it's tough, and he did that.
Speaker:When he was challenged, he would defend himself.
Speaker:So- It's not far from the truth- Yeah ... this rough and tumble group of, of men who
Speaker:are really, um, survivalists on the sea.
Speaker:And Jones has really proven, proven himself in that degree.
Speaker:So it's the summer of 1775.
Speaker:He's in America.
Speaker:He's taken the name Jones.
Speaker:He's meeting other revolutionary leaders in Philadelphia, and, um, he becomes
Speaker:fond of this country, and he expresses himself that he would like to volunteer
Speaker:his services for the Continental Navy.
Speaker:So this is where people will say Admiral Barry is the father of the Navy, and
Speaker:I always point to Barry is the father of the Continental Navy, so he's the
Speaker:first commodore appointed by George Washington himself to be commodore
Speaker:of the Navy, and that is Barry, and that is the statue you will see at
Speaker:Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Speaker:John Paul Jones they consider the father of the American Navy because he's gonna
Speaker:volunteer his, his services to the newly founded Continental Navy, and that's when
Speaker:the Navy and the Marines are being formed.
Speaker:And so he's appointed first lieutenant of the newly converted 21-gun frigate
Speaker:USS Alfred on December 7th, 1775.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker:So this is where he starts to make his name, right?
Speaker:He sails from the Delaware, uh- He's made command of a smaller ship,
Speaker:the USS Ranger, on June 14th, 1777.
Speaker:And although he's not happy with that, he has frustrations over that, he's
Speaker:gonna do the job, he's gonna do it well.
Speaker:And he sails for France with this ship.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And he's going there to help Benjamin Franklin and others as- Oh, like
Speaker:he sails out to France.
Speaker:He sails out to France.
Speaker:Uh, for
Speaker:France.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:He's sailing out to France, um, just to assist in the American
Speaker:cause- Yep ... in any way possible.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and this is when the Rangers, um, full-on attacks the British.
Speaker:So what John Paul Jones does that's different than most
Speaker:American sailors at the time, is he's really not on the defensive.
Speaker:He's on the offensive, and that's why people really love him.
Speaker:It's just this crazy Scotsman out there being like, "Let's do this."
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I mean, he is a experienced sailor.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's sailed many, uh, voyages back and forth across the Atlantic.
Speaker:So unlike a lot of other, um, Continental American sailors, he has experience.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He's, he's in his element.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And so he, he gets out there, he attacks the British.
Speaker:Uh, people at first start to think of him as a little bit like a
Speaker:pirate, because he's really, uh, he, his gain was not honorable.
Speaker:He just goes out and just attacks these ships and tries to take
Speaker:everything he can from them.
Speaker:Um, now he's doing it under the colors of America, and if you ever
Speaker:see the flag of John Paul Jones, it's a 12-star American flag, and
Speaker:that is what he is using as his flag.
Speaker:And he, and he does commandeer things for America and give it back to America,
Speaker:but this is where I always talk about this fine line between privateering-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:and pirates.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it was a very fine line, but then you had to know exactly what
Speaker:they were commandeering, and I don't know how many were straightforward
Speaker:with what they actually plundered.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, and if you think about it, at the time- Mm-hmm ... I think John Paul
Speaker:Jones benefited from the timing of their conflict with the British, and
Speaker:the timing of he's kind of probably at the peak of his career, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:His experience and all this stuff, and so he can go out there and just
Speaker:kind of, you know, Yosemite Sam it, you know, just kind of shooting from
Speaker:the hip, you know, and attacking the British, and, you know, back, back in the
Speaker:States, they're like, "Eh, he's kind of pushing the envelope, but you know what?
Speaker:We're, we're...
Speaker:We've got a conflict with the British anyways.
Speaker:He's not hurting us, and he's hurting them.
Speaker:We're just gonna kind of let him keep going."
Speaker:Sometimes when his crew would pull into port, he kind of allowed them to do it
Speaker:in the ports they were pulling into.
Speaker:He allowed them to have a good time and plunder, and that also got him into
Speaker:some trouble as well, uh, because he's actually, at this point in his life, he's
Speaker:walking this fine line, as we understand, between pirate and, and diplomatic
Speaker:because he is now the captain of a ship.
Speaker:So most captains of ships are now the aristocrat class.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Even though you're not born into it, you're going to parties, you're meeting
Speaker:people, you're starting to have a title and have some money around you.
Speaker:So it, it's so funny because, you know, as As kind of down and dirty as he was,
Speaker:and I'm sure some of the things he did, and, and they kind of- we'll talk a
Speaker:little bit about his, his later life, you know, and why he kind of died in poverty.
Speaker:Um, it's interesting because, you know, you have these kind of
Speaker:two types of sailors that work their way up from nothing, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm, yeah.
Speaker:Which he, he kind of essentially did.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then there's folks who were born into this, and they were officers from
Speaker:the very beginning and all this stuff, and he is very much the other side, the
Speaker:ruffian side, you know, just on the, on the, on the, the sword's edge of what's
Speaker:allowed and, and probably, you know, pushing it over that, over that edge.
Speaker:So it's during this time that Jones is still leading the Ranger.
Speaker:He takes a British ship, the Drake.
Speaker:It's a big deal, but it still has some controversy around it.
Speaker:Jones tries to put one of his men in court-martial.
Speaker:John Adams stops that from happening.
Speaker:So Jones is... He doesn't feel like he's very supported by America, even though
Speaker:he's doing some big things for America.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But in 1779, he takes command of a bigger ship.
Speaker:Because the Ranger was able to take a British ship, he's given a reward-
Speaker:Yep ... and that's a bigger ship.
Speaker:It's the 42-gun US Bonhomme Richard.
Speaker:Um, this is a merchant ship rebuilt and given to America by the
Speaker:French, and this is, again, what does John Paul Jones like to do?
Speaker:Likes to be on the offensive.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And he goes out and attacks the British.
Speaker:Um, and that, this is where on September 23rd, he's gonna meet a large merchant
Speaker:convoy off the coast of England.
Speaker:This is when he meets the HMS Serapis.
Speaker:So it's the Bonhomme Richard coming, uh, to the Serapis, where they
Speaker:have this big fight at, at 7:00 PM.
Speaker:Uh, the battle begins, um, and it looks like the Bonhomme Richard is gonna falter.
Speaker:I mean, they are getting hit.
Speaker:They, uh, they are getting hit with the big guns.
Speaker:Uh, s- the captain of the Serapis comes over and asks for him to
Speaker:strike his colors, so asking basically for his surrender.
Speaker:Like, "We don't wanna burn your ship.
Speaker:We would rather take it as plunder, and we want- do- we
Speaker:don't wanna kill all your men."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:" So will you strike your colors?" And this is his famous line, "I have not
Speaker:yet begun to fight." Now- What they think he actually said is, "I refuse to
Speaker:strike my colors." So he, he actually like responded to what he said.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:okay.
Speaker:But it's turned into, "I have not yet begun to..." This is his famous- So
Speaker:there, there's a little bit of legend sprinkled in
Speaker:there.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:A little bit of legend sprinkled in there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so it says more than likely he said, "I may sink, but
Speaker:I'll be damned if I strike."
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's what he said.
Speaker:Um- So that's
Speaker:what he, that was his actual words.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So his actual words are basically, "I'm prepared to go down with my ship. Even if
Speaker:you sink me, I'm not gonna surrender." And d- because of that, they keep fighting,
Speaker:and his men really see this in him.
Speaker:They also happen to get a grenade across to the British ship, and it blows up,
Speaker:and it really does hinder the Serapis.
Speaker:So the Bonhomme Richard is successful in this battle, and this is something that
Speaker:the Americans really can rally around.
Speaker:America attacked the British.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They were able to take the Serapis as their plunder, and this is where you get
Speaker:John Paul Jones just making his name.
Speaker:Um, still considered a bit of a pirate, still considered a bit of- Right
Speaker:a rebel.
Speaker:Uh, but he has all of these stereotypes that kinda come inside
Speaker:with, uh, with a sailor in America.
Speaker:So that's how John Paul Jones kind of, that the le- that's how the
Speaker:legend of John Paul Jones was born.
Speaker:So let's fast-forward a bit.
Speaker:'Cause the interesting part was you visiting the crypt, right?
Speaker:Now, and he wasn't originally buried there.
Speaker:So, so he fights for the United States for a while longer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In June of 18- uh, in June of 1782, he's appointed the command of the,
Speaker:uh, USS America, but his command falls through when Congress decides
Speaker:to give the America to the French.
Speaker:They wanna replace one of the French ships that was, uh, part,
Speaker:that, that sank fighting for America, so they give it to them.
Speaker:As a result, he's given an assignment in Europe, and he's not given a ship, so
Speaker:he, um, h- he resigns his commission in America, and he actually goes to Russia.
Speaker:Uh, he enters service into Empress Catherine II of Russia.
Speaker:She p- she places a lot of confidence in him, and he's giving, given a
Speaker:ship in Russia, and that's where you, you hear John Paul Jones
Speaker:will become an admiral in Russia.
Speaker:This is what happens at that
Speaker:point.
Speaker:Yeah, 'cause he was, he was never an admiral in the United States Navy.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:He was only a captain/commodore, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Commodore is, is a captain who has multiple ships-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... that report to him.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So he goes over.
Speaker:He's... So he, he's like, "Okay, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, w-
Speaker:you know, what I'm best at, which is being on the high seas fighting ships."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so he goes and- Yeah ... fights for Russia for a little bit.
Speaker:Catherine the Great makes him a rear admiral.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he does very well for them.
Speaker:He takes, you know, he takes ships, he leads ships.
Speaker:He does a good job.
Speaker:But it's during this time that he gets in trouble with, um, the law, uh- This
Speaker:is in Russia?
Speaker:In Russia.
Speaker:He's accused, accused of raping a 10-year-old girl.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Now, I get a lot of- controversy about this because America honors
Speaker:him as the Father of the Navy, yet he has this accusation in Russia.
Speaker:Now, you have to understand, a lot of the primary sources
Speaker:around this are conflicting.
Speaker:Uh, Jones will claim that this was a prostitute that he paid regularly,
Speaker:and she wasn't 10 years old.
Speaker:And there were people in Russia who were trying to smear Jones.
Speaker:They did want to ruin his career because he was doing so well.
Speaker:And as you can imagine, Catherine the Great did not have fans, so anyone
Speaker:who Catherine the Great liked, they were trying to take out as well.
Speaker:So it's, it's really, it's kind of unclear because of these conflicting,
Speaker:these, these conflicting reports.
Speaker:Like his word, kind of what he said was, were the facts, versus these,
Speaker:these other folks on the other side-
Speaker:Yes
Speaker:... and what they were saying.
Speaker:He was willing to stand trial.
Speaker:There was one witness really for the prosecution, and they later found
Speaker:out that he was being paid- Oh,
Speaker:really?
Speaker:... by the people who didn't like Catherine.
Speaker:And Catherine, she very much was a proponent of women's rights at the
Speaker:time, so she really wanted to stick up for this young girl, who proved
Speaker:that she was more along the age of 12, 13, and did work in prostitution.
Speaker:Still not a great age, but you have to understand the time
Speaker:was a little different as well.
Speaker:Um, so basically he gets retired to France.
Speaker:He gets a pension from Russia, but sent to France to kind of, Catherine just
Speaker:kind of wants to get him out of her hair.
Speaker:So it sounds like he was doing things that today would be very
Speaker:morally and legally objectionable.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Very much so today.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:At the time, was it legal?
Speaker:Okay, he's in Russia, different time, different era, right?
Speaker:He said one thing, the other side said the other thing.
Speaker:So they basically kind of just pushed him out and retired him,
Speaker:and kind of said, "Okay, thank you for your service. Be on your way."
Speaker:Yes, and because he's actually, you know, entering into those
Speaker:compromising situations- Yeah ... they were able to kind of catch him.
Speaker:So to his detriment as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so it's in May of 1790, he's gonna arrive in Paris.
Speaker:He retains his position as a rear admiral.
Speaker:He still corresponds with people, um, but no one's gonna give him a ship anymore.
Speaker:No one's gonna give him a commission.
Speaker:And it's in 1792, uh, two years later in June, um, where
Speaker:he will, uh, be found dead.
Speaker:Well, actually in July of 1792, he's found dead at 45 years old, uh, in an
Speaker:apartment in Paris, and they believe the cause was something with his kidneys.
Speaker:They're not sure.
Speaker:It probably was some kind of alcohol-related incident.
Speaker:Um, but he was 45 years old.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And so upon his death, he owes significant money to other people.
Speaker:He was ... But he's, you have to realize he's never directly paid for his
Speaker:service on the Bena- Bahar- Bouchard.
Speaker:He's never given ... He's, he's earned a lot of land in America.
Speaker:He's never given compensated for that.
Speaker:So as much as he dies in ruin with debt, he's also never paid.
Speaker:He's a, he's a true sailor, right?
Speaker:It's hard to get paid for those things that you've done.
Speaker:Um, and he's buried in a metal coffin, and he's buried in, like,
Speaker:an alcohol in a metal coffin.
Speaker:Um, but his grave goes unmarked and, um, and he's buried in an old cemetery that
Speaker:by the time America starts to look for his coffin, his burial place had been lost.
Speaker:And so much so the cemetery had kind of gone undiscovered and paved over,
Speaker:and a building was built over it.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it was, like, the- what I was looking at was, like, a laundromat.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like, I mean, it's like it literally they had built a building on top of it that
Speaker:was being used, like, to, to do laundry.
Speaker:Yeah, so he was basically forgotten.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So to Scott's point, how does he end up in this, a massive beautiful sarcophagus
Speaker:underneath the Naval Academy chapel?
Speaker:Well, it's in 1905 when a US ambassador to France, um, searches
Speaker:for six years to track down his body.
Speaker:He uses a 19, um, he uses an 1851 copy of the missing burial record, and he knows
Speaker:that he was buried in a lead coffin.
Speaker:They're able to search under the ground.
Speaker:They don't move the building or anything, but they're able to go in
Speaker:kind of to the side and use these metal rods as they search under
Speaker:the ground, and they hit lead.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:And they find five lead coffins, and they pull all of them out.
Speaker:So they, like, kind of dig vertically- Mm-hmm ... or, yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:For, yeah, they dig, they dig sideways to get to the coffins.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And they pull out the five coffins and, um, it, he's found in the third one.
Speaker:He's un- un- unearthed April 7th, 1905.
Speaker:Um, they said he was immediately recognizable.
Speaker:Yeah, so what I was reading online when I was doing my own initial
Speaker:research for this was that the, the person who ended up, who initially
Speaker:buried him was, you know, a French businessman with a little bit of money.
Speaker:And they knew that because of who he was, that he might be
Speaker:sought off, sought after later.
Speaker:So whoever buried him paid extra money to have him buried basically in alcohol-
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:in this lead coffin, knowing, eh, America might come, somebody
Speaker:might come looking for this guy.
Speaker:Yeah, someone might come knocking on his door one day.
Speaker:And, and they did.
Speaker:And so then when they opened it up, the thing that I read was like
Speaker:his limbs were still flexible.
Speaker:Like, they could recognize him, which was crazy.
Speaker:It
Speaker:was, yeah, I mean, think he dies in 1792, and they find him in 1905.
Speaker:Yeah, 100 years, 100-plus years later.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:But they, they have a bust of him, plus he's buried in uniform, and they
Speaker:were able to match dental records.
Speaker:Plus that bust they were able to say looked facially like him.
Speaker:Yeah, and you show the bust and the video.
Speaker:So when you go down to the crypt, there's a couple things that are surrounding the
Speaker:crypt, and there's a, I don't know if it's not the bust, but it's, it's a, a
Speaker:recreation of the bust o- of his face.
Speaker:And so they used that because it had been made before he died.
Speaker:To basically identify him.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And his body is brought to the United States, uh, on April 24th, 1906.
Speaker:His coffin's installed in Bancroft Hall.
Speaker:So interesting thing there, right?
Speaker:They didn't just, like, ship his body back over.
Speaker:So, and this is what I love.
Speaker:I've talked about this before, about, like, connecting historical figures
Speaker:when you're, you're talking about these disparate things, 'cause we talk
Speaker:about John Paul Jones, and we think, you know, 1700s and all that stuff.
Speaker:When he's dug up, so it's President Theodore Roosevelt who basically says,
Speaker:"Hey, we're not just gonna ship his body back. We're gonna give him, like, a few
Speaker:ships, and they're going to escort his body back from France back to the United
Speaker:States." So they give him, like, a, a, essentially, like, a kind of a hero's
Speaker:welcome, right, bringing him back over.
Speaker:It's Teddy Roosevelt,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:So con-con- Yeah, seven United States battleships.
Speaker:Yeah, connect that in your brain, right?
Speaker:Teddy Roosevelt was president when John Paul Jones, the father
Speaker:of the US Navy, was brought home.
Speaker:I just found that very fascinating.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Seven battleships escort him home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and again, the, the ceremony at Dahlgren, is it Dahlgren Hall?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, was presided over by Teddy Roosevelt, who gave a speech paying tribute to Jones.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And he held him as an example to the officers of the Navy.
Speaker:So this is why we laugh- I, I know ... about the way Navy sailors act.
Speaker:If you really wanna hold John Paul Jones in, as an example, then us Navy
Speaker:sailors are doing an exceptional job.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:the, the, the culture of the Navy is not what it was, even when, when you
Speaker:and I were first in- That's- ... twen- over 20-plus years ago, 25 years ago.
Speaker:Um- You know, they, they used to joke, you know, on, on the enlisted
Speaker:side, like you couldn't make chief unless you'd been to mast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So, so that, that's, that was kind of the running joke.
Speaker:Now, again, I think the culture of the Navy has gotten a wh- a whole
Speaker:lot better, um, and so that is not, not as much the case anymore.
Speaker:But there is- Like to
Speaker:joke about
Speaker:it ... there is this kind of rabble-rouser, you know, uh,
Speaker:aura o- of, of sailors in port and, and all that stuff.
Speaker:So, um, just an interesting aside.
Speaker:And mast is when you're held to a disciplinary board- Yes
Speaker:in the United States military.
Speaker:You
Speaker:get in trouble, you go to captain's mast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So that's you going before the captain, the captain doling out punishment.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Again, a term that more, my, people might not know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, on January 26th, 1913, the captain's re- remains were reinterred in a
Speaker:bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy chapel in Annapolis.
Speaker:So that is when he was officially moved to the location you see on the video.
Speaker:In the sarcophagus befitting of a Navy captain that is adorned with
Speaker:seaweed on the back of four dolphins.
Speaker:It is a, a beautiful, uh, rendition to someone who was a sailor and, uh,
Speaker:just of the sea, and it really is, when you go there, something that's
Speaker:so honorable to someone who is the father of the United States Navy.
Speaker:And it's a beautiful... Again, for those listening, you know, I would encourage
Speaker:you guys to try to go check out the video, which I'll link in the show notes,
Speaker:but it's beautiful sarcophagus, right?
Speaker:So it's this kinda dark green, white, uh, like special kind of a marble.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's got bronze dolphins and sea monsters and anchors all kind of
Speaker:carved in and around it, seaweed on it.
Speaker:It's just a beautiful setting kinda down underneath the, the, the chapel.
Speaker:It's, it's something you gotta see if you're gonna go to Annapolis,
Speaker:and you can get on and visit the, the, the Naval Academy.
Speaker:It's very befitting.
Speaker:Uh, I also wanted people to know that Jones was given
Speaker:an honorary pardon in 1999-
Speaker:Oh, I didn't know that
Speaker:by the Port of Whitehaven for his raid of the town.
Speaker:Remember when I talked about- ... sailors going into town.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so posthumously, he's been more, um, forgiven for his acts, uh,
Speaker:because at the time he is operating under, you know, wartime procedures.
Speaker:But as a sailor, as a Navy veteran, it, it is a place of honor for us
Speaker:to visit, and I was honored to go.
Speaker:It is beautiful, and I definitely recommend it for everybody.
Speaker:When John Paul Jones closed his eyes for the last time in a lonely Paris
Speaker:apartment, he had no idea that his final battle would be a century-long
Speaker:game of historical hide and seek.
Speaker:He died in the shadows, but his legacy was built for the light.
Speaker:It took the obsession of an American ambassador, the ingenuity of French
Speaker:engineers, and a lead coffin frozen in time to pull the father of the
Speaker:US Navy out from underneath the streets of Paris and bring him back
Speaker:to the nation he helped create.
Speaker:Today, when you stand in the quiet marble splendor of the crypt
Speaker:beneath the Naval Academy Chapel, you aren't just looking at a tomb.
Speaker:You are looking at a monument to American defiance.
Speaker:Jones taught a young nation how to fight on the high seas, and his final resting
Speaker:place stands as a permanent reminder to every midshipman of what it means to
Speaker:give everything for the cause of freedom.
Speaker:If you ever find yourself in Annapolis, take a walk down to the chapel, step
Speaker:into the cool air of the crypt, and look at the bronze anchors and remember the
Speaker:Scotsman who refused to strike his colors.
Speaker:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:This has been a Walk With History production.
Speaker:Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benne.
Speaker:Episode researched by Jennifer Benne.
Speaker:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Speaker:Talk With History is supported by our community at thehistoryroadtrip.com.
Speaker:Make sure you hit that follow button in our podcast player,
Speaker:and we'll talk to you next time.
