e people
of the English coasts. To their imagination Jones seemed like a revived
old Sea King of the North.

Jones was again in British waters in September, 1779. Dr. Franklin and
the French King had jointly fitted out an expedition to cruise in the
British Channel and the German Ocean, and placed Jones in command. His
flagship was the _Bon Homme Richard_. With his little squadron he went
far up the eastern coast of Great Britain; and on a moon-lit evening had
a desperate battle with the _Serapis_, the larger of two armed vessels
just started to convoy the English Baltic fleet across the German Ocean.

[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN THE "BON HOMME RICHARD" AND THE
"SERAPIS."--DRAWN BY HOWARD PYLE.]

Jones ran the _Richard_ alongside the _Serapis_, lashed them together;
and so, muzzle to muzzle, they poured destructive broadsides into each
other for an hour and a half. Sometimes both vessels were on fire. When
for a minute the _Richard_ ceased firing, the Captain of the _Serapis_
called out, "Have you struck your colors?" "I have not yet begun to
fight," answered Jones. The struggle was fierce for a few minutes
longer, when the colors of the _Serapis_ were hauled down. When the
vessels were separated, the _Richard_ was sinking, and soon went to the
bottom of the sea. Her people took refuge on the _Serapis_, and she and
her consort were taken into the Texel, in Holland. When, afterward,
Jones heard that the King had knighted the commander of the _Serapis_,
he said, "He deserves it; and if I fall in with him again, I'll make a
lord of him."

The fame of this victory soon spread abroad. The Congress gave Jones a
gold medal. European monarchs gave him tokens of high regard. At a grand
court banquet the King of France made him a Knight of the "Military
Order of Merit," and decorated him with its jewel. He is known in
history as the "Chevalier John Paul Jones."

Among the younger naval heroes of the war for independence, who
afterward became renowned, was Joshua Barney. At the close of 1780, when
he was less than twenty-two years of age, he was made Captain, put in
command of the frigate _Alliance_, and conveyed to France John Laurens,
a special envoy of the Congress. On his return Barney was attacked by
two armed English vessels, and after a severe engagement captured both
of them.

In the spring of 1782, Barney, in command of the _Hyder Ali_, a
Pennsylvania cruiser keeping the Delaware clear of English marauders,
hono