f the great heroes of the sea, the
name of John Paul Jones always stands first. This is the story we have
next to tell, how Captain Jones crossed the ocean and bearded the
British lion in his den.

CHAPTER V

HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN

THE FIRST GREAT FIGHT OF THE AMERICAN NAVY

YOU have been told how Captain Paul Jones lost his ship. He was given
another in June, 1777. This was the _Ranger_, a frigate carrying
twenty-six guns, but it was such a slow old tub that our captain was not
well pleased with his new craft. He did not want to run away from the
British; he wanted a ship that was fit to chase an enemy.

We have one thing very interesting to tell. On the very day that Jones
got his new ship Congress adopted a new flag, the American standard with
its thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. As soon as he heard of the new
flag, Captain Jones had one made in all haste, and with his own hands he
ran it up to the mast-head of the _Ranger_. So she was the first ship
that ever carried the "Stars and Stripes." Is it not interesting that
the man who first raised the pine-tree flag of the colonies was the
first to fling out to the breeze the star-spangled flag of the American
Union?

Captain Jones was ordered to sail for France, but it took so long to get
the _Ranger_ ready for sea that it was winter before he reached there.
Benjamin Franklin and other Americans were there in France and were
having a fine new frigate built for Paul Jones. But when England heard
of it such a protest was made that the French government stopped the
work on the ship, and our brave captain had to go to sea again in the
slow-footed _Ranger_.

He had one satisfaction. He sailed through the French fleet at Quiberon
Bay and saluted the French flag. The French admiral could not well help
returning his salute. That was the first time the Stars and Stripes were
saluted by a foreign power.

What Captain Jones proposed to do was the boldest thing any American
captain could do. England was invading America. He proposed to invade
England. That is, he would cruise along the British coast, burning ships
and towns, and thus do there what the British had done along the
American coast. He wanted to let them find how they liked it themselves.

It was a daring plan. The British channel was full of war-vessels. If
they got on the track of his slow ship he could not run away. He would
never think of running from one ship, but there might be a fleet.