John Paul Jones, Founder of the American Navy: Presented by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company

Boston: John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1923. Stapled Binding. Very Good. 0x0x0. Wrappers rubbed. 1923 Stapled Binding. 16 pp. John Paul Jones, original name John Paul, (born July 6, 1747, Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright, Scotland - died July 18, 1792, Paris, France), American naval hero in the American Revolution, renowned for his victory over British ships of war off the east coast of England (September 23, 1779). Apprenticed at age 12 to John Younger, a Scottish merchant shipper, John Paul sailed as a cabin boy on a ship to Virginia, where he visited his elder brother William at Fredericksburg. When Younger's business failed in 1766, Paul found work as chief mate of a Jamaica-owned slaver brigantine. After two years he quit the slave trade and shipped passage for Scotland. When both master and chief mate died of fever en route, he brought the ship safely home and was appointed a master. In 1772 he purchased a vessel in the West Indies but the following year, after killing the ringleader of a mutinous crew, he fled the islands to escape trial and changed his name to John Paul Jones. Two years later he returned to Fredericksburg, and, when the Revolution broke out, he went to Philadelphia and was commissioned a senior lieutenant in the new Continental Navy.--Britannica