Mr. Sailor, John Paul Jones

          In the year of 1747, John Paul Jones was born in in Scotland. John had an older sister named Olag and had a younger sister and brother named Edmund and Emilia. His parents’ names were John Paul and Jean

          As a child he was fascinated with the ships that sail the sea and he wanted to become a sailor. At the age of 12, his father, who was a gardener, allowed him to sail on a merchant ship named Friendship.

          The captain’s name was John Younger. John Younger traded with Virginia, which at the time was owned by England.

          Jones was a ship’s boy, who is a young boy who works on the ship. He had many jobs that he didn’t like that much such as scrubbing the decks and helping the cook. He also cleaned the captain’s cabin and ran errands. He also had other jobs that he enjoyed, such as cleaning the guns and several time he steered the big wheel, which navigated the ship.

           When the ship docked, Jones visited his brother, who lived in America. In the next few years, Jones visited America more often because it was his favorite country.

          In a couple of years, John Younger quit the company so John Paul lost his job. He was then appointed as an officer of the British Navy. He then thought that he wouldn’t be successful and became an actor, but he didn’t like that either. He decided to work on a slave boat. He hated the job because he hated to see the suffering of the slaves.

           He then decided to go back to Scotland on a ship named John. He had a weird voyage. The captain died of fever so John Paul became the captain of the ship because he was most likely to bring them to Scotland. Once he got home, the crew was thankful.

          On one of his voyages, John noticed a man sleeping while he was supposed to be working. John ordered him to get whipped because at the time it was the thing that you’re supposed to do when sailors weren’t working. That sailor later joined a different crew and died of the same fever as the captain had.

The sailors on John’s ship heard what happened and made rumors that he died because of the whipping. The crew became mutinous. All the loyal people that John could trust were sick.

The leader of the rebellious crew held a big club and started charging at John. John drew his sword in defense ,although he didn’t want to kill him. John accidentally killed him. 

After this happened, he decided to give up his job and left to America.

America was beginning to rebel against England. America needed a navy because England had the best navy in the world. John was one of the first captains in the American Navy. He  suggested many good changes to the navy.

John’s ship was a little ship called the Alfred. It was not very good for open battles.

He was a great captain. He helped bring ammunition to the American army and sunk or captured many British merchant ships which were bringing helpful items to the British army. Later, he was given command of the Ranger.       

Later in 1778, he docked near the shore close to Britain in order to set fire to many ships. He planned to leave by midnight by rowboat but since the tides were rough, he didnt arrive until morning. When they landed, they first raided a fort and made the guns in the fort not work. Next, they burnt down the ships and came back to their escape boats and escaped.  When the war ended, Jones joined the Russian Navy. He died in Paris in 1791.