A la MémoiredePierre De LandaisAncien Contre-Amiralau serviceDes États UnisQui DisparutJuin 1818Agé 87 ans.
A la MémoiredePierre De LandaisAncien Contre-Amiralau serviceDes États UnisQui DisparutJuin 1818Agé 87 ans.
There is something pathetic in the picture of the "Ancien Contre-Amiral," in his faded Continental uniform and the proud independence of his old age; and perhaps after all we may charitably attribute his colossal blunders to insanity and incompetency rather than to malice or treachery.
Footnote 43: Negotiations on this claim were protracted for over sixty years. In June, 1847, the Danish Government formally and finally denied the validity of the claim, and it has not been paid. Congress, however, on March 21, 1848, provided for the payment of the prize money involved, to the heirs of Paul Jones and other persons entitled to share in the distribution of the fund.
Footnote 44: The rouble was then worth about one dollar, and, as has been mentioned, a dollar was greater then than now.
Footnote 45: In after years Jones indorsed upon this letter a grim comment: "Has he kept his word?"
Footnote 46: Some authorities say fourteen; the difference is immaterial.
Footnote 47: All dates given, except in letters, are new style, eleven days in advance of Russian dates.
Footnote 48: This is a mistake, he was never a vice admiral.
Footnote 49: Old style.
Footnote 50: Nassau was then in command of the Russian fleet in the Baltic, and an encounter with him--had a Swedish command been tendered Jones, and if he could have accepted it--would have been interesting. There would have been a final demonstration, which probably would have convinced even Nassau, as to the merits of the rival commanders in the Liman. Nassau, by accepting the advice of the English and other foreign officers associated with him, succeeded with a superior force in beating the Swedes, whereupon honors were showered upon him--more land, more peasants, more roubles, more rank. His favor was higher than ever; but he was magnificently beaten a short time after by a very inferior Swedish fleet, and his defeat was as decisive as it was disgraceful. He lost fifty-three vessels, fourteen hundred guns, and six thousand men. He had refused to take anybody's advice on this occasion and had conducted the battle himself. His cowardice and incapacity therefore were entirely apparent. He tried to attribute this defeat, which compelled Catherine to make peace upon terms not advantageous to her, to the cowardice of the Russians whom he commanded. The Russians were not cowards. He fell from favor, left the court, and passed the remainder of his life on his estate in Poland in the society of his homely but devoted wife. It is to be hoped that she made things interesting for him, but it is hardly likely. He died in obscurity and poverty in 1809, unregretted and forgotten.
Footnote 51: A portion was subsequently paid to his heirs by the French Government.
Footnote 52: See Appendix No. V.
Footnote 53: From my book, American Fights and Fighters.
Footnote 54: This sword was, of course, not that presented to him by the King of France. After Jones' death his heirs gave this famous sword to Robert Morris. Morris, in turn, presented it to Commodore John Barry, at that time senior officer of the United States Navy. By him it was bequeathed to his friend Commodore Richard Dale, once of the Bon Homme Richard, and it now remains in the possession of his great-grandson, Mr. Richard Dale, of Philadelphia.
Footnote 55: Why a monument has not been erected to Jones I can not understand. It would be a noteworthy object for individual and national effort, and in no better way could we commit ourselves to the fame and achievements of the great captain, and forever stamp with disapproval those calumnies with which envy seeks to sully the name of our first great sailor.
Footnote 56: The frontispiece of this volume.
Footnote 57: Some of his phrases in his Russian letters remind me of Shakespeare's Henry V.
Footnote 58: I have known hundreds of sailors more or less intimately, and I have never met one who might be included in either of those melancholy classes.
Footnote 59: Studies in Naval History, by John Knox Laughton, M. A., Professor of Modern History at King's College, London, and Lecturer on Naval History at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, etc., 1887.
Footnote 60: July 6, 1900.
Footnote 61: Woolsey, International Law, section 144, page 233.
Footnote 62: And not a captain of a special ship, as was sometimes the case, but a captain in the service, and therefore eligible to command any ship. See page 75.
Footnote 63: The following interesting document was found in his papers; it enumerates a few of the things he did: "In 1775, J. Paul Jones armed and embarked in the first American ship of war. In the Revolution he had twenty-three battles and solemn rencontres by sea; made seven descents in Britain and her colonies; took of her navy two ships of equal, and two of superior force, many store ships, and others; constrained her to fortify her ports; suffer the Irish volunteers; desist from her cruel burnings in America, and exchange, as prisoners of war, the American citizens taken on the ocean, and cast into the prisons of England, as 'traitors, pirates, and felons!'"
Footnote 64: Notwithstanding this, he was as ambitious of glory, honor, and fame to himself in the service of his country as Nelson was. They were both of them
"Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel.Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth."
Footnote 65: See my book, American Fights and Fighters.
Footnote 66: The recent war in South Africa demonstrates the accuracy of Carlyle's perspicuous observation.
Footnote 67: The United States has shown that it possesses in full measure the sea adaptability and capacity of the Anglo-Saxon, but opportunity for demonstrating that capacity, except upon a small scale, has never been afforded us. The almost unbroken line of victories on the sea, however, which we have won with anything like equality of force from English, French, and Spaniards, enables us to confidently await the issue of any future naval action under conditions of equality; and the names of Jones, Dale, Biddle, Barry, Preble, Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, Lawrence, Stewart, MacDonough, Perry, Farragut, Dewey, and Sampson will not be outshone by any galaxy.
Footnote 68: So careful and accurate an historian as John Fiske makes the mistake of saying that Russia bestowed the order of St. Anne on Jones for this action.
Footnote 69: Paul Jones and his men were the last foreign foemen to land on the shores of England.
Footnote 70: See Park Benjamin's History of the Naval Academy for similar instances on the part of less famous captains. Personal abuse was a custom of the service, apparently.
Footnote 71: See Preble's History of the American Flag, where the story of Stafford is givenin extenso.
Footnote 72: The above hitherto unpublished letter, with its unusual signature, was addressed to William Whipple, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from New Hampshire, who in 1777 was a member of the Continental Congress, and one of the four Navy Commissioners. The original of the Commodore's interesting letter is in the collection of Mr. Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia.--Editor.