Captain Jones was the first to raise the new flag of the stars and stripes over a man-o’-war.  They got away on November 14, 1777, with a fair crew and a poor lot of officers.  Mr. Carvel had many a brush with the mutinous first lieutenant Simpson.  Family influence deterred the captain from placing this man under arrest, and even Dr. Franklin found trouble, some years after, in bringing about his dismissal from the service.  To add to the troubles, the Ranger proved crank and slow-sailing; and she had only one barrel of rum aboard, which made the men discontented.

Bringing the official news of Burgoyne’s surrender, which was to cause King Louis to acknowledge the independence of the United States, the Ranger arrived at Nantes, December 2.  Mr. Carvel accompanied Captain Jones to Paris, where a serious blow awaited him.  The American Commissioners informed him that the Indien had been transferred to France to prevent her confiscation.  That winter John Paul spent striving in vain for a better ship, and imbibing tactics from the French admirals.  Incidentally, he obtained a salute for the American flag.  The cruise of the Ranger in English waters the following spring was a striking fulfilment, with an absurdly poor and inadequate force, of the plan set forth by John Paul Jones in the Annapolis Coffee House.  His descent upon Whitehaven spread terror and consternation broadcast through England, and he was branded as a pirate and a traitor.  Mr. Carvel was fortunately not of the landing party on St. Mary’s Isle, which place he had last beheld in John Paul’s company, on the brigantine John, when entering Kirkcudbright.  The object of that expedition, as is well known, was to obtain the person of the Earl of Selkirk, in order to bring about the rescue of the unfortunate Americans suffering in British prisons.  After the celebrated capture of the sloop-of-war Drake, Paul Jones returned to France a hero.

If Captain Jones was ambitious of personal glory, he may never, at least, be accused of mercenary motives.  The ragged crew of the Ranger was paid in part out of his own pocket, and for a whole month he supported the Drake’s officers and men, no provision having been made for prisoners.  He was at large expense in fitting out the Ranger, and he bought back at twice what it was worth the plate taken from St. Mary’s Isle, getting but a tardy recognition from the Earl of Selkirk for such a noble and unheard-of action.  And, I take pride in writing it, Mr. Carvel spent much of what he had earned at Gordon’s Pride in a like honourable manner.

Mr. Carvel’s description of the hero’s reception at Versailles is graphic and very humorous.  For all his republican principles John Paul never got over his love of courts, and no man was ever a more thorough courtier.  He exchanged compliments with Queen Marie Antoinette, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, and declared that she was a “good girl, and deserved to be happy.”