John Paul Jones
Father of the United States Navy
by Wallace Bruce
UK
Price £15.99 $18.95
in US
John
Paul Jones
Father of the United States Navy
by Wallace
Bruce
US
price: $18.95
UK
price £15.99
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 300
ISBN: 0-595-24232-4
Publication Date: Aug-2002
John Paul Jones: the Father of the US Navy is not just a novel, but an
essential slice of living US naval history that traces the link between a
barefooted son of a Scottish gardener to the raising of the Stars and
Stripes on the moon.
Portraits of John Paul Jones:
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Oil painting by Tom Jenkins |
Photo supplied by Tom Jenkins |
Photo supplied by Tom Jenkins |
(See other oil
paintings by artist Tom Jenkins - click here.)
On the instructions of President Teddy Roosevelt, the preserved mortal
remains of John Paul Jones were escorted back to the United States on the
USS Brooklyn, surrounded by warships of the U.S. Navy, in 1905. This was a
fitting tribute to the barefooted son of a Scottish gardener who, born in
1747, was destined to become the Father of the US Navy through his dogged
determination and dauntless courage on the high seas. At an early age he
went to sea as a cabin boy, becoming a captain in his own right at the age
of twenty-one in the British merchant service. He ended up in Philadelphia
and offered his services to the infant American navy, becoming its ablest
and most dashing commander, raising "Old Glory" for the first
time ever to the jackstaff of the USS Alfred, then attacking
British ports in the US war of independence. His hour of glory was on the
USS Bon Homme Richard when he engaged the Royal Navy off
Flamborough Head. When all the odds were against him, and the skipper of
the HMS Serapis, Captain Pearson, demanded his surrender, his
immortal reply was, "I have not yet begun to fight!" On return
to the United States, he ended up supervising and launching his flagship,
the USS America. This book will have you spellbound by the
colourful narrative of his life.
Available from the following
on-line bookstores:
The author, Wallace Bruce
REVIEW
This review appeared in Lochaber Life, November 2002:
Wallace Bruce is the pen name of Roy Bridge’s Joe Smith. When Mr Smith was a college lecturer, he took a group of students to the USA as guests of Neil Armstrong, and then began his interest in the eighteenth-century American hero.
John Paul was a gardener’s son in Scotland, went to sea as a cabin boy and quickly became a Merchant Navy captain. When he was twenty-eight he changed his name to Jones, following the killing of a mutineer off Tobago. He then made his way to Philadelphia and joined the infant American Navy, rising to the rank of Captain by the start of the War of Independence. As well as harassing British shipping, he became famous for leading his men in the raid on the UK mainland at Whitehaven.
The author described all this, Jones’s promotion to Commodore, his responsibility for organising the new navy, and his later work for Russia, with admirable respect for the facts along with the ability to pull the reader into sharing Jones’s life under sail and in battle.
A great deal of research has obviously been carried out, but Mr Smith still manages to carry the story along in a lively fashion.
From: Lochaber Life, November 2002, No. 121