He was the first man to receive a naval
commission after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
He was, too, the first man to break the American naval flag from
the mast. This was not, however, the Stars and Stripes, but a yellow
flag with a pine tree and a rattlesnake, and the words, "Tread on
me how dares."
Jones became famous at once for his deeds of skill and daring, for
it was his sole ambition, he said, "to fight a battle under the
new flag, which will teach the world that the American flag means
something afloat, and must be respected at sea." But he never liked
the yellow flag. It was more fit for a pirate ship, he thought,
than to be the ensign of a great nation, and he it was who first
sailed under the Stars and Stripes, which he hoisted on his little
ship, the Ranger. This was only a vessel of three hundred tons. In
it in November, 1777, he crossed the Atlantic, harried the coasts
of England and Scotland, and then made his way to France.
From France Jones set out again with a little fleet of four ships.
His flagship he called Bonhomme Richard, as a compliment both to
France and Franklin. Franklin being the author of "Poor Richard's
Almanac," for which Bonhomme Richard was the French translation.
The Bonhomme Richard was the largest vessel of the American navy,
but it was only a worn-out old East India merchantman, turned into
a man-of-war by having portholes for guns cut in the sides.
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