By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL
DECATUR AND SOMERS
LITTLE JARVIS
PAUL JONES
The guns broke loose.
PAUL JONES
BY
MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL
AUTHOR OF
LITTLE JARVIS, MIDSHIPMAN PAULDING, CHILDREN OF DESTINY, MAID MARIAN, THROCKMORTON, ETC.
D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY
INCORPORATED
NEW YORK LONDON
1936
Copyright, 1893,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
INTRODUCTION.
“The fame of the brave outlives him; his portion is immortality.”From the funeral discourse pronounced over Paul Jones.
The writer feels the most sincere diffidence in makinguse of the mighty name and personality of Paul Jones,who, as Cooper justly says, was not only a great seamanbut a great man. An excuse, however, is not wanting.It is justifiable and profitable to bring before the eyes ofAmerican youth this heroic figure, and if it be done inadequately,the fault is not in the intention. It is nottoo much to say that the achievements of Paul Jones, theranking officer in the Continental marine, had much todo with placing the American navy upon that loftyplane of skill and intrepidity which can only be matchedby England, the Mistress of the Seas.
Strangely enough, Paul Jones is but little known tothe multitude, and the misrepresentations concerning himthat occasionally appear in print to this day are the moreinexcusable because few public men ever left a more completerecord. This record has been carefully studied bythe writer, and, although this story is professedly and confessedlya romance, history has been consulted at everypoint. Log books, journals, and biographies have beensearched, especially the logs, journals, and letters of PaulJones himself. Much relating to him has been left out,but nothing of consequence has been put in that is nothistorically true. The language ascribed to him is, wheneverpossible, that used by him at the time, or afterward,in his letters and journals. When it is wholly imaginaryit is made consistent, as far as lies in the writer’s power,with what is known of his mode of expression. Themere recital of Paul Jones’s actual adventures is a thrillingromance, and his character was so powerfully romanticand imaginative that it lends itself readily to idealization.But he is more than the type of mere daring. Technicalauthors write of him with the most profound admiration,and among naval men of all nations he stands as themodel of resource as well as boldness. His plans werefar-reaching, and his most hazardous undertakings wereins