New Book from Casemate

JOHN PAUL JONES
Maverick Hero
Frank Walker

An associate of Benjamin Franklin and hero of the American War of Independence, John Paul Jones was the first captain to sail an American warship under an American flag and was instrumental in the creation of a coordinated naval force for the new republic. Across the Atlantic, the “Scotch Renegade” had a far less enviable reputation, being most commonly remembered as a privateer and villain following his daring raids on British ports. This judgment would stand for a century or more. The 1875 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica exemplified this attitude: “Though [Jones] certainly ranks as an officer of the Untied States, the independent manner in which he cruised might well suggest letters of marquee rather than a government commission” – in other words, there was a whiff of the pirate about him.

Frank Walker charts the career of this rugged individualist, from his beginnings as a young apprentice in the English port of Whitehaven and early voyages aboard slave ships, to his commission as an American naval officer who led and attack on that very port and continued to harass British shipping as part of the effort to bring the Revolutionary War to a close