The Solway's all-American hero

By Willie Johnston
BBC Scotland

At Chick and Ruth's Delly they recognise Jones's heroic role

At Chick and Ruth's Delly in downtown Annapolis they take their breakfasts seriously.

The flow of bacon and hash browns, eggs-over-easy and pancakes with maple syrup seems unrelenting.

Yet every morning the diner falls silent as staff and customers stand, hand over heart, to pledge allegiance to the Stars and Stripes hanging proudly from the wall.

They take their patriotism seriously in America and are taught well about their nation's founding fathers.

What we try to teach here is the warrior ethic and I think John Paul Jones was not only a warrior but an ethical warrior Scott Harman US naval museum director

I decide to test my waitress, Nancy Becker, on John Paul Jones.

"I just know that he was America's first revolutionary hero," she tells me, adding that he was born in Scotland and buried at the US Naval Academy.

Okay, she might well know that since the academy is just down the street, but her knowledge of Jones almost certainly surpasses that of the average Scot.

John Paul Jones grew up the son of a gardener at Arbigland Estate near Dumfries.

Their cottage is a stone's throw from the Solway and young John had the scent of the sea in his nostrils from birth.

He made his first voyage to America as a ship's apprentice, aged just 13. He took his first command at 21 and at 29 he joined the fledgling American, or Continental, Navy.

The crypt where the body of the Arbigland sailor is buried

He was the first man ever to hoist the country's new national flag, raising it over his ship The Alfred in 1775.

Four years later, in 1779, came Jones's finest hour in battle, ironically against the British Navy.

At the helm of the Bonhomme Richard, Jones engaged the much bigger and superior British frigate Serapis off Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast.

US naval historian and John Paul Jones admirer John Wilson said it remained one of the greatest sea battles of all time.

"It was ship to ship to the point that they were touching each other," he said.

"They were literally just blowing each other to pieces.

"They could see the enemy and look him in the face because they were that close."

With Jones's ship being blown apart from under him, the captain of the Serapis shouted to him to surrender. "Surrender?" he bellowed back, "I have not yet begun to fight!"

At that he and his surviving men stormed the Serapis and captured it. A legend was born.

"He is a role model for our midshipmen," said Scott Harman, the Naval Academy's museum director.

We needed to come across here to make America aware of the threat and the need for them to assist us with funding Alf Hannay John Paul Jones museum trustee

"What we try to teach here is the warrior ethic and I think John Paul Jones was not only a warrior but an ethical warrior.

"Also, his unwillingness to give up; he was a man who fought to the end."

Jones died in France in 1792 but in 1905 the Americans brought his remains back for burial in the crypt of the naval academy chapel.

His magnificent carved sarcophagus in stone and marble is in stark contrast to the humble cottage birthplace back in Scotland, and not just in appearance.

While more than a million people filter through the crypt every year, only 2,500 find their way to Arbigland where the cottage is maintained as a museum and visitor centre.

It is struggling to survive with rising running costs and reducing grant support from the local council.

The museum needs financial help to avoid the threat of closure

There is not enough money to market it or replenish the shop. In desperation, museum trustees went to Washington to tell potential American funders of their plight.

"It is a real threat", insisted chairman Alf Hannay.

"The cottage could close in a year to two years' time.

"We needed to come across here to make America aware of the threat and the need for them to assist us with funding."

US money has helped the cottage before and the trustees are hopeful that it might again.

They visited a series of naval and historical groups including The Daughters of the American Revolution, the US Navy Historical Centre, the Washington Caledonian Society and Annapolis Rotary Club.

After a hectic five-day round of meetings the JPJ Trust secretary David Lockwood said he was encouraged.

Founding father

"People have given us a very sympathetic hearing," he said.

"Generally, I am quite pleased with what we have seen and done and I will now be writing back to people to follow up their suggestions and keep up the momentum."

In central Washington, a fine statue to John Paul Jones stands alongside those commemorating great presidents.

In the USA, his sea exploits made him a national hero as a founding father of the navy.

But the question now being asked is - does John Paul Jones mean enough to Americans for them to rally round those battling to preserve his memory and his birthplace museum back in Scotland?