To Benjamin Franklin from John Paul Jones, 23 September 1784
From John Paul Jones
ALS and transcript: National Archives
Paris September 23d. 1784
Sir,
I return you enclosed the Letter addressed to you by John Jackson Pilot of Hull, dated at Hull the 16th. of October 1780. The Certificate joined with that Letter is (at least in substance) a Copy of the one I gave him at the Texel after his Arm had been amputated and he had recovered.2 It does not however I observe take notice that a second Pilot Boat came off from the Spurn3 immediately after that belonging to Jackson. I had occasion to detain both those Boats, and it was onboard the second that the Partner of Jackson embarked from the Bon Homme Richard before the Action with the Serapis. The Second Lieutenant of the Bon Homme Richard4 was, with Twenty Men, all the time of the Battle onboard Jackson’s Pilot Boat at a distance. And when I found it impossible to prevent the Bon Homme Richard from Sinking, Jackson’s Pilot Boat was of singular Service in saving the Men, particularly the Wounded; some of whom I am persuaded would have been Drowned had I been without that means of Saving them.
Humanity and Justice require that I should earnestly recommend that unfortunate Man John Jackson for a Reward for the important Service he performed and the great loss and Suffering he sustained. I thought and I think still he merited half Pay as a Pilot in the Service of the United States, which I believe is Six Dollars per Month.
I have the honor, with great Esteem and Respect, Sir, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble Servant
J Paul Jones
His Excellency B. Franklin Esqr. Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of France
2. John Jackson’s letter to BF, enclosing Jones’s Nov. 15, 1779, certificate, was unknown to us until recently. Jackson was seized and taken on board the Bonhomme Richard on Sept. 22, 1779, after responding to Jones’s signal. (He mistakenly believed the ship to be British.) During the Battle off Flamborough Head, which broke out shortly thereafter (see XXX, 451–62), he saved many American lives and in the process lost an arm. Once Jones’s squadron reached the Netherlands, the commodore gave Jackson 100 ducats and promised him half-pay for life, to be disbursed every six months by application to “the American Ambassador at the court of France.” The Nov. 15, 1779, certificate described Jackson’s service and put this promise in writing. Jones directed Dumas to send a copy of the certificate to BF, which evidently did not arrive; Dumas sent a duplicate on April 11, 1780: XXXI, 253; XXXII, 93–4, 173, 240. On Oct. 16, 1780, Jackson applied directly to BF, sending another copy of the certificate and begging for the promised assistance, “as he is rendered incapable of geting Bread for his poor family.” In a postscript, he pleaded for any amount BF could send. National Archives. The certificate, briefly described in XXXI, 253–4n, is published in Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 87–8.
3. Spurn Head, on the northern entrance to the mouth of the River Humber, some 40 miles south of Flamborough Head.
4. Henry Lunt: XXX, 452n.