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About the author
Edward A. St. Germain created AmericanRevolution.org in 1996. He was an avid historian with a keen interest in the Revolutionary War and American culture and society in the 18th century. On this website, he created and collated a huge collection of articles, images, and other media pertaining to the American Revolution. Edward was also a Vietnam veteran, and his investigative skills led to a career as a private detective in later life.
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“I have not yet begun to fight” is one of the most famous quotes of the American Revolution, declared by Captain John Paul Jones during the 1779 Battle of Flamborough Head.
Context
John Paul Jones was a captain in the Continental Navy during the American Revolution.
Born in Scotland in 1747, Jones started working on ships as a teenager. He soon got a job as a sailor, living an often-dangerous life on the high seas, working on merchant ships and in the slave trade.
By 1769, Jones began working as a ship captain for the first time.
After killing a crew member in self-defense in around 1773, Jones moved to Virginia from the West Indies and changed his surname, looking to start a new life.
He eventually moved to Philadelphia, and as the Revolutionary War began, Jones volunteered his naval expertise to the brand-new Continental Navy.
After a few successful skirmishes and raids on British positions in Canada and the West Indies, Jones was placed in charge of the USS Bonhomme Richard in 1779 – a French-built merchant vessel that had been refurbished and transformed into a warship.
Jones was ordered to head towards Great Britain and wreak as much havoc as possible, attacking merchant and supply ships, and lurking near ports to disrupt British trade and logistics.
He was assisted by six other ships, which were predominantly crewed by French and American sailors.
The battle and quote
On the evening of September 23, 1779, Jones’s group of ships was in waters off the coast of Yorkshire, England, when it was encountered by a British merchant convoy of approximately 40 vessels, escorted by the warships HMS Serapis and HMS Countess of Scarborough.
Upon discovering the Franco-American group, the British merchant ships fled to the coast, while their escorts stayed to fight, marking the beginning of the Battle of Flamborough Head.
Jones and the Bonhomme Richard quickly became locked in a close-quarters naval battle with the Serapis, which was under the command of Captain Richard Pearson.
The Serapis was built for war, and was the stronger and faster of the two ships. Soon, the Bonhomme Richard began taking a pounding, and to make matters worse, some of its 18-pound guns exploded when initially fired, killing numerous sailors on board the ship.
Jones therefore tried to get close to the Serapis and tangle the two boats together, known as a grappling maneuver, while the British ship dodged his movements at extremely close range.
During the fighting, Pearson knew that the American ship was badly damaged, and shouted to Jones, “Has your ship struck?” – asking if the Americans would surrender. To “strike the colors” meant to lower the ship’s flags to signal it was giving up.
Jones is reported to have shot back “I have not yet begun to fight!” according to Lt. Richard Dale, an American naval officer who witnessed the battle on board the Bonhomme Richard.
True to his word, Jones continued fighting. The grappling attempt was successful, and the two ships were tangled together and locked in close-quarters combat, with both sides picking each other off with muskets and bayonets.
The one advantage of the Bonhomme Richard was it was the taller of the two boats, so its crew was able to fire down onto the deck of the British warship. Eventually, explosives were dropped, disabling many of the British ship’s guns.
Miraculously, after three and a half hours of fighting, the Serapis was defeated, and its crew surrendered to the Americans.
The Bonhomme Richard was essentially destroyed, and sank soon after the battle.
Legacy
Jones’s quote is arguably the best encapsulation of American defiance during the Revolutionary War.
It is one of the most famous quotes of the American Revolution, and demonstrates the resolve of Patriot military leaders, including men such as Jones, Washington, Greene, Knox, Lafayette, and others, to fight British tyranny against all odds.
Many other naval leaders would have surrendered in Jones’s position. But with his resolve and naval experience, Jones was able to turn around a battle that looked by all means lost.
The quote is engraved on the John Paul Jones memorial in Washington, DC.
