CHAPTER XXV 



PAUL JONES OFF FLAMBRO' 



BY the light of a full harvest moon, on an autumn 

 evening in 1779, wondering people on the Yorkshire 

 cliffs watched one of the most stubborn naval fights in 

 British history. That was the battle between John 

 Paul Jones and his squadron and two British ships of 

 war off Flamborough Head. To-day, in an enclosure 

 at Scarborough from which the Head is visible, there is 

 an old anchor, recovered some years ago by the paddle- 

 trawler Dunrobin, which is believed to have belonged to 

 one of the ships engaged the Serapis. 



The very name of Paul Jones became a bogey on 

 the north-east coast. He was, in the estimation of 

 many people, a renegade Scotchman, a romantic ruffian 

 who, if the Flamborough fight had gone against him, 

 would assuredly have found a place in Execution Dock. 

 His name has been as much execrated in England as it 

 has been glorified in America. That he was a bold and 

 clever seaman there can be no question ; but he was 

 possessed by a vanity which may have been as much 

 the cause of some of his successes as his skill and daring 

 were. He lived to make the world ring with praise of 

 his deeds, to be idolised for a time, and to die, almost 

 neglected and forgotten, in Paris. More than a century 



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