ES

For those of you who have had opportunity to see the mighty fleet of
steel battleships and destroyers that compose the navy of the United
States, it is hard to remember that this fleet was born in the shape of
a few wooden sailing ships. And it is almost equally hard to believe
that Paul Jones, who commanded one of the first American war vessels,
and became the greatest naval hero that this country has ever known,
was the son of a poor, Scotch gardener, who worked for a country squire
in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.

In 1747 Paul Jones was born, but his name was then John Paul. His
uncle, like his father, was a gardener, and worked on the estate of the
Earl of Selkirk on St. Mary's Isle, where John Paul used to visit him
and go fishing in small boats that he obtained from a little seaport
near at hand. Many sailors came to this port, and they made friends
with the alert boy who was always asking them questions about ships and
seamanship; and the result of their friendship was that at a very early
age John Paul was a handy sailor and determined to follow a seafaring
life.

Whether or no he ran away from school is not known. At any rate, when
he was only twelve years old, he became the apprentice of a merchant
who did a considerable trade with Virginia, and he actually sailed for
that colony, where his brother had preceded him and was living the life
of a Southern planter. John Paul stayed with his brother at
Fredericksburg for a time, but when he was nineteen years old he sailed
for Jamaica as first mate of a vessel engaged in the slave trade, which
was then very active,--for a great deal of money was to be gained from
selling the African negroes to Southern planters, and slaves were
constantly being taken from their native country and carried to America
to work beneath the lash.

But this clean-cut young sailor did not like the slave trade, and after
two years, disgusted with the sordid traffic, he left his vessel in
Jamaica and became a passenger on a brigantine that was sailing for
Scotland, in fact, for his home town. On his way home, by a strange
chance, both the captain and mate died, and as an expert navigator was
needed, John Paul guided the ship into port. When this fact was made
known to her owners they paid their debt by taking him into their
employ, and on the next voyage to Jamaica the ship sailed under John
Paul's command.

Then there occurred to the young Scotch sailing master a series of
mis