John Paul Jones, and the British
frigate Serapis, of forty-four guns, Captain Pearson. Both vessels are
grappled, lying head and stern. The Bonhomme Richard is on fire, and
her crew are boarding the Serapis. To the left, a third vessel.[59]
Exergue: AD ORAM SCOTIAE (_sic_) XXIII SEPT. (_Septembris_)
M.DCCLXXVIIII. (_Off the coast of Scotland, September 23, 1779._)
DUPRE. F. (_fecit_).[60]

[Footnote 59: See Admiral Jones's curious
observations on the position of the accessories on
the reverse, in his letter to Jefferson, dated
August 29,/September 9, 1788, page 112.]

[Footnote 60: See INTRODUCTION, pages x, xix, xx,
xxi, xxviii; D, xli; E, xliv; F, xlv; and H,
xlvii.]

The legend on the reverse of the medal is the second of the two
proposed by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. The
first was, PRIMUS AMERICANORUM TRIUMPHUS NAVALIS.

The bust of John Paul Jones, on the obverse of this medal, is from a
plaster cast by Houdon, the celebrated sculptor.

THE CHEVALIER JOHN PAUL JONES was born at Arbingland, in the (p. 098)
parish of Kirkbean, in Scotland, July 6, 1747. He went to sea when
young, and settled in Virginia in 1773. In 1775 he was appointed a
lieutenant in the navy, through the recommendation of General Jones,
of North Carolina, and in gratitude to him, he added the name of Jones
to his family name of Paul. He joined the Alfred, of thirty guns and
three hundred men, and on her deck, October 10, 1776, when off
Chestnut street wharf, Philadelphia, under a salute of thirteen guns,
hoisted with his own hands the first American naval flag. This had
thirteen stripes, but without the blue union, and bore across the
field a rattlesnake with the motto "Don't tread on me." Appointed
captain in October, 1776, he was soon afterward sent by Congress to
France, to arrange certain naval matters with the American
commissioners. Subsequently he carried terror along the coast of
England, and on September 23, 1779, fought his famous action off
Flamborough Head, near Scarborough, in which he took the Serapis,
Captain Richard Pearson. He was enthusiastically received in France,
and King Louis XVI. presented him with a sword of honor and with the
cross of Military Merit. Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold
medal, in 1787, and sent him to France, Denmark, and Sw