By the spring of 1778, the Revolutionary War continued to devastate the American colonies with no end in sight. George Washington’s troops were bogged down in costly battles, and the Royal Navy still ruled the seas. Most Americans had little reason to believe the tide might turn.
And then a fiery, Scottish-born captain took the fight to Britain itself.
John Paul Jones didn’t just harass British shipping—he invaded British soil. With a crew of rough sailors and a sloop-of-war, he launched a surprise nighttime raid on a British port town, spiked its cannons, and tried to set the harbor ablaze. It was bold. It was chaotic. And it became the only American military operation on British soil during the Revolutionary War.
From Exile to Patriot
John Paul Jones was born John Paul in Scotland in 1747. At only age 13, he had gone to sea, working aboard merchant ships that sailed out of Whitehaven, the very port he would later attack.
By 1770, he commanded his own merchant vessel. But after flogging a mutinous sailor—who later died—Jones was accused of excessive cruelty and imprisoned. After his release, Jones had another altercation with a crewman over wages, so he killed the man. Though he claimed self-defense, Jones’ reputation in Britain was ruined. Facing criminal charges, he fled to the American colonies and adopted the surname “Jones” to distance himself from his past.
When the colonies revolted against British rule in 1775, Jones found a cause worth fighting for.
He joined the newly formed Continental Navy and hoisted its first official flag aboard the USS Alfred. He served with distinction in early naval engagements, including the Raid on Nassau in the Bahamas, and later commanded the sloop Providence, capturing or destroying over a dozen British vessels.
In 1777, the Continental Congress selected Jones to command one of 12 new frigates under construction. But political infighting among naval officers instead led to him receiving command of the USS Ranger, an 18-gun sloop.
Though small, Jones was pleased with the ship, reportedly saying, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
He sailed for France and met with Benjamin Franklin as he was securing crucial French support for the American cause. After French entry into the war, the Ranger became the first American vessel to receive an official salute from a foreign power.
Then, he turned his attention to the British Isles.

A Plan for Revenge
After raiding British shipping off the coast of Ireland, Jones captured several merchant vessels and extracted intelligence from British sailors. He learned that hundreds of ships were moored or under construction in Whitehaven, a major coal port in northwest England.
It was a tempting target—and a personal one. Jones had launched his seafaring career in Whitehaven. Now, with a score to settle and a point to prove, he planned to return—this time under the flag of the United States.
Jones also hoped the raid would demoralize the British public and pressure the government to rethink the war. But there was a problem: Jones had no Marines or elite boarding parties—just 140 sailors, many of whom he described as drunk, disloyal or incompetent.
Still, he moved ahead with the plan.

The Raid on Whitehaven
In the early hours of April 23, 1778, Jones and about 30 volunteers climbed into two small boats and rowed silently toward Whitehaven harbor. They landed around 2 a.m., aiming to burn as many ships as possible and disable the harbor’s cannons.
Jones led one group toward the fort. They successfully spiked the cannons by hammering metal spikes into the touchholes, rendering them useless.
The second group, led by Lt. Wallingford, was supposed to ignite the docked ships. But when their lantern ran out of oil, they attempted to raid a nearby house to find another. Instead, they stopped at a local pub—abandoning the mission to drink. One sailor even slipped away to alert the town garrison.
Jones and his remaining men attempted to set several ships on fire, but the damp wood and lack of wind limited the damage. Townspeople quickly formed a bucket brigade and extinguished the flames.
With daylight approaching and their position compromised, Jones and his crew escaped back to the Ranger. The mission had caused little actual destruction—but it sparked headlines across Britain.
The Failed Kidnapping of a British Earl
Still determined to make an impact, Jones sailed to St. Mary’s Isle, near Kirkcudbright, Scotland, intending to kidnap Earl Dunbar Douglas of Selkirk. He hoped to use the earl as leverage to exchange for American prisoners held by the British.
But the earl wasn’t home. His wife, the Countess of Selkirk, received the American raiding party with calm resolve. While she hid their young son upstairs, the butler gave the Americans a bag of coal topped with a few silver coins to stall for time.
Jones, worried his crew would loot or burn the estate, allowed them to take only a few pieces of silver kitchenware. Later, embarrassed by the incident, Jones personally repurchased the silver and returned it to the family—along with an apology letter.

Shockwaves in Britain
Though the raid failed militarily, its psychological impact was significant.
British newspapers exaggerated the scale of the attack, leading to panic in coastal towns. Militias formed overnight. Ports increased watch rotations. The Royal Navy, then the most powerful in the world, came under sharp criticism for failing to prevent an American sloop from striking the homeland.
It remains the only confirmed American military raid on British soil during the Revolutionary War. Though no lives were lost, the symbolic value was enormous. The British public, already reeling from the Franco-American alliance and rising war costs, began to lose confidence in the conflict.
Back in France and America, Jones was hailed as a hero. Even some of his former critics in the Continental Navy were impressed by his audacity.
A Legend Forged at Sea
Jones’ fame continued to grow. The next year, in 1779, he took command of the Bonhomme Richard and engaged the British warship HMS Serapis in one of the most famous sea battles in American history.
When the British demanded Jones’ surrender, he stood aboard the deck of his sinking ship and shouted the now-legendary reply, “I have not yet begun to fight!”
Jones led his crew aboard the Serapis and captured it as his own ship sank beneath the waves, cementing his place in naval history.
He died in 1792 in Paris, honored as a hero in both France and the United States. His body now rests in a crypt at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
John Paul Jones built his legacy on boldness, ingenuity, and a refusal to quit. The Whitehaven raid, despite its limited tactical success, proved that the fledgling United States was willing to strike at the heart of the British Empire.