Replies

Good Morning, SAM and all! A little more about Commodore John Paul Jones:

John Paul Jones not only had a brilliant naval career, he also wrote in detail throughout his life to promote professional naval standards, training and protocol. For generations, midshipmen have been required to memorize his dicta outlining the appropriate qualifications and duties of a naval officer.

"None other than a Gentleman, as well as a seaman, both in theory and practice is qualified to support the character of a Commissioned Officer in the Navy, nor is any man fit to command a Ship of War who is not also capable of communicating his Ideas on Paper in Language that becomes his Rank." --John Paul Jones to Marine Committee, 21 January 1777

"It is certainly for the interest of the service that a cordial interchange of civilities should subsist between superior and inferior officers, and therefore it is bad policy in superiors to behave toward their inferiors indiscriminately, as tho' they were of a lower species, such a conduct will damp the spirits of any man . . . cheerful ardor and spirit . . . ought ever to be the characteristic of an officer . . . (for to be well obeyed it is necessary to be esteemed). . ." --John Paul Jones to Joseph Hewes, 14 April 1776

"As you know that the Credit of the Service depends not only on dealing fairly with the men Employed in it, but on their belief that they are and will be fairly dealt with." --John Paul Jones to Joseph Hewes, 30 October 1777.

This advice is rather in contrast to his withholding of the crew's pay during a merchant cruise to Barbados. In that instance Jones' behavior sparked a mutiny and led to his flight to Virginia.

During the nineteenth century, John Paul Jones was idolized by popular writers and extravagantly praised as a man of action. He has been the subject of at least thirty biographies and more than forty chapbooks. Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, James Fenimore Cooper, Alexandre Dumas, Herman Melville and Sarah Orne Jewett, for example, included Jones' fascinating life in their subjects of study.

Source: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq58-1.htm