John Paul Jones was born in Scotland and entered the British merchant marine in 1759 at the age of 12. Ten years later he received his first command. In 1773 he murdered a mutinous crewman in Tobago and fled to North America. In 1775 two members of the Continental Congress obtained for him a commission in the Continental Navy, and the following year he became captain of the sloop Providence.

He sailed to France aboard the Ranger in 1778, receiving from the French the first salute given to the new American flag by a foreign warship. That spring he terrorized the coastal populations of Scotland and England. The French government gave him a converted French merchantman, which he renamed Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Starting for home, he captured 17 merchantmen off the British coast and then fell in with a convoy of British merchant vessels escorted by the Serapis.

Jones challenged the ship, maneuvered the Bonhomme Richard alongside the larger British vessel, and lashed the two ships together. The two ships fired into each other. The British demanded he surrender, to which Jones replied: "I have not yet begun to fight." Because of political rivalries, Jones commanded no more American ships. He was appointed an admiral in the Russian navy, serving for two years until political intrigue led to his discharge in 1790.