Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 10: Thanks, John

On April 14, 1781, the Continental Congress of the United States voted a resolution thanking navy captain John Paul Jones for his service. Which leads to the question: why?

It's not that he wasn't due thanks, given his performance in the Revolutionary War. It's just the timing is weird, as the war was still on and you'd think he'd still be out there fighting the British. On the other hand, his record of battle seems to have dried up after his deafeat of the HMS Bonhomme Rirchard (which was two years before the thanking), so maybe Congress knew what was coming.

Jones would in fact struggle to get commissions, and wound up spending a fair amount of time in Europe, including two years as a rear admiral in the Russian navy. Jones died in 1792 and lay in relative obscurity in a Paris cemetary until he was repatriated in 1905. Today, Jones is at rest in the chapel crypt at the US Naval Academy.