John Paul jones - Annapolis, MD
Posted by: 
DougK
N 38° 58.900 W 076° 29.169
18S E 371275 N 4315792
The Father of the American Navy is buried in Annapolis, Maryland. His crypt is located in the Chapel of the United States Naval Academy.
Waymark Code: WMBA79
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 04/25/2011
Views: 14
John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was an officer of the Continental Navy of the American Revolution.
He was born in Scotland and started his sailing career at age 13. Around 1775 Jones volunteered for the Continental Navy. He was assigned to the rank of 1st Lieutenant and first sailed on the frigate USS Alfred in Feb, 1776. Later when Jones was in command of the Bonhomme Richard, he spoke his famous words, "I have not yet begun to fight!". After the War of Independence end, Jones, a career seaman, sailed for France and Russia.
After his death, his body lay in an unmarked grave in a cemetery for over a century. In 1905, his body was rediscovered by a US Ambassador to France. His body was returned to America with great ceremony and finally laid to rest in a bronze and marble sarcophagus in the chapel crypt of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.
The crypt area is surrounded by plaques, a bust and memorabilia of John Paul Jones. A plaque commemorating Horace Potters's discover and identification of the body reads:
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FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY
THE MORTAL REMAINS
OF OUR FIRST GREAT SAILOR
LAY IN AN UNKNOWN GRAVE
LOST TO HIS COUNTRY.
THE NATION IS INDEBTED TO
GENERAL HORACE PORTER
FOR HIS PATRIOTIC EFFORTS IN
THE DISCOVERY AND IDENTIFICATION
OF THE BODY.
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A plaque with a tribute from Teddy Roosevelt reads:
John Paul Jones
1747-1792
Fearless in battle, and successful in keeping a large portion of the
Royal Navy from our shores during our revolution, Jones also
urged the establishment of navy officer schooling ashore.
He gave our Navy its earliest traditions of
Heroism and Victory.
* * * * *
"Every officer in our Navy should know by heart the deeds of
John Paul Jones. Every officer inour Navy should feel in each fiber of his being the eager
desire to emulate the energy, the professional capacity, the indominitable determination and
dauntless scorn of death which marked John Paul Jones above all his fellows."
President Theodore Roosevelt
This crypt has been restored to its original solemn splendor by
the Naval Academy Class of 1955.
9 September 2005
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