John Paul Jones The Whitehaven Raid

      John Paul Jones, father of the US Navy, performed many daring exploits in his career, perhaps not so auspicious was his raid on the Cumbrian coast.
      On the night of April 22 1778 at the height of the American Revolutionary War of Independence the US ship Ranger, stood about two miles off the Cumbrian Coast, North West England. In two longboats with about thirty armed men a'board, Jones and his second in command Lieutenant Meijer commanded one and Lieutenant Wallingford of the US Marines and Midshipman Ben Hill in the second. Their plan was to destroy as many ships as possible in the port of Whitehaven.
      Almost straight away the plan ran into problems, with rough waters, strong winds and several unreliable crew members. Their first objective was to make a landing further up the coast and silence a gun battery, however this was aborted due to the sea being to rough and the coastline to rocky. For Jones and Meijer, they were to silence a further gun battery, which guarded the harbour, by scaling some walls and capturing the guards and in this they were successful. As for Wallingford and Hill, their mission was to attempt to burn as many ships as possible, in the northern end of the harbour.
      Meanwhile Jones and another Midshipman Joe Green, then set out to "spike" some guns at a further battery, whilst sending his crew off to burn the ships in the southern part of the port. As this was taking place, Wallingford and Hill had made a successful landing and headed straight to a queyside Ale House, supposidly to take hostages, secure the building and find flame for their incendiary. Though upon seeing the inhabitants were ordinary seamen like themselves, forgot all thoughts of violence and joined them in making merry.
      Later, when Jones found no ships a'flame, due to his men having no means of fire, he took matters in hand and a light was eventually gained from a nearby house. A suitable coal ship, The "Thompson" was located and a barrel of tar thrown into the hold and a fire was started, though this method was less successful with a couple of other ships. While this was happening, it seems another one of Jones's crew, David Freeman, slipped away to alert the townspeople to the danger of the fire and the town was able to muster a number of fire engines with which to contain the fire. Any prospect of a major disaster was averted.
      In all this confusion the would-be saboteurs, along with three prisoners, were able to return to their ship and make good their escape. 
      The mission could easily be seen as a failure, but as a moral booster, the action was a great achievement. Yet in another way England came to realize the dangers facing their ports and guards were increased and ports became more fortified, more ships were put on patrol duties and military enrolment increased.