DD-230 - Tin Can Sailors

Hull Number: DD-230

Launch Date: 09/30/1920

Commissioned Date: 04/19/1921

Decommissioned Date: 11/05/1945

Call Sign: NUQN

Other Designations: AG-120

Class: CLEMSON

CLEMSON Class

Namesake: JOHN PAUL JONES

JOHN PAUL JONES

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2020

John Paul was born at Arbigland, Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, 6 July 1747. Apprenticed to a merchant at age 13, the lad went to sea in brig Friendship to learn the art of seamanship. At 21, he received his first command, brig John. After several successful years as a merchant skipper in the West Indies trade, John Paul immigrated to the Continental British colonies and there added Jones to his name. In the summer of 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned him Lieutenant in the first American Navy. As First Lieutenant of Alfred, John Paul Jones was the first man to hoist the Grand Union flag on a continental warship, 3 December 1775. During the early part of 1776, he participated in the attack on New Providence, Nassau. Later that year, as Captain of Providence and Alfred, he made daring cruises between Bermuda and Nova Scotia, inflicting much damage on British shipping.

On 1 November 1777, he sailed for France in Ranger, carrying dispatches for the American commissioner and word of Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga. Admiral La Motte Piquet returned Jones’ salute at Quiberon Bay, France, 14 February 1778, the first time the new “stars and stripes” were recognized by a foreign power. Ranger subsequently raided the British coast and, in a notable engagement off Belfast, Ireland captured British sloop-of-war Drake.

Early in 1779, the French King gave Jones the ancient East Indiaman Duc de Duras, which he refitted and renamed Bon Homme Richard, as a compliment to Benjamin Franklin. Commanding four other ships and two French privateers, he sailed 14 August 1779 to raid English shipping.

On 23 September 1779, his ship accompanied by Pallas engaged British Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off Famborough Head, Yorkshire. During this bloody and desperate battle, Captain Pearson of the Serapis, seeing the shambles on the deck of the Bon Homme Richard, asked if the American ship had surrendered. Jones’s immortal reply “I have not yet begun to fight,” served as a rallying cry to the crew of the badly-shattered Richard; and they went on to capture Serapis. Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis when his gallant Bon Homme Richard sank the next day. For this extraordinary victory, not only did Congress pass a resolution thanking him, Louis XVI also presented him with a sword.

After the war, Commodore Jones was active in Paris negotiating prize money claims. In 1788, he entered the service of Empress Catherine of Russia with the rank of Rear Admiral, but retained his American citizenship. Although he successfully commanded the Black Sea Squadron, court intrigues forced Jones to leave Russia.

He returned to Paris in 1790 where he died 18 July 1792. The site of his burial was long forgotten; but American Ambassador Horace Porter began a systematic search for it in 1899. His body was eventually discovered, and in 1905, a special squadron of U.S. Navy ships brought it to America to be interred at the Chapel of the Navy Academy. Brilliant seaman, leader, and man of great courage, John Paul Jones was one of the true founders of the Navy’s great traditions.

Disposition:

Stricken 11/28/1945.Sold for scrap 10/5/1947.

Ship History

USS PAUL JONES DD-230 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

The third Paul Jones (DD-230), was laid down 23 December 1919 by Win. Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa.; launched 30 September 1920 ; sponsored by Miss Ethel Bagley; and commissioned 19 April 1921.

After shakedown Paul Jones joined the Atlantic Fleet for maneuvers, training, and coastal operations until transferred to the Pacific in 1923. She crossed the Pacific and joined the Asiatic Fleet in protecting American interest in the troubled Far East. Paul Jones participated in the Yangtze River patrol and was assigned other patrol duties along the China coast, while making occasional voyages to and from Manila.

As flagship of Destroyer Squadron 29, Asiatic Fleet, she received the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor 8 December 1941, at Tarakan, Borneo, and immediately stripped for action. She got underway with Marblehead (CL-12), Stewart (DD-224), Barker (DD-213) and Parrott (DD-218) for Makassar Roads and for the remainder of December acted as picket boat in the vicinity of Lombok Strait and Soerabaja Harbor, Java.

Her first war orders were to contact Dutch Naval Units for instructions pertaining to the search for a sub in the Java Sea, which was reported to have sunk the Dutch vessel Langkoems, contact her survivors on Bawean Island and check the waters for additional survivors. Paul Jones was unable to make contact with the submarine, but rescued the Dutch crewmen. On 9 January 1942, after a Japanese submarine had sunk a second Dutch merchantman, Paul Jones saved 101 men from drifting life-boats. With HNMS Van Ghent, she salvaged the abandoned U.S. Army- cargo vessel Liberty, 12 January, and towed it safely to Soerabaja. She joined a raiding group consisting of three other old four-stackers: John D. Ford (DD-228), Pope (DD-225), and Parrott (DD-218), and cruisers: Marblehead and Boise (CL-47), hoping to intercept a large enemy convoy heading southward toward Balikpapan. Boise retired early from the group because of a grounding mishap and Marblehead developed a faulty turbine forcing her to reduce speed and remain behind the destroyers to act as cover for withdrawal. The old destroyers raced ahead and engaged the Japanese convoy and its screening warships the night of 23-24 January. Despite overwhelming odds, they came out of the fracas with only minor damage to John D. Ford. The enemy suffered large losses from the torpedo attacks launched by the destroyers as they raced back and forth through the convoy formation.

On 5 February Paul Jones rendezvoused with SS Tidore off Sumbawa Island to escort her to Timor. Shortly after they joined up, they were attacked by three separate groups of Japanese bombers. Paul Jones successfully dodged approximately 20 bombs, but Tidore was aground and a total loss. Fifteen crew members were picked up from a life boat, five were taken off the stricken vessel, and six more were gathered from the beaches. Paul Jones then steamed on to Java.

The Australian, British, Dutch, and American Naval units, under a joint command (ABDA), commenced sweeps 24 February in search of enemy surface forces which might be attempting to make landings in the Java area, and to give what opposition they could to the Japanese advance. They encountered a Japanese covering force in the afternoon of 27 February and the Allies opened fire, beginning the Battle of the Java Sea. By 1821 Paul Jones had expended her torpedoes. Dangerously low on fuel, she retired to Soerabaja. The next morning Paul Jones and three other U.S. destroyers escaped encirclement by Japanese forces closing on all sides of Java, by hugging close to the shore line and laying smoke at high speed when sighted in the Bali Strait. Paul Jones and John D. Ford later escorted Black Hawk (AD-9) on to Fremantle, Australia, arriving 4 March.

Following repairs at Fremantle and Melbourne, Paul Jones sailed 12 May for San Francisco. She reached San Francisco 29 June and was assigned convoy escort duty between California and Pearl Harbor which continued until the end of March 1943.

Sailing in company with Parrott and Barker, Paul Jones departed San Francisco 30 March, transited the Panama Canal 6 May and reported to New York where she commenced convoy escort duty 28 May between North African ports and the U.S.

Convoy assignments were carried out until April 1944 when Paul Jones was assigned temporarily to ASW patrol seaward of Chesapeake Bay. She then made convoy runs to several United Kingdom ports before being assigned as training ship for newly commissioned submarines at Balboa, Canal Zone, which commenced 9 November and terminated 6 April 1945, when she sailed for New York. She was next assigned to a task group consisting of oilers and destroyers serving as an at-sea terminus tanker group, for the purpose of refueling escorts of east and west bound convoys between Horta, Azores and Casablanca, French Morocco.

Paul Jones moored at Norfolk 11 June and was assigned as a plane guard destroyer for Lake Champlain (CV-39), in which capacity she served until 4 August, when she sailed independently from Guantanamo Bay to return to Norfolk in preparation for inactivation. She was reclassified as a miscellaneous auxilliary (AG-120) as of 30 June 1945.

In October she was stripped and assigned to the Commandant 5th Naval District for administrative purposes. She decommissioned 5 November 1945; was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 28 November 1945; and sold 5 October 1947 to the Northern Metal Co., Norfolk, Va., which scrapped her in April 1948.

Paul Jones earned two battle stars for Pacific service in World War II.