USS JACOB JONES DD-61

JACOB JONES

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2024

Jacob Jones was born in 1768 to a well-respected farmer outside the village of Smyrna, Delaware.  His parents died at a young age, but young Jacob was able to embark on an education in medicine.  Jones obtained an excellent education, first under a local doctor and politician James Sykes, and later at the University of Pennsylvania.  After practicing medicine, Jones switched careers to law and Delaware’s Federalist Governor Joshua Clayton appointed him as the clerk of the Delaware Superior Court.  He married the daughter of Dr. Sykes who died before Jones entered the Navy.

Early 1799 proved a time of considerable excitement centered around the young U.S. Navy.   The nation was engaged in an undeclared naval war with France, and the Federalist circles with whom Jones associated enthusiastically supported the conflict. On 10 April 1799, Jones was appointed midshipman. At 31 years, Jones was exceptionally old for a midshipman most of whom who were in their teens.  His motivation for joining the Navy and the means he utilized to secure such an unconventional appointment are unclear.  It is likely that his close personal connections, both to early naval officer Capt. Thomas Truxtun and pro-war Federalists served as both means and motivation for his unusual choice.  Jones also recruited a body of men from Delaware to serve as sailors.  After a short cruise with the frigate United States, the Secretary of the Navy ordered Midshipman Jones to report with his recruits to Philadelphia where he would join the crew of the sloop-of-war Delaware.

During the Quasi-War, Jones served on board United States, Delaware, Ganges, and Constitution.  He rose through the ranks of his less mature comrades.  While serving in Ganges on 20 July 1800 the ship recaptured the American brig Dispatch which had previously been taken by a French barge.  Commanding officer Lt. John Mullowny designated Jones as prize master and delegated him the responsibility to return the vessel to Philadelphia.

Promoted to lieutenant on 27 February 1801, Jones retained his commission under the Naval Peace Establishment Act of March 1801, the most junior ranked commissioned officer to earn that honor. The Secretary of the Navy ordered Jones to report to the frigate Constellation in January 1802.  In March the frigate, Capt. Alexander Murray commanding, sailed for the Mediterranean to participate in the conflict against the North African state of Tripoli.  While in the Mediterranean, Jones became embroiled in the deadly epidemic of dueling that beset the American squadron there, and served as the second for a U.S. Marine lieutenant who fatally shot a U.S. Marine captain during a duel at Livorno, Italy.  Capt. Murray, enraged, arrested Jones as well as others involved in the affair. After being released, Jones was arrested again, that time as a result of a misunderstanding of orders issued by Murray. Lt. Jones was no longer confined when Constellation returned to the United States and Washington sided with him against his commanding officer.  In May 1803, the Secretary of the Navy transferred him to the frigate Philadelphia under Capt. William Bainbridge.  After a recruiting trip to New York, Philadelphia departed for the Mediterranean on 28 July.

Jones’ brother officers and subordinate bluejackets admired his leadership qualities.  Capt. Bainbridge later described him as a “brave and good Officer and a correct man.”  Seaman William Ray, a member of Philadelphia’s ship’s company likewise remembered Jones as “a calm, mild, and judicious officer, beloved by all the seamen” – a noteworthy evaluation considering Ray’s criticism of many of Jones’ fellow officers in the narrative he penned about the voyage.

Philadelphia touched at Gibraltar on 24 August 1803 then entered the Mediterranean searching for two rumored Tripolitan vessels. On the night of 26 August, Philadelphia hailed the Moroccan cruiser Mirkoba off the coast of Spain and boarded her.  While the boarding party interviewed the captain, they noticed a brig trailing the cruiser.  The corsair captain feebly tried to explain that the ship was the U.S. merchant brig Celia, but that Mirkoba had not captured her.  After finding an American prisoner on board Mirkoba, however, the Americans determined that the corsair had indeed taken Celia as a prize.  Philadelphia in turn captured Mirkoba.  After the Moroccan prize crew on board Celia attempted to slip away, Philadelphia spent the following day chasing the vessel and recaptured her.

On 31 October 1803, Philadelphia was enforcing the blockade of Tripoli when she spotted a Tripolitan vessel toward the shore at 9:00 a.m.  The frigate engaged in a chase of the vessel while hugging the shore as close as caution would allow.  By 11:30 a.m. the American abandoned pursuit and turned out to sea. Suddenly the frigate ran aground on an uncharted shoal and stuck.  The officers and crew struggled to free the ship which was stuck at the bow in soft sand.  They shifted weight, cast cannon overboard and even chopped down the foremast to lighten the ship all to no avail.

As the crew furiously attempted to dislodge Philadelphia, nine Tripolitan gunboats took advantage and closed on the vessel, firing their cannon ineffectually.  The ship settled on the sandbar in such a way that the broadside guns could not engage her assailants.  Soon Tripolitan ships positioned themselves to fire completely unopposed at the vulnerable vessel.  At 4:30 p.m., Bainbridge gathered his officers and discussed the prospect of surrender.  According to him the officers unanimously agreed that the ship was irreversibly stuck and that she should strike her colors.  The carpenter attempted to scuttle the vessel.  At approximately sundown the Tripolitans took possession of the ship. The Bashaw’s men led the officers and crew into captivity and slavery.

While the Philadelphia bluejackets suffered through hard labor, the officers enjoyed an easier captivity.  Headquartered in the former American Consul’s quarters they spent their time reading and learning what they could about the city in which they were imprisoned.  Using books donated by the Danish Consul Lt. Jones helped educate the captive midshipmen in a makeshift academy.  He also called on his former vocation as a physician to serve as a prison doctor.  In June 1805, twenty months after surrender, the Bashaw of Tripoli released the Philadelphia captives as a term of the treaty that ended the conflict.

After being evacuated from Tripoli by the frigate President, Jones served in the frigate Adams (October 1805-January 1806) and the brigantine Etna (May 1806-November 1807). Lieutenant Jones also commanded the brig Argus (1809). During the period he also received the Congressional honor of presenting a gold medal to the venerated Commodore Edward Preble before the old officer’s death.  He was promoted to master commandant on 20 April 1810 and on 4 June 1810 assumed command of sloop Wasp.

War with Britain broke out in June 1812 and found Master Commandant Jones still in command of Wasp. Her single action of that war came in October 1812. On the 13th, she cleared the mouth of the Delaware River and, two days later, encountered a heavy gale that carried away her jib boom and washed two crewmen overboard. The following evening, Wasp came upon a squadron of ships and, in spite of the fact that two of their number appeared to be large men-of-war, made for them straight away. She finally caught the enemy convoy the following morning and discovered six merchantmen under the protection of a 22-gun brig Frolic.

At half past eleven in the morning, Wasp and Frolic closed for battle, commencing fire at a distance of 50 to 60 yards. In a short, but sharp, fight, both ships sustained heavy damage to masts and rigging, but Wasp prevailed over her adversary by boarding her. Unfortunately for Master Commandant Jones, his crew, and the gallant little sloop, the British 74-gun ship-of-the-line Poictiers, appeared on the scene, and Frolic’s captor became the final prize of the action. Master Commandant Jones elected to surrender his small ship to the new adversary because he could neither run nor hope to fight such an overwhelming opponent.

Although Wasp was ultimately captured and Master Commandant Jones again became a prisoner, the U.S. celebrated Wasp’s victory over Frolic throughout the United States.  When Jones and his crew were exchanged a few weeks later, he was met in New York by other early victorious naval officers of the War of 1812, Capt. Isaac Hull of Constitution and Capt. Stephen Decatur of United States. The State of New York awarded Jones a sword and Congress bestowed on him a gold medal to commemorate the victory.

He also took command of the captured British frigate Macedonian and was promoted to captain in March 1813. Macedonian sailed under a squadron led by Commodore Decatur on board United States.  A stronger British squadron soon neutralized the Americans by trapping them in the Thames River with a blockade off of New London, Connecticut.  Despite saber rattling from both sides about an arranged and honorable naval duel between the forces, Captain Jones proved unable to put to sea for the remainder of the war.

After the blockade effectively removed Macedonian from the conflict, Captain Jones travelled overland to New York to report on inventor Edward Fulton’s plans for a floating, steam-powered battery. He was supportive of the design but it remained unfinished until after the termination of the conflict.  Conceding the blockade to the British, Macedonian was laid up and Captain Jones and his crew travelled to Sackett’s Harbor on Lake Ontario to serve in the squadron under Commodore Isaac Chauncey. There the veteran officer took over the frigate Mohawk and fought some minor skirmishes with the British fleet.  Captain Jones and the American fleet sat out the remainder of the war after the British launched the massive 112 gun ship-of-the-line St. Lawrence in October 1814.

Following the termination of the conflict, Captain Jones returned to command Macedonian.  The frigate joined Commodore Decatur’s 1815 Mediterranean expedition, the squadron assembled to chastise the forces of the Dey of Algiers who had preyed on American shipping during the War of 1812.  After the successful termination of that conflict in 1816 and 1818 respectively he took command of the frigates Guerriere and Constitution, both undergoing extensive repairs at Boston.  He returned to the Mediterranean in 1821 as commodore of squadron based there to protect shipping, breaking his broad pennant in Constitution. On return to the United States he served as a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners until 1826.  Later that same year, Jones’s broad pennant flew in the frigate Brandywine as he left to command the Pacific Squadron.  Relieved on station in 1829, he returned to shore for the final time at the age of 62.

Continuing to serve the navy ashore, he received appointments to a succession of several posts supervising naval institutions at the ports of Baltimore and New York.  His final appointment came in 1847 as the Governor of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia.  He died in that post on 3 August 1850 at the age of 82, 51 of those years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, and lies interred in Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Delaware.