Three other small vessels were soon placed in commission, and the squadron started out on its first cruise on February 17, 1776.  Through the inexperience and incompetency of the officers, the cruise was a complete failure, and resulted in the dismissal of “Commander-in-Chief” Ezekial Hopkins, and the retirement of Jones’s immediate superior, Captain Dudley Saltonstall.  It was a striking example of how the first blast of battle winnows the wheat from the chaff, and its best result was to give Paul Jones a command of his own.  Never thereafter was he forced to serve under an imbecile superior, but was always, to the end of his career, the ranking officer on his station.

His first command was a small one, the sloop-of-war Providence, with fourteen guns and 107 men, but in six weeks he had captured sixteen prizes, of which eight were manned and sent to port, and eight destroyed at sea; was twice chased by frigates, escaping capture only by the most brilliant manoeuvring; and made two descents on the coast of Nova Scotia, releasing some American prisoners, capturing arms and ammunition, dispersing a force of Tories, and destroying a number of fishing smacks; and finally reached port again with a crew of forty-seven, all the rest having been told off to man his prizes.

Work of so brilliant a description won instant recognition, especially as contrasted with the failure of the first cruise, and Jones was promoted to a captaincy, and the Alfred, a ship mounting twenty-eight guns, added to his command.  A cruise of thirty-three days in these two vessels resulted in seven prizes, two of them armed transports loaded with supplies for the British army.

Fired by these successes, Jones’s great ambition was for a cruise along the coast of England.  He argued that the time had come when the American flag should be shown in European waters, and that the moral effect of a descent upon the English coast would be tremendous.  It would have this further advantage, that England was expecting no such attack, that her ports would be found unprepared for it, and that great damage to her shipping could probably be done.  Lafayette, who had become a warm friend of the daring captain, heartily approved the plan, and on June 14, 1777, the Congress passed the following resolution: 

    Resolved, That the Flag of the Thirteen United States of America
    be Thirteen Stripes, Alternate Red and White; that the Union be
    Thirteen Stars in a Blue Field, Representing a New Constellation.

    Resolved, That Captain John Paul Jones be Appointed to Command
    the Ship Ranger.

That these two acts should have been joined in one resolution seems a remarkable coincidence.  “The flag and I are twins,” Jones used to say; “we cannot be parted in life or death”; and it was this flag he carried with him when he sailed from Portsmouth in the dawn of the first day of November, 1777.  Something else he carried, too—­dispatches which had been placed in his hands only a few hours before, telling of Burgoyne’s surrender.  “I will spread the news in France in thirty days,” Jones promised, as his ship cast loose, and he actually did land at Nantes thirty-one days later.  The news he brought decided France in favor of an alliance with the United States, and the Treaty of Alliance was signed two months later.