His first service was on the Alfred, which helped in the capture of the fort at New Providence, already spoken of.  Jones with his own hands hoisted the first flag displayed on an American man-of-war.  It was of yellow silk, with the device of a rattlesnake, and bore the motto, “Don’t tread on me.”

Jones attracted such favorable attention during this enterprise that on his return he was made commander of the twelve-ton brig Providence and was employed for a time in carrying troops from Rhode Island to New York.  Since he was by birth a citizen of Great Britain, which then insisted that “once a British subject always a British subject,” the English cruisers made determined efforts to capture him.  Many of the officers declared that if they could lay hands on the audacious freebooter, as they called him, they would hang him at the yard arm.  But, before doing so, they had to catch him, and that proved a harder task than they suspected.  He was chased many times and often fired into, but the Providence was always swift enough to show a clean pair of heels to her pursuers and Jones himself was such a fine sailor that he laughed at their efforts to take him prisoner.

One of the cleverest exploits of Jones was performed in the autumn of 1776.  He saw an American brig returning from the West Indies, heavily laden with supplies for Washington’s army, which was badly in need of them.  A British frigate was in hot pursuit of the American, which was straining every nerve to escape, but would not have been able to do so except for Jones, who ran in between the two, and, firing into the frigate, induced her to let the American go and chase him.  Taking advantage of the chance thus offered, the brig got safely away and then Jones himself dodged away from the frigate, which thus lost both.

In the month of October, 1776, Jones was promoted to the rank of captain and ordered to cruise between Boston and the Delaware.  I must tell you an anecdote which illustrates his wonderful seamanship.

Some weeks before he was made a captain, and while cruising off Bermuda, he saw five sail far to the windward and he beat up, doing so carefully and with the purpose of finding out whether there was a chance for him to strike an effective blow.  He picked out what looked like a large merchant ship and gave chase.  He gained fast, but to his dismay, when he was quite close, he discovered that instead of a merchant ship he had almost run into a twenty-eight gun frigate of the enemy.

Finding he had caught a Tartar, Jones did the only thing left to him.  He hauled off and put on every stitch of sail and the frigate did the same.  She proved the better sailer, and, though she gained slowly, it was surely, and in the course of a few hours she had approached within musket shot of the brig’s lee quarter.  There seemed no possible escape for Jones, knowing which, he did a remarkable thing.  He veered off until the frigate was almost astern, when he put about dead before the wind, with every yard of canvas set.