Letter to Le Ray de Chaumont (16 November 1778), as quoted in The Naval History of the United States (1890) by Willis John Abbot, p. 82
John Paul Jones:
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John Paul Jones: Citations en anglais
“I have not yet begun to fight!”
His famous response, in the early phase of the Battle of Flamborough Head, (23 September 1779) to an inquiry by his opponent (Captain Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy ship HMS Serapis) as to whether he was surrendering his ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard, as recounted in the reminiscences of Jones's First Lieutenant, Richard Dale http://www.historycentral.com/revolt/battleaccounts/Jones/Johnpaul.html, as published in The Life and Character of John Paul Jones, a Captain in the United States Navy (1825) by John Henry Sherburne:
:...the Bon Homme Richard, having head way, ran her bows into the stern of the Serapis. We had remained in this situation but a few minutes when we were again hailed by the Serapis, "Has your ship struck?" To which Captain Jones answered, "I have not yet begun to fight!"
In Naval teminology to "strike the colours" means to haul down the ship's flag to signify surrender, but here the use of the ship as subject of the sentence may imply a pun on the non-naval use of "struck".
Variante: I have not yet begun to fight!
Source: Memoirs Of Rear-admiral John Paul Jones
“Where men of fine feeling are concerned there is seldom misunderstanding.”
Letter from Jones to the Marquis de Lafayette, (1 May 1779)
Letter to the Naval Committee of Congress http://www.rulit.me/books/the-last-ship-read-334944-1.html (14 September 1775)
Statement long attributed to Jones, but now believed to have been written by Augustus C. Buell; Reef Points: 2003-2004, 98th Edition, U.S. Naval Academy (2003)
Misattributed
This statement was attributed to Jones in a 1900 biography by Augustus C. Buell which contains much material now believed to have been fabricated by Buell.
Misattributed
Variante: That flag and I are twins. We were born at the same hour. We cannot be parted in life or death. So long as we float, we shall float together.
“I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike!”
His much less famous response, in the late phase of the Battle of Flamborough Head, 23 September 1779, to an inquiry by his opponent (Captain Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy ship HMS Serapis) as to whether he was surrendering his ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard, which was by this time very seriously damaged.
:This was what some of his sailors, reported in British newspapers at the time, claimed he had said; Jones's official report merely stated that he had answered "in the most determined negative".
