John Paul Jones – “I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight” A Scottish gardener’s son, a sailor who changed his name, and a captain who refused to strike his colors as his ship sank became the first great hero of the American Navy. John Paul was born on July 6, 1747, at Kirkbean on Scotland’s Solway coast. His father was head gardener on an estate. At thirteen, the boy went to sea. He sailed merchant vessels and, briefly, a slave ship — a trade he left in disgust. By his mid-twenties,