"...without a Respectable Navy, Alas America!"
Captain John Paul Jones, 17 October 1776, in a letter to Robert Morris.
"I have not yet begin to fight!"
Captain John Paul Jones said this during the famous battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis on 23 September 1779. It seems that some of Jones' men cried for surrender, but not John Paul Jones. Captain Richard Pearson of Serapis asked Jones if he had surrendered. Jones uttered the immortal words: "I have not yet begun to fight!" So, at least, Lt. Richard Dale later recalled.
"I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does no