Here is a transcript of that transcript, with some blanks filled in from another source: First thing in the morning the Magistrates and local worthies gathered in Haile’s coffee shop and instructed that boats were despatched to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Magistrates of Belfast and the Commanders of Naval ships to warn them. He first sailed to the Irish Sea and captured or sunk a few ships. On the evening of 22nd April 1778, Jones’ ship the USS Ranger sat two miles off the coast. John Paul Jones Whitehaven after the attack of 1778 John Paul the Traitor. The first Alliance of the United States Navy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War.. John Paul Jones sailed from Brest, France on the USS Ranger on April 10, 1778, on a mission to harass British shipping. Whitehaven Record Office has some old photographs of a handwritten transcript of Whitehaven-related material from John Paul Jones's report of his Irish Sea exploits aboard Ranger in April 1778. The painting depicts the Continental Navy ship Ranger, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, receiving the salute of the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, France, on February 14, 1778. John Paul Jones in 1781. Then he decided to make a bold attack on the city of Whitehaven, a major port he used to sail from as a boy (he was born in nearby Scotland). It was a cold night but the men pressed on with their objective: to destroy the Royal Navy ships docked in Whitehaven harbour. He sailed in April 1778 from Brest for … "First Recognition of the American Flag by a Foreign Government" by Edward Moran, 1898. Originally named Hancock, she was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Amesbury, Massachusetts, by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett, launched on 28 April 1778, and renamed Alliance on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. In 1778 Jones commanded the French ship Ranger with orders to attack enemy commerce in British waters. John Paul Jones Chapter XII - 1778 ON the morning of April 24, 1778, the Ranger, after her attack on the shipping of Whitehaven and descent on St. Mary's Isle, was again off Carrickfergus, on the eve of that encounter which was to bring her captain fame in a night.