4. John Paul Jones and USS Ranger carried the war to British home waters
The American sloop-of-war USS Ranger was built in Kittery, Maine on what is now known as Badger Island, launched on May 10, 1777. In November of that year under the command of John Paul Jones, the ship sailed to France, carrying dispatches notifying the American commissioners there of the fall of Philadelphia and the surrender of the British Army under John Burgoyne at Saratoga. The ship received the second salute rendered to an American ship of war by a foreign power when the French saluted it as it entered Quiberon Bay (the first had been received by the Andrea Doria at St Eustatius, rendered by the Dutch garrison.
Jones then sailed into British waters, captured several prizes, conducted a raid on the port of Whitehaven, eluded the pursuit of several British warships of superior strength, defeated the British brig of war HMS Drake in ship-to-ship combat, took it as a prize, and then returned to Brest. He captured four ships which he brought into Brest with him. British coastal towns and ports were alarmed over the “pirate Jones” and the Royal Navy was excoriated in the press for its failure to defend the home waters from the Yankee captain. Jones left Ranger in Brest, to prepare for a still larger attack on the British home waters, supported by the French.