22 April 1778 A.D. WHITEHAVEN, ENG: Colonialist CAPT John Paul Jones leads raiding party onto English soil
22 April 1778 A.D. WHITEHAVEN, ENG: Colonialist CAPT John Paul Jones leads raiding party onto English soil Editors. “ 1778 – Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England. ” This Day in U.S. Military History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/april-22/ . Accessed 21 Apr 2015. 1778 – Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England. Whitehaven was an English seaport on the Irish Sea. The decision to raid it was not made because of its strategic value, for the ships in its harbor were mostly coastal fishing vessels, containing little of value to the English war cause. John Paul Jones’ original idea was to capture an important person in the course of the raid and hold the unfortunate prisoner hostage until the British ministry released American sailors from prison. By this time, the Revolutionary War had been going on for three years. Soldiers taken prisoner during land engag...