What Really Happened When America Tried to Invade Britain?

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Thoughty2 (Arran) is a British YouTuber and gatekeeper of useless facts. Thoughty2 creates mind-blowing factual videos about science, tech, history, opinion and just about everything else.
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Writing: Steven Rix
Editing: Jack Stevens

[HairyTheCandyMan]

John P Jones with his single ship:
England: You've got to be the worst navy we've ever heard of.
John P: But you have heard of me.

[mathewwinn]

Not going to lie, the biggest twist of this whole story is an English fleet being saved by an Irishmen. Pretty sure you could classify the Anglo-Irish relationship as ‘special’ also, though for entirely different reasons haha

[TheEDFLegacy]

John Paul Jones: "Let's sink supply ships and bring the United Kingdom to its knees with a single ship."

Germany: _"...Write that down! Write that down!!!"_

[ThesChannel]

Another fun fact about John Paul Jones is that after the Revolutionary War, he actually made his way back to England, lived another 150 years, and became a really good bass player

[davebeat]

"Raid the pub" in a town with no fewer than 134 pubs by the 1800s. What an absolute Mad Lad. He's still a bit of a legend in Whitehaven, we named a pub after him, errected statues around the town in memory of him and his crew, and pardoned him in 1999.

[Snp]

Britain never recovered from backstreet boys vicious attack some people even say it was one of reason for 2008 crash

[fishcreekcountrygal]

It's ironic that my least favorite class in high school was history, but as an adult I can't get enough! Too bad history teachers don't take a lesson on how to make it interesting when you're young!

[petermuise]

What happened when Britain invaded America? We got The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd. Thank you, you guys rock!

[nathanm]

Also, I want to add that the winter uniforms that George Washington and his men wore when crossing the Delaware River in the winter of 1776 were British uniforms that were part of the Drake's shipment of supplies to the British army, and were sent to the Continental Army by John Paul Jones upon his return to America.

[wagwan]

So, a Brit who ran away on murder charges was one of the founders of the US navy, and decided to go and attack the British isles with only 1 ship against the greatest force in the world at the time. Sounds about British honestly

[smithryansmith]

Can we get a video on John Paul Jones' military career in the Russian military after he left the US. He had a whole second career in the black sea.

[davea]

The Port of Whitehaven pardoned John Paul Jones in 1999 for his raid on the town back in 1778.

[robburgess]

And not a single mention of John Paul Jones' career as bass player for Led Zeppelin

[johncroyfindlay]

Very interesting. Like Jones himself I'm Scottish, too, but I live in the port of Leith (Edinburgh) which also has a connection to the story.

On 14th August 1779 Jones set sail on another tour of Britain as commodore of a squadron of seven ships. The plan was to destroy British commerce in the North Sea and Jones sailed round Ireland and Scotland entering Leith harbour on 16th September. He intended to capture it and extract a ransom of £50, 000 but he was thwarted when a gale sprung up and blew him out of the Firth of Forth.

A recently renamed street in Leith references the incident. John Paul Jones View.

P.S. the pronunciation of Kirkcudbright was hilarious here. It's pronounced Kirk-coo-brie

[LifeInPink]

I just love how he considered setting an entire fleet in fire, then a kidnapping yet returned the silver with an apology note.

[OCRay]

To be fair, had Jones had a crew that wasn’t full of idiots and a traitor he would have likely had a fairly successful trip. Crazy as it may have been.

[bigmike]

I am actually surprised matches aren't older.

[kenstr]

"John Paul Jones was British" no shit? Wasn't everyone in the colony more or less British before and even during the war for independence?

[SunKing]

Wow...I knew John Paul Jones' skills were underrated but I never dreamed he stretched THIS far beyond bass playing....the man is versatile!

[dionysusthagod]

That "Friends with benefits" joke was seriously perfectly executed :D