Okay, I'm an idiot. I told Drebbel I couldn't find this thread, and the next day I saw the link leading directly from the quote of the day to here.
Anyway:
I just read today's (February 22) quote "I have not yet begun to fight!". I was going to post this on the General Topics thread but couldn't find it.
John Paul Jones's ship was the Bonhomme Richard. Many American Warships have been named after it, the one I'm familiar with being an Aircraft Carrier my destroyer did escort work for in VietNam. We called her the "Bonny Dick". We called our own ship (USS Brinkley Bass) the "Wrinkly Ass", so we weren't insulting the carrier.
What is not common knowledge is the beginnings of the name. The great statesman Benjamin Franklin was America's ambassador to France, and he was also John Paul Jones's sponsor, which means he raised the money to buy Jones a ship to fight with. One of the many things Franklin was famous for was his 'Poor Richard's Almanac', a yearly book full of information for farmers and pithy, wise and humorous sayings. There was no direct translation of 'Poor Richard', so when Jones named his ship for Franklin the best he could do was 'Goodman Richard', or Bonhomme Richard.