The Fantail - Navy Blog - Navy Times

First Call to Colors

It’s the Fourth of July weekend, and there should be flags everywhere. I’d say most in the service have gotten a goose bump or two saluting the flag during the National Anthem at one time or another, while standing at attention in uniform.

Yeah, it can get old, too, when you have to do it day in and day out.

But that’s not my point — when the country was young, it was the Navy that got the U.S. flag its first international recognition.

Today, ships render honors when passing another ship. Those outside on deck face the ship being honored and salute, when directed by those on the bridge. In the days of sailing ships, a ship entering port would fire a volley from their cannons to “salute” the nationality of the port they were entering. If the government in the port saw fit, they would fire a volley back — returning the salute — a signal they were recognized and welcome.

For the U.S., the first foreign recognition of a national flag was for the “Grand Union Flag,” the country’s first official flag adopted and considered by many as the de facto first naval ensign of the U.S.

With 13 alternating red and white stripes, the flag resembles today’s Stars and Stripes. However, in the field where we now have the stars is a square version of the British Union Jack. This flag was never officially adopted by the U.S., but was used throughout the Revolutionary War.

It was raised first on board a U.S. Navy ship when the Continental Navy vessel Alfred hoisted the banner aloft on the orders Commodore Esek Hopkins on Dec. 3, 1775. Navy legend John Paul Jones, then the senior lieutenant on Alfred, claimed to have raised the flag himself that day on the Delaware River, near Philadelphia.

Symbolism was never lost on Jones, and he’d play more of a part in the lore of “Old Glory,” but we’ll get to that in a moment.

That Grand Union Flag was first recognized by a foreign nation on Nov. 16, 1776.

That’s when Commander Johannes de Graaff of the Dutch Navy decided to return the salute given by the Continental Navy’s brigantine Andrew Doria — also flying the Grand Union Flag — as it sailed into he harbor of the Dutch port of Sint Eustatius on Nov. 16, 1776.

The U.S. gave the answering salute great publicity because the salute was the first international acknowledgment of the independence of the U.S.

Once the Stars and Stripes was adopted in 1777, it was Jones, many say, who first took it to sea again, this time on the Ranger. Jones’ ship was the first to take the Revolutionary War to British home soil when he and two boatloads of his men rowed ashore at the port of Whitehaven and created havoc in the town. He and his sailors put two sets of artillery out of commission before escaping just as a group of local citizens were closing in pursuit.

Once in his small boats, he and his crew escaped after having set fire to the only boats available to pursue them.

Heading to France, Jones sailed into Quiberon Bay near Brest, France, on Feb. 14, 1778. It was there that Ranger received the first salute to the Stars and Stripes when Admiral La Motte-Picquet returned Jones’ salute.

Jones’ exploits earned him the love of those in America and the title of pirate in England — and he relished both.