Combat· American Revolutionary War
Raid on St. Mary's Isle
Hours after the Whitehaven raid, John Paul Jones led a party of Continental Marines ashore on St.
Mary's Isle in Scotland with a bold object: to seize the Earl of Selkirk and hold him as a hostage to force a general exchange of American prisoners. The Earl was away from his estate, so the landing party took the family silver instead and withdrew to the Ranger without violence. The operation showed that Marines could conduct a discriminating, targeted action on British soil rather than indiscriminate destruction, a restraint notable for eighteenth-century combined operations. In a famous coda, Jones later bought the silver from his crew with his own money and returned it to Lady Selkirk after the war as a matter of personal honor. The episode added to Jones's celebrity in Europe and remains one of the more singular Marine landings of the Revolution.
Podcast episodes on American Revolutionary War
Record no. 139