I can't believe no one has mentioned the most interesting thing about Jones (the captain, not the bassist): his still lifelike body, preserved in
alcohol under the
chapel of the
United States Naval Academy.
John Paul Jones died in Paris on July 18, 1792, in the midst of the French Revolution. He was buried in a lead coffin in the St. Louis Cemetery, which just so happened to be the property of an unsainted Louis who would soon lose his head in the guillotine.
The revolutionary government had no use for cemetaries, so they sold it to a private owner. Its illustrious American occupant went completely forgotten.
A century or so later, the Americans decided they wanted their war hero back but didn't know where to find him. After an exhaustive investigation led by the American ambassador, Jones' bones were disinterred in 1905.
Except they weren't just bones. In what had to be the ultimate final gift to a sailor, Jones' body had been wrapped mummy-like in cloth strips and kept in its original 45-year old state by copious amounts of brandy. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be nephritis of the kidneys, and he was returned home at last.
Jones spent the next few years in the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall, waiting patiently (as if he could do otherwise) for his 21-ton marble sarcophagous to be completed. On January 26, 1913, he was relocated with great ceremony to his current home in the crypt beneath the Academy's chapel. You can visit him there, still preserved in his alcoholic glory.