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The world is full of incredible stories and I truly believe that understanding our place in the present comes back to a fundamental understanding of where we have come from in the past. History, the right history, is fascinating. Who can argue with the fact that we are history in the making? Someday historians will be recounting our tales (if we have them to tell). If you agree with all of that, you need to listen to the Memory Palace.

The episode that I would like to share with you is called I have not yet begun to rot. The story of John Paul Jones, naval hero of the American Revolution, is just such an eye-opener. He was the founder of the American Navy and boldly took the fight to the British off Nova Scotia with resounding success. At one point in a battle he was asked to surrender and he replied with his famous words:

I have not yet begun to fightJohn Paul Jones

He was also said to have been asked later in the battle by a compatriot whether he should strike the flag and surrender. He was reported to say, “I may sink but I’ll be damned if I strike”. Although that line is a little more contentious to the facts.

After American independence John Paul Jones chose not to pursue the life of a politician and continued to fight. He led the Russian Navy against the Turks and fought pirates for the United States government. Then, merely 15 years after the War of Independence ended, he died from consumption alone in an apartment in Paris. He had few visitors so he is assumed to have died on July 18, 1791 at the age of 45 years. Which simple math leads to the realisation that he fought the War of Independence in his 20’s, a very young man. And so it went that John Paul Jones disappeared from history into a grave somewhere beneath Paris that was never quite recorded correctly.

A century later, retired General Horace Porter was serving as Ambassador to France and went in search of the grave of John Paul Jones. He spent six years tracking down the remains which, it turned out, had been on land sold by the crown. Jones had been under a haunted grocery store, a laundry, an apartment building and finally a pet cemetery used for cock and dog fights. But that’s not the incredible part of the story… its what Porter found after months of excavation and tunneling.

Horace Porter found an airtight lead coffin. In that coffin lay Captain John Paul Jones pickled in 100 year old whiskey. It turned out that an unknown Frenchman had paid to have Jones preserved. Jones had not yet begun to rot.

Episodes on Nate DiMeo’s Memory Palace are only around 5 minutes long and are of a professional quality. I highly recommend you listen to a few.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 9:20 am and is filed under history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.