0:00:36 > 0:00:41Every year a delegation from the US Navy visits the town of Whitehaven.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47These American sailors come to honour a Scot - a man from my home patch, Dumfriesshire.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50His name, John Paul Jones.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01In November 1777, with the War of Independence in its second year,
0:01:01 > 0:01:07emigre Scot John Paul Jones set sail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire with an outrageous plan -
0:01:07 > 0:01:11to attack the British Empire on its home ground.
0:01:11 > 0:01:16His objective was the town of Whitehaven, then an important trading port.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21It was a place he knew well, serving his sailing apprenticeship there before leaving for the colonies.
0:01:21 > 0:01:28In the early hours of April 23rd, 1778, John Paul Jones was back.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36With his ship anchored off the coast, the plan was to row into the harbour and wreak havoc in the town.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43The group split into two teams. The first, led by John Paul Jones,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47headed south to disable the town's armoury of cannons.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49The second headed north.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53Their mission, to set fire to the town's entire fleet of boats.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03With daybreak, the town of Whitehaven awoke to find it had been invaded by the American Navy.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09And, ever since, arguments have raged about what actually happened that night over 200 years ago.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Local historian Gerard Richardson has his version.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Jones took his boat down to the south end of the harbour,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20- probably landed on the beach. - On that beach that we see now?
0:02:20 > 0:02:24And then he took his crew and physically climbed
0:02:24 > 0:02:28into the fort itself, to spike the cannons, to prevent anybody firing.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31The second vessel came along into the harbour itself.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Legend has it they came up the harbour steps which are just below us.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41The intention of those guys was to actually set fire to all the colliers that were in harbour.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45There was a full trading fleet moored in Whitehaven that night -
0:02:45 > 0:02:48wooden sailing ships laden with coal.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53The entire harbour was a tinderbox and John Paul Jones's men had the matches.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58It would take only one good spark for the fire to take hold, creating an inferno.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00In the words of Jones himself,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03"Not a single ship of more than 200 could have escaped,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07"and the whole world would not have been able to save the town."
0:03:09 > 0:03:11But none of this actually happened.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14And why not depends on your point of view.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I have an account here, the Lloyd's Evening Post,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and it says that John Paul Jones's men proceeded to Nick Allison's,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25a public house on the old quay, and they made very free with the liquor.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Nicholas Allison's is below us, this old cottage-looking building.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Doesn't sound like the behaviour of men intent on invasion.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36- No, it doesn't.- Of course, the Americans see it differently.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The raid on Whitehaven was not a tactical victory,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43in large part because of the Cumbrian weather.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48A torrential rain, which is not all that unusual here, doused their matches,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52put out their fires, you could not have lit a cigarette.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58The strategic value of the raid on Whitehaven was that it moved 40 ships of the Royal Navy away
0:03:58 > 0:04:03from the eastern seaboard of the United States to the home waters,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08to counter the fear and anxiety that rebels were right over the horizon.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13That raid was a spectacular failure, an international drunken shambles.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14It achieved absolutely nothing.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18So let it be known to all men that all grievances
0:04:18 > 0:04:22in connection with this daring raid on this port have been dropped against John Paul Jones
0:04:22 > 0:04:29and his men and we do welcome, for all time, the Navy of the United States, together with their citizens.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32In terms of the UK, John Paul Jones's largely unknown
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and yet, in Whitehaven, we have taken him completely to heart.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39He is a rogue, a lovable rogue, he is our rogue.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43And he single-handedly launched an entire tourist attraction.
0:04:43 > 0:04:44Thank you, John Paul!
0:04:44 > 0:04:47It looks like whoever writes history owns it.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52And what is written on one side of the ocean may be very different on the other.