Navy Yarns

In 1906 the remains of John Paul Jones were brought from Paris to Annapolis for ultimate interment in the new chapel then being built. They were received with great honors and put in an open-faced brick vault across the street. Outside, day and night, a Marine sentry paraded in dress uniform. My mother, then living in the new quarters on Sampson (now Porter) Road, told of the whole neighborhood being awakened in the middle of the night by a series of terrible screams. They came from the Marine sentry, an 18-year-old Irish immigrant enlistee, who was highly superstitious and unhappy with his parade in the dark. As he made a turn, he had glanced inside and seen the flag over the catafalque bumping up and down—and thought John Paul Jones was coming back from the dead. It took some time to convince him that a squirrel had climbed up under the flag and was trying desperately to get out.