Japanese artist's portrait of George Jones
during Commodore Perry's Expedition to Japan--1854

Brief Biography:
George Jones was born on 30 July 1800, destined to be a man of both words and the Word. His humble early life on a farm near York, Pennsylvania perhaps whetted his appetite for travel and his thirst for knowledge. Instruction was in his blood, whether preaching the Word of God to navy seamen, or teaching English and other subjects to civilian students and military cadets. He graduated from Yale College in 1823 and went on to found his own school in Washington, D.C. His naval career began two years later in 1825, when he was assigned as secretary to Commodore Charles Morris aboard the U.S. Navy frigate Brandywine. He continued teaching on board ship, instructing the midshipmen in the art and science of navigation. The Brandywine sailed to the Mediterranean, where Jones transferred to the venerable frigate Constitution. When his commission expired in 1828, he returned to Yale where he worked as a tutor and subsequently published his first book, Sketches of Naval Life with Notices of Men, Manners and Scenery on the Shores of the Mediterranean in a Series of Letters from the Brandywine and Constitution Frigates.

Jones was ordained an Episcopal minister in 1830, and made rector of the church in Middletown, Connecticut. He resigned a year later, however, and took an outdoor job in Indiana to improve his ailing health. Perhaps the fresh air reminded him of his time at sea, for in 1832 he entered naval service again and was made acting chaplain aboard the frigate United States, which was the flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. He received his commission as chaplain on 20 April 1833, serving under Commodore Patterson. He transferred to the Delaware in March 1834. During the cruise of the Delaware, the ship visited the Holy Land, which inspired him to write his next book, Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus and Balbec, from the United States Ship Delaware, During Her Recent Cruise, with an Attempt to Discriminate Between Truth and Error in Regard to the Sacred Places of the Holy City. Van Nostrand and Dwight published it in New York, with printing done by Scatcherd and Adams. The print run is unknown, and no other edition seems to have been published. The book has not been reprinted.

Upon his return to America, he took on the task of pressing for the establishment of a naval school, even going so far as to talk directly to the secretary of the navy. He married Mary Amelia Sullivan in 1837 but was seldom home in the ensuing years. He served as chaplain aboard various ships from 1840 to 1845. By that time, his efforts to help get a naval school established had paid off, for the United States Naval School opened in Annapolis, Maryland. Jones headed up the English department at the new school, and after it was reorganized in 1851 as the United States Naval Academy, he became its first chaplain.

Jones’ greatest diplomatic mission came in the early 1850s, when Commodore Matthew Perry asked him to come along to Japan as chaplain. He served not only in a ministerial capacity during the famous mission, but also as a naturalist and chronicler. His Observations on the Zodiacal Light, from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, Made Chiefly on Board the United States Steam-Frigate Mississippi, during Her Late Cruise in Eastern Seas, and Her Voyage Homeward, With Conclusions from the Data Obtained, became the third volume of Perry’s official report on the Japanese expedition.

After the cruise, Jones took a year off to continue his studies of the Zodiacal Light, an astronomical phenomenon, in Ecuador. In 1857, he resumed his post as chaplain at the Naval Academy, and finally retired from the navy in 1862. He served as a volunteer nurse and chaplain at local hospitals during the Civil War. Jones’ final two books were written in 1865 and 1868, Life-Scenes from the Four Gospels, and Life-Scenes from the Old Testament, respectively. He was serving as chaplain at the United States Naval Asylum in Philadelphia when he died on 22 January 1870.

Brief Itinerary:

Part One: Aboard the Delaware