If anyone's remotely interested, here's my (as yet unfinished and untuned) version, as seen, perhaps from a local perspective.

JONES THE PIRATE

I'll tell a tale of '79 on the sea off Flamborough Head
When Pearson was defeated and so many left for dead
When Jones the Pirate was engaged to many a sailor's cost
And the Serapis was taken and the Scarborough was lost

Chorus:
They call him Jones the Pirate, a villain of the sea
A privateer, a buccaneer, a rogue of low degree
But when the English Captain shouted, "Quarters, do you strike?"
Jones replied, "God damn you, I've not yet begun to fight".

Out from the Americas came Captain John Paul Jones
Attacking towns along the coast of the land he'd once called home.
With the Bonhomme Richard and four ships, he came as bold as brass
Until he spied the Scarborough and the warship, Serapis.

Chorus:

The slaughter and the chaos were awful from the start
When the Bonhomme's double-loaded 18-pounders blew apart
And broadside after broadside, Pearson traded with the foe
Till a noise like thunder filled the air and the decks with blood did flow.

Chorus:

For many an hour the fighting raged under the ghostly moon
Until the dead and dying upon the decks lay strewn
The cannon's ceaseless fire turned the sky to bloody red
As crowds watched on the cliffs from Scarborough down to Flamborough Head

Chorus:

When the dawn broke in the east, floating far and wide
The wreckage and the carnage spread like flotsam on the tide
And as the Bonhomme Richard burned and sank beneath his feet
Jones seized the Serapis and caused the English defeat.

Chorus:

Jones took the Serapis and made his way across to France
Leaving Pearson to rue the day and curse his evil chance
And the pirate's fame spread far and wide as o'er the sea he'd roam
And it's long the British tars would curse the name of John Paul Jones.*

Chorus:


*It is rumoured that, some years later, Jones set foot in England at Hull, but was recognised by some sailors and set upon until he fled back to his ship.