About the time that bright ochre coloured pollution from historic coal mine workings started pouring into Whitehaven Marina from the drainage system of the nearby Whitehaven Railway Tunnel in November 2022, it was announced in the Whitehaven News that the John Paul Jones pub, near to the Marina entrance, was to be demolished with immediate effect.

Fast forward 2 years and nothing whatsoever has been done to curtail the pollution problem and the John Paul Jones pub (named after a former locally employed young man, often referred to as the Father of the mighty United States Navy) is boarded up but still intact.

It should be added that Captain John Paul Jones sailed from Brest, France on the USS Ranger in 1778 in a mission to harass British shipping during the American Revolution on the British homeland and having captured or sunk a few ships in the Irish Sea he headed for Whitehaven with the intention of destroying a fleet of over 400 merchant ships that were grounded in the harbour on low tide, but his efforts caused little damage.

John Paul Jones (1747-92) was born on the Scottish side of the border and was famed for his capture of the British vessel HMS Serapis. He was also famed for the phrase 'I have not yet begun to fight !'

He was celebrated as a hero in America but excoriated as a villainous pirate in England. The John Paul Jones Memorial is situated on Independence Avenue in Washington, DC