From his boyhood in Scotland to his ultimate brief tenure as Rear Admiral of the Russian Navy under Catherine the Great, one senses in this portrait of John Paul Jones, a man too big for his times. This is a vigorous, whole, man -- in his role as slaver, tracer, snatching at opportunities with more than a little piratical flavor, performing incredible feats of valor in attempts to prove loyalty to the infant American navy, victorious in the battle of the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis -- and dying haunted by a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction. Here are achievements that rival the maddest of adventure tales.