The Story of Commodore John Barry

tile Marine Service-Appointed to the "Lexington" b

onor. The careers of many of its heroes have been narrated fully, and oft in f

t and worthy services in defence of our country; his training many of those who became the foremost

to present a brief record of his career and of his deeds during the Revolutionary War, which won the Independence of our Country, and also in the War with France, which

July 1813, in giving the first biographical sketch of this distinguished naval officer. "The utility of w

hed in 1809, declared he "was a patriot

services or met the enemy under greater disadvantages," and yet he did not fail to a

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excuses, his devotion to his Country kept him constantly engaged in acts of public utility. The regard and admiration of

humane in discipline, discreet and fearless in battle, urbane in his manners

esteem in which Commodore John Barry was held as wel

r and worth of these services as well as afford proof of th

YSAM

orth, Province of Leinster in Ireland. The parish covers three thousand acres. It is situated between two townland-locked gulfs with very narrow openings-Lake T

believing that leaving Ireland, while yet young, he went to Spanishtown in the Island of Jamaica and from there, when about fifteen years of age, came t

SHIN

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tion and proved the worth of the young navigator of the seas so fully that on attaining his twenty-first year he was at once ent

1766. It was built at Liverpool, in the Province of Nova Scotia and was owne

in either by many vessels in the colonial marine trade, John Barry, now a man in years and capabilities

DGE

to and from St. Eustatia and Montserrat until, on December 19, 1774, a register for the ship the "Black Prince" was issued to John Barry as Master. It was owned by John Nixon, whose grandfather, Richard, a Catholic, of Barry's own county, Wexford, arrived in Philadelphia in 1686. John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776. On December 21st Barry sa

ve of the Continental Congress, purchased two vessels a

Captain on December 7, 1775. Captain Wickes was

Committee, renamed the "Alfred," after Alfred the Great, the founder of the English Navy. To the "Alfred" John Paul

nental Congress. He was appointed to the first Continental armed cruiser-the "Lexington"-named after the first battle place of the Revolution. It was the first vessel fitted out under Continental authority by the Marine Committee and "in the nature of things was more readily equipped" than th

e fleet of Commodore Hopkins for its departure on February 17, 1776, on its expedition to the Southward. This fleet was intended for the protection of American vessels off the coast of Virginia, but it proceeded to the Bahama Islands. On St. Patr

on the Delaware River and on shore, promoting the progre

que to be issued and authorized public and private cruisers to capture Br

he watery domain bearing the flag of defiance-the Union or Continental flag hoisted at Cambridge on January 1, 1776, by General Washington, which he had adopted so that "our vessels may know one a

's pirates" and her tender, the "Edward," "put to sea" also after the "Lexington," but Barr

al and patriotic

SIGNATURE OF THE SE