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John Barry

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: John Barry
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(born 1745, County Wexford, Ire. — died Sept. 13, 1803, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Irish-born American naval officer. He immigrated to America in 1760 and was a merchant shipmaster out of Philadelphia at age 21. He outfitted the first American fleet in 1776, and as captain of a frigate he captured several British ships. He fought the last battle of the American Revolution in March 1783 in the Straits of Florida, where he defeated three British ships. After the war he was recalled to active service as senior captain of the new U.S. Navy. He was often called the "Father of the Navy" because he trained many future naval officers.

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US Military Dictionary: John Barry
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Barry, John (1745?-1803) ship captain and Revolutionary War naval hero, born in County Wexford, Ireland. Barry is considered the patriarch of the American navy. He was appointed the senior captain of the U.S. Navy when it was created by Congress in 1794. In the Americans' first naval victory in the Revolutionary War, Barry, captain of the brig Lexington, captured the British sloop Edward near the Virginia Capes (1776). Congress awarded him command of its finest vessel, Alliance (1780), which he used to capture many British ships. During the Quasi-War with France (1798) he commanded the frigate United States, flagship of the West Indies squadron.

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Biography: John Barry
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John Barry (1745-1803) was a U.S. naval officer during the American Revolution, distinguished by his gallant achievements. In the 1790s he was the senior officer in the American Navy.

John Barry, born in Ireland and always a staunch Roman Catholic, went to sea at an early age. In 1776 a Philadephia merchant selected him to be the master of a vessel trading with the West Indies. In that year Barry, already a veteran mariner, received a captain's commission in the Continental Navy. A myth persists that Barry was the first captain appointed to the first vessel purchased by Congress, but his initial ship was a hastily outfitted Philadelphia brigantine, the Lexington. He created quite an impression in his opening cruise by capturing a well-armed tender, giving safe convoy to several merchantmen, and eluding a British squadron. Barry's stature grew quickly, and he has been called the most popular officer in the Revolutionary Navy.

Barry's later commands were the Effingham, the Raleigh (which he had to run aground to avoid capture), and the Alliance. In the last years of the war he performed valuable service transporting supplies and dispatches between France and America. Unaware of the state of peace negotiations in Paris, he fought the last naval action of the Revolution more than a month after the conflict had officially ended. Barry remained in the service for two additional years, until the government sold the Alliance. The last captain to resign, he literally saw the Continental Navy come to an end.

Barry's retirement at his plantation home, Strawberry Hill, outside Philadelphia was not to be permanent. Congress, stung by the Barbary pirates' attacks on American shipping in the Mediterranean, resolved to create a new navy in 1794, and President Washington extended Barry a commission as senior captain in the service. After helping to supervise the naval construction program, he was made commander of the United States, the first of the new vessels to put to sea. The tall, white-haired Barry was accorded the courtesy title of commodore, the second American naval officer ever to hold the title, and the first in 20 years. Between 1798 and 1801 Barry spent much of his time directing American naval operations in the West Indies, the period of the so-called Quasi-War with France. In semiretirement in 1802 the 57-year-old Barry was asked by President John Adams to assume command of the Mediterranean squadron, but ailing health compelled him to decline. He died the following year.

Further Reading

There is only one biography of Barry worthy of attention - an excellent study by a distinguished authority on the naval history of the Revolution, William B. Clark, Gallant John Barry, 1745-1803: The Story of a Naval Hero of Two Wars (1938). For early American naval history see Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (2 vols., 1913).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: John Barry
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Barry, John, 1745-1803, U.S. naval officer in the American Revolution, b. Co. Wexford, Ireland. He went as a youth to Philadelphia, where he was a trader and a shipmaster. In the Revolution he commanded the brig Lexington when she captured (1776) the British tender Edward-first British ship taken by a commissioned American ship. He fulfilled later commands with gallantry: in the Raleigh he fought against superior forces until compelled to beach the vessel to save it and the crew from capture; in the Alliance he took (1781) two British vessels after a hard fight. His renown as a naval hero of the Revolution was second only to that of John Paul Jones.

Bibliography

See biographies by J. Gurn (1933) and W. B. Clark (1938).

Wikipedia: John Barry (naval officer)
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 This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (February 2008)
Portrait by Gilbert Stuart

John "Saucy Jack" Barry (1745 – September 13, 1803) was an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy. He is often credited as "The Father of the American Navy". Barry was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford, Ireland and appointed a Captain in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775.

Contents

Personal life

On October 31, 1767, Barry married Mary Cleary, who died in 1774. On July 7, 1777, he married Sarah Austin, daughter of Samuel Austin and Sarah Keen of New Jersey. Barry had no children, but he helped raise Patrick and Michael Hayes, children of his sister, Eleanor, and her husband, Thomas Hayes, who both died in the 1780s.

Barry died at Strawberry Hill, in present-day Philadelphia on September 13, 1803, and was buried in the graveyard of Old St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Center City, Philadelphia.

Naval service

On the first list of Rank, Barry was not on it. Fortunetly the Navy found more ships and posted a new list in which Barry was 7th out of 24. He commanded the Lexington, Raleigh, and Alliance. He and his crew of the Alliance fought and won the final naval battle of the American Revolution off the coast of Cape Canaveral on March 10, 1783. He was seriously wounded on May 29, 1781, while in command of Alliance during her capture of HMS Atalanta and Trepassey. Barry was successful in suppressing three mutinies during his career as an officer in the Continental Navy.

Captain Barry was given command of Lexington, of 14 guns, on December 7, 1775. The Lexington sailed March 31, 1776. On April 7, 1776, off the Capes of Virginia, he fell in with the Edward, tender to the British man-of-war HMS Liverpool (1758), and after a desperate fight of one hour and twenty minutes captured her and brought her into Philadelphia. Barry continued in command of Lexington until October 18, 1776, and captured several private armed vessels during that time.

John Barry was once offered $100,000 British pounds and command of any Frigate in the entire British navy if he would desert the American Navy. Outraged at the offer, Captain Barry responded that not all the money in the British treasury or command of its entire fleet could tempt him to desert his adopted country.[1]

He was still in command of the Alliance when it participated in the last battle of the Revolutionary War.[2]

Appointed senior captain upon the establishment of the U.S. Navy, he commanded the frigate United States in the Quasi-War with France. Barry authored a Signal Book published in 1780 to improve communications at sea among vessels traveling in formation.[3]

On February 22, 1797, he was issued Commission Number 1 by President George Washington, backdated to June 4, 1794. His title was thereafter "Commodore." He is recognized as not only the first American commissioned naval officer but also as its first flag officer.[4]

Commemorations

Statue in Independence Square

Statues

John F. Kennedy visiting the John Barry Memorial at Crescent Quay in Wexford, Ireland.

Barry and John Paul Jones on a U.S. postage stamp

Barry on an Irish postage stamp

Barry on an Irish first day cover

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The American Irish Blog
  2. ^ "The Alliance" in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
  3. ^ Woods, D. & Sterling, C. Signaling and communicating at sea. Arno Press, 1980. p. 195
  4. ^ specifically issued by a Joint Congressional Resolution and proclaimed by President George W. Bush on December 22, 2006.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "John Barry (naval officer)".  Read more

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