CAPTAIN BARRY APPOINTED TO SUPERINTEND THE BUILDING OF THE "AMERICA,"
FRIGATE--GIVEN COMMAND OF THE "ALLIANCE" AS SUCCESSOR OF LANDAIS, THE
FRENCHMAN--THE DISCOVERY OF ARNOLD'S TREASON--"WHOM CAN WE TRUST
NOW?"--THE ANSWER TO ARNOLD.
The Continental 74 to which Captain Barry was sent immediately on his
arrival at Philadelphia in the "Delaware" was the frigate "America,"
then building at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. To this command he was
appointed on November 6, 1779, by the Marine Committee of Congress,
which that day notified the Navy Board at Boston that Captain Barry on
his way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he goes to hasten the
building and fitting out of the new ship on the stocks at that place,
would present the notification desiring the Committee to "push forward
with all possible expedition" the work Captain Barry had been entrusted
with. Barry's orders were "to hasten as much as may be in your power the
completing of that ship, which we are desirous of having done with all
despatch."
On November 20th, as desired by Captain Barry, Captain George Jerry
Osborne was appointed to command the marines of the ship, but as it
would be "a considerable time before there is occasion to raise the
men," he was appointed "on the principle of his being useful in doing
matters relative to the ship until that time." How long Captain Barry
continued to superintend the building of the new Continental ship--later
named the "America," does not appear, but on June 1, 1780, there is
record in the _Pennsylvania Archives_ [Vol. I, 5th Series] that Captain
John Barry became the commander of the Pennsylvania privateer, the
"American," of 14 guns and 70 men. Possibly the work of directing the
construction of a vessel was not congenial to the active spirit of one
who was at his best amid the more earnest exertions required by a life
at sea, seeking the destruction or capture of the armed vessels of the
enemy. So again he became a privateersman in the service of his State.
He so served three months.
On June 26, 1781, Captain John Paul Jones was appointed, in succession
to Barry, to superintend the construction of the "America," while Barry
was doing service at sea in command of the "Alliance." The expense of
launching and equipping the "America" was paid from the shares of the
United States "in the prizes taken by Captain Barry" in the first cruise
of the "Alliance" under his command. The Board of Admiralty were
directed to assign these shares to Robert Morris by Resolution of
Congress, June 3, 1781. The "America" when launched in November, 1781,
was presented to France to replace the "Magnifique," wrecked in Boston
Harbor.
The Continental Marine Committee, knowing well Barry's worth, on
September 5, 1780, appointed him "to the command of the Continental
frigate 'Alliance' now in the port of Boston." He was "directed to
repair there as soon as possible to get the ship ready for sea with all
possible despatch." The "Alliance" was the largest and finest vessel of
the Continental Navy.
Thus we see again that the best available position was always given to
Captain Barry. The first armed cruiser under direct Continental
authority--the "Lexington"--was given him, then the "Effingham," of 32
guns, the largest armament of any vessel, was assigned him, and he was
made Senior Commander of the Port of Philadelphia. On its destruction by
the British, while he was operating in the lower Delaware, he was
appointed to the "Raleigh." On its loss, for which Captain Barry
suffered no detriment, he was made commander of the projected expedition
to Florida. When that enterprise was abandoned he was given command of a
fleet of the Navy of Pennsylvania. At the termination of the cruise the
appointment to construct the best vessel the country had projected was
given him. Then he was commissioned to the "Alliance," the best and
finest vessel the United Colonies ever possessed. In that he remained as
commander while the war continued, and at its close he was Commodore of
all armed vessels remaining in the service of the Colonies, just as
Washington was Commander-in-Chief of all the forces, military and naval,
at the end of the war. As commander of the fleet, Barry was second to
Washington.
The "Alliance," which Captain Barry took charge of in September, 1780,
was so named in honor of the alliance with France. As a further
compliment to the French, Captain Pierre Landais, a Frenchman, had been
appointed Captain. He was relieved of the command and Captain Barry
succeeded him. These were the only commanders the "Alliance" ever
had--Landais the Frenchman and Barry the Irishman. Landais is buried in
St. Patrick's cemetery, New York; Barry in St. Mary's, Philadelphia. One
in faith and one in endeavor for our country.
The "Alliance" was the only American vessel in the expedition sent out
by King Louis XVI, under John Paul Jones, which resulted in the ever
memorable encounter with, and capture of, the "Serapis" by the "Bonne
Homme Richard," commanded by Captain John Paul Jones. During the battle
the "Alliance" twice fired into Jones' vessel and did damage. For this,
on arrival in France, he was called on to make explanations and John
Paul Jones, as Commodore of all American vessels in Europe, was
appointed by Commissioner Benjamin Franklin, on June 16, 1780, to take
"command of the 'Alliance' in her present intended voyage to America."
But Silas Deane supported Landais, who ordered Jones off the vessel and
set sail for America. On the voyage, his mental faculties becoming more
erratic, the officers took the command from him and entrusted it to
Lieutenant James Degges.
On arrival at Boston, Captain Barry was appointed to the command and the
Courts of Inquiry and Courts-Martial tried Landais and dismissed him
from the service. He died in New York in 1818 and is buried in St.
Patrick's graveyard.
Captain Barry now commanded "the most perfect piece of naval
architecture" than which the navies of France or England had none more
complete. Landais and Barry were the only duly commissioned and
regularly appointed by Continental authority commanders of the
"Alliance," who at sea, on voyage or in battle ever directed her
operations, yet a block of timber of the "Alliance" exhibited in the
Revolutionary Relic Museum at Independence Hall is inscribed: "Commanded
by John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War."
There is no mention of its chief commander, John Barry, and that
ignoring of his right to recognition is within sight of his statue
erected by THE FRIENDLY SONS OF ST. PATRICK, of Philadelphia, March 16,
1907. Let that Society now secure the Commodore's right to the command
his country gave him.
The appointment of Captain Barry had special significance at the time it
was made--after the discovery of the treason of Benedict Arnold. He had
issued on October 7, 1780, an "Address to the Soldiers of the American
Army," in which he declared he thought "it infinitely wiser and safer to
cast his confidence upon Great Britain's justice and generosity than to
trust a monarchy too feeble to establish your Independence, so perilous
to her distant dominions and the enemy of the Protestant faith."
Washington, in almost faint-hearted despair on the discovery of Arnold's
treachery, had asked: "Whom can we trust now?" Was the answer to
Washington and Arnold that made by the Marine Committee of the
Continental Congress by the appointment of Captain John Barry to the
largest, finest and best American war-vessel named in honor of an
alliance with France, the alleged "enemy of the Protestant faith," as
Arnold had declared?
Was that the answer to Arnold by the Congress whom he had denounced "as
mean and profligate" and "praying a soul out of purgatory," because the
members had attended the Requiem service in St. Mary's Church,
Philadelphia, in behalf of the soul of Don Juan de Miralles, the Spanish
Agent to the Congress, and in the very church which Captain Barry
attended when in Philadelphia.
The Irish-born Catholic, John Barry, could be trusted with the very best
when the native-born Protestant, Arnold, had betrayed the country for
pelf and position among the oppressors of the native land of John Barry
and the native land of the infamous Benedict Arnold.
What more could the adopted land of John Barry do for one who had been
so faithful and so helpful from the first day of opportunity to serve
her? It will erect a monument at the Capital of the Nation for America
as Ireland's SONS OF ST. PATRICK have erected one at Independence Hall.
His new country had given him the first, and at all times the best, she
had to bestow, as his native land had given to America. Place of birth
nor creed of faith made no disparagement of such superior worth as John
Barry possessed.
The Congress that had, to the people of Great Britain, denounced Barry's
religion as "one fraught with impiety, bloodshed, rapine and murder in
every part of the globe," had given to the Irish-born Catholic who gave
the best he possessed in talent, ability and service to the cause of
America, had also given him the first of her war vessels, continued to
give him the best she, too, possessed and, finally, while the
native-born traitor almost paralyzed the hearts of the patriots, gave to
the foreign-born and staunch Catholic, the foremost vessel in her navy,
one "so swift, so warlike, stout and strong," as to be the admiration of
Europe's most expert naval commanders, while America had dismissed from
her service, as incompetent, the native-born Esek Hopkins, the first
Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the Colony. It is somewhat singular,
therefore, that the foremost naval commanders of the Navy during the
Revolutionary War were John Barry, of Ireland, and John Paul Jones, of
Scotland--"foreigners," as John Adams spoke of both in 1813.
The lines of the Poet of the Revolution, Philip Freneau, may most
appropriately be inserted here, to show the regard in which the vessel
was held while John Barry was its commander:
"When she unfurls her flowing sails,
Undaunted by the fiercest gales,
In dreadful pomp she plows the main,
While adverse tempests rage in vain.
When she displays her gloomy tier,
The boldest Britons freeze with fear,
And, owning her superior might,
Seek their best safety in their flight.
But when she pours the dreadful blaze
And thunder from her cannon plays,
The bursting flash that wings the ball,
Compels those foes to strike or fall."
"She was in many engagements and always victorious--a fortunate ship--a
remarkably fast sailer--could always choose her combat--could either
fight or run away--always beating her adversary by fight or flight,"
Philadelphia's annalist, Watson, made that record of her.
Such was the vessel commanded by Captain John Barry, the Wexford boy, in
the closing and eventful year of the Revolution, which established our
country's Independence and Liberty, to become the home of countless
thousands of all lands who might enjoy the Liberties John Barry had so
conspicuously aided in winning.