James Jeffrey Roche, a journalist and ballad writer of much vigor,
was born in Queens County, Ireland, May 31, 1847. His early life
was spent on Prince Edward Island. He removed to Boston in 1866,
and on the death of John Boyle O’Reilly succeeded him as editor of
the _Pilot_.
The memorable “Fight of the _Armstrong_ Privateer” took place September
26 and 27, 1814. The British lost one hundred and twenty men killed and
one hundred and eighty wounded, while the Americans had but two killed
and seven wounded.
Samuel Chester Reid, who commanded the _Armstrong_, was the son of a
lieutenant in the British navy. He was at one time harbor-master and
warden of the port of New York, and was the designer of the present form
of the United States flag, proposing to retain the original thirteen
stripes and add a new star whenever a new State was admitted to the
Union.
=l. 10.= =Nelson= (Horatio), England’s most noted naval commander, the hero
of Copenhagen, Aboukir Bay, Egypt, where he destroyed the French fleet,
and of Trafalgar, where he was victorious over the combined fleets of
France and Spain, and where he met his death, October 21, 1805.
=l. 12.= =Dundonald= (Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, 1749-1831), a
distinguished Scottish seaman.
=l. 31.= =Dartmoor=, an English prison in Devonshire. It was built in 1806,
during the Napoleonic wars, for the retention of prisoners. Seven
Americans were killed here, and sixty wounded, on April 16, 1815, a
brutal and unprovoked act.
=l. 40.= =Pico=, one of the middle group of the Azores.
=l. 42.= =Lloyd= (Captain Robert), of the _Plantagenet_, the commander of
the English fleet.