The first ship’s captain in the rebellious American Continental Navy was an Irish Catholic. He chose the life of a sailor after his tenant farmer family had been forced from the land by British landowners. Well that might be a story now independent Ireland should be interested in. We will give the Irish a statue to tell the story. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The statue on todays stamp was a gift of the USA to Commodore John Barry’s home county of Wexford in Ireland. The statue was delivered by a United States Navy destroyer. The Irish Naval Service has an annual John Berry day where they do a ceremonial laying of a wreath at the statue. Ireland was interested in the story. Ireland did another stamp for Barry in 2003 on the 200th anniversary of his death as part of an issue of Irish mariners who rose in other people’s navies.
Todays stamp is issue A31, a 3 Penny stamp issued by Ireland on September 16th, 1966. It was a two stamp issue coinciding with the American gift of the statue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
John Barry was born in 1745 in Tacumshane, Ireland. The family were tenant farmers under a British landowner. After being forced to leave the land for undisclosed reasons, the family moved to the port of Rossliare where an uncle operated a fishing boat. Future Commodore Barry started out as a cabin boy.
Relocated to Philadelphia in the American colonies, he received the first commission as a ships captain in the rebellion against the British. As you might expect, the American continental navy was not a proper navy but pirate ships that raided shipping operating under letters of marquis issued by the Continental forces. One of his most successful battles with the Royal Navy was the Battle of Turtle Gut inlet in 1776. A Royal Navy blockade ship was chasing a brig carrying a load of gunpowder. They forced the brig to run aground. Barry’s pirate ship crew was able to row to the shipwreck and recover most of the gunpowder. The then left an explosive charge with a delay fuse for when the British boarded the next day.
The British were impressed with Barry and offered him a bounty and ship’s command to change sides. Barry responded there were not enough pounds in the British Treasury or ships in the Royal Navy for him to abandon his adopted country.
Barry survived his many ship commands and in 1797 George Washington declared him America’s first Commodore, a title no longer used in the USA Navy. The statue in Ireland is not Barry’s only monument. There is a park named for him in Brooklyn and the navy has a destroyer named for him. It is the fourth USA Navy ship named for him and though it is getting older, commissioned in 1992, it recently received a midlife update and is equipped with the AEGIS missile system. There is also a sailor’s bar named for him in Muscat, Oman.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and toast the US Navy for taking the time to tell Ireland a story they wanted to hear. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.