The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-11-16
Captain Fry.


The commander of the Virginius, Cap
tain Joseph Fry, recently murdered in
Cuba, was a resident of this city. He was
born in Tampa, Florida, in the year 1926,
and had been educated to the sea. Enter
ing the U. s. Naval Academy at the age
of sixteen, he graduated there, and
was in service in the navy at the
commencement of the recent hostilities
between the Southern States and the
others. Resigning his commission, he
Immediately took service in the Confede-
rate Navy and, at the approach of Farrugut's
feet, commanded the Ivy, one of the little
feet cooperating with Forts jackson and
Philips. He was socn promoted to the
command of the Maurepas, and after the
the advance of the Federal feet, he took
that steamer up into the waters of White
River, one of the tributaries of Red River.
Here the Maurepas was finally overtaken
by the enemy's gunboats, and by orders of
Capt. Fry che was sunk after getting her
guns and other valuables on shore. Putting
these guns in battery the Captain and his
crew made such gallant defense that one
of the gunboats was destroyed by the ex-
plosion of her boiler pierced with a can
non ball. They were finally dislodged, how
over, by q regiment of infantry landed
below, and the Captain ordered his men to
save themselves. DisdainiDg precipitancy
in his own retreat, he was shot down and
captured.
Upon being exchanged soon afterwards,
Capt. Fry was put in command of come
blockade runners from the Carolina coast,
always, however, in his official capacity,
the government STIMULATING that those ves-
sells should be in charge of a naval officer. In
this capacity his remarkable combination of
GOODNESS, daring aud skill, rendered him
highly successful. Opportunities presented
themselves, in this connection, for his
amassing quite q fortune for himself, but
he spurned them and refused even to re-
ceive his pay in anything but Confederate
money. His patriotism and integrity were
as remarkable rs his dauntless courage.
The closing scenes of the war found
Capt. Fry commanding the gunboat Nor
gan, in Mobile Bay. Every resistance that
valor could suggest was made to the ap-
proach of the Federal feet, and the Morgan
was pretty much torn to pieces by shot and
shell before Mobile was captured. In the
annals of naval warfare, no name ever
stood higher for courage, humanity and
honor, than that of the gallant man whom
accident betrayed into the hands Of tia
Spanish pirates.
Capt. Fry was as symmetrical and i'm
posing in physical appearance as he was
chivalrous in character. With the courage
of lion, he united the graces of religion
and, especially of late years, complied
practically with the requirement of the
Catholic church, in which he had been
reared. United, by his training, to
the trickery of business life, the few years
that he spent on shore previously to hi
taking command of the Virginius, wer'
Improbable financially. Unfortunately
therefore, his most estimable lady and
herself, under the overwhelming blow whic!
has fallen upon her, in very straitened cir
cumstances, and with a large family o
young children to support. In her misfor
| tunes she has at least the consolation o
knowing that the world sympathizes will
her in the loss of her heroic husband.