The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-02-06

Inc heroic lrlSh-American,
jeremiah O'Brien,
| Who captured and sank
| In the first sea fight of
| The Revolutionary War
The British schooner Margaretta.
Even Commodore John Barry is less
famous than the organizer or creator
of the American navy should be; and
jeremiah OBrien is hardly even a
name to most of us. So swiftly does
history lengthen and so impossible are
| the modern demands upon the men,
ory. But for those for whom gallery
of half-forgotten or faded faces has
more charm than the great stock per.
sonages that stare from more impor-
tant canvases Jeremiah O'Brien has
value Of his own. He was a Cork
oman, who became a Down Easter.
The exploit which the monument, if
ever it is built, will commemorate, was
told, with some pardonable squibs of
rhetoric, by Mr.. Wiley last Thursday.
1t took three weeks for the news of
the battle of Lexington to trickle into
Machias, Me. Not till May 10th, 1875,
did the fishermen and farmers, and
sawmillers and shipyard men of Mach
las hear of that little brush with King
Georges Holsters. 1t was a Sunday
morning. Folks went to meetin' in
| those days. The meetin' house was
the club of scattered population.
Young Machias boiled and spoiled for
a fight, but the situation was scarcely
alluring. An armed English schooner,
the Margaretta, was anchored, square
in the face of the village, waiting to
escort two lumber sloops to Halifax.
The village bigwigs and beadles were
Tories. Certain muskets were in good
rebel hands, but the COMPOUNDED Tory
officials had all the powder locked up
in magazine. Jonesboro, ten miles
away, had powder, but who was to
get it? No man dared to leave the
town. The authorities would be at
his heels or on the watch for him when
he came back. NIachias was not popu-
lous. The disappearance of even one
man would leave gap that would be
noticed. Just at this point we may
say that the Machias younkers seem
to have been less resourceful and
crafty than they ought to have been.
But Mary Chandler was in the meet
in house. Probably Mary didn't hear
the hymn "lined out" or even remem-
Der the text from which the parson,
If he was worth his salary, must have
preached two hours or so. Mary was
only II, but she had good head, Il
good constitution, strong will, legs,
feet and shoulders. We can see Mary
stealing down the aisle during the long
prayer or soon after the sermon was
started on its weary way. 1t was
hard trail to Jonesboro. but Mary
Chandler was back in N[achias that
night, with twenty-five pounds of gun
powder.
The captain of the Margaretta smell
ed trouble somehow or other. Toward
niglltfall he made his Blue Nose crew
take the schooner few miles off to
the bay. There he thought he was
safe and could command Machias and
its rebellious young men. Here Jere
miah OBrien, lumberman, aged 35,
cool as a cowcumber, comes in. Mr.
Wiley shall describe the little surprise
party which Mr.. O'Brien got up:
Ellis force consisted of thirty-five
picked men. selected from among the
shipbuilders and sailors of AIachias
Full Of mettle and ardor. young in
years. keen of eye. strong of limb and
compact of body: brave and generous.
| every soul of them. with the health of
salt air in their cheeks and the love of
country in their hearts; 'disdaining for
tune. buoyant in hope, and proud in
| their own self-esteem: each veritable
Hotspur. putting on the 'dauntless
spi rit of resolution impatient of
wrong and weary of oppression; daring
to do all that mortal man could do to
redress their grievances, this Spartan
band, under the skilful generalship Of
the gallant O'Brien, rushed, as it were,
from the very summit of the mount of
defiance and quickly seized and un-
loaded one of the lumber-laden sloops
and equipped her for battle, arming
her with the old guns dragged from
the blockhouse, and slowing away in
her hull the powder which Mary
Chandler had brought to them through
the mazes Of thick forest.
Sailing irto the bay as the rays Of
the early morning light gilded the east
ern sky. dire was the clang' as the
two crafts ranged alongside one an
other and exchanged dreadful broad
| side shots. Soon the schooner's fore
sail ratified to- the deck and all was
over with her, for closing in upon her
and holding her fast, Jeremiah o.
Brien, at the head Of his thirty-five
Down Easters,' boarded, captured and
sank her.
AS Mr.. Wiley says, "this insignifi-
cant little sloop was the babe" which