The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-10-10

Alliance. He sailed from Boston IN
February, captured a privateer called
the Alert and reached France in safe
ty. There he was joined by the Mar
quis de la Fayette, a French privateer
of 40 guns. These two captured the
British privateer Mars, q guns, and
Minerva, 10 guns. The French ship
took the two prizes back to France
and Barry went on alone. Off the
British coast he was attacked by two
enemy ships and within short time
he had forced the surrender of both
ships-the 16-gun brig, Atlanta, and
the 14-gun brig, Trepassy.
Barry had other services in the
Revolution to his credit. He took
fought at Princeton and Trenton. Aft
er the close of the war he was ap-
pointed to superintend the building
of the frigate, United States, and
commanded her until she was retired.
He was the first senior officer, with
the rank of commodore, after the re-
organization Of the navy in 1894. He
died in Philadelphia, September Is,
| 1903, and a statue recalling the serv-
| ices of this Father of the American
Navy" stands in front of historic In
dependence hall.
The first American to hold the title
of commodore was Esek Hopkins, COM
mander-in-chief of the first American
| fleet which was assembled and manned
in December, 1775. 1t consisted of the
| Alfred formerly the Black Prince),
| "a guns; the Columbus formerly the
Sally, merchant ship. 20 guns;
two briggs, the Andrea Doria and the
| Cabot, IA guns each; the. brig Provi-
| dence, II guns; the slOop Hornet, 10
guns; and the schooner Wasp, 8 guns.
1t was such puny squadron as this
which had before it the job of con-
tending with a British navy of 112
| ships carrying 3,714 guns! Nor was
| this all. OF the ia guns on the Amer
| lean ships none was larger than g.
FOUNDER, whereas at least 500 of the
+, guns on the British ships were 49,
| Founders or heavier
Hopkins individual record as a
| fighter was not particularly bril-
| Liant one and he was finally dismissed
| from the service. There was no ques-
ton of his courage, however, and even
if he did not add anything to the
! record of American naval heroism, his
name is worthy Of remembrance be-
| cause he was our first high naval Of
| ficer. His shortcomings were more
than made up for by some of his SUBJ
ordinates, for among them were such
men as Capt. Abraham Whipple (com-
mander Of the Americans at the salt
water Lexington" the capture and
| the burning of the British schooner
| Gaspe off the coast of Rhode Island
on the night of June II, 1772), Capt.
| Nicholas Biddle and young lieuten-
| ant named John Paul Jones.
The War of 1912 bred famous
| group of American sea fighters. The
names of most of them are familiar
| to their countrymen-MacDo nough,
| Hull, Decatur. Lawrence, Perry, Stew
! art, cambridge and Somers. But not
the least illustrious of this group was
David Porter.
AS a boy Porter had been twice
| impressed in the British lazy, and
both times made good his escape; he
| never outgrew the bitterness toward
England engendered by these expert
ences. He had shipped as midship-
man on the Constellation and distin-
| guished himself in the fight with the
French Insurgente; he was lieuten
| ant on the llfated Philadelphia when
ii grounded off T:ipoli. and suffered
| over years imprisonment there. On
| his return to the United states he