John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail

Chapter 5

Their plight led him to enter into an odd venture with Brown. With no money of his own, Barry borrowed two hundred dollars from the Philadelphia Bank. Then he and Brown bought up prize warrants from the neediest Alliances, after Brown convinced Barry that this was the only way he could provide a.s.sistance. They could not afford to pay face value, but most sailors were happy to settle for a lesser amount, remitted in cash. If this seems an unscrupulous scheme of making money on the hard-earned prize shares of Barry"s sailors, it also kept quite a few out of debtor"s prison, and others from starving.40 That winter he was "incessantly called upon and threatened with suits," forced "in several instances . . . to advance my own money to satisfy them which is very hard." He fired off angry letters to Barclay: for a year, Barry "had full confidence that you would have provided Funds for payment."41 Where were they?

The winter was one of the coldest Philadelphians could remember. By Christmas, the Delaware was "frozen over opposite the city." Barry presented his report on the state of the Alliance to Congress the next day. He optimistically believed "the Ship will be fit for any Service for three or four Years" and stated, "The necessary repairs were estimated at 5,866 2/3 dollars."42 Government coffers were so bare that Barry might as well have asked for a million. Morris, believing he had final say in the matter, wanted to wait until the only other Continental ship, the General Washington, returned to Philadelphia.

The New Year brought two days of warmth and a letter from Barclay. Both came with a downside. Philadelphians enjoyed "a most remarkable thaw," but with a "disagreeable, unwholesome vapour." Barclay"s letter was like the weather-warm a.s.surances, but sickly a.s.sets. "I am redly vex"d that you Should have been under any difficulties for want of money," Barclay commiserated. The total share of Barry"s prizes in L"Orient came to over 30,000 livres, small comfort as long as they remained unpaid.43 By March, Barry was dead broke, and the bank"s loan was due. The man who knew how to fight did not know who to fight anymore. He wrote two letters; one, to President of Congress Thomas Mifflin, included a bill of exchange for $260 that Barry "Should be glad to hear that you please took Steps to honor." The second letter was harder to write, let alone post. Setting pride aside, he reached out to his old rustling partner, Anthony Wayne, recently retired from the army and looking to restart his political career. As "the Bank has a demand on me for two hundred dollars," Barry asked if Wayne could "oblige me with that Sum."44 He received a warm response from Wayne, but no funds: just an empathetic letter from one penniless warrior to another. "I have met with serious disappointment from my Tenants & Others in the Payment of money due me," Wayne answered. However, being "in full confidence of receiving a very considerable sum . . . some days hence" from "Warrants that I obtained from Mr. Morris," Wayne asked Barry to "wait two or three weeks-as within that time I shall certainly receive Several hundred pounds."45 When the General Washington arrived, her captain, Joshua Barney, was dolefully candid with Morris regarding her condition. Having given the America to France and sold the Bourbon, The Hague (nee Deane), and the Duc de Lauzon, Morris believed that, due to "the embarra.s.sed state of our Finances," the best thing to do with the navy was to end its existence.46 He was convinced that Congress should "make no Effort for the Purpose till the People are taught by their Feelings to call for and require it."47 As his substantial livelihood was based on maritime trade, he understood better than anyone America"s need for a navy, but as the man in charge of the nation"s pursestrings he knew it was more luxury than necessity-at least for the time being.

Initially Morris got what he wanted. Congress approved the "sale at public auction of the frigate Alliance and Ship Washington."48 Sale of the packet posed no problem to Congress, but a pang of nationalistic conscience overcame James Madison, who then urged his colleagues to keep the Alliance-without a clue how to pay for her repairs and upkeep.49 Surprisingly, Congress agreed, "for the honour of the flag of the United States and the protection of its trade and coasts from the insults of pirates"-America"s first act of homeland security.50 With Barney discharged, Barry remained the only naval officer in Congress" employ, at sixty dollars a month.

As spring temperatures thawed the Delaware, trickles of money from all sources came Barry"s way. From Cuba, Seagrove wrote Brown that "Our friend Barry"s Goods are mostly sold . . . I shall Bring his Cash with me."51 In May, Barry and Brown split 900 livres, their profit on the acquisition of the Alliance"s prize warrants.52 He also billed Congress for $480-eight months" back wages.53 While work commenced on the Alliance"s repairs, Barry continued to receive inquiries from former naval officers, asking his advice on memorials, financial affairs, and merchant a.s.signments, all trusting he was "at ease in Philadelphia after the tedious war." One officer Barry heard from looked to government "emoluments" to a.s.suage his plight. Luke Matthewman had not changed his stripes much. Although in the same dire straits as his peers, he considered himself "one of the least of the sufferers" of the Revolution, although he believed "The exclusion of the Navy Officers" from land grants and monetary rewards "certainly unfair." The self-reliant Matthewman began a new career as a bounty hunter in "the disagreeable business of transporting free Negroes from [New York] to their respective homes" which "incurred the appellation of Kidnapper."54 Throughout 1784 Congress was deluged with memorials from former naval officers, and Barry sent a second one, with a unique twist. There had not been a commodore in the Continental Navy since unlucky Esek Hopkins. Now, with the navy consisting of one ship-his-Barry hoped that a request for the t.i.tle might hasten remittance of his back pay. It did not. Soon afterward, Congress had neither a "Department of Marine" nor an Agent of the Marine. Morris"s resignation was finally accepted on November 1, 1784, with no successor named. When Morris left, he gave Congress both a balanced budget and a clean slate on any claims, an accomplishment equivalent to a battlefield victory.55 He bought time for his government to determine its own fate, just as more and more representatives began seeing the inept.i.tude of the Articles of Confederation. But Morris"s mind was elsewhere: China.

By 1783 Morris saw China as both a source of public trade and personal wealth. Europeans had been trading with China for two hundred years, none more successfully than England"s East India Company. Morris wanted in on the action as both a public servant and a private merchant and began recruiting investors from the northern ports. In July, he found his first ship for the enterprise, a square-sterned vessel of "about four hundred Tons Burthen." Graced with a woman"s figurehead, he rechristened her the Empress of China. "I am sending some Ships to China in order to encourage others in the adventurous pursuits of Commerce," he wrote to John Jay. The Empress"s hold was soon filled with cordage, wine, lead, iron, and even some of Barry"s Spanish milled dollars. The hottest commodity was ginseng, in high demand by the Chinese. Morris could not get enough of it.56 The captaincy of the Empress was eagerly sought after, but Morris had but one man in mind, one of his most trusted shipmasters before the war. When offered the post, John Green accepted immediately.57 Whether Barry was even considered for the post, or if Morris disregarded him due to the Alliance"s mishaps is not known. Any resentment Barry felt competed with ongoing frustrations over his finances. His memorials and pet.i.tions went unanswered; back pay was still owed, and expenses were still under congressional audit.58 The case of the incorrectly sold and ironically named Fortune was still in the hands of lawyers. Other attorneys fighting over the tangled mora.s.s of the Alliance"s prizes dogged Barry into 1785: "I beg I may not be troubled anymore about it," he wrote to one agent. Nor was the latest report from Cuba any better. Seagrove informed Barry that some unsold goods had been stolen-and that was the good news. "This is not the worst my very Good Friend," Seagrove confessed. "At present I cannot pay you."59 Following Morris"s resignation, Joseph Pennell became Commissioner of Accounts for the Marine. For over a year he ignored Barry"s letters. It seemed that n.o.body could, or would, pay John Barry.

Barry joined Isaac Austin in both the settling of his mother-in-law"s estate and in the battle to retake the Austin Ferry, both intertwined in William"s traitorous status.60 They publicly requested "all persons indebted to the estate of SARA Austin dead" make their payments.61 For two years, Isaac beseeched the Supreme Executive Council to overturn the award of the ferry and houses to Hopkinson and the other University of Pennsylvania trustees. Each pet.i.tion mentioned both Isaac"s military service and his willingness to pay the a.s.sembly"s exorbitant a.s.sessment of the estate"s worth: 1,800.62 Each offer was turned down.63 When the council finally held the auction, Isaac"s bid was highest, but the council refused to transfer the property.64 Now Barry went to work. Learning that William was in Nova Scotia, Barry requested his a.s.sistance, and William began a series of memorials and claims.65 After some prodding, Barry"s friends in the State a.s.sembly presented a bill to the State"s Committee of Grievances, who ruled in Isaac"s favor.66 When the council reviewed the matter, they unanimously supported the decision.

However, the man holding the estate, George Baker, refused to turn it over, having rented the houses and a.s.sumed possession of the ferry business. Rather than acquiesce to the will of the council, Baker went to his friend, Judge George Bryan. A future governor, Bryan issued a warrant against Isaac along with "a severe reprimand" for questioning Baker"s authority.67 Isaac aired his side in a long, rambling letter to the Pennsylvania Gazette. Bryan"s reply described how a violent Austin allegedly accosted a woman renting the Austin home "with a cow-skin whip, on the back part of her head whilst he struggled to divest her of her dwelling." Not to be outdone, Barry and Austin published affidavits of witnesses who refuted Baker"s accusations while charging Bryan with being in "the company of certain miscreants" during the war. In December the council awarded to "Isaac Austin a certain messuage, wharf, ferry, and ferry landing," while the Gazette commented how a "certain Naval Officer" was instrumental in returning the Austin estate to the Austin family.68 Philadelphians could readily guess who that was.

Isaac"s victory presaged some judicial luck for his famous brother-in-law. To Barry"s surprise, Congress ruled in his favor regarding the Fortune affair, granting "full discharge from the judgment against him" and sending Barry"s shares his way.69 Morris also a.s.signed an attorney to represent Barry in a suit regarding another runaway slave from the Alliance.70 Barry involved himself in another case concerning Joanna Young, widow of his friend John, lost at sea commanding the Saratoga four years earlier. Hearing that Congress approved half-pay measures to the widows of army officers, she pet.i.tioned for the same allowance. Congress decided that army officers were "subject to arduous duty without a prospect of booty," while naval officers "in a less severe service were in a situation of realizing substantial riches"-the very prize shares Barry and his colleagues were still trying to claim. "The prayer of the pet.i.tioner" was denied.71 Sad news arrived from Ireland: Barry"s sister, Eleanor Hayes, had pa.s.sed away, leaving her invalid husband, Thomas, a widower with three young children: Michael, Patrick, and Eleanor. After mentioning his own declining health, Hayes called Barry"s contributions his "Only Relief," and "praised G.o.d for having such a friend in his later days." Barry a.s.sured Hayes that he would "prove a real Father to his Children" when the time came to do so. Barry"s other sister, Margaret Howlin, was also widowed, living in poverty. He sent them what money he could spare whenever a Philadelphia merchantman was bound to Wexford.72 He began to receive a steady influx of letters from Ireland, looking for his a.s.sistance in helping the next generation find footing in the new world as he did, "putting [them] in the way of getting Bread, Rather than they sh[oul]d Starve at home." From Cork came a letter from Jeremiah Teahan, a former Montserrat merchant and acquaintance from Barry"s days on the sloop Peggy. Teahan, while asking Barry"s "a.s.sistance" in finding employment for young Irishmen and knowing Barry"s "influence to be great," did not wait for a yes or no answer. He sent the letter with a "poor young man"-a carpenter-begging Barry to "fix his Camp."73 Nor was gender an issue regarding these requests. A Philadelphia ne"er-do-well sent for an indentured servant girl from Ireland, who arrived on board a ship at "the wharf below Race Street." When she refused to serve him, he decided that Philadelphia"s most prominent Irishman should pay the forty dollars to free her from her indenture. After all, she was from "Rosswell by Donegall."74 One summer day in 1785 another letter was delivered by a young Irish emigre, "Matthew Doyle a lad of good repute . . . brought up to husbandry" and sent across the Atlantic by Barry"s childhood hero, Uncle Nicholas. The letter young Doyle carried brought Barry about hard. Thomas Hayes was dead. Nicholas would send the three Hayes teenagers to Philadelphia upon Barry"s request. Then, Nicholas raised another dolorous matter: there was no headstone for his parents" grave, and that "grieves and Troubles me Much your being So Worthy a Son to a Father and Mother, that there is no Memorial of them in the Church yard of Ruslare." In closing, he let John know that his "Cousin Richard Barry is now in Mexico or the Spanish Main" as "Commander of A Stout Ship belonging to Dublin." Yet another Barry had taken to the sea. It would be another year before John and Sarah sent for the Hayes children.75 At noon on May 11, a tired but elated John Green ordered a thirteen-gun salute fired as the Empress of China entered New York harbor. His odyssey had been immensely successful. New Yorkers were agog over the Empress"s "rich cargo of Teas, Silks, China, Nankins & Co.," calling Green"s voyage an "eminently distinguished, and very prosperous achievement." Morris and company netted an astonishing 25 percent profit on their investment.76 Word of Green"s triumph with his current command was sadly followed by news regarding Barry"s last one. For over a year, the forlorn Alliance lay idly in Philadelphia harbor. The bold promise Congress made to repair and keep her for "the honour of the flag of the United States and the protection of its trade and coasts" was as empty as her decks, even as America was in need of her. The Philadelphia merchantman Betsey, Captain John Irwin (of the Delaware Irwins), had been captured by a Tangier corsair. It was America"s first encounter with the Barbary Pirates, having been spared this embarra.s.sment when under the protection of the British Empire and the tribute England paid the Barbary States. The Emperor of Morocco, Sidi Mahomet, who bragged of being the first leader to recognize American sovereignty (after all, he was an emperor; Louis XVI was only a king), used the Betsey"s seizure as an opportunity to sign a treaty with America.77 Jefferson, America"s minister in Paris, led negotiations on the Betsey"s behalf, but advised Congress that the United States "will require a protecting force on the sea."78 But Congress lacked the money for maintenance or manpower and placed this advertis.e.m.e.nt in the Pennsylvania Gazette: Board of Treasury, New York, June 13, 1785.

SALE OF THE ALLIANCE.

On the first Tuesday of August next WILL BE SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION AT THE MERCHANTS".

COFFEE HOUSE IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.

THE FRIGATE ALLIANCE.

Now lying in the River Delaware with all her Tackle and appurtenances (excepting her warlike appurtenances).

A description of the ship and inventory of her tackle and appurtenances will be published on the day of sale.

The payment for the convenience of the purchaser may be made in Good negotiable paper payable and four equal monthly installments.

N. B. the sale will commence at twelve o"clock precisely.79 It now became the last official duty of the navy"s last officer to prepare its last ship for decommission. By July 9, all vestiges of her status as a ship of war were removed. An unseasonable, vicious north wind accompanied a pelting rain on August 1, when a small crowd of onlookers joined merchants, carpenters, and chandlers as the coffeehouse auctioneer sold off everything that belonged to the Alliance. Even at 1785 prices she went for a fraction of her true worth. A consortium under Benjamin Eyre, the shipwright who had a.s.sessed her condition with Barry two years earlier, bought her for 2,887, the equivalent of $7,700. Eyre paid with "Morris notes"certificates of public debt, purchased at 2 shillings 3 pence on the pound.80 Thousands of miles away in the Mediterranean, Algerian corsairs captured a second Philadelphia ship. Soon the press ran amok with rumors, including one that the London Packet, in Thomas Truxton"s capable hands and bearing Benjamin Franklin home from France, was also seized. Her arrival at the Capes laid that story to rest. Secretary of Treasury John Jay"s idea to build "five forty Gun ships" placed "under Direction of a brave experienced Commodore" was wishful thinking.81 This crisis and the sale of his beloved Alliance were not as present in Barry"s mind as was his ongoing crusade to recover the rest of his back pay and prize money. Some prize shares had arrived, but his accounts were still under audit.82 With Morris out of office, his bills were reviewed by men who did not know Barry nearly as well. Nor, did it seem to him, that they cared a whit if the debts to navy veterans were ever paid.83 Thomas Read was back in town. Richard Henry Lee, one of the earliest advocates for a navy, was now President of Congress. Read and Barry saw his appointment as a slim chance to be heard and, hopefully, paid. With many officers living hand-to-mouth and Congress"s rejection of the Widow Young"s pet.i.tion, they delivered a joint memorial to Congress for themselves and "the other Officers of the Continental Navy." Possibly ghostwritten by John Brown, it was a logical plea for justice, calling attention to the fact "that they are the only Cla.s.s of Officers in the United States who remain neglected and totally unprovided for," they pet.i.tioned "that they may be placed on a footing similar to that of their Brother Officers in the Land Services as to Half-pay or Commutation and Lands." Weeks pa.s.sed. "We never heard anything of it," Barry complained. With Lee"s compliance, the memorial died in committee.84 Two years had pa.s.sed since Barry was last at sea, and he was restless, watching inferior captains get plum a.s.signments. Now that Green (whom Barry still held in contempt) had proven Morris correct about China, friends like Truxton were being enticed to sail to the other side of the world for adventure and profit. With no results coming from his letters and memorials to Congress, Barry began to see China as his only way of restoring his financial fortune-and he had new reasons besides the simple justice of collecting his well-earned money.

His first was a new address. In the fall of 1785 he sold his Spruce Street home and, taking what money he and Sarah had, bought a "plantation"-actually a farm-called Strawberry Hill. Located three miles above Philadelphia in Northern Liberties, the estate consisted of sixty-two acres of fields and woods, and looked down over the Delaware River to Petty"s Island. It shared a carriage path off Frankford Road with Elias Boudinot"s estate, Rose Hill.85 The second reason was his health. He was forty, with thirty years at sea behind him. Besides his aching shoulder, he was having occasional difficulty breathing. Over time the attacks increased in length and frequency. Sometimes symptoms warned him of a spell; sometimes it came on without warning. Some ended in seconds, some fought him for days. It was asthma.86 Philadelphia had one of the hemisphere"s foremost experts on the disease. Benjamin Rush first wrote a treatise on asthma back in 1770, advocating warm baths and questioning whether the disease was contagious.87 Rush began treating Barry after his return from Virginia in 1783 and physician and patient became close confidantes for the rest of Barry"s life. While "Bleeding . . . I believe, has done more harm than good," he did bleed Barry. The captain was confined to his home for a month; four visits from Rush, including a "physician"s courtesy" discount, cost Barry 1.15.88 In addition to bleeding, other remedies were prescribed and tried on Barry. One contemporary patient "obtained relief by the use of anti-spasmodic and expectorant medicines" although his "stomach was often disordered by their influence." His doctor used the patient"s own words to describe the treatment"s results: "I inhaled the medicated vapor . . . before going to rest. The first sensations it occasioned me, were slight fatigue and breathing, and an aching pain in the breast; which, however, subsided by degrees; and when expectoration took place . . . I felt completed relieved."89 If the hazards of years at sea combined with life in a dirty, eighteenth-century city were part of Barry"s world, so too now was the life of an asthmatic. Over the years Rush tinkered with his patient"s treatments, but the prognosis for Barry"s health was grim. Physicians already knew that chronic asthma hardened the lining of the lungs, and the resultant effect on both breathing and the heart. By 1785 there was a host of treatments, from what was considered state-of-the-art science to folk cures. Different herbs were inhaled, as was turpentine and vinegar; one "fanciful idea" was "the desiccation of marshmallows."90 Strawberry Hill"s bucolic setting made it as much a sanitarium as it was a country estate (it also extended Rush"s travel time and, hence, his bill). The Barrys loved their new home, and the captain shared this joy in his correspondence. "I find you have entirely removed in the Country & bid adieu to the City," one friend wrote.91 That fall, Barry, along with his naval comrades, was recognized by his peers from the Continental Army-for service if not by payment-and elected to the Society of the Cincinnati. The group took its name from Cincinnatus, the legendary citizen-warrior who dropped his plowshare for his sword, defeated Rome"s enemies, secured the restoration of its republic, and returned to his fields-an allegory obviously meant to flatter Washington. For Henry Knox, the society was an opportunity for officers to keep in touch through reunions, promote charitable interests, and serve as a tangible reminder that their cause-liberty-was an ongoing struggle. Washington was named the society"s first president. Membership would be pa.s.sed down to surviving sons. The organization"s emblem-the bald eagle, and Cincinnatus himself-was embossed on certificates of membership and medals given to each member. The logo soon found its way to Canton, where it was etched on fine china ordered by society members. Thomas Paine, asked to write a song about the society, did so with enthusiasm.92 While Knox saw the society as a chance for peaceful camaraderie, and Washington welcomed it as a harmless organization honoring the service of his brave officers, others viewed it differently. Alexander Hamilton believed it was a wondrous opportunity for political advancement. Noncombatants viewed it with derision; to Samuel Adams, it was a "rapid stride towards a hereditary military n.o.bility." Benjamin Franklin, calling it an "order of hereditary knights," acerbically suggested that membership be pa.s.sed "up to parents rather than down to children." It inspired his essay nominating the wild turkey-"a bird of courage"-as the national bird, rather than the eagle-"a bird of bad moral character" and a "rank coward . . . by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati, who have driven all the king birds from our country."93 Along with Jones and other naval captains, Barry accepted the offer to join, but like Washington, he stayed above-and away from-any vested partisanship found throughout the society. His pride as a member was doc.u.mented for history; years later, when he sat for a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, his medal was prominently displayed upon his chest.94 By March 1786, the war had been over for three years, but Barry was still pursuing payment for some services he had rendered in 1776. When one of Pennell"s bean counters finally answered Barry"s inquiries with a condescending letter, Barry fired back a warning that he would gladly come to New York to demand his money. Another bureaucrat admonished him "that it is unnecessary for you at this time to come to New York," as "Congress had displaced Mr. Pennell with Colonel Benjamin Walker"-who also ignored Barry"s letters regarding long overdue payment. When Walker finally answered one of Barry"s posted broadsides, it was bureaucracy at its finest: "None of the books or papers of the Alliance in this office extend beyond 1781," he wrote, asking Barry to come up with the missing records. The sh.e.l.l game continued. Even after he presented the Alliance"s books, Walker begged "leave to refer you for more particulars."95 As best they could, John and Sarah were enjoying their new social life, hosting dinners at Strawberry Hill. In addition to meetings of "the Sea-Captains Club," Barry attended monthly dinners of the Hibernian Fire Company. These overreaching "firefighters" were among the wealthiest and best-known Philadelphians, including Morris, Brown, Charles Biddle, and Matthew Meas, purser from the Bonhomme Richard (and badly wounded at Flamborough Head). Missing any meetings did not result in fines as long as Barry kept "his Buckets, Bags and Basket" in town.96 Most members were budding Federalists, having witnessed first-hand the inept.i.tude of the Articles of Confederation.

William Austin continued writing Barry from Nova Scotia, grateful for the news of the rest.i.tution of the family property, which allowed Barry "to pay any person I am indebted to which will be a great consolation to me." Asking Barry "to keep this matter to yourself," Austin wrote freely, praising the "Bounty and goodness" of the British government "in making compensation to those poor people"-himself included-"who have suffered" the confiscation of their American property. Now persona non grata to his siblings, Austin asked his brother-in-law to "give my Love to my Sister and Brother." He also pa.s.sed on to Barry how much Nova Scotia had changed "since you was here," sailing the Industry before the war, in what seemed a different lifetime.97 By the end of 1786 Barry and many former naval officers were past bitterness over lack of congressional recognition or a.s.sistance. They soon had company. In western Ma.s.sachusetts, Daniel Shays, a veteran of Bunker Hill, organized the first revolt against farm foreclosures and skyrocketing tax a.s.sessments. A fearful Congress authorized Knox to lead a force against the rag-tag New Englanders. Shays"s Rebellion illuminated the impotency of Congress. More and more Americans were coming to the conclusion already reached by groups like the Hibernian Fire Company-a stronger government might be the only way the infant United States of America would ever learn to walk.98 For Barry, public and financial issues took a back seat for at least one spring day in 1787, when he received word that the ship Rising Sun was approaching Philadelphia, back from a voyage to Wexford. Her captain was Barry"s friend John Rossiter, another Wexford emigrant. Standing on the dock, the Barrys waited anxiously while the gangplank was lowered and the pa.s.sengers disembarked. Then they saw Rossiter with two teenage boys, soon swept up in the welcoming arms of their uncle and tearful embrace of their aunt.99 Michael Hayes, the oldest at eighteen, explained his sister Eleanor"s absence: recently married, she chose to remain in Ireland. Sixteen-year-old brother Patrick was slim and boyishly good-looking, possessing the family"s cramped facial features above a well-defined jawline, his eyes more piercing than his uncle"s. After a fine meal in town, the Barrys brought Michael and Patrick to their new home at Strawberry Hill.100 Michael soon returned to service on the Rising Sun, bound to Jamaica.101 Patrick must have felt like a frog turned prince. Strawberry Hill was heaven to him. At that age Barry had already begun taking on the world, with no parental compa.s.s. Now he was determined to provide that guidance. Sarah was already a veteran at caring for a relative"s children. The childless Barrys would raise Patrick as the son they never had.

By mid-1787 the China trade was no longer a novelty. No less than four American vessels were at the anchorage at Whampoa Reach, including the Canton-the former London Packet-with Truxton as captain and part owner. Even the Alliance sailed for China. Benjamin Eyre"s partners could not afford her upkeep, and she was s.n.a.t.c.hed up by none other than Robert Morris. With the same speed in which he and Barry refit peacetime vessels for war in the early days of the Revolution, Morris had her in prime condition, with James Read as captain and Richard Dale as first mate.102 Finally, Barry"s turn came. No less than seventeen investors, Morris and Stephen Girard among them, were financing construction of the Asia, built specifically for the China trade. Her shipwright was Joseph Marsh, one of Philadelphia"s best. At nearly four hundred tons, she was smaller than the Alliance, but better designed for trade than the old frigate. The Asia was the prototype of a new design, the Philadelphia China trader, and compared favorably to the cla.s.sic merchantman of the East India Company. In June, her owners journeyed up Frankford Road to Strawberry Hill and requested the honor of having Barry serve as captain for her maiden voyage. While he did not need to be asked twice, he negotiated well for himself. His prospective shares in the undertaking could make him a wealthy man-if he was successful.103 His good news brought mixed emotions from Sarah. Happy as she was for her husband, she knew it meant a two-year separation, and became even more sorrowful when he announced that Patrick would accompany him.

Barry enthusiastically dove into his new responsibilities. His first mate was James Josiah, age thirty-six, a florid-faced, dark-eyed man who wore his hair in an eighteenth-century version of a mullet. He served in the war with Nicholas Biddle and later as a privateer. Josiah, like Dale, did not mind a subordinate position when it meant a chance for a voyage like this. His appointment was Barry"s first entry in the Asia"s letterbook.104 By September most of his crew had signed on; within two weeks of the Asia"s launching, Josiah began overseeing storage of her cargo. Her hull and stern were beautifully decorated, and a handsome figurehead glistened on the bow, carved by the famous William Rush. It was said of Rush"s craftsmanship on the Asia"s sister ship, the Ganges, that Calcutta residents "knelt and prayed to the River G.o.d figure head" he designed.105 Readying the Asia kept Barry occupied, commuting daily on horseback from Strawberry Hill. But throughout that summer he was working in the shadows of the Const.i.tutional Convention, the most important meeting in Philadelphia since the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Since May, most of America"s best and brightest political minds (Adams and Jefferson were in Europe) were sequestered in the State House, scheming, quarrelling, stonewalling, and compromising, in order to form a more perfect union.

Every day Benjamin Franklin, now eighty-one and racked with pain from a kidney stone, arrived in a sedan chair carried by four inmates from Walnut Street Prison.106 Washington served as president of the convention.107 On September 17, under "unanimous consent of the States," the new government was announced.108 It had taken four years to write and organize the Articles of Confederation. It took only four months to draw up the Const.i.tution.109 Now attention turned to the states to ratify the new doc.u.ment. Well-drawn lines divided the political camps in the Pennsylvania a.s.sembly. Most Philadelphians, along with their neighbors in the surrounding counties, favored the newly proposed federal government-it would a.s.sist and encourage business and growth. However, their counterparts from the rural counties saw it as the establishment of the divine rights of presidents, congressmen, and judges. In their eyes, any improvement in government efficiency, commercial growth, or a centralized monetary system was offset by perceived restrictions of the rights of the individual. For Barry and his navy friends, adoption of the new Const.i.tution meant one thing: their last, best chance to finally get paid.

On September 28, Franklin"s sedan chair carried him once again to the State House; the senior delegate to the recent Const.i.tutional Convention was also President of the State a.s.sembly. He informed his sixty-eight colleagues of his "very great satisfaction" on the convention"s results (he also secretly revealed his closing remarks, the famous "rising sun" speech, to intensify public support).110 Representatives from the backwoods counties were to a man against the Const.i.tution, but their eastern counterparts, more numerous in number, were united in support of it.

Even though the Const.i.tutional Convention was over, the a.s.sembly still gathered upstairs in chambers recently renovated as a carbon copy of their usual downstairs haunt.111 The desks faced in the same direction, and the "gallery"-a cordoned-off area taking up about fifteen percent of the room-was filled with spectators. Anyone with a vested interest in the outcome could attend these sessions. Barry was a regular.

These sessions were Franklin"s swan song. While slyly espousing that "I do not entirely approve of this Const.i.tution," he desperately wanted it ratified, but followed Washington"s example, keeping silent throughout the sessions. Speaker Thomas Mifflin read the long doc.u.ment to his colleagues. When he concluded, the gallery exploded in applause. The following day it was published in the local press, with five hundred copies printed in German for those Americans who did not speak English. The Const.i.tution"s supporters were led by men Barry knew well, including Mifflin, George Clymer, and recent convention delegate Thomas Fitzsimons. The opposition was led by James McCalmont, Jacob Miley, and James Barr.112 Fifty years old, McCalmont hailed from upper Strasbourg; at six feet four inches he was a figure to be reckoned with. He was a renowned Indian fighter, war hero, and major in the Pennsylvania militia, with a reputation as a great runner in his youth. His ability to load and accurately fire his musket at full sprint was legendary. He won Franklin County"s first state election in 1784, and easily transferred his talents for confrontation, infighting, and gamesmanship from the backwoods to the a.s.sembly chamber.113 The battle for ratification commenced. Words and blood pressure ran high; Clymer, leading the Federalists, tried to steamroller ratification, while McCalmont and the anti-Federalists, equally pa.s.sionate, were determined to "oppose the measure by every possible argument."114 To add to the tension, the debate was being fought within a shrinking calendar. The a.s.sembly was adjourning at the end of the month to allow members to go home and campaign for reelection.115 Clymer"s Federalists held a two-to-one advantage, but McCalmont"s anti-Federalists skillfully stonewalled attempts at pa.s.sage. If they succeeded, they could delay voting on ratification by a year-perhaps even defeat it. Barry"s friends in the a.s.sembly wanted Pennsylvania to be the first state to ratify the Const.i.tution. McCalmont"s side wanted to kill it.116 Friday the twenty-eighth came; Mifflin called the a.s.sembly into order. When the issue of new business came up, Clymer rose to speak. Citing "business of the highest magnitude," he moved for a state convention to ratify the Const.i.tution. As debate flew back and forth across the room, Fitzsimons proposed that the motion be amended, calling for "an election of delegates." A motion by the anti-Federalists to postpone the proposal was defeated. Clymer"s brother Daniel argued that the Const.i.tution was "too generally agreeable, and too highly recommended, to be a.s.sa.s.sinated by the hand of intrigue and cabal." A vote for the proposed selection of delegates would resolve the issue by December 1787; a vote against would delay debate to December 1788. While Barry and others watched intently, the Federalists began to shout "question!" in unison and the vote was called. The resolution pa.s.sed, 43 to 19, and the gallery and Federalists l.u.s.tily cheered. A motion to recess until four o"clock resoundingly pa.s.sed, and the a.s.sembly went their various ways, in groups and individuals, leaving the building in search of a meal. Barry and the gallery followed.117 Around four, Barry rejoined the crowd in the gallery to witness the Federalists" victory. The representatives ambled in-only not nearly as many as had left earlier. The clock struck four. All nineteen anti-Federalists were missing. Their absence was their trump card: now, there was no quorum. There could be no vote.118 The sergeant-at-arms was ordered to search for them. Before long he returned; having found seventeen representatives at Major Boyd"s boarding house, he reminded them of their duty, only to be told that "there is no House." Mifflin, reviewing the a.s.sembly"s by-laws, found no clause that forced members to attend, only a fine for their absence.119 The Federalists had been outfoxed; one lamented, "If there was no way to compel them who deserted from duty to perform it, then G.o.d be merciful to us!" A collective groan came from the gallery as the forty-three Federalists cast dismayed eyes at Mifflin. Disgusted, he called a recess until 9:30 the next morning.120 Barry and the crowd stomped down the steps and out into the Indian summer weather. Everyone knew what would happen the next morning: another no-show by the anti-Federalists. Without a quorum, there would be no convention, perhaps no ratification for a year. How many absent a.s.semblymen were needed to have a quorum? Barry knew the answer: two.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE ASIA.

WHILE OTHERS FUMED AND FRETTED, Barry rode home, turning over a plan in his mind. Before the a.s.sembly recessed, one member posed the problem: how do you compel the anti-Federalist "seceders" to attend? For Barry the answer was easy. Early on Sat.u.r.day, the last scheduled session before adjournment, he was off to the State House-but not before he went to the waterfront.

It was a bright, crisp, autumn morning.1 A large crowd gathered outside the State House well before 9:30, everyone hoping to find room in the gallery and see firsthand how events would unfold. Among the less genteel spectators was a gang of sailors, stevedores, and carpenters-wharf toughs whose appearance (as well as their language and smell) intimidated the more refined onlookers.2 When the doors opened, they followed Barry up the stairs, joining the crowd packed tight behind the gallery rail.

Mifflin ascended to his chair, called the session to order, and read the latest resolution from Congress, calling for each state to hold a convention to vote on the new const.i.tution. Next, he dispatched the sergeant-at-arms to Major Boyd"s to fetch the truant a.s.semblymen. Mifflin ordered a clerk armed with the congressional resolution to accompany him, in hopes of appealing to the anti-Federalists" collective conscience, if not to their sense of duty. Minutes later both men returned empty-handed, save for the resolution. Having celebrated their victory with a fine meal, spirits, and a good night"s sleep, most of McCalmont"s anti-Federalist allies had already left town. Only two were still tarrying at Boyd"s: McCalmont and his roommate, Jacob Miley of Dauphin County, another tough frontiersman.3 When accosted by the sergeant-at-arms, they simply ignored him and refused to return. Everyone in the room looked to Mifflin. Now what?4 With a nod to his companions, Barry and his men elbowed their way out of the gallery, jogged down the steps of the State House and out to Chestnut Street. Whether Mifflin was in on Barry"s plan is not known-but as Barry"s band exited, Mifflin "left the chair."5 By doing so, he delayed adjourning the a.s.sembly.6 Others in the gallery also followed Barry, but at a distance.

Barry"s companions strode up Chestnut to Sixth, then turned and headed right to Major Boyd"s. They forced their way in the front door, and then stomped upstairs to find McCalmont and Miley. The crowd trailing Barry turned into a mob, shouting curses and throwing stones through the boardinghouse windows.7 Barry and company did not bother to knock before entering.8 As Barry"s toughs circled the two a.s.semblymen, he gave them a choice: they could walk to the State House under their own power, or be carried there.9 Other politicians might have been struck with fear, but McCalmont and Miley were made of sterner stuff. They responded with their own profanity-laced declaration; they were not coming to the State House, despite the escort service confronting them. There was a second of silence. Then, "Take "em!" Barry commanded, and the "compelling" began.

The two ex-militiamen put up a fight. Fists were thrown, clothes were torn, and fingers were bitten or pried off the banisters. The representatives of Dauphin and Franklin counties punched and kicked in every direction, but to no avail. Messrs. McCalmont and Miley bid adieu to Major Boyd"s, without settling their bill.10 Once outside, the two men were hoisted up and carried, as one newspaperman reported, with "their clothes torn and after much abuse and insult." Slowly but surely, "they were finally dragged" down Chestnut Street.11 By now the clamor could be heard on the second floor of the State House. Peering out of one of the windows, Mifflin saw his two colleagues being a.s.sisted back to work, and then quietly excused himself from the chamber.12 Barry"s gang reached the State House doors. Moving to and fro, sideways, backward, sideways, forward, his toughs got to the stairway. They scuffled up the first five steps to the landing while McCalmont and Miley squirmed to free themselves, lashing out at their bearers, whose fingernails dug into their necks and hands, drawing blood. Their clothes, torn in proportion to resistance, became shredded rags.

The next two flights of stairs were sixteen steps each. A five-foot wide stairway is more than broad enough for a crowd to use-the prisoners easily negotiated Franklin"s sedan-chair daily-but this band, carrying two thrashing public servants, found it a narrow pa.s.sage. The last flight of five stairs took the longest. To their credit, neither McCalmont nor Miley stopped fighting. When they could, they dug their feet into the stairs and flailed their arms. Finally, Barry and his men got through the doorway, literally throwing the two men over the rail that divided the gallery from the austere chamber of official government business.13 Thanks to Barry there was bedlam, but also a quorum.

As the other a.s.semblymen returned to their seats, Mifflin "a.s.sumed the chair, and the roll was called." The two manhandled legislators, b.l.o.o.d.y, bruised, and half-naked, glared at him. Panting heavily, they felt for cracked ribs and broken fingers. When their names were called by the clerk, they were still out of breath-but their colleagues happily responded for them. "HERE!" they cried. Mifflin acknowledged, to laughter and cheers, that a quorum was present. The session, delayed but not adjourned, began at last.14 Looking angrily at the gallery, McCalmont called to be recognized, protesting that his arrival and that of Mr. Miley was by force and force alone, "by a number of citizens he did not know."15 Searching the faces of the ruthless gang that bore him there, he sought their ringleader. McCalmont continued to press his cause. He and Miley, present against their wishes, intended to leave.16 Thomas Fitzsimons spoke, ostensibly to commiserate. If a member of the a.s.sembly had done this to his esteemed colleagues, Mifflin should "mark such conduct with disapprobation." He was seconded by Henry Brackenridge, the Continental Army"s old chaplain, who reasoned that McCalmont"s beef was with the mob, not the a.s.sembly. Adding a rapier wit to Barry"s bludgeoning, Brackenridge obligingly cited Franklin"s difficulties: whether friend or foe brought McCalmont was immaterial; "if they brought [McCalmont] in a sedan chair . . . all we [need] to know is that he is here."17 The gallery erupted in laughter. Outnumbered, beaten in both body and vote, McCalmont fought on. He asked that the rules be read, and that he would abide by them. When the clerk noted that the penalty for preventing a quorum by premeditated absence carried a fine of five shillings, McCalmont shoved a bruised hand into his pocket and found his purse, miraculously still in his coat despite his rough journey. Disdainfully, he tossed the coins on the clerk"s desk. Here was his fine, he said-now let him go-and the quorum with him. For once the crowd laughed with him. But Mifflin was up to the challenge, and won back the audience with a brilliant rejoinder: the representative a.s.signed to collect fees, a fellow anti-Federalist, was absent. Therefore the fine could not be collected; therefore the quorum stood. To guffaws from the crowd, Mifflin politely a.s.sured McCalmont there was no fine for attending-he could keep his five shillings. Undeterred, McCalmont bolted for the door. With shouts of "Stop him! Stop him!" coming from the gallery, Mifflin yelled for the sergeant-at-arms to bar the way. In doing so he probably saved McCalmont"s life.18 Rising to speak, Fitzsimons took command of the situation, bringing the matter to its climax. He had fought with Barry at Princeton, and would fight beside him now. In his offer of five shillings, it was McCalmont who "offended the greatest indignity to the a.s.sembly," thinking that his pittance could stop the a.s.sembly from doing its duty. Brackenridge made a motion that a convention be held on the first Tuesday in November. McCalmont"s protests fell on deaf ears (from the onset, Miley kept mute). The resolution pa.s.sed 44 to 2. With no further business, Mifflin told McCalmont and Miley they were free to go; the a.s.sembly adjourned to tumultuous cheers, and the bells of Christ Church pealed throughout the afternoon.19 Before leaving town McCalmont learned the ident.i.ty of the gallery"s ringleader. Soon all Philadelphia knew, thanks to an inspired bit of doggerel regarding his civics lesson: It seems to me I yet see B(arr)y Drag out McC(a)lm(o)nt.

(By the Lord Harry, The might was right, and also Mil(e)y Was taken from an outhouse slyly, To const.i.tute with him a quorum, For he it seems was unus horum.)20 Admired as Barry was by Philadelphians and even members of Congress for his boldness, he quickly found himself without honor among the a.s.sembly whose face he just saved. On October 3, McCalmont presented a formal complaint, along with eyewitness accounts, to the Supreme Executive Council, declaring that "the inhabitants of Franklin and Dauphin [counties] had been grossly insulted by the treatment of their members." The council overwhelmingly agreed "that the Attorney General be directed forthwith to commence the prosecution against Captain John Barry, and such other persons as shall be found to have been princ.i.p.ally active in seizing the said James M"calmont, or otherwise concerned in the riotous proceedings as sent forth."21 First to vote "yes" was Council President and Barry"s old pen pal, Benjamin Franklin. It was an easy vote for him to cast-even though Barry"s actions, harsh as they were, guaranteed the result Franklin wanted more than anything. Among the other members who voted for Barry"s prosecution was his fellow "Sea Captain"s Club" member, Charles Biddle, himself under pressure to vote against any investigation, especially since "some of the gentlemen ordered to be prosecuted were my intimate friends." As it turned out, only Barry was specifically named among "the gentlemen."22 Biddle, like Barry, possessed both integrity and courage, and broke the news to Barry over dinner that evening. During the meal they argued their positions. Barry was "displeased at first." Franklin"s vote was no surprise, but he felt betrayed by Biddle, a good friend for twenty years. Biddle understood. He sincerely believed the resolution "a very disagreeable business," but he "concerned it to be my duty, and therefore voted for it." Biddle a.s.sured Barry that a warrant for his arrest was not coming any time soon, and that, while McCalmont looked forward to Barry"s legal day of reckoning, the attorney general would a.s.semble his evidence very slowly. After Biddle explained his reasoning, Barry "was soon satisfied it was right." By the time dessert was served, a friendship had been saved.23 On November 6, the a.s.sembly vote for ratification of the Const.i.tution barely pa.s.sed, 46 to 23, and with it ended Barry"s career as a political activist.

In December 1787 the Asia was registered by the state, and Congress approved the mission of "the Ship Asia, John Barry, Commander . . . american built and commanded and manned by Americans."24 Barry was even notified by the Consul of Sweden that he could inform Swedish vessels that they "were required" to respect the Asia and give aid where necessary.25 In addition to first mate James Josiah, John Sword was named second mate, old veteran Nathan Dorsey was appointed surgeon, and William Barry (no relation) signed on as steward. For supercargoes-the owner"s agent in charge of his goods-Barry picked two young men from prominent Philadelphia families: Jonathan Mifflin and Joseph Frazier, who had already been to China in the first voyage of the Canton. Listed among the boys was William Vicary, who grew up to be a successful merchant captain, and Patrick Hayes, who could not wait to make this voyage with his uncle.26 Soon sailors and dock workers were loading a wide variety of goods into the Asia"s hold-not just ginseng, but iron, lumber, masts and spars from the Pennsylvania woods, and rum.27 The stores for the Asia"s maiden journey were a bit unusual as well. The ship"s cargo showed the wide interest of her owners, Barry, and their acquaintances. By the day of departure her hold contained "30 Casks of brandy" from Robert Morris, who directed Barry to use the casks to purchase the best India Nankeen" cloth.28 Others gave Barry money of various amounts for purchase of a wide array of Chinese goods. Letters accompanying these requests reflect 1780s elite consumerism at its best. Robert Colbys gave him "a bill of exchange amounting 276 Spanish milled dollars" for "any articles you may think as a good account." Henry Gurny, whom Barry had "been so Obliging as to offer to bring . . . any little matter," gave him $150 for a set of Nankeen china. John Nixon gave him "One Thousand Dollars . . . to be invested in the Annexed List" which included "Canton cloth . . . black scrimshaws" and "Black Satin," asking that Barry be "particularly attentive to the Quality of the goods as well as the Colours." Mary Crawthorne"s new husband, John Montgomery, gave Barry "200 Spanish Mill"d Dollars" to invest in Chinese goods. Ira Boyle requested "a set of table China" and "Light Coloured Silks for Men"s Coats." John Wilkes gave him $100 for "Serving Silk . . . and Nankeens of a Good Color." John Brown gave him $600 to "purchase . . . Nankeens of the Common kind" he hoped to resell in Philadelphia, promising Barry one third of the return. Finally, there was the extensive wish list of one Mrs. Hazelhurst, who must have imagined that the Asia"s hold was her personal treasure cave: no less than 205 pieces of china, each enumerated and signed, for which she gladly handed over $50.29 Barry also provided for his personal and business needs, obtaining 370 from a London bank and covering the loan with a 1,000 sterling insurance policy "for Cost & goods Shipped by me on Board the Ship Asia of which I am Captain."30 Four 6-pounders and their carriages were stowed aboard, to be a.s.sembled when the Asia reached pirate-infested waters. By happenstance, the Asia was not the only Philadelphia ship making last-minute arrangements for a voyage to China: Truxton"s Canton was preparing for her second voyage to the Orient.31 Ten years Barry"s junior and a native Long Islander, Truxton first went to sea when he was twelve. At sixteen, the stocky boy was in the Royal Navy and tough enough to serve on press gangs. During the Revolution he made his reputation as a privateer; by war"s end he succeeded John Paul Jones as Franklin"s naval protege.32 Barry picked Truxton"s brain thoroughly over what to expect on the voyage and at Canton. Truxton"s knowledge would prove invaluable.

The two ships were both insured by the Irishman Benjamin Fuller, an old acquaintance of Barry"s. After great success as a merchant before the war, the British occupation of Philadelphia and a debilitating illness had brought him to near financial and physical ruin.33 The return of merchant trade to Philadelphia inspired his new career; his budding insurance company, along with investments in Morris"s Bank of North America, was restoring his fortune. He covered the risk of Barry"s venture with enthusiasm: "The Ship Asia Capt. John Barry Commander-a new Ship Completely fitted-four Six pound Cannon and Small arms with 30 Men-The Capt. esteem"d one of the most accomplished and complete Navigators belonging to this port."34 Truxton departed on December 8. Barry, facing a two-year absence from home, did not mind being beaten out of port. The Barrys had been together for four years, but that did not make parting any easier for Sarah. To keep her company at Strawberry Hill, Barry sent for her cousin Elizabeth Keen, twenty-three, called Betsy by the family. With his business affairs turned over to Brown, and a.s.surances from friends that they would visit Sarah, Barry took Patrick to the ship. On the tenth, under wintry skies and a heavy frost, Barry and Sarah watched the Asia sail with the tide; Josiah would take her as far as Gloucester Point. After one last evening with Sarah, Barry picked up Doctor Dorsey and his two supercargoes. They took a carriage to League Island and came aboard the Asia there.35 Southwest winds blew so strongly against the natural flow of the Delaware that the Asia remained three days off Gloucester Point. Barry sailed the merchantman over to Reedy Island on the seventeenth to take on livestock and "Sundry other Preparations for sea," showing his nephew where he had battled James Wallace ten years earlier. "After a tedious time in the river" the breeze shifted to the west, and Barry sent the Asia to the Capes. "I cannot say much for the Ship"s Sailing but She steers very well which is a good quality," he observed, further noting that "She is not so Stiff as I could wish but we must take the more care and she will be getting stiffer every day."36 (A stiff ship does not roll or heel excessively.) Optimistic as he was for his ship, he was positively jovial over his crew: "My officers and men please me very much for I can truly say I never had a Soberer Ships Company in my life." Nevertheless, Barry"s third mate, a dark, quiet man named Marsh, gave him some degree of concern, but he remained convinced "We have a good prospect ahead of us."37 As soon as the Asia entered the Atlantic the sea G.o.ds welcomed back the long-absent captain with a terrific storm; thus began a series of violent weather. The elements seemed intent on testing the Asia, and the ship began showing her flaws. Furious waves broke against her hull and found her caulking less than sound. Inside his rocking cabin, keeping his writing hand as still as possible, Patrick wrote in his journal "Our Ship is very leaky . . . our decks constantly Full of Water." His uncle also kept a record of the beginnings of the Asia"s maiden voyage: "Soon after we left our Capes we met with hard gales of wind for several days." In one of the gales, "We Sprung our Bowsprit . . . we found The Spring not very bad we then secur"d it as well as possible."38 The bowsprit was no problem compared to the ship"s leaky condition. Barry and ship"s carpenter John Gatt searched for the princ.i.p.al source. Barry"s initial observation over her lack of stiffness became a growing concern. "Our Ship [is] very Crank," he noted-a flaw in the Asia"s construction that made her lean too far to one side, which could result in capsizing. With a stretch of pleasant weather, the carpenter found the reason for the Asia"s leak, "a knot being rotten in her Starboard Wales." A good-sized knothole in a ship"s plank was a serious issue, but Gatt plugged her well enough that Barry reported, "since we stopped her she has been tight."39 In the midst of yet another storm on the Atlantic crossing, as the crew fought rain and wind, "a heavy flash of Lightning struck our Main Mast." The blast "burst two of the Iron Hoops." Fortunately, sailing under bare poles, no one was aloft and in the bolt"s path. The shock of the split hoops "Shiver"d the fishes," and Barry feared the mast would come crashing down. But despite the lightning strike, some luck was with the Asia-the impact was "not so much as to damage the Mast."40 The Asia gamely plowed onward, running up and down the strong waves.

Finally the sun burst through the stormy skies, and, "under double reef"d topsails," with a steady northwest wind, the Asia started skimming across the waterline. "Tho a bad Sailer," Patrick Hayes wrote in his journal, the ship "was forced along at the rate of 8[,] 9 and 10 knots" until "we met the NE trade winds [and] we steered South." Soon Barry changed course to East by South, easing the Asia toward the Cape Verde Islands, three hundred miles off the coast of Senegal.41 He also ordered the 6-pounders brought up and mounted on their carriages. Gunnery practice began in earnest. For the older hands, ex-Continentals and privateersmen, it was an opportunity to show Hayes, Vicary, and the other landsmen the workings of a gun. The seizure of the Betsy was good enough reason for Barry to ascertain that his men would know how to defend themselves from any approaching Algerian or Moroccan ships.42 Eighteenth-century communications being what they were, Barry did not know that his drilling was unnecessary. Fed up with mounting losses at the hands of the Corsairs, Portugal declared war; their fleet kept the Barbary pirates blockaded in the Mediterranean. Americans were still debating the issue on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, John Adams foresaw war with the Barbary pirates in the future; languishing over America"s inability to defend itself, he prophesied that "We ought not to fight them at all, unless we determine to fight them forever."43 Nor did Barry know that his pending arrest warrant was being pigeonholed. Shortly after the New Year, Pennsylvania"s attorney general reported his investigation of the McCalmont affair to the Supreme Executive Council, requesting "advice of Council relative to the suit now carrying on by their order against Captain John Barry." Working behind the scenes on his behalf, Barry"s friends in the a.s.sembly convinced their colleagues "that the Attorney General be informed that Council did not want to interfere," leaving "the matter intirely with him to act as he should judge best." The investigation quietly died. The actions of "the redoubted Captain Barry," as one supporter described him, were no longer subject to prosecution. Even Franklin kept silent.44 For some days, young Patrick could see the nine-thousand-foot volcanic mountain, Cano Peak, on the horizon; on January 23, 1788, the Asia "pa.s.sed between the Cape Verde island." Barry sailed through the score of large and small islands-most of them just mountains jutting out of the East Atlantic, with no safe anchorage. The next day the Asia "struck Soundings off Cape Rochso [Roxo] on the Coast of Guinea.45 Throughout these days of gunnery practice and smooth sailing, the Asia was a happy ship, save for one: Marsh, the third mate. Inexplicably, his mood sank from gloomy to despondent. On February 3, while Barry "spoke a brig for the Persian Gulf . . . bound for Liverpool," young Hayes noticed that Marsh "apeared very much dejected." In the middle of the night, a single pistol shot rang out below deck and immediately roused Barry from slumber. He bolted from his cabin and down the dimly lit, narrow walkway where he found some fo"c"sle hands outside of Marsh"s tiny berth. On his orders they broke down the door.46 The despondent Marsh had shot himself; "the ball entered his right breast and came out through his back." Dorsey was summoned and confirmed what the onlookers already knew: Marsh was dead. The next day, under a clear tropical sky, Patrick attended his first funeral at sea, and "We committed his body to the waves with the usual ceremony." Barry recorded the tragedy in the log with his usual brevity: "We lost Mr. Marsh on the Pa.s.sage he shott himself." The incident troubled Patrick for days; Marsh "left no wrightings behind him to Justify the commission of so horrid a crime."47 Pa.s.sing through the doldrums, the ship slackened its speed as it made for the southeast trades, and it grew oppressively hot above and below deck. Hayes noticed how the crew saw "round Spots on the sun with the naked eye one of them considerably larger than the rest . . . the sea seemed all on fire" as "we crossed the equator on 12 of february."48 That day, Patrick and the other neophyte sailors who had yet to traverse the equator were forced to partake in the traditional hazing, "Crossing the Line": Those of them who had never before pa.s.sed being confined below, about three o"clock our ship was hailed by the Old Man of the Tropic who being desired by the Officer of the Deck to come on board, entered over the bow, attended by his wife, whence they were drawn in the chariot [one of the gratings] by a number of sailors, as Tritons, to the quarter-deck, where the captain and gentlemen received them. Their appearance was truly ludicrous, having their faces black and painted, a blanket over their shoulders, by way of a robe, and a large swab on the head, instead of a crown, the long strands of which, hanging down to the waists, served for hair etc.49 Next, Patrick was "Lathered with tar and grease, and shaved with a notched stick." After making several vows to the "King (such as never to drink small beer when there is strong, and never to kiss the maid when he can kiss the mistress)," he was given Barry"s speaking trumpet to "hail the tropic." One last "handsome washing" by his shipmates, and Patrick"s ordeal-witnessed with delight by his uncle-was over.50 Patrick"s initiation was the only challenge he encountered in the southeast trades. As his uncle did at the same age, Patrick took in everything, describing it all with picturesque detail in his journal. He was fascinated by how "the sky was always covered with flying clouds of the day," with the night "cool and pleasant." He and the others found themselves in a variable orgy of fishing: "We catched a mult.i.tude of Fishes both large and small some of them weighing 100 lb. The sea all around us was covered with some of them about the size of a shad."51 Nor were Barry"s crew the only predators on this killing spree: "sharks, bonetoes & other Large fishes destroy"d not a few of them." Turning their attention to their compet.i.tion, the armed sailors "Lessened a number of those Tyrants Who spread terror and devastation amongst the inhabitants of the ocean." For several days they gorged themselves on fish until "several of our people was poisoned." The sick recovered, but the Asia"s crew returned to salt pork and hardtack.52 Days later, slow sailing came to an end with "fresh Gales between NW and West." Accompanying the strong gusts were several albatrosses, "very Large Birds their body head and un
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