LADY'S ISLAND LOUGH
Being but a boy, records do not attest his presence or position. But however lowly, we are sure that merit hovered over every action and proved the worth of the young navigator of the seas so fully that on attaining his twenty-first year he was at once entrusted with the sole command of a vessel—the schooner "Barbadoes," sixty tons, which cleared from Philadelphia on October 2, 1766.
The schooner he commanded was registered at the Custom House on September 29, 1766. It was built at Liverpool, in the Province of Nova Scotia and was owned by Edward Denny, of Philadelphia. John Barry was registered as its Captain.
In this schooner, small in measurement and in tonnage by the standard of our times and yet not surpassed in either by many vessels in the colonial marine trade, John Barry, now a man in years and capabilities, continued until early in 1771 to make voyages to and from Bridgetown, the principal port of Barbadoes.
BRIDGETOWN
In May, 1771, he became Captain of the brig "Patty and Polly," sailing from St. Croix to Philadelphia. In August of that year we find him Captain of the schooner "Industry," of forty-five tons, plying to and from Virginia, making trips to New York, voyages to Nevis and to and from Halifax, Nova Scotia until, on October 9, 1772, he became Commander of the "Peggy" sailing to and from St. Eustatia and Montserrat until, on December 19, 1774, a register for the ship the "Black Prince" was issued to John Barry as Master. It was owned by John Nixon, whose grandfather, Richard, a Catholic, of Barry's own county, Wexford, arrived in Philadelphia in 1686. John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776. On December 21st Barry sailed to Bristol, where he arrived at the end of January, 1775. Later he proceeded to London, where he arrived June 7th, from whence he returned to Philadelphia, where he arrived October 13th, the very day Congress had resolved to fit out two armed cruisers, one of fourteen guns and one of ten guns, the first act founding a Continental naval force for the United Colonies.
The Marine Committee, under the authority of this Resolve of the Continental Congress, purchased two vessels and named one the "Lexington," the other the "Reprisal."
To the "Lexington" John Barry was commissioned Captain on December 7, 1775. Captain Wickes was the same day named Commander of the "Reprisal."