The incident occurred in the winter of 1778, February 26, and the scene was the Delaware River. The British were occupying Philadelphia at the time, and a British fleet was anchored in the Delaware, opposite the city of Philadelphia. John Barry, with his ship, “Effingham,” and two or three smaller boats, had been compelled to take refuge, in the presence of a superior fleet, in the upper waters of the Delaware at Burlington; but it was not the intention of John Barry to sit still while there was a possibility of adventure of any kind, and he petitioned Congress, after he had been there only three or four weeks, to be allowed to make an attack upon a British war vessel that was anchored in the lower Delaware, by name the “Alert,” that was convoying two transports filled with food and forage for the sustenance of the British in Philadelphia. The request was granted, and the story that I have tried to tell is the story of how John Barry went down the river; the result I will leave to the fortunes of the rhyme.
Ballad of Saucy Jack Barry.
(Episode of February 26, 1778.)
They have taken the old rebel city of Penn;
Lord Howe, he has filled it with red-coated men.
“What terror,” said he, “has the winter for me,
Since I hold the town and my ships hold the sea?”
But it never is safe, in making a boast,
To reckon too easy, not counting your host;
Or is it quite prudent to count on your boat