UPDATE: http://www.westernpeople.ie/news/story.asp?j=35792UPDATE:http://www.mayoadvertiser.com/index.php?aid=1155
Let us turn our thoughts tomorrow to Downtown Willie Brown... whose fine likeness stands upon a tall base of pink granite at Leandro N. Alem y Cangallo (It's always fun to tell a tachero calle Cangallo instead of calle Perón!) The river actually came up to the monument back in the day.
The Admiral is my favorite Argentine hero and one of my very favorite heroes of all time from anywhere.
Irish, veteran officer of the Royal British Navy, rarely sober, smuggler/ pirate/ buccanner/ privateer/ freebooter/ filibustero (depending on who you ask), and the undisputed Father of the Argentine Navy who never lost a battle and died still in the service of his nation 150 years ago.
He was a Mayoman (from County Mayo) who arrived in capital of the US (then Philadelphia) with his family at the age of 9. Their "sponsor" in Philly died of yellow fever soon thereafter...and only a few days later Willie's father dropped dead from the same disease. His provenance is even in dispute as he may have been the son of his uncle, an Irish priest; in fact, he took his mother surname rather than Gannon (his father's name.)
Destitute and fatherless, they say that "One morning while wandering along the banks of the Delaware River, he met the captain of a ship then moored in port. The captain enquired if he wanted employment and Brown answered yes. The captain then and there engaged him as a cabin boy, thereby setting him on the naval promotion ladder, where he worked his way to the captaincy of a merchant vessel."
He spent 10 years as a merchant seaman until he was "shanghai'd" into the British Navy. This was a common fate for US sailors at the time and a casus bellus for the "War of 1812." He fought Napoleon on the high seas until he was captured by the French. He escaped and ended up in England, via Germany, and quit military service... some say he deserted but it's a matter of opinion because tradition held that a man could not be forced into the Navy twice.
Back in England he married and split for South America the same year. He set himself up as a business man in Montevideo.
As I would have expected, the siren's song soon returned to Brown and he ended up part owner in a ship and he began to "trade" between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Given the year, about 1810, this sort of "trade" would either have been considered contraband or was some of the first legal trade allowed by the newly minted Viceroy of the River Plate. In any case, his good ship Eliza ran aground and sank. Brown got his goods off, sold them, then crossed the Andes to buy a ship of his own: a schooner named "Industría" which he sailed back around the horn and started the first "regular sailing-packet service" in South America...again between BsAs and Uruguay.
Good times... apparently a profitable venture for the ol' seadog. That is until the Spanish got the idea that they'd inadvertently left some money on the table in this deal. The Viceroyalty blew Brownie's new schooner out of the water.
Pissed-off to no end, Brown presented himself to the President of the fledgling nation of Argentina, Posadas, and offered his services. He was appointed Commander in Chief of the Argentine Fleet.
Except that there was no fleet.
I've heard a lot of stories about the "fleet" that Brown was presented with. All the stories say that it was small and in bad condition. I love the story that says that one of the ships even sank before Brown could take delivery. Most say that the boats were conversions to warcraft and/or warships that were beyond their better days.
No matter, literally within hours the almirante flamante was out there pickin' a fight with the Españoles.
The Spanish shot his flagship out from under him but he still got hold of "The Gibraltar of the Rio de la Plata": the island of Martín Garcia. The Spanish fleet lit-out for Montevideo. Brown, having picked up 3 new ships after his first victory, chased them hard and close.
He ended up crushing the Spanish Fleet in Montevideo harbor but not before getting his leg broken by an enemy cannonball. He shouted out battle orders from a stretcher on deck, during which he captured 3 Spanish ships. That was it for Spain down in this neck of the pond.
He got promoted to commander of the entire navy... and, as a token of gratitude, he got to keep his shot-up old flagship as his very own... truth be told, baby-Argentina really didn't have much to give away as prizes.
From then, he never really stopped.
He stomped Brazil with a navy 1/3 their size.
He smashed Uruguay but showed his nobility toward his foe by ordering his men to allow his opposing commander, Giuseppe Garibaldi (later, the founder of the modern Italian state) to escape. He told his men, "Let him go, boys. That gringo is a brave man."
The Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the British all fell before him.
He was lord of the Mar Argentino. So much so that legend has it that when the Argentine dictator Rosas, his boss...everybody's boss, came aboard Brown's flagship for a big din-din, Brown seated himself at the head of the table. When the protocol types reminded him that El Supremo was the top dog, Brown said in his still bad Spanish that “whatever Don Juan Manuel de Rosas might be on land, he, William Brown, was master of his vessels and would sit at the master’s place.”
After things settled down in these waters, he found time to head back to the ol' sod for a visit with his daughter. During the height of the potato famine he gave money for relief and the establishment of the eventual Irish State.
The idea of standing armies and navies, on this side of the pond, were looked upon dimly back then. The US founders hated the whole idea (Hence our 2nd amendment...right to bear arms OR standing armies, not both.) Thus, most soldiers and sailors got furloughed after a war.
But not our Brown. He remained commander until his death and felt pretty good about his legacy.
In the Boca neighborhood here, you can see the Casa Amarilla...but it's only a replica. His original villa was in the neighborhood of Barracas.
As an old man, he received a visitor to his villa: the Admiral Grenfell, his opponent in the Brazilian war. Grenfell started to bitch about how the República Argentina didn't seem to give a damn about the old fighters that midwifed her. Brown told him, "Mr Grenfell, it does not burden me to have been useful to the mother country of my children; I consider the honours and the wealth superfluous when six feet of earth are enough to rest so many difficulties and pains."
If you find yourself strolling through Recoleta cemetary, you can see his simple sea-green column that marks the grave.
On March 3, 1857 he died and was buried with full military honors. The Argentine government issued a communiqué stating that "with a life of permanent service to the national wars that our motherland has fought since its independence, William Brown symbolized the naval glory of the Argentine Republic".
During his burial, the former General, President Bartolomé Mitre famously said:
“If some day, new dangers threaten the shores of our Argentine fatherland and we should find ourselves obliged to confide to our floating timbers the banners of May, the conquering breath of the old admiral will swell our sails, his ghost will grab our helm in the midst of the tempest and his warlike figure will be seen to stand on the top deck of our ships guiding us through the thick of the cannon smoke and the din of the grappling shouts.Many many great thanks to:
Brown in his lifetime, standing on the quarterdeck of his ship, was worth a fleet to us".
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/William_Brown_%28admiral%29
http://www.irlandeses.org/geraghty040406.htm
http://local.mobhaile.ie/admiralbrownp/AdmiralBrownsLife/tabid/9879/Default.aspx
http://www.browniano.com.ar/altebrown/index.htm
http://www.irlandeses.org/blackfrigate.htm
http://www.deburcararebooks.com/admiral.htm
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