Biography
He was born at Mountmellick, County Laois, Ireland, in 1773, and moved to the United States in 1790, where he settled in Philadelphia, and entered the merchant marine.
Appointed Lieutenant in the United States Navy on 3 August 1798, he first served in Montezuma in Commodore Thomas Truxtun's squadron in the West Indies during the early part of the Quasi-War with France. On 20 October 1799, he was given command of the schooner Enterprise in which, during the next year, he captured seven armed French vessels and recaptured several American merchantmen. By the time he was relieved of command due to ill health in October 1800, he had made Enterprise one of the most famous vessels of the Navy.
During the First Barbary War, Shaw commanded frigate Adams in the Mediterranean under Commodore John Rodgers from May to November 1804.
Shaw helped suppress the 1811 German Coast Uprising.
During the War of 1812, Shaw commanded the New Orleans naval post as well as the frigate United States.
Captain Shaw died at Philadelphia, where he was interred in the Christ Church Burial Ground, along with Benjamin Franklin and other signers of the Declaration of Independence. His epitaph reads:
In Memory of John ShawLate a captain in the Navy of the U.S.
For courage and humanity
Discipline without rigor
Skill with good conduct
Integrity above suspicion
And honour without a blemish,
He gave to the world a noble spectacle
Of a man who without patronage raised
Himself among men of the highest merit
To be the first rank in the service of
His adopted country
Enjoying the confidence of the Government
Beloved in a rare degree by those
Under his parental command and
Blest with friends of kindred worth and feeling.
He died as he lived
Without fear and without reproach
Shaw's daughter was married to Francis Hoyt Gregory (1780–1866), an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812 through the Civil War, serving then as a Rear Admiral.
Read more about this topic: John Shaw (navy)
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)