A business executive and avid sailing enthusiast, Mr. McGrath is just the right guide to the life of a self-made merchant adventurer and mariner. That both the author and his subject share a common Irish ancestry (and more than a little Irish wit) makes for an appealing literary match.

"Barry is still called 'Father of the American Navy' in some circles," Mr. McGrath notes in his foreword, "although John Paul Jones and John Adams are two others that can lay claim to that title. But where Adams has eternal fame from being second President of the United States, and Jones still 'has not yet begun to fight' in some high school history books, few can recall Barry's deeds. Two hundred years ago, it was a different story." . . .

Ashore as well as at sea, Tim McGrath paints an informative, engaging and highly entertaining portrait of this worthy but neglected hero of American independence. The author shows us a man who was a magnificent embodiment of the common sense—and uncommon courage and dedication—that helped to transform age-old philosophical ideals into a new American reality. That such a work is long overdue makes its achievement all the more pleasurable.