To think, as the Cuban poet Virgilio Piñera pointed out, that living on an island is only “the damned circumstance of water everywhere” is to conceive that the sea is a limit and not a path, a wall of water and not a flow of possibilities. . This was not the prevailing thought of the Farragut family, whose lineage directly links the island of Menorca with the founding and national consolidation of the United States of America. Both Jordi Farragut and his son David were necessary participants in the events that range from independence to the American Civil War, a territory that remembers and honors them as national heroes.
The beginning of this story dates back to the second half of the 18th century, a time when Menorca was flourishing as a promising commercial jewel nestled in the central Mediterranean. Since the island was “ceded” to the British Empire in 1713 by virtue of the Treaty of Utrecht, the new administration favored the arrival of traders and merchants from all over.
During the first years, illustrious families of Greeks, Jews and, of course, English, took advantage of the tax and customs advantages promoted by the Duke of Argyll, first governor of the British Menorcato amass fabulous fortunes, the trace of which can still be seen in some churches of orthodox design and in the sumptuous houses with balconies. boinder of the eastern island.
While the port turned Maó into the administrative and commercial center, the old aristocracy and clergy of Ciutadella, groups that had concentrated the sum of political power since 1287, were increasingly relegated. The flourishing bourgeoisie was gradually replacing the old privileges of the feudal lords. In this context, Jordi Antonio Magí Ferragut i Mesquida was born on September 29, 1755, the man who years later would save the life of the first president of the United States of America.
Ferragut saved George Washington’s life
Jordi Ferragut, who over the years would change his name to George, was the son of a long line of illustrious sailors, soldiers and clerics from Valencia who arrived in the Balearic Islands during the 13th century with the contingent of Jaume I the Conqueror. Charles Lee Lewis, historian at the US Naval Institute, highlights in his study of the Farragut family that “according to the testimony of his subordinates, he was one of the best trained and most careful officers of his profession, irreproachable in his habits, serious and energetic, “that did not admit the word failure in the vocabulary of duty.”
Quickly adapted to the vicissitudes of seafaring life after a brief stay in Barcelona, Farragut put his sailing skills at the service of the British crown. Towards the second half of the 18th century he left his small fisherman’s llaüt moored in the port of Ciutadella and requested authorization from Governor Richard Kane to captain a privateer ship that fought alongside Catherine the Great’s Imperial Navy in the Russo-Turkish War. From that conflict, Menorca inherited an ossuary where hundreds of Russian sailors who died after contracting scurvy rest, including a prince named Spiridoff. His time on the Crimean peninsula quickly established him as a respected, feared and combat-experienced commander despite his youth.
Robert L. Caleo, American journalist and researcher at the Admiral Farragut Academy – a prestigious seafaring school located in Florida named after the illustrious Menorcans -, points out that Jordi Farragut “arrived in the so-called 13 Colonies around 1776 as captain of a ship. merchant ship that traveled between Veracruz, New Orleans (then under French rule) and Cuba. Shortly thereafter, he came into contact with the newly founded South Carolina Navy and his sympathy for the ideas of national liberation and American independence led him to become a lieutenant in the Continental Navy, the seed of the current US NAVY.
The War of Independence, which would last until 1783, established Farragut’s reputation as an outstanding military man who gained notoriety among the disorderly but firm revolutionary intentions of the troops commanded by George Washington in several important battles such as the siege of Savannah and the taking of Charleston. , where, in addition, he commanded a troop of cavalry with the rank of captain. In the words of who would later be the first president of the United States and at that time was barely a colonel, Farragut was a “short and stocky man, very brave and with a funny temper,” a description that became known after the Menorcan saved him. life to Founding Father during the Battle of Cowpens, in which he was seriously wounded by a cannonball.
In the words of who would later be the first president of the United States and at that time was barely a colonel -George Washington-, Farragut was a “short and stocky man, very brave and with a funny temper”, a description that became known after The Menorcan saved the life of the Founding Father during the Battle of Cowpens, in which he was seriously wounded by a cannonball.
After the end of the war and the consolidation of American independence, the brave Menorcan retired to live a quiet life on a plot of land next to the Mississippi River in present-day Pascagoula, Jackson County. Retired with the rank of major commanding officer, he continued to collaborate with the United States Army, occasionally fighting the Amerindian nations that threatened the banks of the Mississippi. He married a young woman of Scottish origin named Elisabeth Shine, with whom he had two children. One would drown in 1814, the other was David G. Ferragut, the first admiral of the United States Navy.
David Farragut, the “Hispanic hero” of the Civil War
Just a few meters from the White House, in Washington DC, one of the eighteen historical monuments dedicated to the Civil War overlooks the city from a tall marble column. Located at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, a bronze statue dedicated to David Glasgow Farragut crowns the square of the same name. More than 4,000 guests attended its inauguration in 1881, including the then president of the United States, James Garfield, and the senior staff of the Navy.
Although David was not born in Ciutadella like his father, his connection with the sea and his early dedication to the seafaring life would mark him from his first years of life. In his memoirs, Farragut Jr. remembers an expedition carried out in a kind of improvised llaüt with his father: “We went in that boat from New Orleans to Havana, a kind of canoe made of two pieces of wood instead of one. He always talked about the good qualities of his little yawl, a boat in which he sailed for many years even though his friends considered it a dangerous experiment. “This love for the sea was very strong in my father.”
Upon the death of his father, David was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, and entered the navy with the rank of midshipman, sponsored by Commodore Porter, a friend of his father. In 1812 he participated in the capture of the English brig “Essex” and, at just 12 years old, he began to take part in important naval combats. By 1823 he was already a seasoned war captain dedicated entirely to fighting the English pirates and privateers of the Caribbean.
With the start of the United States Civil War in 1861, Farragut decided to take part on the side of the Union, led by Abraham Lincoln, despite being originally from the southern states organized in the Confederacy. “Being a veteran officer at the time, he was given the mission of taking New Orleans. On the night of April 24, 1862, he managed to destroy a large part of the Confederate States fleet, allowing Union troops to land under the protection of their flagship, the USS Hartford. It was a truly reckless action and key to the victory of the Union,” explains military officer and historian Miguel Ángel Ferreiro.
With the start of the United States Civil War in 1861, David Farragut decided to take part on the side of the Union, led by Abraham Lincoln. It has a bronze statue a few meters from the White House
For his actions during the Civil War was created ad hoc the position of rear admiral, with which he was recognized until August 1865 when he was called up again to undertake what would be his greatest war action: the battle of Mobile Bay. “Upon entering Mobile Bay, in the Gulf of Mexico, it found the entire area riddled with contact mines (then known as torpedoes) that even sank several ships. Then, he uttered the phrase with which he is still remembered: ‘To hell with the torpedoes, full steam ahead!’, and managed to enter the port and surrender the town after a tough battle with the battleship Tennessee,” explains Charles L. Lewis. .
At the end of the war, he was promoted and remembered as one of the most important commanders of the Civil War, which ended in 1865 with the victory of the Union. “He is without a doubt one of the greatest heroes of the United States Navy and due to his involvement in that conflict he became the first admiral they had in that country,” they explain to elDiario.es from the Menorca Military Consortium.
On September 25, 2017, the Ministry of Defense of Spain and the General Staff of the Navy paid a public tribute to the son of that man from Menorca who, sailing in a small sailing boat, managed to lay the foundations of what is still today one of the main naval powers of the world.
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