Michael Gerard Author

Friends and Followers - lend me your ears and your eyes. My new book is crying out for readers and I am crying out for posted reviews. Thanks 🙏

@HistoryCalendar He was Irish and the only Catholic to sign

Charles Carroll was the last surviving signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence—dying at age 95 in 1832, over fifty-six years after the document’s signing

@brown_admiral That’s my man Admiral Brown Up Mayo

Liberty meeets the ARA Libertad #newyork #usa250 Historic scenes in New York for #4thjuly #indepedenceday celebrations instagram.com/reel/DaYGRFFRC…

The hull was originally made of Georgia live oak. I’ve walked over the Gascoigne Bluff area on St Simons Island where 2,000 live oak trees were harvested to build the 6 original frigates. There are still plenty of large old live oaks all over the South. Nowadays I think what happens is that any old trees being taken out or falling for any reason are offered through the forestry system for ship use if deemed suitable. I featured Captain John Barry’s role in the building of these ships in my 2025 book The Irish Admiralty

The US Navy operates a 50,000 acre forest in Indiana whose entire job is keeping one wooden ship from 1797 afloat. The ship is USS Constitution, still a commissioned warship with an active-duty crew. Cannonballs bounced off her in 1812 because the hull sandwiches a wall of live oak ribs between two layers of white oak planking, nearly 2 feet of solid wood so dense it barely floats. British 18-pounders hit it and dropped into the sea. A sailor yelled "her sides are made of iron" and the nickname stuck. Here's the problem with owning a 229-year-old wooden ship: you can't buy the parts. Hull planks run up to 40 feet long and 7 inches thick, cut from single white oak trunks. A white oak takes over a century to grow that big. No lumberyard on earth stocks it. So the Navy grows its own. Constitution Grove at Naval Support Activity Crane holds trees over 100 years old, reserved exclusively for this ship. Foresters there are managing oaks today that will become hull planking in the 2100s. The maintenance plan literally runs on tree time. Every 20 years or so she enters dry dock and shipwrights swap out rotted timber. After two centuries of this, estimates put original 1797 wood at maybe 10 to 15 percent of the ship. The Navy keeps replacing her plank by plank because Congress mandated her preservation and because she's the only active US warship that has sunk an enemy vessel. Every other asset in the Navy has a decommission date. This one has a tree farm.

@pampaIIIpelis Viva Almirante Guillermo Brown.

La fragata Libertad anoche, en la tormenta que azoto New York . Habia llegado el dia anterior junto a otros buques miticos , como la Vepucci Italiana para participar del #Sail2026Parade

During my research and writing of ‘The Irish Admiralty’ - the stories of both the Am Rev War and the Liberation of South America during the age of sail - the toughness and expertise of those sailors struck me and sadly I realized how many great heroes were lost in shipwrecks. I tried to honor both the survivors and those lost, as I worked through the book. It was a humbling experience.

Seeing several “tall ships” together is one of the special thrills of the 250th. When you watch the video from last night, remember that during “the age of sail,” depending on when and where they were sailing, it was much, much worse. Thanks to all of the nations and their crews for sailing to the United States for our 250th celebrations.

@MargoMartin47 Awesome- I loved it.

The largest firework show in U.S. history for America’s 250th birthday!!! 🇺🇸

It was late by the time the President gave his important speech and later still for the thunderous fireworks display. I enjoyed every moment of it and I hope the exploding rockets kept the unworthy rhinos awake, as did the celebrations yesterday in NY for the unmentionable mayoral destroyer of the city.

Only a crippling diagnosis of TDS could make you hate this. God Bless AMERICA 🇺🇸

@ARGenNewYork @Cancilleria_Ar “Bienvenedos, nos alegra que esten aca”

🇦🇷 ¡La #FragataLibertad llegó a Nueva York! Nuestra Embajadora de los Mares ya arribó a la ciudad de Nueva York para sumarse a las celebraciones por el 250° aniversario de la Independencia de los Estados Unidos. ¡Bienvenida! ⚓️🇦🇷🤝🇺🇸

@usanewshq He is nowhere to be seen today - maybe he’s in Tehran

Imagine hating America and being forced to see this flying over your city. 🇺🇸 🤣

Graceful and elegant Tall ships make NY look better. Notice all the crew members up in the high tops. Imagine the numbers of skilled sailors that were needed to sail our Continental Navy and the early US Navy fleet. That should lead to appreciation for the great naval tradition we have accomplished. Spare a thought and a prayer for the naval heroes who won key victories in the Am Rev War that led to the freedom we enjoy - men like Captain John Barry, Captain John Paul Jones and others. May they all rest in eternal peace and may Americans continue to prove that their sacrifices were not in vain.

The Tall Ships parade in NY Harbor to celebrate America’s 250th!!

@GuntherEagleman Great displays and a great speech was just delivered by Vice President JD Vance - exactly what real Americans needed to hear.

🚨🇺🇸 RIGHT NOW: RED, WHITE & BLUE FLYOVER OVER NYC! Sail4th #America250 celebration lighting up the harbor and the skies! Jets roaring overhead in perfect formation, pure American power and pride on full display

@LarryJones SC. - God Bless America

Can I Get A ‘GOD BLESS AMERICA’ From All 50 States?

@BuzzPatterson Watching the wonderful flyovers and ships in New York harbor on Fox. The only sad part is knowing that New York has current leaders who are actively working to destroy the America we love. God Bless and Safeguard America

Good morning, America! 🇺🇸 Rise and shine on this glorious Independence Day! As a nation forged in the fire of liberty by brave patriots who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, we stand tall today honoring the greatest experiment in human freedom the world has ever known. From the beaches of Normandy to the skies over hostile lands, American warriors have defended these God-given rights for generations. Let’s never take them for granted. Fire up the grill, fly that flag high, and celebrate with unapologetic pride. This is OUR country:land of the free because of the brave. God bless America! 🎆🔥

@EchoesofWarYT Amen to that!!

Happy 4th of July! No matter what people tell you, this is the greatest country to ever exist. Celebrate her right today 🇺🇸

@declanganley Very nice. Happy Glorious Fourth to you and your entire Galway family

On this 4th of July, Happy American Independence Day on this 250th anniversary of the Declaration. Wishing all of my American family, friends & twitter pals a great holiday. ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ sung by the University of Notre Dame Glee Club on a visit to Moyne Park. 🇺🇸

Happy Birthday America - 250 years and counting!!!

Thomas Lynch Jr was born in 1749 at Hopsewee Plantation, a rice growing plantation south of Georgetown SC. The family had emigrated from Galway, Ireland in the late 1600’s - when the power of the native Tribes of Galway was broken after defeat by British forces in the Williamite Wars. The beautiful house and grounds is open to the public, has nice tea rooms and is well worth visiting. His untimely young death reminds us how vulnerable even the wealthy were to health problems. He and his wife were lost at sea in 1779 while voyaging to the West Indies in search of a better climate to soothe his failing health - he was only 30 and never got to see the America for which he had signed The Declaration.

He signed the Declaration of Independence at 26, in his own father's place, and four years later he simply vanished off the face of the earth. His autograph is now one of the rarest objects in American history. This is Thomas Lynch Jr. Start with the family. His father, Thomas Lynch Sr., was a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, a real force in the fight. The plan was simple and proud. Father serves, son learns, torch gets passed. Then it all went sideways. In early 1776 the father suffered a stroke, a cerebral hemorrhage, that paralyzed him. He physically could not go on. So South Carolina turned to the son. Thomas Lynch Jr., Cambridge educated, trained in law in London, was sent to Congress to take the seat his father could no longer fill. They remain the only father and son to serve one after the other in the Continental Congress. So picture it. A man not even 27 years old, stepping into his stricken father's chair, and being asked to sign a document that was open treason against the most powerful empire on earth. He did it. He signed before his 27th birthday, one of the youngest names on the whole page. And the gut punch about the father. When the son later went to bring his paralyzed dad home to South Carolina, the old man died on the journey. He never made it back. Thomas Jr. wasn't well either. He'd caught a severe fever during his service that never really let go of him, dragging his health down year after year. By 1779 he and his young wife Elizabeth decided to sail for the West Indies, hoping a change of climate might save him. They boarded a ship. It sailed out. And it was never seen again. No wreck, no bodies, no answers. Thomas Lynch Jr. and his wife were simply lost at sea. He was 30 years old, the youngest signer of the Declaration to die. Here's the eerie coda. Because he died so young and left so little behind, his handwriting barely exists anymore. Collectors consider a genuine Thomas Lynch Jr. signature one of the rarest of all the signers, almost impossible to find. It's as if history itself struggled to hold onto him. A young man who signed for a country he'd never grow old in, and then disappeared into the ocean without a trace. Thomas Lynch Jr. Here, then gone.

@EchoesofWarYT Ship is named for Italian explorer. In Martin Waldeesmuller’s 1507 world map he coined the name America from derivations of Amerigo Vespucci’s name. The Spanish refused to accept the name for 200 years but it stuck anyway.

Italian tall ship Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor during the United States Bicentennial festivities.

@EchoesofWarYT Caesar Rodney is a name unknown to most Americans. Is there anything anywhere named for this important man?

On this day in 1776, the United States was actually born. Not July 4. July 2. That's the day the Continental Congress voted to break from Britain, and John Adams was so certain of it that he predicted July 2 would be the great American holiday forever. He nailed everything except the date. The vote came down to the wire, and one man had to ride through the night to save it. Delaware's delegation was split, one for independence, one against, which meant the colony's vote canceled itself out. The tie-breaker, Caesar Rodney, was 80 miles away in Delaware. He got word that he was needed and rode all night through a summer thunderstorm, sick and in pain, boots and spurs still on, and made it into Philadelphia just in time to cast Delaware's vote for independence. The other holdouts fell into place too. In Pennsylvania, the men most opposed, including John Dickinson, deliberately stayed away from the chamber so their colony could swing to yes. South Carolina came around for the sake of a united front. When the roll was called, twelve colonies voted for independence and not a single one voted against. New York simply abstained, waiting on permission from home. And so, on July 2, 1776, it was done. The colonies had legally, officially declared themselves free. The next day Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that this day "will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival," with "pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations." Fireworks and all. He was describing the Fourth of July two days early. So why do we celebrate the 4th? Because that's the day Congress approved the final wording of the document explaining the decision, the Declaration of Independence. The vote to be free happened on the 2nd. The paperwork got finished on the 4th, and history remembered the paperwork. The country was actually born in a rainstorm and a roll call on July 2, thanks in part to one sick man who refused to let a tie decide the fate of a nation.

I am an admirer of Robert Morris - he was a hugely influential and important player in the financing of the Revolution whom history has all but ignored. Sadly his circumstances deteriorated in the late 1790’s and he ended up in debtors prison till the Bankruptcy Act freed him in 1801. He then lived out the rest of his life in humble circumstances in Philadelphia and died in 1806.

Only two men signed all four of America’s great founding documents: • The Continental Association (1774) • The Declaration of Independence (1776) • The Articles of Confederation (1777) • The U.S. Constitution (1787) Those men were Roger Sherman and Robert Morris.