Brown, William (1777–1857)

William Brown (Guillermo Brown; b. 22 June 1777; d. 3 March 1857), Irish privateer in the service of Buenos Aires during the Wars for Independence. Born in Foxford, Ireland, Brown came to Philadelphia at age nine. He soon signed on a merchant ship and had become a captain before reaching age twenty. In 1809 he arrived in the Río de la Plata, where he played a major role in the Buenos Aires campaign against Montevideo and became one of the principal captains in the Buenos Aires privateering fleet. In 1815 Brown led a privateering expedition into the Pacific in support of Chilean independence, and was joined by the squadron of another notable Buenos Aires privateer, Hipólito Bouchard. This expedition harassed Spanish commerce along the Peruvian and Chilean coasts. Following independence, Admiral Brown was a leading officer in the Buenos Aires navy and led Argentine naval forces in the war against Uruguay (1825–1828) and, later, during the administration of Juan Manuel de Rosas, against the French and British blockades.

See alsoPiracy .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lewis Bealer, Los corsarios de Buenos Aires, sus actividades en las guerras hispano-americanas de la independencia, 1815–1821 (1937). Documentos del almirante Brown, 2 vols. (1958–1959).

Felipe Bosch, Historia naval argentina (1962).

Donald E. Worcester, Sea Power and Chilean Independence (1962), pp. 11-16.

Additional Bibliography

Ireland, John de Courcy. The Admiral from Mayo: A Life of Almirante William Brown, Father of the Argentine Way. Dublin: E. Burke, 1995.

                                Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.