Coming Events
February 26, 2015 - “32 in ‘44: Building the Portsmouth Submarine Fleet in World War II”
7:30 pm (Berwick Academy)
Something extraordinary occurred at the Portsmouth Navy Yard during World War II. After building fewer than two submarines a year in the 1930s, the yard completed an astonishing 32 fleet boats in 1944 and built a total of 79 submarines during the war, more than any other shipyard. Captain Watterson USN (Retired) will analyze the factors that led to the yard's record setting performance, which resulted in Portsmouth-built submarines sinking 434 enemy ships, totaling 1.7 million tons. Few industrial facilities made a more significant contribution to winning World War II.
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Son of Old Berwick
"James Sullivan, The Forgotten Founder"
by Daniel Breen, Lecturer of Legal Studies at Brandeis University and Professor of History at Newbury College, Boston, Massachusetts
November 20, 2014 Lecture of the Old Berwick Historical Society's Speaker Series
The story of how James Sullivan came into the world is almost as interesting as his eventful career. The story goes that his father, John Sullivan, a member of one of the leading families of Munster, decided at the age of 31 to leave Ireland when his family firmly opposed his plans to marry a certain girl that he wanted to marry, leading him to decide that if he could not have his way with the blessings of his family he would simply leave and go to America. On the way he happened to meet a 9 year old girl named Margery Brown, who seemed lively and personable enough to lead John to take her on as a ward when his ship happened to land in York in the year 1723.
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