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John O’Brien had a number of lucky escapes in his time. A lieutenant of the Royal Navy in the 1740s, his ship was wrecked on the coast of India. He was among only five survivors. Returning to Europe, he was again shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope. It was a Dutch colony at the time but he befriended the governor, who got him passage on a ship bound for Holland. At the last minute, the governor asked him to give up his place aboard to a high official and his family and wait for a later ship. The first ship went down a day later – all hands were lost.
Watch the skies…
he latest Blast From The Past by our #1 historian Gary Acheson concerns an 18th century lieutenant who managed to survive an exploding ship…
he latest 
Saunders 10 July 1778
Leaving the Greystonian a legend of the sea, and with the rather cool nickname of Sky Rocket Jack.
Take it away, young Gary…
On Skinner and Taylor’s map of 1777, the house now known as Coolagad and later occupied by several generations of the Fox family, was named ‘Mount Temple’ of ‘O’Brien Esq.’ This was the Honourable John O’Brien, younger brother of Murrough, 5th Earl of Inchiquin and a descendant of Brian Boru.
Saunders 10 Jan 1781
John O’Brien had a number of lucky escapes in his time. A lieutenant of the Royal Navy in the 1740s, his ship was wrecked on the coast of India. He was among only five survivors. Returning to Europe, he was again shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope. It was a Dutch colony at the time but he befriended the governor, who got him passage on a ship bound for Holland. At the last minute, the governor asked him to give up his place aboard to a high official and his family and wait for a later ship. The first ship went down a day later – all hands were lost.
On October 18 1747, the British 50-gun ship ‘Dartmouth’ battled the Spanish ship ‘Glorioso’ off Cape Saint Vincent. ‘Dartmouth’s magazine exploded. Only a handful survived. John
Saunders 12 April 1780
O’Brien was blown through a gun port high into the air. Ever after he was known as ‘Sky Rocket Jack’. Recovered from the water by a British privateer, his clothing torn and burned, he said to the captain “Sir, you will excuse me for appearing before you in such a dress; for I left my ship with such precipitation, that I had not time to put on better clothes!”
I found three newspaper pieces that reference John O’Brien.
The first from Saunders’s News-Letter 10 July 1778 details him being defrauded by a ‘Captain Kent’ – it mentions the LaTouche Bank.
The second, also from Saunder’s on April 12 1780 describes a horse being stolen from his stables.
The third has the theft of a cow.
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