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Francis Laforey
Admiral Sir Francis Laforey, 2nd Baronet, KCB (31 December 1767 – 17 June 1835) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, whose distinguished service record included numerous frigate commands in Home waters and in the West Indies. He is best known however for his service in command of the ship of the line at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the action, Laforey was heavily engaged and his ship suffered heavy casualties. Five years after Trafalgar, Laforey was promoted to rear-admiral and commanded the Leeward Islands squadron, before retiring in 1814. Son of the notable and highly controversial naval officer Sir John Laforey, Francis Laforey joined the Navy at a young age and enjoyed patronage throughout his career. His exploits in command of frigates during the French Revolutionary Wars and his capture of Dutch colonies in South America garnered wealth and esteem among his colleagues, and his later success as a battles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colony Of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (history), ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' Online, University of Toronto, May 2, 2005 in 1583 and the colony of Roanoke (further south, in modern eastern North Carolina) by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s. The founder of the new colony was the Virginia Company, with the first two settlements in Jamestown, Virginia, Jamestown on the north bank of the James River and Popham Colony on the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine, both in 1607. The Popham colony quickly failed due to Starving Time, a famine, disease, and conflicts with local Native American tribes in the first two years. Jamestown occupied land belonging to the Powhatan Confederacy, and was also at the brink of failure before the arr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Laforey
Admiral Sir John Laforey, 1st Baronet (1729 – 14 June 1796) was a senior and controversial British naval officer of the 18th century whose extensive career was spent mainly on the North American and West Indian stations. During his career, Laforey was repeatedly involved in contentious naval politics, especially relating to the provision of prize money and angered several senior officers through much publicised disputes. This resulted in his sidelining for much of his career, only making flag rank and finding success with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. Seven Years' War Laforey was born to Lieutenant-Colonel John Laforey and his wife Mary Clayton in 1729, although the actual date is unknown. The Laforey family was descended from a prominent French Huguenot line which fled to England in the 1690s and became prominent military figures within their adopted country. Nothing is known of the younger John's childhood or education but in 1748 he became a lieutenan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demerara
Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 until 1815. It was merged with Essequibo in 1812 by the British who took control. It formally became a British colony in 1815 till Demerara-Essequibo was merged with Berbice to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831. In 1838, it became a county of British Guiana till 1958. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence as Guyana and in 1970 it became a republic as the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. It was located around the lower course of the Demerara River, and its main settlement was Georgetown. The name "Demerara" comes from a variant of the Arawak word "Immenary" or "Dumaruni", which means "river of the letter wood" (wood of ''Brosimum guianense'' tree). Demerara sugar is so named because originally, it came from sugarcan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prize Money
Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to the state, either a warship of its navy or a privateer vessel commissioned by the state. Prize money was most frequently awarded for the capture of enemy ships or of cargoes belonging to an enemy in time of war, either arrested in port at the outbreak of war or captured during the war in international waters or other waters not the territorial waters of a neutral state. Goods carried in neutral ships that are classed as contraband, being shipped to enemy-controlled territory and liable to be useful to it for making war, were also liable to be taken as prizes, but non-contraband goods belonging to neutrals were not. Claims for the award of prize money were usually heard in a prize court, which had to adjudicate the claim and condemn the priz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and the absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of Great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frigate Action Of 29 May 1794
The frigate action of 29 May 1794—not to be confused with the much larger fleet action of 29 May 1794 that took place in the same waters at the same time—was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars between a Royal Navy frigate and a French Navy frigate. The action formed a minor part of the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, a campaign which culminated in the battle of the Glorious First of June, and was unusual in that the French ship ''Castor'' had only been in French hands for a few days at the time of the engagement. ''Castor'' had previously been a British ship, seized on 19 May by a French battle squadron in the Bay of Biscay and converted to French service while still at sea. While the main fleets manoeuvered around one another, ''Castor'' was detached in pursuit of a Dutch merchant ship and on 29 May encountered the smaller independently cruising British frigate HMS ''Carysfort''. Captain Francis Laforey on ''Carysfort'' immediately attacked the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Post Captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain regardless of rank; * Commander (Royal Navy), Commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in ''Aubrey-Maturin series#Master and Commander, Master and Commander'' or the fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower in ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''); this custom is now defunct. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he was "on the beach" and on half-pay. An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was a rating system of the Royal Navy, ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tobago
Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trinidad and about off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. It also lies to the southeast of Grenada. The official bird of Tobago is the cocrico. Etymology Tobago was named ''Belaforme'' by Christopher Columbus "because from a distance it seemed beautiful". The Spanish friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa wrote that the Kalina people, Kalina (mainland Caribs) called the island ''Urupina'' because of its resemblance to a big snail, while the Island Caribs, Kalinago (Island Caribs) called it ''Aloubaéra'', supposedly because it resembled the ''alloüebéra'', a giant snake which was supposed to live in a cave on the island of Dominica. The earliest known record of the use of the name ''Tabaco'' to refer to the island is a Spanish royal order is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. Commander is also a generic term for an officer commanding any armed forces unit, for example "platoon commander", "brigade commander" and "squadron commander". In the police, terms such as "borough commander" and "incident commander" are used. Commander as a naval and air force rank Commander is a rank used in navies but is very rarely used as a rank in armies. The title, originally "master and commander", originated in the 18th century to describe naval officers who commanded ships of war too large to be commanded by a lieutenant but too small to warrant the assignment of a post-captain and (before about 1770) a sailing master; the commanding officer served as his own master. In practice, these were usually unrated sloops-of-war of no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American War Of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of the United States, fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts. After British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions between the motherland and her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. ''Antigua'' means "ancient" in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, "" — St. Mary of the Old Cathedral.Kessler, Herbert L. & Nirenberg, David. Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to Colonialism'' Accessed 23 September 2011. The name ''Waladli'' comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means approximately "our own". The island's perimeter is roughly and its area . Its population was 83,191 (at the 2011 Census). The economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market. Over 22,000 people live in the capital city, St. John's. The capital is situated in the north-west ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
