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Joseph Whidbey
Joseph Whidbey Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (1757 – 9 October 1833) was a member of the Royal Navy who served on the Vancouver Expedition 1791–95, and later achieved renown as a naval engineer. He is notable for having been the first European to discover and chart Admiralty Island in the Alexander Archipelago in 1794. Little is recorded of Whidbey's life before his warranting as a sailing master in 1779. After years of service during the War of American Independence, he received a peacetime appointment to , where with then-Lieutenant George Vancouver, he conducted a detailed survey of Port Royal. ''Europa'' Ship decommissioning, paid off, but Whidbey soon gained a berth, along with Vancouver, in the newly built . During the Nootka Crisis, both men were transferred to , but returned to ''Discovery'' and departed for the northwest coast of America. In 1792, Whidbey accompanied Lieutenant Peter Puget in small boats to explore what was later named Puget Sound. On 2 June, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fellow Of The Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science". Fellow, Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence, is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955) and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breakwater (structure)
A breakwater is a permanent structure constructed at a coastal area to protect against tides, currents, waves, and storm surges. Part of a coastal management system, breakwaters are installed to minimize erosion, and to protect anchorages, helping isolate vessels within them from marine hazards such as prop washes and wind-driven waves. A breakwater, also known in some contexts as a jetty, may be connected to land or freestanding, and may contain a walkway or road for vehicle access. On beaches where longshore drift threatens the erosion of beach material, smaller structures on the beach, usually perpendicular to the water's edge, may be installed. Their action on waves and current is intended to slow the longshore drift and discourage mobilisation of beach material. In this usage they are more usually referred to as groynes. Purposes Breakwaters reduce the intensity of wave action in inshore waters and thereby provide safe harbourage. Breakwaters may also be small structu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plymouth Breakwater
Plymouth Breakwater is a stone breakwater protecting Plymouth Sound and the anchorages near Plymouth, Devon, England. It is wide at the top and the base is . It lies in about of water. Around 4 million tons of rock were used in its construction in 1812 at the then-colossal cost of £1.5 million (equivalent to £ today). History In 1806, as the Napoleonic Wars impended, Lord St. Vincent commissioned John Rennie and Joseph Whidbey to plan a means of making Plymouth Bay a safe anchorage for the Channel Fleet. These plans may have been taken from ones made by George Matcham (1753 – 3 February 1833). In 1811 came the order to begin construction; Whidbey was appointed Acting Superintending Engineer. This task required great engineering, organizational and political skills, as the many strictly technical challenges were complicated by the significant resources devoted to the project, from which various parties evidenced a desire for advantage. Nearly 4,000,000 (four million) ton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of French domination over most of continental Europe. The wars stemmed from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars consisting of the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). The Napoleonic Wars are often described as five conflicts, each termed after the coalition that fought Napoleon: the Third Coalition (1803–1806), the Fourth (1806–1807), the Fifth (1809), the Sixth (1813–1814), and the Seventh (1815) plus the Peninsular War (1807–1814) and the French invasion of Russia (1812). Napoleon, upon ascending to First Consul of France in 1799, had inherited a republic in chaos; he subsequently created a state with stable financ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Huddart
Joseph Huddart FRS (1741–1816) was a British hydrographer, engineer and inventor. He surveyed harbours and coasts but made a fortune from improving the design and manufacture of rope. He was highly regarded in his time, and his likeness featured in an engraving of distinguished men of science. Huddart was chosen to feature in the central group of the picture with M. I. Brunel, James Watt, Matthew Boulton and Thomas Telford. Biography Huddart was born at Allonby in Cumberland. Huddart's father was both a shoemaker, a farmer and a fish smoker. Huddart's natural talents were mathematics and mechanics. Huddart had built models of a mill and a ship of war merely from descriptions he had read about. He initially joined his father's fish processing business. His father had taken advantage of an unusual occurrence and joined with others to start the Herring Fishery Company. Shoals of fish had arrived in the Solway Firth and there was a profit for any who could preserve the fish fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Beaufoy
Colonel Mark Beaufoy FRS (4 March 1764 – 4 May 1827) was an English astronomer and physicist, mountaineer, explorer and British Army officer. His father, Mark Beaufoy (1718–1782), who was originally from Evesham, established a vinegar factory in Lambeth, London. He was the first-known English climber to make an ascent of a high mountain in the Alps. In 1787, he made an ascent (the fourth) of Mont Blanc. This mountain was an attraction to his fellow countrymen, such as J. D. Forbes (1809–1868), A. T. Malkin (1803–1888), John Ball (1818–1889) and Sir Alfred Wills (1828–1912). He describes his ascent of Mont Blanc: He devoted much of his life to naval experiments at the Greenland Dock with James Scott and Captain John Luard of the "Society for the Improvement in Naval Architecture". He published the results of his work in one of the leading scientific journals of the day, ''The Annals of Philosophy''. In 1815 he described a recording tide meter, and in the same ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Gilbert Blane
Sir Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, 1st Baronet FRSE FRS MRCP (29 August 174926 June 1834) was a Scottish physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy. He saw action against both the French and Spanish fleets, and later served as a Commissioner on the Sick and Wounded Board of the Admiralty. Life Born in Blanefield, by Kirkoswald, in Ayrshire, he was the fourth son of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield (d.1771) and Agnes McFadzen. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and Glasgow University (MD 1778) before moving to London. The challenge of establishing a practice in London was eased by his friendship with Dr William Hunter, elder brother of the famous John Hunter who is now widely regarded as the father of modern surgery in Britain. Dr William Hunter introduced Blane to Lord Rodney who appointed Blane as his personal physician aboard HMS ''Sandwich''. Blane was appointed Physician to the Fleet (1779–1783) and accompanied Rodney, initially to pursue the Spani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Stanier Clarke
James Stanier Clarke (1766–1834) was an English cleric, naval author and man of letters. He became librarian in 1799 to George, Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent, then George IV). Early life The eldest son of Edward Clarke and Anne Grenfield, and brother of Edward Daniel Clarke, he was born on 17 December 1766 at Mahon, Minorca where his father was at the time chaplain to the governor. He was educated at Uckfield School and then at Tonbridge School under Vicesimus Knox. Matriculating at St John's College, Cambridge in 1784, he did not complete a first degree. Having taken holy orders, Clarke was in 1790 appointed to the rectory of Preston, Sussex. About the beginning of 1791 he was living in Sussex with his mother, taking in the refugee Anthony Charles Cazenove for half a year. In 1792 he was living at Eartham with William Hayley; Thomas Alphonso Hayley made a bust of him. Courtier Clarke in February 1795 entered the Royal Navy as a chaplain; and served, 1796–99, on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Marsden (orientalist)
William Marsden (16 November 1754 – 6 October 1836) was an Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist who served as Second, then First Secretary to the Admiralty during years of conflict with France. Early life Marsden was the son of a Dublin merchant. He was born in Verval, County Wicklow, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Upon obtaining a civil service appointment with the East India Company at sixteen years of age, he was sent to Benkulen, Sumatra, in 1771. He was promoted to the position of principal secretary to the government, and acquired a knowledge of the Malay language and the country. After returning to England in 1779, he was awarded the Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree by Oxford University in 1780 and published his ''History of Sumatra'' in 1783. Marsden was elected to membership in the Royal Society in 1783. He had been recommended by James Rennell, Edward Whitaker Gray, John Topham, Alexander Dalrymple, and Charles Blagden. Admiral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Rennell
Major James Rennell, (3 December 1742 – 29 March 1830) was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of India and served as Surveyor General of Bengal. Rennell has been called the ''Father'' ''of'' ''Oceanography''. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London. Early life Rennell was born at Upcot near Chudleigh in Devon. His father, John Rennell, an officer in the Royal Artillery, was killed in action in the Low Countries in July 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. His mother Anne subsequently married Mr Elliott, a widower with children of his own and unable to care for additional ones, leading to Rennell being brought up by a guardian, the Rev. Gilbert Burrington, vicar of Chudleigh. The ancient paternal Devonshire family name was formerly spelt Reynell and was of French origin. Rennell entere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (24 July 1737 – 19 June 1808) was a Scotland, Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the Navy, Hydrographer of the British Admiralty. He was the main proponent of the theory that there existed a vast undiscovered continent in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, Terra Australis Incognita. He produced thousands of nautical charts, mapping a remarkable number of seas and oceans for the first time, and contributing significantly to the safety of shipping. His theories prompted a number of expeditions in search of this mythical land, until James Cook's second journey (1772–1775) led to the conclusion that, if it did exist, it was further south than the 65° line of latitude South. Life Dalrymple was born at Newhailes, near Edinburgh, the eleventh of fifteen children of Sir James Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet, Sir James Dalrymple and his wife, Lady Christian Hamilton, the daughter of the Earl of Haddington. He went to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throughout the 16th to 20th centuries. After several decades of economic hardship and social deprivation, the area now has several large-scale urban renewal projects. Geography Woolwich is situated from Charing Cross. It has a long frontage to the south bank of the Thames river. From the riverside it rises up quickly along the northern slopes of Shooter's Hill towards the common, at and the ancient London–Dover Road, at . The ancient parish of Woolwich, more or less the present-day wards Woolwich Riverside and Woolwich Common, comprises . This included North Woolwich, which is now part of the London Borough of Newham. The ancient parishes of Plumstead and Eltham became part of the civil parish of Woolwich in 1930. Parts of the wards ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
