Alexander Murray (1816–1884)
Rear Admiral Alexander Murray (2 January 1816 – 10 November 1884) was a flag officer in the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Biography Early career Murray was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was entered the Navy as a midshipman on August 22, 1835. He served aboard the schooner in the West Indies Squadron in 1836–38, and on the steamer off the Atlantic coast in 1839–41, receiving promotion to passed midshipman on June 22, 1841. He then served on the sloop in the Home Squadron in 1841–43, and the schooner in the Pacific Squadron in 1844–45. He returned to the Home Squadron in 1846, to participate in the capture of Alvarado, Tabasco, Tuxpan, Veracruz, and Tampico during the Mexican War. Murray then served in the United States Coast Survey from 1846 to 1849, and was promoted to master on March 23, 1847, and received his commission as lieutenant on August 12, 1847. Murray served aboard the razee in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of United States cities by population, 67th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located in Western Pennsylvania, southwestern Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. It anchors the Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which had a population of 2.457 million residents and is the largest metro area in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the Pennsylvania metropolitan areas, second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 26th-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–New Castle–Weirton combined statistic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alvarado, Veracruz
''Alvarado'' (officially: ''Ilustre, Heroica y Generosa Ciudad y Puerto de Alvarado'') is a city in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city also serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is located from the city of Veracruz, Veracruz, on Federal Highways 180 and 125. Alvarado is bordered by Boca del Río, Tlalixcoyan, Medellín, Ignacio de la Llave, Ciudad Lerdo de Tejada, Tlacotalpan and Acula. It is above sea level. It lies in the so-called "Region Papaloapan" bordered on the south by the municipalities of Acula, Tlacotalpan and Lerdo de Tejada, on the east by the Gulf of Mexico and on the west by Ignacio de la Llave. The geographic size of Alvarado is . The INEGI said that the population by 2000 was 22,608 people. History Alvarado was founded in the 16th century. In 1518, Pedro de Alvarado arrived to ''Atlizintla''. In 1563, Juan de Sahagún built a port in the area to supply the Port of Veracuz. The locality started being ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The state's List of capitals in the United States, capital is Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach, Virginia, Virginia Beach. Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County, Virginia, Fairfax County, part of Northern Virginia, where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of more than 8.8million live. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Central Virginia lies predominantly in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont, the foothill region of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The fertile Shenandoah Valley fosters the state's mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Atlantic Blockading Squadron
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic and Gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably New Orleans and Mobile. Those blockade runners fast enough to evade the Union Navy could carry only a small fraction of the supplies needed. They were operated largely by British and French citizens, making use of neutral ports such as Havana, Nassau and Bermuda. The Union commissioned around 500 ships, which destroyed or captured about 1,500 blockade runners over the course of the war. The blockade was successful in blocking 95% of cotton exports from the South compared to pre-war levels, devaluing its currency and severely damaging its economy. However, it was less successful in preventing war material from being smuggled into the South. Throughout the conflict, at least 600,000 a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Screw Steamer
A screw steamer or screw steamship (abbreviated "SS") is an old term for a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine, using one or more propellers (also known as ''screws'') to propel it through the water. Such a ship was also known as an "iron screw steam ship". In the 19th century, this designation was normally used in contradistinction to the paddle steamer, a still earlier form of steamship that was largely, but not entirely, superseded by the screw steamer. Many famous ships were screw steamers, including the RMS ''Titanic'' and RMS ''Lusitania''. These massive leviathans had three or four propellers. Ships under two hundred meters in length usually only had two or one propellers. Canney, 1998 pp.26-27 Development Following a number of smaller experimental boats and ships in the mid and late 1830s, the first screw powered ocean-going ship was the British SS Archimedes of 1839, using a propeller designed by Francis Smith based on his 1835 patent. In 1844, Thomas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city in Virginia and List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous city in the United States. The city holds a strategic position as the historical, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area (sometimes called "Tidewater (region), Tidewater"), which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the Metropolitan statistical area, 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Norfolk was established in 1682 as a colonial seaport. Strategically located at the confluence of the Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth River and Chesapeake Bay, it quickly developed into a major center for trade and shipbuilding. During the American Revolution and War of 1812, its port and naval facilities made it a critic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Receiving Ship
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. 'Hulk' may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or a ship whose propulsion system is no longer maintained or has been removed altogether. The word hulk also may be used as a verb: a ship is "hulked" to convert it to a hulk. The verb was also applied to crews of Royal Navy ships in dock, who were sent to the receiving ship for accommodation, or "hulked". Hulks have a variety of uses such as housing, prisons, salvage pontoons, gambling sites, naval training, or cargo storage. In the age of sail, many hulls served longer as hulks than they did as functional ships. Wooden ships were often hulked when the hull structure became too old and weak to withstand the stresses of sailing. More recently, ships have been hulked when they become obsolete or when they become uneconomical to operate. Sheer hulk A ''sheer hulk'' (or ''shear hulk'') was used in shipbuildi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mediterranean Squadron (United States)
The Mediterranean Squadron, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was part of the United States Navy in the 19th century that operated in the Mediterranean Sea. It was formed in response to the First and Second Barbary Wars. Between 1801 and 1818, the squadron was composed of a series of rotating squadrons. Later, squadrons were sent in the 1820s to the 1860s to suppress piracy, primarily in Greece and to engage in gunboat diplomacy. In 1865 the force was renamed the European Squadron. History First Barbary War The Barbary pirates' seizure of US merchant ships began after American Revolutionary War ended in 1783. When the Dey of Algiers demanded tribute, the Americans refused and thus began a long series of conflict between the Barbary states and the United States lasting from the 1780s to 1815. The Mediterranean Squadron was created for the protection of American merchant ships sailing in Mediterranean waters. The first squadron sent was under the command of Commod ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Razee
A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down (''razeed'') to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French ''vaisseau rasé'', meaning a razed (in the sense of shaved down) ship. Seventeenth century During the transition from galleons to more frigate-like warships (1600 – 1650) there was a general awareness that the reduction in topweight afforded by the removal of upperworks made ships better sailers; Rear Admiral Sir William Symonds noted after the launch of ''Sovereign of the Seas'' that she was "cut down" and made a safe and fast ship. In 1651 ''Sovereign of the Seas'' was again made more manoeuvrable by reducing the number of cannon. Ships were razeed not only by navies but also by pirates – Captain Charles Johnson's ''A General History of the Pyrates''''A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates'', Charles Johnson, 1724. (Modern paperback by The Lyons Press, 2002, ) describes George Lowt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Master (naval)
The master, or sailing master, is a historical rank for a naval officer trained in and responsible for the navigation of a sailing vessel. In the Royal Navy, the master was originally a warrant officer who ranked with, but after, the lieutenants. The rank became a commissioned officer rank and was renamed navigating lieutenant in 1867; the rank gradually fell out of use from around 1890 since all lieutenants were required to pass the same examinations. When the United States Navy was formed in 1794, master was listed as one of the warrant officer ranks and ranked between midshipmen and lieutenants. The rank was also a commissioned officer rank from 1837 until it was replaced with the current rank of lieutenant, junior grade in 1883. France Within the French Navy, there exists a number of "master" ranks. Russia Until 1733 the sailing masters in the Imperial Russian Navy were rated as petty officers, but in that year the rank of ''Master'' was introduced after the British ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Coast And Geodetic Survey
The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ( USC&GS; known as the Survey of the Coast from 1807 to 1836, and as the United States Coast Survey from 1836 until 1878) was the first scientific agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States Government. It existed from 1807 to 1970, and throughout its history was responsible for mapping and charting the coast of the United States, and later the coasts of Territories of the United States, U.S. territories. In 1871, it gained the additional responsibility of surveying the interior of the United States and geodesy became a more important part of its work, leading to it being renamed the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878. Long the U.S. government's only scientific agency, the Survey accumulated other scientific and technical responsibilities as well, including astronomy, cartography, metrology, meteorology, geology, geophysics, hydrography, navigation, oceanography, exploration, Piloting, pilotage, tides, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tampico
Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth-largest city in Tamaulipas, with a population of 314,418 in the city proper and 929,174 in the metropolitan area. During the period of Mexico's first oil boom in the early 20th century, the city was the "chief oil-exporting port of the Americas" and the second-busiest in the world, yielding great profits that were invested in the city's famous architecture, often compared to that of Venice and New Orleans.Dave Graham, "Crime-ridden state poses acid test for Mexican oil reform" ''Reuters,'' 25 June 2014, acces ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |