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Gálveztown (brig Sloop)
''Gálveztown'', originally HMS ''West Florida'', was a two–masted brigantine which the Continental Navy schooner captured at the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain, which was then in the British province of West Florida. ''West Florida'' became ''Gálveztown'', supposedly under the command of Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana (New Spain). There are claims that she participated in the siege and capture of Pensacola in March 1781. However, documentary evidence suggests that she arrived in Philadelphia with cargo on 1 June 1780, and therefore could not have participated in this action in March 1781. Historic significance The vessel, described as a two- masted brigantine, square-rigged on the foremast, with fore-and-aft sails on the mainmast, was originally commissioned as a 14-gun cutter named ''West Florida'' after being built by the British in New England, and later was an armed brig-sloop and the only armed British vessel patrolling the lakes and Mississipp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Navy
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United Colonies and United States from 1775 to 1785. It was founded on October 13, 1775 by the Continental Congress to fight against British forces and their allies as part of the American Revolutionary War. Due to the efforts of several prominent patrons such as John Adams, the Continental Navy eventually developed into a substantial force, though it never replicated the successes of the Continental Army. In 1776, Commodore (United States), Commodore Esek Hopkins was appointed by Congress to command the navy. Initially, the Continental Navy's ships consisted of purchased merchantmen, due to a lack of funds for constructing purpose-built warships. This resulted from American leaders focusing on the Continental Army, as they were aware that the Royal Navy's command of the sea meant no naval force they raised could hope to seriously challenge it. The primary missions of the Continental Navy, which eventually acquired a series of frigates an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cutter (ship)
A cutter is any of various types of watercraft. The term can refer to the rig (sail plan) of a sailing vessel (but with regional differences in definition), to a governmental enforcement agency vessel (such as a coast guard or border force cutter), to a type of ship's boat which can be used under sail or oars, or, historically, to a type of fast-sailing vessel introduced in the 18th century, some of which were used as small warships. As a sailing rig, a cutter is a single-masted boat, with two or more headsails. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, the two headsails on a single mast is the fullest extent of the modern definition. In U.S. waters, a greater level of complexity applies, with the placement of the mast and the rigging details of the bowsprit taken into account so a boat with two headsails may be classed as a sloop. Government agencies use the term "cutter" for vessels employed in patrolling their territorial waters and other enforcement activities. This terminol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment. The word is also used informally for people who are known, without national appointment, to represent certain professions, activities, and fields of endeavor, such as sales. An ambassador is the ranking government representative stationed in a foreign capital or country. The host country typically allows the ambassador control of specific territory called an embassy (which may include an official residence and an office, chancery (diplomacy), chancery, located together or separately, generally in the host nation's capital), whose territory, staff, and vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity in the host country. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Inauguration Of George Washington
The first inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States was held on Thursday, April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. The inauguration was held nearly two months after the beginning of the first four-year term of George Washington as president. Chancellor of New York Robert Livingston administered the presidential oath of office. With this inauguration, the executive branch of the United States government officially began operations under the new frame of government established by the 1787 Constitution. The inauguration of John Adams as vice president was on April 21, 1789, when he assumed his duties as presiding officer of the United States Senate; this also remains the only scheduled inauguration to take place on a day that was neither January nor March. Start of the first presidential term The first presidential term started on March 4, 1789, the date set by the Congress of the Confederation for the beginning of ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Harbor
New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, which is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey, municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne, although in colloquial usage it can sometimes expand to cover Upper and Lower New York Bay New York Harbor is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Overview The harbor is fed by the waters of the Hudson River (historically called the North River as it passes Manhattan), as well as the Gowanus Canal. It is connected to Lower New York Bay by the Narrows, to Newark Bay by the Kill Van Kull, and to Long Island Sound by the East River, which, despite its name, is actually a tidal strait. It provides the main passage for the waters of the Hudson River as it em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ..., fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double sugars, are molecules made of two bonded monosaccharides; common examples are sucrose (glucose + fructose), lactose (glucose + galactose), and maltose (two molecules of glucose). White sugar is almost pure sucrose. In the body, compound sugars are hydrolysed into simple sugars. Longer chains of monosaccharides (>2) are not regarded as sugars and are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Starch is a glucose polymer found in plants, the most abundant source of energy in human foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafia
Tafia (also called guildive) is a drink similar to rum made from sugarcane juice. It is typically unaged whereas rum is typically aged in wooden barrels to reduce the level of fusel. Most of the fusel is absorbed in the first two years. Premium rums are aged for a longer period, incidentally increasing the evaporation of ethanol. Etymology The word ''tafia'' is possibly an alteration of '' ratafia'' via aphesis. Whereas ''guildive'', a word of the West Indies, is a corruption from the English ''kill-devil'' (presumably through a spoken pronunciation, ''kill-div'l'') and is one of various names of tafia in 1799 by ''Nemnich Universal European Dictionary of Merchandise''; also, Dutch: ''keel duivel'', Danish: ''geldyvel'', French: ''gueldive''. Guildive or "inferior rum" is a word that was introduced into the ''dictionnaire de l'Académie française'' in 1762. Rum and tafia The history of rum and tafia dates back to the 17th century. Both originated on vast sugar plantations in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brig Sloop
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all unrated warships, including gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fire ships were classed by the Royal Navy as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the role of a sloop-of-war when not carrying out their specialised functions. In World War I and World War II, the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised convoy-defence vessels, including the of the First World War and the highly successful of the Second World War, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. They performed similar duties to the destroyer escorts of the United States Navy, and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of the Royal Navy. Rigging A sloop-of-war was quite different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swivel Gun
A swivel gun (or simply swivel) is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between either the rifling, rifled or the smoothbore barrels. Swivel guns should not be confused with pivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot, or RML 2.5 inch Mountain Gun, screw guns, which are a mountain gun with a segmented barrel. An older term for the type is peterero (alternative spellings include "paterero" and "pederero"). The name was taken from the Spanish name for the gun, pedrero, a combination of the word piedra (stone) and the suffix -ero (-er), because stone was the first type of ammunition fired. It had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession and was especially effective in ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ; ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west to east and from south to north. In descending order of area, the estuary is located in parts of six Louisiana parishes: St. Tammany, Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Tangipahoa. The water boundaries were defined in 1979 (see list of parishes in Louisiana). The estuary is crossed by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. A power line also crosses the estuary. Its towers stand on caissons in Lake Pontchartrain, and its length can be used to visually demonstrate the curvature of the Earth. Toponymy Lake Pontchartrain was named for Louis Phélypeaux, Comte-de-Pontchartrain. He was the French Minister of the Marine, Chancellor, and Controller-General o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a Committee of Five, drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence; and the first United States Postmaster General, postmaster general. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin became a successful Early American publishers and printers, newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and ''Poor Richard's Almanack'', which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the ''Pennsylvania Chronicle'', a newspaper known for it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
