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Alligator Reef
Alligator Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Upper Matecumbe Key. This reef lies within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). Name Alligator Reef is named for the '' USS Alligator'', a ship assigned to suppress the trade of slaves coming from the African coast in the 1820s. In November 1822, the ''Alligator'' was escorting a convoy of merchant ships when she ran aground on the shallow reef. Despite efforts to save the damaged ship, the United States sank her to prevent pirates from pillaging the remains of the boat. The Alligator Reef Light sits on Alligator Reef. A wreck traditionally considered as the remains of USS ''Alligator'' is located 200 feet southwest of the lighthouse and can be seen by snorkelers and divers year-round; however a 1996 expedition has challenged this identification, and the wreck is probably that of another 19th c. ship. Protection The protected reef is located four nautic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands). Island arcs delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea: The Greater Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago on the north and the Lesser Antilles and the on the south and east (which includes the Leeward Antilles). They form the West Indies with the nearby Lucayan Archipelago ( the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), which are considered to be part of the Caribbean despite not borde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine United States Minor Outlying Islands, Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in Compact of Free Association, free association with three Oceania, Pacific Island Sovereign state, sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Palau, Republic of Palau. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders Canada–United States border, with Canada to its north and Mexico–United States border, with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the List of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic processes—deposition (geology), deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock outcrops, etc.—but there are also reefs such as the coral reefs of tropical waters formed by biotic component, biotic processes dominated by corals and coralline algae, and artificial reefs such as shipwrecks and other anthropogenic underwater structures may occur intentionally or as the result of an accident, and sometimes have a designed role in enhancing the physical complexity of featureless sand bottoms, to attract a more diverse assemblage of organisms. Reefs are often quite near to the surface, but not all definitions require this. Earth's largest coral reef system is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, at a length of over . Biotic There is a variety of biotic reef types, including oyster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alligator Reef
Alligator Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Upper Matecumbe Key. This reef lies within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). Name Alligator Reef is named for the '' USS Alligator'', a ship assigned to suppress the trade of slaves coming from the African coast in the 1820s. In November 1822, the ''Alligator'' was escorting a convoy of merchant ships when she ran aground on the shallow reef. Despite efforts to save the damaged ship, the United States sank her to prevent pirates from pillaging the remains of the boat. The Alligator Reef Light sits on Alligator Reef. A wreck traditionally considered as the remains of USS ''Alligator'' is located 200 feet southwest of the lighthouse and can be seen by snorkelers and divers year-round; however a 1996 expedition has challenged this identification, and the wreck is probably that of another 19th c. ship. Protection The protected reef is located four nautic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Coral belongs to the class Anthozoa in the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons that support and protect the coral. Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated water. Coral reefs first appeared 485 million years ago, at the dawn of the Early Ordovician, displacing the microbial and sponge reefs of the Cambrian. Sometimes called ''rainforests of the sea'', shallow coral reefs form some of Earth's most diverse ecosystems. They occupy less than 0.1% of the world's ocean area, about half the area of France, yet they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species, including fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 1990, is the ninth national marine sanctuary to be established in a system that comprises 13 sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects approximately of coastal and ocean waters from the estuarine waters of south Florida along the Florida Keys archipelago, encompassing more than 1,700 islands, out to the Dry Tortugas National Park, reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The mission of the sanctuary is to protect the marine resources of the Florida Keys while facilitating human uses that are consistent with the primary objective of resource protecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper Matecumbe Key
Upper Matecumbe Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys. U.S. 1 (or the Overseas Highway) crosses the key at approximately mile markers 79–83.5, between Windley Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. All of the key is within the Village of Islamorada as of November 4, 1997, when it was incorporated. The island lies to the southwest of Windley Key, and to the northeast of Lower Matecumbe Key. The history of the names of both this key and Lower Matecumbe Key are very confusing, as identical names have been used at different times to designate both keys. Upper Matecumbe Key is the location of the original settlement site of Islamorada. There are a number of Indian mounds and habitation sites located here. Education It is in the Monroe County School District. It is zoned to Plantation Key Elementary School (K-8) in Plantation Key Plantation Key is an island in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It is located in the upper Florida Keys on U.S. 1 (or the Overseas Highway), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Alligator (1820)
The third USS ''Alligator'' was a schooner in the United States Navy. ''Alligator'' was laid down on 26 June 1820 by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 2 November 1820; and commissioned in March 1821 – probably on the 26th – with Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton in command. On 6 June 1996, the site of its wreck was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. First anti-slavery patrol When ''Alligator'' put to sea from Boston, Massachusetts on 3 April, she embarked upon a twofold mission. Lt. Stockton had been given command of ''Alligator'' as a result of his dogged efforts to persuade the Secretary of the Navy, Smith Thompson, to pass over several officers senior to him so that, in addition to cruising the west African coast to suppress the slave trade, he might also search for and acquire a stretch of the coast of Africa for the American Colonization Society. The Society had previously established a colony of former American slaves on the coast, but the climate in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Slave Trade Patrol
African Slave Trade Patrol was part of the Blockade of Africa suppressing the Atlantic slave trade between 1819 and the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. Due to the abolitionist movement in the United States, a squadron of U.S. Navy warships and Cutters were assigned to catch slave traders in and around Africa. In 42 years about 100 suspected slave ships were captured.Heritage Auctions, Inc, pg. 34–36. Operations Origin The first American squadron was sent to Africa in 1819, but after the ships were rotated out there was no constant American naval presence off Africa until the 1840s. In the two decades between, very few slave ships were captured as there were not enough United States Navy ships to patrol over 3,000 miles of African coastline, as well as the vast American coasts and the ocean in between. Also, the slavers knew that if they hoisted a Spanish or Portuguese flag they could easily escape pursuit. Congress made it difficult for the navy to kee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alligator Reef Light
Alligator Reef Light is located east of Indian Key, near the Matecumbe Keys of Florida in the United States, north of Alligator Reef itself. The station was established in 1873. It was automated in 1963 and was last operational in July, 2014, and is being replaced by a 16' steel structure with a less powerful light located adjacent to it. The structure is an iron pile skeleton with a platform. The light is above the water. It is a white octagonal pyramid skeleton framework on black pile foundation, enclosing a square dwelling and a stair-cylinder. The lantern is black. The original lens was a first order bivalve Fresnel lens. The light characteristic of the original light was: flashing white and red, every third flash red, from SW by W 1/2 W through southward to NE 1/8 E, and from NE by E 3/4 E through northward to SW 3/8 S; flashing red throughout the intervening sectors; interval between flashes 5 seconds. It had a nominal range of in the white sectors and in the red s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action Of 9 November 1822
The action of 9 November 1822 was a naval battle fought between the United States Navy schooner and a squadron of three pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba during the Navy's West Indies anti-piracy operation. Fifteen leagues from Matanzas, Cuba, a large band of pirates captured several vessels and held them for ransom. Upon hearing of the pirate attacks, ''Alligator'' under Lieutenant William Howard Allen rushed to the scene to rescue the vessels and seize the pirates. Upon arriving at the bay where the pirates were said to be, ''Alligator'' dispatched boats to engage the enemy vessels, as the water was too shallow for the warship to engage them directly. With Allen personally commanding one of the boats, the Americans assaulted the schooner ''Revenge''. Although the Navy was able to force the pirates into abandoning ''Revenge'', the buccaneers managed to fight their way out of the bay and inflict seven casualties. With their commander mortally wounded, the boats ceased pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
