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CSS Alabama's Eastern Atlantic Expeditionary Raid
The CSS ''Alabama''s Eastern Atlantic Expeditionary Raid commenced shortly after the ship left Liverpool and was commissioned as the CSS ''Alabama'', a Confederate commerce raider, lasting from August 24, 1862 to about September 30, 1862. The primary area of operation during this expeditionary raid, was the Azores west of the African and European continents. Raid overview On its voyage, CSS ''Alabama'', newly commissioned on August 24, 1862, set sail for the eastern Atlantic Ocean in the area of the Azores, reaching the Western Azores along Pico Island and Faial Island by September 4. The following day, ''Alabama'' sighted the '' Ocmulgee'', and came in close under the pretense of the United States colors. The ''Ocmulgee'', with whales still beside her, was taken with no resistance, and Captain Raphael Semmes waited until the following morning to burn her, not wanting to alert other whalers in the area. On September 7, slowly making its way around Flores Island, Sunday mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raphael Semmes
Raphael Semmes ( ; September 27, 1809 – August 30, 1877) was an officer in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. Until then, he had been a serving officer in the US Navy from 1826 to 1860. During the American Civil War, Semmes was captain of the cruiser , the most successful commerce raider in maritime history, taking 65 prizes. Late in the war, he was promoted to rear admiral and also acted briefly as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. His appointment or arrangement to act as a temporary brigadier general from April 5 to April 26, 1865, was never submitted to or officially confirmed by the Confederate Senate. Early life and education Semmes was born in Charles County, Maryland, on Tayloe's Neck, a cousin of future Confederate general Paul Jones Semmes and of future Union Navy Captain Alexander Alderman Semmes. He graduated from Charlotte Hall Military Academy and entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826. Semmes first served on the ''Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newfoundland (island)
Newfoundland (, ; french: link=no, Terre-Neuve, ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land area. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. With an area of , Newfoundland is the world's 16th-largest island, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. John's, is located on the southeastern coast of the island; Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whaler
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japan, still dedicates a single factory ship for the industry. The vessels used by aboriginal whaling communities are much smaller and are used for various purposes over the course of the year. The ''whale catcher'' was developed during the age of steam, and then driven by diesel engines throughout much of the twentieth century. It was designed with a harpoon gun mounted at its bow and was fast enough to chase and catch rorquals such as the fin whale. At first, whale catchers either brought the whales they killed to a whaling station, a settlement ashore where the carcasses could be processed, or to its factory ship anchored in a sheltered bay or inlet. With the later development of the slipway at the ship's stern, whale catchers were abl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corvo Island
Corvo Island ( pt, Ilha do Corvo, ), literally the ''Island of the Crow'', is the smallest and the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago and the northernmost in Macaronesia. It has a population of approximately 384 inhabitants (as of 2021) making it the smallest single municipality in the Azores and in Portugal. The island lies on the North American Plate. History Apocryphal stories of the Carthaginian Empire exploring the islands in approximately 200 BC notwithstanding, the mainstream history of the Azores originates with non-official exploration during the period of the late 13th century, resulting in maps, such as the Genovese Atlas Medici from 1351, which mentions obscure islands in an undefined Atlantic archipelago. The Medici Atlas refers to an ''Insula Corvi Marini'' (''Island of the Marine Crow''; "marine crow" is the literal translation of ''Corvo Marinho'', which is the Portuguese name for the cormorant), in a seven-island archipelago, but it is improbable t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United States, or Americans in general. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', it is "a nickname for a native or inhabitant of New England, or, more widely, of the northern States generally". Outside the United States, ''Yank'' is used informally to refer to an Americans, American person or thing. It has been especially popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand where it may be used variously with uncomplimentary overtones or cordially. In the Southern United States, ''Yankee'' is a derisive term which refers to all Northerners, and during the American Civil War was applied by Confederate States of America, Confederates to soldiers of the Union army in general. Elsewhere in the United States, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Years Before The Mast
''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946. The journey Outbound In the book, which takes place between 1834 and 1836, Dana gives a vivid account of "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is". He sails from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California. Dana's ship was on a voyage to trade goods from the United States for the Mexican colonial Californian California missions' and ranchos' cow hides. They traded at the ports in San Diego Bay, San Pedro Bay, Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. The provenance of this history is well supported by records showing the company of Sprague and James building and launching a ship named ''Pilgrim'' in 1825 in Medford, Massachusetts. California Dana arrive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Henry Dana Jr
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir '' Two Years Before the Mast''. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen. Early life and education Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 1, 1815 into a family that had settled in colonial America in 1640, counting Anne Bradstreet among its ancestors.Sullivan, 1972, p. 98. His father was the poet and critic Richard Henry Dana Sr. As a boy, Dana studied in Cambridgeport under a strict schoolmaster named Samuel Barrett, alongside fellow Cambridge native and future writer James Russell Lowell. Barrett was infamous as a disciplinarian who punished his students for any infraction by flogging. He also often pulled students by their ears and, on one such occasion, nearly pulled Dana's ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as a letter of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes, and taking prize crews as prisoners for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize (law), prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission (i.e. the sovereign). Privateering allowed sovereigns to raise revenue for war by mobilizing privately owned armed ships and sailors to supplement state power. For participants, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz Das Flores
Santa Cruz das Flores (; ) is a municipality situated in the north half of the island of Flores, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Situated in the sparsely populated Western Group, the population in 2021 was 2,020 inhabitants in an area that covers approximately , bordering the southern municipality of Lajes das Flores. History The earliest record of the northern municipality referred to the village of Santa Cruz das Flores, in 1548. Transcribing the works of Father aspar Frutuoso Francisco Gomes documented the arrival of the crew of the nau ''Nossa Senhor da Misericórida''. He included Gaspar Frutuoso's 1589 reference, described the growing urban area of Santa Cruz as a "well divided and plane villa" covered in thatched roofs. Ponta Delgada, he continued, was a ''parish of 30 neighbours'' surrounding its small hermitage (dedicated to Santo Amaro, even as its ecclesiastical patron since the 16th century was the apostle Peter). In the beginning of the 17th-Century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flores Island (Azores)
Flores Island ( pt, Ilha das Flores; ) is an island of the Western Group () of the Azores. It has an area of 143 km2, a population of 3428 inhabitants, and, together with Corvo Island of the western archipelago, lies within the North American Plate. The nearby Monchique Islet is the westernmost point of Portugal. It has been referred to as the ('Yellow/Auburn Island') by marketing and due to the association with poet Raul Brandão, but it is well known for its abundance of flowers, hence its Portuguese name of . History Some early accounts existed of the "(seven) islands of the Azores and two islands of Flores" (referring to the islands of Flores and Corvo), but no "official discovery" occurred until the mid-15th century. The island of Flores was discovered in the late summer of 1452 by the navigator Diogo de Teive and his son João de Teive, and first noted by the pilot Pêro Velasco to Christopher Columbus during his voyages. For his reward, Teive received the con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrepresentation of someone's allegiance. The term was famously used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity. The tactic was originally used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them. It later was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag once an attack had begun. The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
