Joseph Pitty Couthouy (6 January 1808 – 4 April 1864) was an American

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

, conchologist, and invertebrate

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. Born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, he entered the

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

in 1820. He married Mary Greenwood Wild on 9 March 1832. Couthouy applied to President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

for a position on the Scientific Corps of the U.S. Navy's Exploring Expedition of 1838. He sailed with the expedition on 18 August 1838, but was sent to the Sandwich Islands for sick leave. Eventually, he dismissed according to

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and List of explorers, explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865 ...

for attempting to "promote dissension, bring me into disrepute, and destroy the harmony and efficiency of the Squadron." In 1854, he took command of an expedition to the Bay of

Cumaná Cumaná () is the capital city of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located east of Caracas. Cumaná was one of the first cities founded by Spain in the mainland Americas and is the oldest continuously-inhabited Hispanic-established city in Sout ...

, where he spent three unsuccessful years in search of the wreck of the Spanish treasure ship ''San Pedro'', lost there in the early part of the century. A good

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, he spoke fluent Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese, and had mastered several dialects used in the

Pacific Islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...

. In the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Couthouy was ordered to command on 31 December 1862, which was wrecked, and Couthouy made prisoner. He later commanded . Finally, he commanded during the Red River Campaign. On 2 April 1864, he was shot by a sniper and died the following day.

References

* Abbott, R.T., and M.E. Young (eds.). 1973. ''American Malacologists: A national register of professional and amateur malacologists and private shell collectors and biographies of early American mollusk workers born between 1618 and 1900.'' American Malacologists, Falls Church, Virginia. Consolidated/Drake Press, Philadelphia. * Dall, W.H. 1888. ''Some American conchologists.'' Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 4:95-134. * Johnson, R.I. 1946. ''Occasional Papers on Mollusks, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University'' 1(5):33-40.

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