Complete List of Terms and Definitions for American Maritime History Final

Terms Definitions
Robert Fulton - engineer and inventor
- developed the first commercially-successful steamboat
John Paul Jones - first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War
Esek Hopkins - Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War
Pilgrim - brig in Two Years Before the Mast
Lt. Charles Wilkes - American naval officer and explorer
- naval commander of the US Exploring Expedition
- conducted research in Pacific and Antarctic
Alexander Hamilton - economist, political philosopher, and Secretary of the Treasury
- created and dominated the Federalist party
Report of Canals and Roads - 1808, Gallatin's presentation on America's deficiency in transportation and necessity for canals, which was consistently beaten down
Santee Canal - one of the earliest canals in the US, built to provide a direct water route between Charleston and Columbia, SC
Erie Canal - finished in 1825
- waterway that runs from Albany to Buffalo, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the great lakes
- first proposed in the 1720s by Cadwalader Colden
- major engineering challenge
- privately promoted by Philip Schuyler in 1790's
- Thomas Jefferson dismissed the idea in 1809
- helped develop industry in Syracuse and Rochester
USS Alert - US screw steamer
The Physical Geography of the Sea - 1855, by Matthew Maury
- first extensive and comprehensive oceanography book ever published, with significant contributions in charting winds and ocean currents
USS Vincennes - US navy ship that patrolled the Pacific and explored Antarctic
- first US warship
Thomas Jefferson - principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the US
- promoted republicanism
- major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition
Anne McKim - 1883
- First archetypal clipper ship
- Built by Kennard and Williamson
USS Constitution - US Navy frigate constructed for the Naval Act of 1794
Boston Port Bill - 1774 by Parliament of Great Britain
- outlawed the use of Boston Port in response to the Boston Tea Party
- colonists believed that this punished all of Boston instead of just the Tea party participants
- some colonies sent relief supplies in response
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. - Lawyer and Politician who published Two Years Before the mast in 1840
Ahab - tyrannical captain of the Pequod in Moby-Dick
- Quaker who wants revenge on Moby-Dick and killed by his own harpoon
Winslow Homer - American landscape and printmaker of marine subjects
- most famous American seascapist
Donald McKay - Designer and builder of American sailing ships
- built some of the most successful clippers
French-Indian War - 1754-1763
- a large number of British people were in the colonies and saw that they were doing well
- the British challenged the French Canadians for exploitative and expansive purposes and drove them out of Canada
Albert Gallatin - politician, diplomat, congressman, US Secretary of the Treasury
- founded NYU
Stephen Hopkins - political leader from Rhode Island who signed the Declaration of Indepenedence
Lake Erie - Fourth largest lake in the Great Lakes
- bounded by Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and Ontario
- Has the Erie Canal
Naval Act - 1794
- established the first naval force
Alexander Dallas Bache - physicist, scientist, and survey who erected coastal fortifications and constructed detailed survey mapping of the US coastline
- grandson of Benjamin Franklin
- second director of the US Coastal Survey
- promoted the American Association for the Advancement of Science and National Academy of Science
Starbuck - young first mate on the Pequod in Moby-Dick
- Quake from Nantucket who does not want to chase Moby-Dick and wants to go home to his family
Matthew M. Maury - astronomer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, geologist
- Father of modern Oceanography and Naval Meterology
- published Physical Geography of the Sea in 1855
John Hancock - merchant, statesman, president of the Second Continental Congress
- first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Ohio River - largest tributary of the Mississippi River
- numerous Native American civilizations formed along its valley
- souther boundary of the Northwest Territory during the 19th century
- largely used as a water transportation resource
- constant flow
Pequod - Nantucket whaleship in Moby-Dick
Frank Thompson - captain of the Pilgrim in Two Years Before the Mast
- only 30 years old
Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Affected by Human Action - 1864, by George Marsh
- one of the most significant advances in geography, ecology, and resource management of the 19th century
DeWitt Clinton - American politician who served as US Senator and New York Governor
- largely responsible for construction of the Erie Canal
Potomac Canal - canal that was designed to bypass rapids in the Potomac River
Oliver Hazard Perry - served in the War of 1812
- nicknamed the "Hero of Lake Erie" for leading American forces in the decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie
Common Sense - 1776 by Thomas Paine
- presented a strong argument for independence from British rule
- presents the idea that colonial shipyards could quickly create a navy
James E. Butterworth - English painter who specialized in maritime art and was one of the foremost American ship portraitists of the 19th century
Quequeeg - son of the chief of a cannibal tribe who befriends Ishmael in Moby-Dick
- skilled harpooner
Middlesex Canal - 1802
- barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston
Sam Adams - American statesman, political theorist, and philosopher
- leader in the American Revolution
USS Chesapeake - US Navy frigate used in the Quasi-War and the First Barbary War
- constructed for the Naval Act of 1794
Robert Gray - American merchant sea-captain, who pioneered the American maritime fur trade to the northern Pacific coast in two voyages
- was the first American to circumnavigate the world in 1790
John Jacob Astor - first prominent member of the Astor family
- first multi-millionaire in the US
- created first trust
- made a fortune in fur-trading
John Adams - American Statesman, diplomat, and political theorist
- second President of the U.S.
- conservative Federalist who promoted republicanism
- created one frigate for each major coastal town after the Revolution
Robert R. Livingston, Jr. lawyer, politician, diplomat
Benjamin Franklin - scientist, inventor, politician, etc.
- studied the effect of the Gulf Stream on packets sailing from England to America
- gathered his research on the ocean and ships in his "Sundry Maritime Observations"
Mississippi River - one-way slow flow
- too narrow to permit dependable sailing
- floated cargo down the river on barges
Ishmael - narrator and protagonist of 1851 novel Moby-Dick
Notes on State of Virginia - 1781 by Thomas Jefferson
- this was written during a depressing time of Jefferson's governorship, when people were invading Virginia
- was written as a response to the French delegation's questions about Virginia
- discuss the state of the rivers and sea ports of Virginia
Stamp Act Congress Declaration - 1765 by US Congress
- caused protest in the colonies
- seen as a mass intrusion
Moby-Dick - giant albino sperm whale
- the main antagonist of Moby-Dick because he has bitten off Ahab's leg
- kills everyone but Ishmael in the end
Fitz Henry Lane - American printmaker and painter of luminism
- painted the yacht "America" which won an international race around the Isle of Wright in 1851
US Constitution - listed maritime grievances towards George III (cutting off trade from all parts of the world, plundering the sea/towns/coasts/lives of North America, constraining fellow citizens on the high sea)
Josiah Cressy - first person do do a sub-90 day run from New York to San Francisco in 1851
Sundry Maritime Observations - 1785 by Benjamin Franklin
- letter about many maritime topics to a scientific colleague in France, including a map of the Gulf Stream
- showed Franklin's immense knowledge
Declaration of Independence - 1776 by Continental Congress
- announced that the colonies were independent states and justified independence
- many signers had maritime interests at play
John Fitch - built the first recorded steam-powered boat in the US in 1787
Two Years Before the Mast - 1840, by Richard Henry Dana
- details Dana's two years in merchant ships during his youth
Herman Melville - writer of Moby-Dick and Billy Budd