United States Navy Service
Maffitt entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in February 1832, at the age of thirteen. He first served aboard USS St. Louis in the West Indies, and was later assigned to the Pensacola Navy Yard. In 1835 he was assigned to USS Constitution, serving as an aide to Commodore Jesse Elliott in the Mediterranean; his service aboard Constitution would later become the basis for a novel, Nautilus; or, Cruising under Canvas, published in 1871. He also served on the frigate USS Macedonian, becoming its acting Master in 1841.
Maffitt was ordered to the United States Coast Survey in 1842, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1843. He spent more than fourteen years in the hydrographic survey, chiefly in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. A channel in Charleston Harbor still bears his name.
In 1857, Maffitt was placed in command of the brig USS Dolphin and ordered to capture pirates and slavers in the West Indies. On August 21, 1858, Dolphin captured the slaver Echo with 318 Africans on board and sent her into Charleston; the liberated slaves were later sent back to Africa. Maffitt became commander of USS Crusader in 1859 and continued his assignment to suppress slavers in the West Indies until February 7, 1861.
Read more about this topic: John Newland Maffitt (privateer)
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, navy and/or service:
“Places where he might live and die and never hear of the United States, which make such a noise in the world,—never hear of America, so called from the name of a European gentleman.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We begin with friendships, and all our youth is a reconnoitering and recruiting of the holy fraternity they shall combine for the salvation of men. But so the remoter stars seem a nebula of united light, yet there is no group which a telescope will not resolve; and the dearest friends are separated by impassable gulfs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Money is power, and in that government which pays all the public officers of the states will all political power be substantially concentrated.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community,—these are the most vital things education must try to produce.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)