Pacific
On 4 October the Ontario, under the command of Captain James Biddle sailed to the Pacific station on a pioneer mission, stopping at Rio de Janeiro, to deliver dispatches. The sloop then sailed around Cape Horn and proceeded to Valparaíso, Chile, in early 1818. The Chilean War of Independence at this time was in full swing and a Spanish blockade of Valparaíso had been declared, with American merchantmen ships being seized. Through diplomatic negotiations with authorities at that port, Captain Biddle succeeded in achieving the release of captured U.S. ships, and then departed north, arriving off Cape Disappointment on the Columbia River on 19 August. There the ship claimed both sides of the river for the United States and next sailed south, touching at Monterey, California, for supplies, becoming the first American naval vessel to visit the three future Pacific coast states. Ontario sailed for home that fall, stopping at Valparaíso en route in time to witness the start of Lord Cochrane's campaign at sea against Spain, and stood into Chesapeake Bay finally on 23 April 1819.
Read more about this topic: USS Ontario (1813)
Famous quotes containing the word pacific:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“American future lies in the East. The great free markets of the Pacific Rim are the American destiny.”
—Donald Freed, U.S. screenwriter, and Arnold M. Stone. Robert Altman. Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall)
“The doctor of Geneva stamped the sand
That lay impounding the Pacific swell,
Patted his stove-pipe hat and tugged his shawl.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)