Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cutter

(Encyclopedia)cutter, small, one-masted sailing vessel, with a rig similar to that of a sloop except that it usually has a sliding bowsprit and a topmast. From 1800 to 1830 cutters were in service between England a...

Sandy Hook

(Encyclopedia)Sandy Hook, low, sandy peninsula, NE N.J., projecting 5 mi (8 km) N toward New York and separating Sandy Hook Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. At the northern end is a Coast Guard station and the former F...

Holland, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Holland, city (2020 pop. 34,378), Allegan and Ottawa counties, SW Mich., near Lake Michigan, on Lake Macatawa, in a dairy and poultry area; founded 1847...

Graham, Otto Everett, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Otto Everett, Jr., 1921–2003, American football player and coach, b. Waukegan, Ill. He was an All-American football and basketball player at Northwestern Univ. before he joined the Cleveland...

Alameda

(Encyclopedia)Alameda ăləmēˈdə, –māˈdə [key], city (2020 pop. 78,280), Alameda co., W central Calif., on an island just off the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay; settled 185...

SOS

(Encyclopedia)SOS, code letters of the international distress signal. The signal is expressed in International Morse code as … — — — ……———… (three dots, three dashes, three dots). This c...

Acapulco

(Encyclopedia)Acapulco äkˌəpo͝olˈkō [key], city (2020 pop. 779,566), Guerrero state, S Mexico, on the Pacific coast. A fashionable international seaside resort during much of the ...

lightship

(Encyclopedia)lightship, moored vessel bearing lights and other signal devices to guide ships and warn of hazards to navigation. Lightships are generally stationed at points where a lighthouse cannot be erected; th...

Elizabeth City

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth City, city (2020 pop. 18,631), seat of Pasquotank co., NE N.C., a port of entry on the Pasquotank River (which, with the Dismal Swamp Canal, f...

Pell, Claiborne de Borda

(Encyclopedia)Pell, Claiborne de Borda, 1918–2009, U.S. politician, b. New York City, grad. Princeton (B.A., 1940), Columbia (M.A., 1946). From an old, distinguished American family, he served (1941–45) in the ...