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doldrums
(Encyclopedia)doldrums dŏlˈdrəmz [key] or equatorial belt of calms, area around the earth centered slightly north of the equator between the two belts of trade winds. The large amount of solar radiation that arr...Bering Island
(Encyclopedia)Bering Island bērˈĭng, bârˈ– [key], Rus. Beringa, largest of the Komandorski Islands, c.55 mi (90 km) long and up to c.15 mi (20 km) wide, off Kamchatka peninsula, E Russian Far East, in the Be...Selkirk, Alexander
(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Alexander sĕlˈkərk [key], 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with ...Rochefort
(Encyclopedia)Rochefort –sür-mĕr [key], city (1990 pop. 26,949), Charente-Maritime dept., W France, on the Charente River near the Bay of Biscay. It is a fishing port with shipyards and aircraft and machine ind...Corte Real, Gaspar
(Encyclopedia)Corte Real or Corte-Real, Gaspar gəshpärˈ kôrˈtə rĕälˈ [key], c.1450–1501?, Portuguese explorer. Sent by King Manuel I to search for the Northwest Passage, he is said to have discovered Gre...Janszoon, Willem
(Encyclopedia)Janszoon, Willem vĭˈləm yänˈsōn [key] fl. late 16th–early 17th cent., Dutch navigator and colonial governor; his name also appears was Jansz or Janssen. Janszoon served (1603–11, 1612–16, ...Lynch, Thomas
(Encyclopedia)Lynch, Thomas, 1749–79, political figure in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, known as Thomas Lynch, Jr., b. Prince George Parish, S.C., studied Cambridge and law a...Milan Decree
(Encyclopedia)Milan Decree, issued Dec., 1807, by Napoleon I of France in an attempt to enforce the Continental System. Designed to strengthen the Berlin Decree, it authorized French warships and privateers to capt...Ladd, William
(Encyclopedia)Ladd, William, 1778–1841, American pacifist, b. Exeter, N.H., grad. Harvard, 1797. He commanded sailing vessels until the outbreak of the War of 1812, when he retired to a farm in Maine. In 1820 he ...sloop
(Encyclopedia)sloop, fore-and-aft-rigged, single-masted sailing vessel with a single headsail jib. A sloop differs from a cutter in that it has a jibstay—a support leading from the bow to the masthead on which th...Browse by Subject
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