THOMAS
R. GEDNEY
Coast
and Geodetic Survey Steamer THOMAS R. GEDNEY. In service
1875-1915. Pacific service. Dressed ship for holiday.
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Steamer,
length 140 feet, beam 23.8 feet, draft 8.4 feet. Built by C. H. Decameter
at New York, New York in 1875 for $63,400 of composite wood and iron.
Steam and sail schooner. Atlantic and Pacific service with much duty
in Alaska. 1876, 77, 1879, 1880, 81, 82, 83, 84 Named for Commander
Thomas R. Gedney, USN, who with George S. Blake, was one of the two
earliest senior naval officers attached to the Coast Survey. He commanded
the Coast Survey’s first hydrographic vessel, the JERSEY, in
1834 and in 1835 discovered the famed Gedney Channel into New York
Harbor. Gedney was instrumental in foiling an assassination attempt
on President Andrew Jackson on January 31, 1835 at much peril to his
own life. Gedney is best known for his role as commanding officer
of the Coast Survey Brig WASHINGTON when it took possession of the
ship AMISTAD in Long Island Sound and began a series of incidents
that led to the freeing of the slave cargo and their leader Cinque.
Gedney joined the Navy in 1815, died 1857.
