‘Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.’
—Christopher Columbus (c. 1451–1506)
The 74-gun ship-of-the-line USS Delaware, Captain Henry E. Ballard in command, “near the Western Islands August 25, 1833 on her passage to France with his Excellency Edward Livingston, Envoy Extraordinary and minister Plenipotentiary, from the United States to the Court of St. Cloud.” Launched in October 1820, the warship was burned 20 April 1861 at the Norfolk Navy Yard to prevent her capture by the Confederates. A bronze replica of her figurehead is a well-known fixture on the U.S. Naval Academy campus as the bust of Shawnee leader Tecumseh. While mounted on the ship, however, the bust was named for Tamaned, the Delaware chief who greeted William Penn on his arrival in Delaware County on 2 October 1682.
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