Captain Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy (1755 - 1822) 



Commissioned a Captain in the new U.S. Navy in 1794, Truxtun 

 supervised the construction of the frigate Constellation at 

 Baltimore, Maryland and, as her commanding officer, became 

 the most distinguished American naval officer of the 

 Franco- American dispute. An early proponent of 

 thermometrical navigation, he collected data on sea surface 

 temperatures and other variables and published his own manual 

 of navigation which was considered one of the most productive 

 works of the 18th century. 



