Robert J. Walker
It was June 1860 and the nation was watching the Democratic Party splitting, over the issue of slavery, into two national conventions – one at Charleston, S.C., the other at Baltimore, Md. Unnoticed by most, the U.S. Coast Survey steamer Robert J. Walker, a 132-foot, iron hulled, two-masted, sidepaddle wheeler and a veteran of 11 years, was sailing north up the East Coast bound for New York City.
Francis Vincent’s United States Register explained the “steamer Walker, under the command of Lieut.
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