Mercator Cooper House in Southampton (now used as part of the town library).

Mercator Cooper (September 29, 1803 – spring 1872) was a ship's captain who is credited with the first formal American visit to Tokyo, Japan and the first formal landing on the mainland East Antarctica.

Both events occurred while sailing ships out of Sag Harbor, New York, where he was born.

[edit] Visit of the Manhattan to Tokyo

On November 9, 1843, Cooper left Sag Harbor as captain of the 440-ton ship Manhattan on a whaling voyage. On March 14–15, 1845 the Manhattan picked up 11 Japanese sailors^[1] in the southern Japanese islands.^[2]

Outside of Tokyo Bay four of the survivors took a Japanese boat with a message that Cooper wanted to deliver the remainder to the harbor.^[3] The Japanese normally wanted to avoid contact with outsiders because of the Tokugawa Shogunate policy of Sakoku.

However, on April 18, 1845, an emissary from the shogun gave the ship permission to proceed – accompanied by "about three hundred Japanese boats with about 15 men in each took the ship in tow" according to Cooper's log. "They took all our arms out to keep till we left. There were several of the nobility came on board to see the ship. They appeared very friendly."

The Japanese examined his ship and took particular note of Pyrrhus Concer, a crewman from Southampton who was the only African American on board, and a Shinnecock Native American named Eleazar – the first dark skinned men the Japanese had seen and they wanted to touch their skin.

The Japanese refused payment for provisions and gave them water, 20 sacks of rice, two sacks of wheat, a box of flour, 11 sacks of sweet potatoes, 50 fowl, two cords of wood, radishes and 10 pounds of tea, thanked them for returning their sailors, and told them to never return.

On April 21, the 300 boats towed the Manhattan 20 miles out to sea.

Cooper took with him a map that charted the islands of Japan that had been found on the disabled Japanese ship. He was to turn the map over to the United States government when the ship returned to Sag Harbor on October 14, 1846. Matthew Perry was said to have used the map on his visit with four U.S. warships on July 8, 1853.

Cooper's home in Southampton (village), New York is now owned by the Southampton Library. Pyrrhus Concer is buried in the North End Cemetery in Southampton across from Cooper's home.

First visitor to Antarctica[link]

In August 1851, Cooper again left Sag Harbor, this time as captain of the 382-ton ship Levant^[4] on a mixed whaling and sealing voyage.^[5] Making a quick passage through the belt of pack ice in the Ross Sea, on January 26, 1853, he sighted land, an ice shelf backed by a high mountain some 70 to 100 miles distant. The next morning, the ice shelf still in sight, with high mountains looming behind it, he sailed the ship close inshore and ordered a boat to be lowered. They made a landing on the ice shelf, reportedly seeing numerous penguins, but no seals – their chief objective. The landing occurred on what is now known as the Oates Coast of Victoria Land, in East Antarctica. It is arguably "the first adequately documented continental landing" in not only this area, but on the mainland of Antarctica itself. They stayed within sight of land for several days, sighting the Balleny Islands on February 2.^[6][7][8] At the conclusion of the voyage the Levant was sold in China.

The logbook from the voyage is in the Long Island Room of the East Hampton Library in East Hampton (village), New York.

Cooper died in Barranquilla, Colombia, South America. His date of death is sometimes reported as March 23, 1872^[9] or April 24, 1872.^[10]

References and notes[link]

Scott Tucker

Personal information
Full name	Scott Eric Tucker
Nationality	United States
Born	(1976-02-18) February 18, 1976 (age 36) Birmingham, Alabama
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	81 kilograms (180 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Freestyle
Medal record Men’s swimming Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 1996 Atlanta 4×100 m freestyle Silver 2000 Sydney 4×100 m freestyle World Championships (LC) Gold 1998 Perth 4×100 m freestyle Silver 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m freestyle World Championships (SC) Gold 2000 Athens 4×100 m medley Gold 2000 Athens 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2002 Moscow 4×100 m freestyle Pan American Games Gold 1999 Winnipeg 4×200 m freestyle Pan Pacific Championships Gold 1997 Fukuoka 4×100 m freestyle Summer Universiade Gold 1995 Fukuoka 4×100 m freestyle

Scott Tucker (born February 18, 1976 in Birmingham, Alabama) is a former international freestyle swimmer from the United States, who participated in two consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1996. He won a gold (1996) and a silver medal (2000) with the US relay teams in the men's 4x100m freestyle; in both cases he only swam in the preliminary heats.

References[link]

• Profile

v t e 1996 USA Olympic Swimming Team Men's Team Ryan Berube Brad Bridgewater Carlton Bruner Greg Burgess Ray Carey Josh Davis Tom Dolan David Fox Kurt Grote Gary Hall, Jr. John Hargis Mark Henderson Joe Hudepohl Jeremy Linn Tom Malchow Eric Namesnik Jon Olsen John Piersma Jeff Rouse Brad Schumacher Tripp Schwenk Scott Tucker Peter Wright Eric Wunderlich Women's Team Amanda Beard Brooke Bennett Beth Botsford Janet Evans Catherine Fox Whitney Hedgepeth Trina Jackson Lisa Jacob Angel Martino Whitney Metzler Kristine Quance Annette Salmeen Jilen Siroky Sheila Taormina Cristina Teuscher Jenny Thompson Melanie Valerio Amy Van Dyken Allison Wagner Ashley Whitney Coaches Skip Kenney David Marsh Richard Quick Eddie Reese Mark Schubert Jonty Skinner Murray Stephens Gregg Troy Jon Urbanchek

v t e 2000 USA Olympic swimming team Men's team Pat Calhoun Chad Carvin Ian Crocker Josh Davis Tom Dolan Nate Dusing Anthony Ervin Scott Goldblatt Gary Hall, Jr. Tommy Hannan Klete Keller Lenny Krayzelburg Jason Lezak Tom Malchow Ed Moses Aaron Peirsol Michael Phelps Jamie Rauch Kyle Salyards Chris Thompson Scott Tucker Erik Vendt Neil Walker Tom Wilkens Women's team Amanda Adkins Samantha Arsenault Amanda Beard B. J. Bedford Lindsay Benko Brooke Bennett Kim Black Maddy Crippen Misty Hyman Kristy Kowal Diana Munz Rada Owen Erin Phenix Megan Quann Gabrielle Rose Kaitlin Sandeno Courtney Shealy Staciana Stitts Julia Stowers Ashley Tappin Cristina Teuscher Jenny Thompson Dara Torres Amy Van Dyken Coaches Peter Banks Jack Bauerle David Marsh Richard Quick (women's head coach) Eddie Reese Dave Salo Mark Schubert (men's head coach) Jon Urbanchek

This article about a swimming Olympic medalist of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011)

Jason Toop Cooper (born 31 January 1967 in London, England) is an English musician best known for his work with The Cure.

Life and work[link]

Jason studied drums at London's Drumtech (where he is now a patron and visiting artist). He first came to public attention as drummer for the band My Life Story. Jason joined The Cure in 1995 following the 1993 departure of their previous drummer Boris Williams. So far, he has performed on the studio albums Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, The Cure and 4:13 Dream. He also appeared in two concert films, Trilogy and Festival 2005.

Jason also composes music for film, most notably co-creating the score for the horror/thriller From Within, for which he and co-composer Oliver Kraus won the award for Best Original Score at the 2008 Solstice Film Festival.

On 15 May 2004, Jason married his long-time girlfriend Allison.^[1]

Discography with The Cure[link]

• Wild Mood Swings (1996)
• Galore (1997)
• Bloodflowers (2000)
• Greatest Hits (2001)
• Trilogy (2003), DVD
• The Cure (2004)
• Festival 2005 (2005), DVD
• 4:13 Dream (2008)
• Bestival Live 2011 (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Cooper on Myspace
• Forum dedicated to Jason
• Picture of Jason and Boris
• Jason at Pictures of You

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