Thomas Jefferson Page, a grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a United States Navy officer who served in the Caribbean, carried out a hydrographical survey of the New York coastline, and worked under Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury at the Naval Observatory in Washington. As a summing up, the Captain has engraved on his tomb "Thomas Jefferson Page of Virginia; Captain, U.S.N. and C.S.N., Explorer, Christian Gentleman”.