Thomas Hardy (13 September 1666 – 16 August 1732) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. In 1702, he was given command of HMS Pembroke and fought at the Battle of Cádiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay, where he was knighted for his services. In 1707, Hardy was sent as escort to a convoy sailing for Lisbon where he met the squadron of René Duguay-Trouin. Hardy became first captain to John Leake in the Mediterranean in 1708, assisting in the transport of Elisabeth Christine to Spain for her marriage to Archduke Charles, and participating in the capture of Cagliari and the assault on Minorca. He was promoted to rear-admiral and given command of a squadron to blockade Dunkirk. After briefly serving as commander-in-chief, the Nore, Thames and Medway, Hardy commanded a squadron off Ushant where he failed to intercept the squadrons of Duguay-Trouin and Jean-Baptiste du Casse. In 1715, he was second-in-command of the Baltic Fleet sent to serve in the Great Northern War, but he was dismissed in 1716. ( Full article... )
| | The salema porgy (Sarpa salpa) is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the seabream and porgy family, Sparidae. It has a silvery body with eight to ten horizontal golden lines and a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin, and can sometimes reach more than 50 cm (20 in) in length. The species occurs in the eastern Atlantic from the Bay of Biscay to South Africa, as well as the Mediterranean Sea, at depths of up to 70 m (230 ft). It is largely herbivorous, feeding principally on seagrasses and algae, and is a protandrous hermaphrodite, changing from male to female. Consumption can sometimes cause ichthyoallyeinotoxism poisoning, resulting in auditory and visual hallucinations. This salema porgy was photographed in Catania, Sicily, Italy. Photograph credit: Diego Delso Recently featured: |