George Marshall (1781 – August 2, 1855) was a chemist, pyrotechnist, artillery specialist, author, educator, and gunner in the United States Navy.
He fought in the War of 1812, he was part of Commodore Isaac Chauncey's freshwater fleet on Lake Ontario.
His name was Americanised and American Naval literature lists his origin as Greece as early as 1825 but the country was in the process of fighting for their independence from the Ottoman Empire.
At the time Thomas Jefferson was president and American hero Sicilian Salvadore Catalano was one of two gunners at the Navy Yard.
Around 1807, Robert Fulton occasionally visited the navy yard to test his torpedo experimentation.
The navy yard also conducted advanced cannon research and had a fully functioning steam engine.
Commander Tingey pleaded with the government and warned them that the navy yard had weakened defenses.
[8] Commander Charles G. Ridgely was an American hero who fought with Edward Preble in the First Barbary War.
According to the naval contractor, Captain Ridgley's gunners did not know how to properly load and fire the carronade's.
Captain Ridgeley and his crew were reassigned to the Lake Ontario fleet under Commodore Isaac Chauncey.
Tingey and Catalano burned the Washington Navy Yard to prevent the British from taking control.
Marshall and two other officers in an act of bravery tied the remaining pieces of the ship together with whatever they could find and they eventually reached the shore.
According to the 1821 naval rule book, special marines were dispatched to guard U.S. Navy Yards.
Captain's Warrington, Sinclair, and Crane endorsed his book and recommended it for junior officers.
The chemistry portion also included how to deal with metallic compounds such as Gold, Silver, Tin, and Iron.
The book detailed the distance of a shot on a ship based on the sound of the gun, which was found to fly at a rate of 1142 feet in one second.
According to Marshall's equation after seeing the flash of a cannon and hearing the blast the gunner would count the seconds until impact.
The book example outlined a 9-second scenario where the distance the cannon was fired from the gunner was approximately 10,278 feet or 3,426 yards.
After four years of service at the navy yard and due to his technical expertise he was assigned to the ship of the line North Carolina 74.
The ship sailed to the Mediterranean with two notable passengers Estwick Evans and George Bethune English.
Eventually, around the time, Greece was recognized as a country American ships were allowed in Ottoman Ports under the Ottoman-American Treaty.
Many refugees came to the United States namely: George Siran, John Celivergos Zachos, Gregory Anthony Perdicaris, Christophoros Plato Castanes, and Evangelinos Apostolides Sophocles.
Commander Thomas Tingey died and American hero Captain Isaac Hull replaced him.
Marshall met a young man named George Sirian he was also Greek from the island Psara.
Both of the young men received warrants as gunners and were in command of gunnery on naval ships as teenagers.
Around this time Sirian was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard with Marshall's mentor Master Gunner Salvador Catalano.
He invited Master Gunner Marshall to the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography (1842–1862) Crane was the commander.
His circle of captains and bureaucratic officials did not allow him to resign due to his hi-level of expertise in the science of gunnery.
[30] Marshall returned to Gosport in 1849, Lewis Warrington was now chief of Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography (1842–1862).
In 1851, Four-Star Admiral David Farragut and Marshall each planted an oak tree outside of the commandant's office at the Gosport Navy Yard.