In 1837, President Van Buren shared a few words of the "discovery of a new channel into the harbor of New York". The discovery he was writing about was a new channel discovered by Lieutenant Commandant Gedney in 1835. The channel Gedney discovered was 2 feet deeper than the previous channel, enough margin for heavily loaded ships to come into the harbor even at low tide. The previous channel was only 21 feet at low tide and ships had to wait until high tide or risk running into a huge sandbar. Lieutenant Gedney not only received the praise of New York city, but also that of the Navy and the President of the United States.
"The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey have rendered important service to our navigation. The discovery of a new channel into the harbor of New York, through which our largest ships may pass without danger, must afford important commercial advantages to that harbor and add greatly to its value as a naval station. The accurate survey of Georges Shoals, off the coast of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render comparatively safe a navigation hitherto considered dangerous."
The praise for the Lieutenant didn't end there. On August 20, 1839, Lt. Gedney was out surveying the coast when he "discovered a strange and suspicious looking vessel off Culloden Point, near said Montauk Point". Gedney and his officers took possession of the vessel and found the ship to be carrying Africans who escaped their captors and were sailing back to Africa. The captured Spanish schooner has since been known to history as the "La Amistad" and it's events were the basis of a historical dram a film directed by Steven Spielberg in 1997.
President Van Buren's words were based on the 1837 Annual report from the Secretary of the Navy:
"Lieutenant Commandant Gedney, in the schooner Jersey, and Lieutenant Commandant Blake, in the schooner Experiment, with their officers and crews, as sounding parties, attached to the coast survey, have been actively and very advantageously employed in the harbor of New York and waters adjacent. The discovery, by Lieutenant Commandant Gedney, of a new channel into the harbor of New York, through which the heaviest ships may pass without danger, must add greatly to the commercial advantages of that harbor, and to its value as a naval station."
References
“First Annual Message.” First Annual Message | The American Presidency Project, 5 Dec. 1837, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-4
https://liboatingworld.com/swept-away-in-the-lower-bay/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Harbor
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