Early life Rhind was born in
New York City,
New York, the son of Charles Rhind, a prominent shipowner who became the U.S.
minister to the
Ottoman Empire in 1827. His mother, Susan Fell, was a descendant of
Cadwallader Colden, the Governor of the colonial
Province of New York from 1769 to 1771. and between 1839 and 1841 he served in the
Mediterranean Squadron aboard the
frigate and the
sloop-of-war . Rhind served on the
steamer in 1848, before rejoining the U.S. Coast Survey aboard the schooner
Ewing on a voyage to the coast of
California in 1849–1850. He then served aboard the sloop-of-war in the
East Indies in 1850–1851, before returning to the U.S. Coast Survey, where he remained until 1854, Rhind was commissioned as a
lieutenant on February 17, 1854, was
court-martialed after a disagreement with his
commanding officer, and left the Navy in September 1855. Eventually reinstated, Rhind served on the sloop-of-war , the flagship of the
Africa Squadron, from 1859 to 1861. then towed by the sidewheel
paddle steamer to a point off
Fort Fisher. There Rhind and his crew set the
fuses and started a fire before escaping to
Wilderness. The blast from the explosion, although loud, did little damage to the fort, and two days later Rhind returned to plant a marker
buoy as near to Fort Fisher as possible to allow the fleet to bombard the fort at close range. ==Namesake==