Carlos Eugénio Corrêa da Silva, 1st Viscount and 1st Count of Paço de Arcos (December 17, 1834 – November 5, 1905), was a Portuguese statesman. Origins The Count of Paço d'Arcos was born in the parish (freguesia) of the same name near Lisbon on the December 17, 1834. His father was a high ranking Crown servant (Pagador-Geral da Marinha) that had allied himself with the liberal cause during the Portuguese Civil War. His mother came from a wealthy landed family, the Corrêa de Almeida (Counts of São Januário), that owned much of the land in the parish, with the notable exception of the Palace of the Arches (Palácio dos Arcos) that had belonged to the Counts of Alcáçovas for centuries. He married on September 6, 1876 Emília Angélica de Castro Monteiro (b. Maia, Pedrouços, October 3, 1848), maternal granddaughter of the Viscounts and Counts of Castro, and had issue. The titles of Viscount and Count of Paço d'Arcos are held by the Correia da Silva family of Portugal. Naval career He excelled in school from an early age, having attended the School for Nobles (Real Colégio dos Nobres) and later enrolled in the Portuguese Naval Academy (Escola Naval) at the age of 14, for which royal permission was needed. At 18 the young ensign had his first experience under fire having been given his first command of the schooner Venus whose mission was to apprehend the pirate Apack in the South China Sea. As a young second lieutenant he was appointed Knight of the Military Order of the Tower and Sword (Ordem Militar da Torre e Espada), Portugal's highest decoration awarded for bravery in combat, for his heroics in pursuing and capturing the Spanish slave ship Virgen del Refugio off the coast of Portuguese Guinea in 1864. As a 27-year-old second lieutenant in 1862 the Count of Paço d'Arcos also commanded the schooner Napier in pursuit of the US confederate pirate ship CSS Alabama in the mid Atlantic near the Azores. He held many other commands, including the brig Pedro Nunes as first lieutenant, which had been King Luis I's personal command before accession to the throne. His appointment was a personal decision of the King with whom he shared a passion for the sea and later a close friendship. Usually such a prestigious command was held by someone of much higher rank and his appointment was proof of the