Charles Wilkes
He disobeyed orders, was court-martialed for excessive flogging of his sailors, and was believed to be the model for Ahab, the cruel captain in the novel Moby Dick. During the Civil War, his naval provocations almost single-handedly touched off war between Britain and America. He had a reputation as an "exceedingly vain and conceited" man.
But Charles Wilkes was a giant of the Age of Sail. Chosen to lead America’s first government-sponsored exploration via the high seas, he sailed 87,000 miles around the southern oceans and circled the globe. His voyage mapped thousands of miles of previously uncharted territory, transformed the sciences and brought the Pacific coast more firmly under American control.
Born into an aristocratic family in New York in 1798, Wilkes lost his mother when he was only three. Raised for several years by his aunt, he went to boarding school at a young age, then Columbia College. He joined the Navy, became an expert surveyor, and was eventually put in charge of the Department of Charts and Instruments. This experience led to a coveted assignment to lead the U.S. South Seas Exploratory Expedition.
The Ex. Ex.
In 1838, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Wilkes set out from Virginia at the head of six ships. On board were several hundred sailors and nine scientists commissioned to study the surroundings, flora and fauna of new realms visited in the South Pacific and beyond. Wilkes was also charged with bringing back detailed maps and charts of his explorations.
The Wilkes Expedition flagship the USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctic
Over four years, the voyage took the Wilkes flotilla to the Caribbean, South America, New Zealand, Antarctica, Tahiti and the vast coastal territory known as Oregon. The expedition encountered a litany of dangers: ice floes; cannibals; volcanoes; storms; shipwreck; fouled drinking water. The Sea Gull was lost with all hands in an Antarctic storm. The murder of two midshipmen by Fijian natives prompted a counterattack in which the Americans killed 87 natives. The Peacock sank at the mouth of the Columbia, taking its invaluable nautical charts, scientific instruments and specimens with it. (No men were lost, thanks to a canoe rescue by John Dean, an African American servant on the Vincennes, and a group of Chinook Indians.)
Despite these hardships, the list of expedition’s accomplishments is astonishing.
- The USS Vincennes, became the first American warship to circumnavigate the globe.
- Demonstrating remarkable seamanship, Wilkes sailed through gales and icebergs to chart 1,500 miles of Antarctic coastline.
- The expedition mapped 800 miles of northwestern territory from Russian Alaska to Spanish California to the Continental Divide, including San Francisco Bay, the Columbia River and Puget Sound.
- The scientists brought back 4,000 artifacts, 60,000 plant and bird specimens, and 254 live plants. Their research and archives became the basis for the Smithsonian Collection and the United States Botanic Garden.
- The mineral classification system developed by ship-board geologist James Dwight Dana is still in use worldwide.
- Wilkes’ insistence on the strategic value of Puget Sound led the American government to insist that Britain set the northern border of the expanding U.S. to include that harbor.
1841 Map of the Oregon Territory from "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition" by Wilkes.
The “Notorious Wilkes”
But Wilkes’ flaws overshadowed his legacy as one of America’s greatest explorers. Against Navy rules, he promoted himself to captain on the high seas, to the great disdain of his crew. He sentenced one seaman to 50 lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails when naval regulations forbade more than 12. During their stay in Hawaii, Wilkes fought with his officers, dismissed one, and ran 18 days of courts-martial. When sailors' enlistments expired and they refused to reenlist, he had resisters jailed and flogged until they changed their minds.
Other incidents angered Wilkes’ superiors. During the Civil War, Wilkes caused an international scandal by ordering the boarding of an English mail ship, the Trent, and seizing two Confederate diplomats bound for London. President Lincoln was obliged to apologize to the English government. In 1862, Wilkes went against international agreements by blockading a neutral British port in Bermuda known as a base for Confederate supply ships, then opening fire at another English mail boat.
Wilkes was court-martialed twice, first in 1842 for losing one of his ships on a sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia River, among other infractions. The only charge that stuck was for excessive flogging. He got off with a reprimand.
His second court-martial, in 1864, came after he was rebuked by the Secretary of the Navy for failing to capture a rebel raiding ship. Wilkes wrote a scathing response in the New York Times, leading to his conviction for insubordination and disobedience of orders, and a three-year suspension from the Navy. (President Lincoln shortened this to one year.)
In 1866 he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral, though he never returned to active duty. Wilkes lived until 1877. Despite his feats and the five books and an atlas he published from his remarkable expedition, Charles Wilkes never attained the glory of other explorers of his age.
His greatest contribution was two-fold. First, the collection of objects, surveys, journals and drawings he brought back inspired the public to support scientific research. Previously, many Americans had regarded science as a pastime for idle aristocrats. Second, the Wilkes Expedition made naval exploration the government’s business. Until then, maritime maps and charts had been collected by private interests and foreign governments that treated such information as secrets. The Wilkes expedition helped make the expansion of human knowledge a point of national pride—and led to government funding of new scientific endeavors.
“Map of the world shewing the extent and direction of the wind and the route to be followed in a circumnavigation of the globe / by Capt. Charles Wilkes, U.S.N.”
Read a first-person account of the Wilkes Expedition written in 1855 by an officer who took part
Learn how the expedition changed the borders of our country: http://www.wshs.org/wshs/columbia/articles/0187-a1.htm
About Bananas and Our Banana Bread
The banana tree is really an herb with long, fan-like leaves that can grow to over ten feet long. The plant grows a completely new trunk each year, and some types grow to 40 feet high. The fruit emerges from a stem that grows from the top of the plant. Bananas appear in clusters (“hands”) that have up to 200 fruits! Bananas start off growing downward, but their tips then bend up toward the light, explaining their curved shape.
Charles Wilkes’ travels in Southeast Asia took him to regions where the banana originated. The banana is one of the oldest cultivated plants there. It is believed to have first taken root on the Malaysian archipelago, and then spread to India and beyond. Bananas were being farmed by about 2,000 B.C., and the Greek Army of Alexander the Great encountered them in India in the fourth century B.C.
Banana fritters with honey were a favorite treat of Napoleon Bonaparte during his old age in early 19th century Europe. However, bananas continued to be a rare delicacy outside of Asia, due to the challenges of slow transportation and spoilage.
These issues had been resolved enough to make bananas common in New York markets by the 1830s. Cape Cod captain Lorenzo Baker is credited with importing the first Jamaican bananas to Boston around 1870, and further improvements in refrigeration and shipping helped meet American demand for the tropical fruit. Banana recipes began showing up in popular American cookbooks in the 1880s.
The banana split was invented in 1904. By the 1920s, banana bread recipes were common, coinciding with the mass marketing of baking powder and soda that allowed home bakers to make "quick breads" that did not require yeast.
Our banana bread is made with x flours and includes a jar of real bananas blended with vanilla, sugar and a touch of lemon juice. Add eggs and oil to make one large loaf of tender, flavorful bread. Adds protein, potassium and fiber to your diet.
