A long time in planning, preparing and recruiting, the United States Exploratory Expedition finally sailed out from Hampton Roads, Virginia, 18 August 1838, under the command of Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes en route for Madeira. The six-ship squadron would spend the next four years at sea moving around the world, exploring, charting and discovering. During their voyages which took them to six of the seven continents – they only missed Europe. In 1841, the ships visited the Oregon Country. An adjunct to their scientific missions was to visit Oregon to report on specific conditions there as American interest in those lands were on the upswing. Only one official American probe ventured into the Oregon Country previously.
PREPARATIONS
Editor and lecturer Jeremiah N. Reynolds petitioned a bill through the House of Representatives asking President John Quincy Adams – a proponent of the idea – to send a ship to explore the Pacific Ocean. Adams had the Secretary of the Navy prepare a ship, the USS Peacock. The bill stalled in the Senate in February 1829. Andrew Jackson did not pick up the flag until 1836 when another bill approved the mission once again.
This time, Mahlon Dickerson opposed the mission. Dickerson had strongly supported Andrew Jackson’s second term as president. Outmaneuvered by Martin Van Buren for a spot on Jackson’s ticket as vice-president, as a reward for his support, Dickerson became Secretary of the Navy. He served in that post until 1838 under both Jackson and Van Buren. Because of his unfamiliarity with the Navy, his term remembered most for his resistance to reforms or advancements to be made to modernize the Navy. He opposed Reynolds’ bills early as a senator. He managed to alter the final Congressional bill in the Senate. His opposition to the bill eventually led to his resignation in June 1838 as the expedition finally began its final stages before setting off.
expedition begins to take form
Originally, command of the expedition was to fall to Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. He had commanded the Peacock on earlier cruises to the Pacific signing treaties between the US and kingdoms in Tahiti and Hawaii. Dickerson’s brakes on the funding of the expedition led Jones to decline the position in December 1837. Of the original ships tabbed for the expedition, only one was used – the Relief – with the other four substituted with three others.
A Commander
Charles Wilkes came from far down on the naval officer list. Junior in rank, personality was also not a strong point in his favor. Jeremiah Reynolds earlier judged Wilkes “exceedingly vain and conceited,” but unlike most naval officers, Wilkes possessed a genuine aptitude for science and demonstrating skills in both navigation and hydrography. As well, capable of operating the sophisticated equipment purchased for the expedition – one of the few men who could – and Wilkes had a reputation as someone who could finish a job. His appointment was ill received by some senior officers, but in charge, he suffered no complaints.
Wilkes wanted to save money by excluding civilians from the expedition ranks as much as he could. In spite of his efforts, Wilkes needed to include some aboard like James Dana (geologist), Joseph Couthouy (Conchologist), Titian Peale, Charles Pickering (both naturalists), William Brackenridge, William Rich (both botanists), Alfred Agate, Joseph Drayton (both artists) and Horaito Hale (philologist).
The expedition commander by nature was a suspicious man. A martinet, he had men flogged for infractions and demoted or sent home officers who disagreed with him. One man received 50 lashes in one flogging incident – Navy regulations forbade more than 12 at the time – which at the end of the expedition would return to haunt Wilkes.
AWAY WE GO
Aboard the ships, almost 490 men served. The vessels included two sloops-of-war (The US Navy “sloop-of-war” consisted of one gun-deck with up to 26 guns – they normally used three masts ship-rigged versus brig-rigging with British naval ships.), the USS Vincennes – 780 ton displacement with 18 guns – and the USS Peacock – 650 tons and 22 guns; the USS Relief – a ship-rigged supply ship of 468 tons and 7 guns; the USS Porpoise – a brig (Brigs were small warships carrying between 10 and 18 guns with two masts) of 230 tons and 10 guns; and two schooners, the USS Sea Gull – 110 tons and 2 guns – and the USS Flying Fish 96 tons and 2 guns (schooners use fore-and-aft rigging on their two or more masts as opposed to square-rigging – this put the sails on the median plane of the keel instead of perpendicular plane of square-rigged.).
Both the Sea Gull and the Flying Fish were formerly pilot boats for the New York City harbor purchased to serve as tenders for the squadron on the long voyage.
voyage begins
Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands were the first two stops before recrossing the Atlantic. After a month’s rest in Rio de Janeiro, the little fleet pushed off for Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego on the south end of South America. While at Orange Harbor, one of the southernmost island harbors in Chile, Wilkes sent off a couple ships to try and break Captain Cook’s 71°10’ southmost record. The Flying Fish reached 70° on 22 March 1839, about 100 miles north of Antarctica.
BEYOND THE ATLANTIC
The fleet regrouped at Valparaiso, Chile though the Sea Gull went missing. Another month repairing and provisioning, Wilkes’ group left South America 12 July sailing through the Tuamotus in August and spending a month in Tahiti – mid-September-mid-October. Before leaving South America, Wilkes sent the Relief back to the US because of its slow sailing speed. Also aboard were “dissidents” who reacted poorly to Wilkes’ management style.
Next, the ships sailed to Samoa and on to Australia. Then in December, the expedition headed south to discover Antarctica, of which they charted about 800 miles of coastline before departing north again on 21 February 1840. Some ships then retired to Sydney for repairs while the rest stopped at the Bay of Islands in the far north of North Island New Zealand and then onto Tonga (April) and Fiji (May). In July, Lieutenant Joseph A. Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry (nephew of Charles Wilkes) died during a confrontation on Malolo Island in the Fiji group.
After three months of surveying, the squadron regrouped
before making their way in two groups to the Sandwich Islands, discovering the Phoenix group and Palmyra Atoll. Once together again in October, the ships would survey the various islands and climb atop Mauna Loa before leaving Hawaii 5 April 1841. The Porpoise and Vincennes headed for the Pacific Northwest while the Peacock and Flying Fish went south to re-survey Samoa and a host of other islands returning to Oahu 13 June. They then left to rejoin the others in Oregon on 21 June.
OREGON COUNTRY
Most of the men on the expedition were ready for the trip to end by the time they reached Hawaii. Wilkes ran a session of 18 days of court martials during their stay. Fighting constantly with his officers, he also dismissed Couthouy from the party. Enlisted men whose terms of enlistment expired were jailed or flogged until they changed their minds to re-enlist.
Vincennes and Porpoise reached Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia 28 April. Because of rugged conditions on the river bar, they sailed north through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to explore the Puget Sound down to Fort Nisqually and north to the Fraser River. The purpose here in Oregon was not to discover but to elaborate, fill in the details and report back on conditions in the region. In charting the Sound – including Hood Canal, Wilkes could borrow upon Captain Vancouver’s earlier charts. “The description of Vancouver is so exactly applicable to the present state of this port that it was difficult to believe that almost a half a century had elapsed since it was written” wrote Wilkes.
On 11 May, Wilkes was greeted by William H. McNeill and Alexander C. Anderson, two employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Nisqually. Anderson oversaw the HBC post at Nisqually while McNeil – an American sailing captain working with the HBC – was in charge of the Beaver, the company’s steamship for the Northwest Coast and first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest.
Surveying the Oregon Country
The two ships spit the surveying chores between themselves. Porpoise investigated Admiralty Inlet while Vincennes surveyed the Hood Canal and the coast north to the Fraser. To strengthen American claims to the Puget Sound – and the Oregon Country, in general, Wilkes gave names to prominent features of the land and waters his men moved through. Not all of the spellings were accurate though he persevered giving out 261 names in all.
An Eastern Program
In addition to the maritime charting, Wilkes sent out two land parties. Lieutenant Robert Johnson of the Porpoise went with one team – four other men including Willaim Brackenridge – to cross the Cascades over Naches Pass. They made their way down the Yakima Valley and then up the Columbia to the HBC posts at Forts Okanogan and Colville. By now, June, they continued up the Spokane River to the Tshimakane Mission where they obtained fresh horses to ride south to Henry Spaulding’s Lapwai Mission on the Clearwater River. Following the Snake River, they went to Fort Walla Walla meeting up with Marcus Whitman. Finally, they made their way back to Fort Nisqually after two months in the bush. Quite a contrast to a similar journey a few years later by one George Brinton McClellan.
A WESTERN PROGRAM
The other land party, Wilkes led himself. Wilkes wrote, “Our party consisted of Mr. Waldron (purser for the expedition) Mr. Drayton myself and three servants with a guide (Canadian) and two Indian boys and together with our baggage horses they amounted to 13 all of them kindly loaned to me by the Company’s agent Mr. Anderson in charge of the fort to whom I feel under many obligations for the trouble he took in fitting us out, if it had not been for his kindness we should have made sorry work of it …” They worked south to the Cowlitz River where they checked in on the Puget Sound Agricultural Company – a subsidiary of the HBC – farm. Here, Wilkes noted “here the ground is ready for the plough and nature seems as it were to invite the husbandman to his labor.”
From the confluence of the Cowlitz and Columbia, Wilkes went downriver to the HBC post at Fort George. They left their horses at the PSAC farm at Cowlitz, going further on canoes. He noted at Fort George, the buildings rapidly decaying and “the Company appearing to pay little regard to them, they do not appear to have done anything, since the establishment was moved to Victoria … it is avowedly on the American side of the River it is thought unnecessary to continue operations that could not be permanent.” He spent a few days looking at the bay near Fort George, the ruins of Fort Clatsop and at possible places where coastal fortifications could be erected.
Party at the Fort
Leaving Purser Waldron behind to await the arrival of the Peacock, the rest of the party headed back upstream to Fort Vancouver. John McLoughlin welcomed Wilkes and his party warmly to his post. Wilkes, in turn, was impressed by the size of the operation and with McLoughlin, “He is a fine looking person of robust frame, with a frank open countenance about 50 years of florid complexion his hair white is a Canadian by birth of Scotch parentage enthusiastic in disposition and I should think of great energy of character and well suited for the situation he occupies which requires no small talent and industry to fulfill.”
Wilkes also noted several missionary families were hosted by the Company having crossed the Rockies by wagon train. He “… found them possessed of little information respecting the country having kept no notes or made any observations relative to the soil temperature climate what observations they did make unsatisfactory explanations about the country and certainly not to be relied on, therefore I have put little or no confidence in what I gathered from them …”
Staying at the fort for several days, Wilkes took careful notes covering the size and yields of the farms adding notes about the Indian salmon fishery, natural life, fur trade, the missionaries and Indian population of the Oregon Country. He estimated there were 20,000 Indians in the Oregon Country including natives in the eastern areas such as the Nez Perce. For Europeans, he guessed about 350 including HBC employees.
Up the Willamette
Using a flat-bottomed boat, Wilkes made his way up the Willamette River up over the Falls to the settlements around the French Prairie. He found several locals hopeful he would support their ideas of the formation of a local government. Wilkes, skeptical because of the small size of the community, advised the locals “to wait until the government of the United States should throw its mantle over them.” He noted those wanting the local government were a minority of the settlers (mostly lay members of the Methodist mission). Also. “The great difficulty there would be in enforcing the laws, and defining the limits over which they should extend. would the Hudson B. Company be willing to enter into their enactment? Respect the Laws? No.”
At the same time, Wilkes wrote “I felt the land belonged to my country, that we were not strangers on the soil; and could not but take great interest in relation to its destiny, in the prospect of its one day becoming the abode of our relatives and friends.” He had met several missionaries in the South Pacific whom he admired.
CONTRASTS AND OPINIONS
Here in the Pacific Northwest, he found the contrast between the HBC employees and the Oregon missionaries a large gulf. “I find in the Willamette a great difference in the two classes of settlers Those composing the Canadian Population and the American cheerfulness and industry are well marked in the appearances of the former while neglect & discontent, with lounging seem to infect the latter.”
He further noted, “These missionaries are very far from what they ought to be low, vulgar and unclean. … I have seldom if ever until I came here witnessed so much uncleanliness, & so little regard paid to proper decorum if they were Christian men and readers of the bible, they ought to practice cleanly habits. … I must exempt the wives who I must say are in a great degree the honor of their husbands & my only wonder is that they don’t insist upon the adoption of their habits by them.” He went on to note how little he thought of the effort the missionaries undertook to proselytize to the Natives but stayed at home at their missions instead.
Return to Nisqually
Wilkes’ party stayed for several days among the Willamette community collecting data and specimens. He then returned to Fort Vancouver where he had the chance to meet and talk at length with Pete Skene Ogden, a factor within the HBC. He also continued to note the agricultural opportunities abounding in the region as well as rivers teeming with salmon. Soon he took leave of McLoughlin and returned down to the Cowlitz and was back to Fort Nisqually by 23 June. On 4 July, he invited HBC officials at the fort to join in a celebratory dinner.
With the return of the eastern land unit in the middle of July, Wilkes was ready to move on. He sent out another land party under Passed Midshipman Henry Eld with Georg Colvocoresses assisting to travel down the Chehalis River to explore and chart Grays Harbor as a possible deep seaport. The party found the harbor too shallow for most commercial ships along with difficulty moving through the thickly wooded countryside. Wilkes and his ships meanwhile pulled out from Fort Nisqually on 17 July making their way to Cape Disappointment. Ten days later came word of the loss of the Peacock on the Columbia River bar.
The Squadron reunites
Peacock and Flying Fish reached Cape Disappointment 17 July. The Peacock ran aground and soon abandoned though without losing any of her sailors. The journals, surveys, chronometers and some sketches were saved as the six lifeboats got everyone ashore at Baker’s Bay where they were rejoined by the Flying Fish. The crew set up a camp at Fort George for the next three weeks with the help of the HBC agent, James Birnie. Wilkes arrived on the scene on 7 August. For most of August, the expedition busied itself surveying the Columbia River from its mouth upriver to Vancouver where he met up one last time with HBC officials.
To replace the Peacock, Wilkes purchased an HBC brig – Thomas W. Perkins – rechristening it the USS Oregon. Back at Astoria, the expedition set sail for California where they arrived in mid-October.
land party to upper california
Wilkes also sent out – 7 September – another land party to report on the country between the Willamette and Upper California. They were to describe the lands they covered, the people they met and possibilities for future settlement. This party consisted of team leader Lieutenant George Emmons along with James Dana, Henry Eld, George Colvocoresses, Alfred Agate, William Brackenridge, William Rich, Titian Peale, Simeon Stearns, and others, traveled south, guided by Joseph Meek (A former fur trader and explorer). Dana and Brackenridge joined after their eastern program finished.
Recent burning of fields in the valleys by Natives slowed the progress of the party. Forage for the horses was difficult many days because of the burnt grasses. The men noted smoke from the fires obscured their views on many days. They also became delayed because of sickness in the Willamette Valley, probably malaria.
They reached Sutter’s “New Helvetia” 19 October. From there, a boat from the Vincennes took Eld and Agate – both sick – downriver to the San Francisco Bay while the rest went overland reaching the ships on 28 October.
homeward at last
A short stay in San Francisco ensued with more surveying, observations and a full report made to the Secretary of the Navy. They left for Hawaii soon after, where the entire squadron reunited and gathered provisions for a long journey home. The ships sailed across the Pacific once more making stops in the Philippines and in Singapore before heading on across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. They then sailed the length of the Atlantic crossing it and arriving back in New York on 10 June 1842 after a four-year voyage.
AFTERMATH
As soon as they returned home, Wilkes and his officers filed charges and countercharges against each other. Three junior officers were found guilty of different charges. Wilkes’ court-martial lasted three weeks. In the end, Wilkes did fall guilty on only one count, illegally punishing seamen. His penalty was a public reprimand from the Secretary, light enough, but it threw his reputation and the expedition into disarray.
There was also a new president, John Tyler. Tyler had little interest in Oregon. His main goal was to annex Texas, thus bringing about another slave state into the Union. Findings of the expedition took years to publish, the last publication appearing only in 1872. It also took years to arrange the many specimens gathered into a logical place, that place eventually was the Smithsonian Institution.
Wilkes beyond the Expedition
Wilkes went on to attain the rank of commander – 1843 – and captain – 1855. With the Civil War, he took command of the screw-frigate USS San Jacinto in search of Confederate commerce raiders. Overstaying a visit to Bermuda, a neutral British port (He stayed almost a week while allowed only one day by the laws of neutrality), he learned Confederate commissioners were on their way to France and Britain aboard the Royal Mail Ship Trent. He forced that ship to stop with two shots across its bow. Then, he led a party aboard the Trent to arrest the Confederates. His actions set off a scurry of diplomatic protests by the British government which edged the two countries close to war.
Further problems occurred as commander of the West Indies Squadron. More infringements upon British and French neutrality brought him into conflict with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Welles brought Wilkes to another court-martial and this time he found guilty of all charges. Another public reprimand followed along with a suspension of three years. President Lincoln reduced the suspension to one year with the balance of charges dropped. He did gain a promotion to the rank of rear admiral in 1866, though on the retired list.
Significance for Oregon
While Wilkes and his officers were making use of the naval legal system upon their return to New York, a report on the expedition including Wilkes’ views dealing with the importance in keeping the Puget Sound as the only possible deepwater port available in Oregon went to Congress. This report solidified the American position of at least the 49° as the border. Britain hoped for the Columbia River, giving them the entirety of what is Washington State today. They came up with a weird compromise where they were willing to give the US Gray’s Harbor and some of the coastline of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Wilkes’ charts showed the fallibility of that idea. Nowhere was there a deep-water port available either south of the Columbia River nor in the “compromise” lands Britain made available. The stage set now for the bellicosity of James Polk. British hopes became further dashed by the large emigrations of American settlers in the next few years, lured by the reports of good agricultural lands waiting for farmers to take charge.
Significance for Science
The specimens collected by the expedition formed the core of the newly organized Smithsonian Institution. Over 280 islands – mostly Pacific – became mapped and explored. In Oregon, over 800 miles mapped; over 60,000 plant and bird specimens collected; seeds of 648 species collected. Dried specimens went to the National Herbarium and 254 live plants place in the newly constructed greenhouse of the United State Botanical Garden. Cultural records from peoples especially again in the Pacific became created forming another aspect of the Smithsonian.
Wilkes was involved from 1844 until 1861 preparing volumes of the expedition. In all, of 28 volumes planned, 19 eventually gained publishment. Others contributed works of their own such as James Dana’s reports on Zoophytes, Geology and crustacea. Many specimens became lost, damaged, unidentified or stolen.
FURTHER
Peacock and PorpoiseThere are several fine books which delve into the United States Exploring Expedition. Among them Frances Barkan’s The Wilkes Expedition: Puget Sound and the Oregon Country published in 1987 by the Washington State Capitol Museum; Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2003 Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842.
online
Several contemporary works can be found online: George Musalas Colvocoresses served as a passed midshipman (both Colvos Passage and Colvos Rocks were named after him by Wilkes) 1855 Four years in the government exploring expedition; John S. Jenkins, a popular American author from the second quarter of the 19th century offered 1853 United State Exploring Expeditions: Voyage of the U.S. Exploring Squadron; Nathan Philbrick wrote in 2004 “Learn More About the U.S. Exploring Expedition” for the Smithsonian Libraries; Charles Pickering, a naturalist and physician with the expedition wrote 1863 The geographical distribution of animals and plants.
Wilkes’ five volumes are digitized and online from the Smithsonian 1845. Volume 4 deals with Oregon and the Puget Sound while Volume 5 includes information about the end of the journey to Oregon and onward to California and beyond.