Sea Captains: San Francisco 1800s

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Charles Wilkes

In 1838, although not a seasoned naval line officer, Wilkes was experienced in nautical survey work, and working with civilian scientists. Upon this background he was given command of the government exploring expedition for the purpose of exploring and surveying the Southern Ocean," and "to determine the existence of all doubtful islands and shoals, to discover, and accurately fix" their positions. The U.S. Exploring Squadron was authorized by act of the Congress on May 18, 1836.

This expedition was one of the most impressive yet unheralded exploration in American history. It was the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 which covered a significant of the world already charted, but also mapped and named the Antarctica. In part because of the self-destructive nature of the Lieutenant, he returned after years at sea 1838-1842 to bitter disillusionment and ire from his officers and sponsors.

. . . Given what had happened to the Peacock (which had wrecked), Wilkes decided it was to much of a risk to bring the Vincennes across the bar. Instead, he would use the Porpoise during the survey of the river while Ringgold sailed the Vincennes to San Francisco Bay, where the squadron would reconvene once the survey and been complete.

. . . At the end of August, Emmons, along with Eld, who had just completed his survey of Grays Harbor, left on their overland journey to San Francisco.

Portrait of Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) Samuel Bell Waugh

(The expedition) had a brief respite when they took the schooner up to Astoria for provision . . . In early October, with the arrival Wilkes and the rest of the squadron, Bobville came to a sudden end. Now that the survey of the upper part of the river was complete, it was time to sail for San Francisco.

. . . On October 9, the Flying Fishcrossed the Columbia bar for the last time. Wilkes had decided that the schooner would not be accompanying the Porpoise and theOregon to San Francisco. Instead, Knox and Reynolds were to put the finishing touches on the survey of the outer edge of the bar, then survey a portion of the coast to the south before sailing to Oahu . . .

By the time the repairs were made to the Flying Fish, Wilkes had arrived at Sausalito Bay. The town of Yerba Buena, by then known as San Francisco, comprised just a few out-of-repair buildings that were, according to Wilkes, "not calculated to produce a favorable impression on a stranger." But if the town wasn't much, the harbor was "one of the most spacious, and at the same time safest ports in the world." Wilkes predicted that if it did not become a part of the United States, the region would one day combine with the Oregon Territory to become "a powerful maritime nation that would control the destinies of the Pacific."

By the end of October, the overland party led by Emmons and Eld has arrived and the survey of San Francisco Bay had been completed.

On November 1, against the advice of the harbor pilot, who warned of the possibility of seas breaking at the bar, Wilkes ordered the squadron to depart with the ebbing tide. Around sunset, the already light wind deserted completely. As the tide began to change, the squadron anchored, with the Porpoise and the Oregon just beyond the bar and, as it would turn out, with the Vincennes, which was once again flying Wilkes's commodore's pennant.

The seas remained quiet until ten p.m., when "without any apparent cause," according to Wilkes, the swell began to increase ominously. By midnight, the "Vincennes was in the midst of her own private tempest: huge rollers pitched the ship so violently that when she swung broadside to the swell, Wilkes feared for the masts. By two a.m., waves of over thirty feet were battering the ship, bursting over the bow and threatening to tear loose the anchor chain. " At 3:30 a.m., an immense breaker flooded the spar deck, stoving in boats and hurling spare spars in every direction. Just at that moment, a marine named Joseph Allshouse was climbing up a ladder to the deck. A spar slammed into him, and three hours later he died of internal injuries.

Not until eight a.m. did it become possible to raise the anchor. A few miles away, the Porpoise and the Oregon had been blessed with a quiet night, and both crews were amazed to learn of theVincennes' ordeal. Allshouse was quietly buried at sea, and Wilkes, The Stormy Petrel, ordered to the squadron the begin the first leg of the log sail home.

Having spent less than two weeks in California, Wilkes did not hold a very high opinion of that area -- except for San Francisco Bay: He concluded that San Francisco and Puget Sound were destined to become "the finest ports in the world."

Wilkes was court-martialled upon his return for the loss of one of his ships on the Columbia River bar, for the regular mistreatment of his subordinate officers, and for excessive punishment of his sailors. He was acquitted on all charges except that of illegally punishing men in his squadron. From 1844 to 1861, he was chiefly engaged in preparing the report of the expedition.

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