[MooseAndSquirrel]

Great read about the 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (aka The Ex Ex) led by Lt. Charles Wilkes. It was the largest expedition of its kind, involving 6 ships and well over 300 men, who the Govt. instructed to explore & survey areas of the Pacific that might be beneficial to US commercial interests (at the time primarily whaling). They sailed from the US east coast, around Cape Horn, down to be the first to sight the main Antarctic continent (not the Peninsula that extends towards S. America) and sail along that coast (now called Wilkes Land) for 1500 miles and then explored areas of Polyesnia like the Fiji Islands. Much adventure was had, from fighting with natives to dodging tabular icebergs and surviving ferocious Southern Ocean storms and climbing Hawaii's Mauna Loa. It has it all. The expedition also had a mandate to explore the newly acquired Oregon Territory, and Wilkes sailed up the Columbia River near to where Portland is now (then Fort Vancouver), as well as doing extensive surveying & exploring of Puget Sound- sailing from the San Juans down to near Olympia, and then crossing by land to Astoria to meet two of his ships, one of which wrecked upon the Columbia R. Bar. More than 300 placenames in the Sound we still use today were named by Wilkes. Curiously nothing was named for him in the PNW. The author, Nathaniel Philbrick, wrote In the Heart of the Sea which was another superb nautical tale. Lt. Wilkes, who assumed leadership of this huge and costly expedition- a moon shot of its day- in a storm of protest due to his lack of actual sea experience- is spared little quarter by Philbrick. Wilkes is described as a brilliant surveyor but his leadership qualities and many decisions he made come under fire. He appeared to be arrogant, irrational, a tyrant, a martinet, fearful, and on and on! He constantly was at odds with his officers and for much of the multi-year trip spent his time in his cabin, eating meals alone. He made so many enemies amongst his crew and back at home that it was no wonder he was involved with courts of inquiry upon returning home after finishing a circumnavigation of the world. There were many plusses to the expedition though- thousands of artifacts and animal & mineral were brought back by scientists on board to create the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution's holdings, and so many survey maps were done and done well that some were still being used in WW2. The author keeps things moving along like a novel, and his background as a Nantucket museum curator and resident shows in his fascinating, if at times bewildering, display of all things nautical. He makes his case well that this story needed to be told again to modern audiences- it should be ranked up with the Lewis and Clark expo and in some ways more for its scale and importance to world and American history.

[Mike Collins]

In December Nathaniel Philbrick presented "Sea of Glory" in a lecture sponsored by the Elliott Bay Bookstore. I was fortunate to attend and was delightfully awash in the history of this expedition. Samuel Elliott, a midshipman with the Ex. Ex. is immortalized by Elliott Bay as is Commodore Bainbridge by the island.

[MooseAndSquirrel]

Mike, wish I could have seen that. It was cool learning about the origins of our everyday placenames around here like Elliot Bay & Bainbridge Is. I had vaguely heard of Wilkes' expedition before the book. What a pleasure learning about history from a good book! It's won't EVER come close to the book but this has BIG EPIC MOVIE written all over it.