Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
had been selected for the expedition. Unfortunately, the man chosen
was Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.
The word 'chosen' is not strictly accurate. The post had been
offered to several experienced captains, each of whom, in turn, had
declined it. Wilkes had been considered because his name was put
forward by friends in high places and because the organisers of the
expedition were becoming desperate. Giving the command of a six-
ship squadron to such a junior officer was quite unprecedented in
the annals of the US Navy. Of forty lieutenants currently on the act-
ive list only two had less sea experience than Wilkes. It was true
that the thirty-eight-year-old New Yorker was unique among his col-
leagues in having a genuine interest in science but the appointment
of someone so apparently ill-suited could only foster jealousy and
mistrust among the other officers of the expedition.
But it was the effect upon Wilkes himself of shouldering a too-
great responsibility which proved most damaging to the whole ven-
ture. Charles was the son of a successful, east-coast businessman
and had grown accustomed as a child to getting his own way. Early
obsessed with dreams of travel and discovery, he had refused to
enter the family business, choosing instead the merchant marine
and transferring later to the US Navy. He mastered the sciences of
geography and hydrography and, in 1830, was given the superin-
tendency of the department of instruments and charts. Wilkes was
thrusting and ambitious. He took every opportunity to commend
himself to superiors and to wield his family contacts to good effect.
In 1838, having gained the prize he had so long sought, the young
officer was at pains to impress his authority on the expedition and
to reap from it the maximum personal glory. Wilkes liked to com-
pare himself with Cook. In reality he was closer in spirit to Bligh and
Queeg.
Wilkes drove himself hard - too hard. He never seemed to take
more than five hours' sleep and was always around checking, finding
