Nathaniel Philbrick

In Sea of Glory Nathaniel Philbrick details for us the full story of America's ambitious and highly consequential voyage of exploration in the Pacific; an amazing accomplishment for its time. After all, the United States was not yet even a century old during the span of the voyage: 1838 to 1842. The expedition was known as the U.S. Exploring Expedition, given the nickname of Ex Ex. The vast amount of territory explored and charted by the expedition is truly mindboggling. It is one of the greatest feats of American Exploration in U.S. history, akin to Lewis and Clark and few others. However, it has been relegated to the shadows of history and few of us have now heard of it or are in the least bit familiar with it. In fact, by the time of the death of the expedition's leader, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, it had already been largely forgotten as the nation turned their attention towards the new fascination--exploration of the Arctic.

The expedition was responsible for much scientific progress and important theories including plate tectonics and the formation of volcanic island chains. The amount of specimens collected and returned are considered the largest such haul ever. In fact, the specimens from the U.S. Exploring Expedition were the founding collection of America's museum--The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Wilkes and his crew surveyed thousands of miles of coastline from Antarctica to Fiji to the Pacfic Northwest, charting nearly 300 Pacific islands, creating 180 charts; invaluable information to the young United States, and indeed, the world. Wilkes is credited with confirming the existence of the continent of Antarctica. The writings and journals produced from the crew of the 4 year voyage are priceless for their scientific observations and record of the events that transpired on the journey. One of the most invaluable scientific contributions was a linguistic study of an indigenous population in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Fascinating stuff indeed. A travesty that these accomplishments have been largely unknown and unheralded by the vast majority of the U.S. population.

Much of the reason for the voyage's obscurity in the annals of history has to do with the outrageous and vile behavior and actions of Charles Wilkes, the leader of the expedition. He was a Lieutenant with no naval experience and extremely unqualified for the job of Commander of an expedition. Through politics and connections, he was chosen; and the men under the command of his leadership suffered dearly for it. Along with that he did not receive the promotion that would have given him seniority over those he was to govern, dooming the relationships among leader and crew from the very beginning.

Lieutenant Wilkes became a man possessed with illusions of grandeur and driven by rage and bitterness at the denial of those in power to bestow the proper advancement in rank upon him that would give him seniority to some of the other crew members who outranked him. He determined to punish those innocent men relentlessly for this. The physical and mental abuse they suffered at his hands is hard to listen to and I cannot even imagine how those men bore it on this four year journey through personal hell. Lashings were ordered for no reason at all and far beyond the legal limit that existed. The list of atrocities perpetrated seemed endless. Charles Wilkes' actions were truly those of an insane man frequently during this voyage, including immediately donning decorations and hoisting the banners of a much higher rank, "pretending" that he was indeed now an admiral and ordering the crew to address him as such. If they refused, they were dealt harsh punishment and abused for the rest of the voyage. Ultimately, he alienated all of the other officers, many of whom became his bitter enemies.

It is an action of his on a remote Fiji island that stands out as his most heinous crime. In revenge for the death of two sailors (one of them his nephew), Wilkes was responsible for a genocidal attack on the entire population of the particular island this had occurred on. There the crew killed every man, woman and child they came across and committed the most unspeakable atrocities. Astoundingly, though the crew was at odds with Wilkes on most every other point; on this one they were in agreement with him and were not sorry for it.

Despite his crippling personality disorders, Wilkes was a brilliant man with many talents and an obsessive compulsion that drove him to overwork both himself and the rest of the crew. The surveying jobs they did were remarkable as were his charts and most other things he was responsible for. His accomplishments were multidinous and varied. I believe the man was a veritable genius, with extreme personality disorders.… (mer)

There was a lot more included in this story than I anticipated, we kind of rushed through the actual whale incident and focused on the...cannibalism. If you like your shipwreck stories to have cannibalism in them, this one has so much marrow-sucking content for you.
I didn't realize this was the inspiration behind Moby Dick, so that's a nudge towards getting me to pick that one up soon.
I'd say I enjoyed The Wager more than this, as it honed in on the ship experience and conditions much more. I listened to this on audiobook, and unless my ears were playing tricks, he references "the blacks" quite a bit, which falls pretty badly on my 2023 ears.… (mer)