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Charles Wilkes U. S. Exploring Expedition Volume 6

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Charles Wilkes U. S. Exploring Expedition Volume 6
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Atlas, Narrative of the United States Exploring Edition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. By Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., Commander of the Expedition, Member of the American Philosophical Society, etc. In Five Volumes, and an Atlas Published by Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1845. Book measures 11 3/8" x 7 5/8". Linen dark brown hard cover, embossed with a design and gold lettering, back cover gold printed eagle over shield, ships and horn of plenty. This book contains five maps: 1) Track Map (World Map, 25.5" x 35.5"); this hand-colored map shows the tracks of the vessels of the Exploring Squadron, the direction of the winds, the currents, their direction and velocity, the isothermal lines for every five degrees of temperature, from the point of perpetual congelation to the Torrid Zone. 2) Map of the Antarctic Continent (25.5" x 35.5")--this is the first map ever of any portion of Antartica. It has several illustrations in the left portion; It exhibits the daily tracks of the vessels along the land discovered by the Expedition....3) Map of the FeeJee Group (25.5" x 35.5") ; this extremely detailed map embraces the Viti or FeeJee Group, consisting of one hundred and fifty-four islands, with numerous coral reefs, etc. 4) Map of the Oregon Territory (25.5" x 35.5") --the prize of the Atlas; map contains the first detailed mapping of the Columbia River; this embraces the United States possessions west of the Rocky Mountains, and also shows Fremont's Pass through the Rocky Mountains; the map is so finely detailed--it covers the area from Vancouver Island down to Mt. Shasta and east past Salt Lake (labeled as Youta Lake), locates dozens of missions, forts, and even labels numerous Indian villages. Map of the Southeast Portion of Hawaii; this beautiful map ( 17.75" x 24.75") exhibits the two remarkable volcanic mountains visited by the Expedition, with their numerous craters, together with the great eruption of 1840, and the track of the party to and from the center of Moku-a-weo-weo, on the top of Maunal Loa. Also, several villages and towns are mapped including Hilo, Waiakia, Puna and Kehena.



In 1838, although not yet a seasoned naval line officer, Wilkes was experienced in nautical survey work, and was 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, . . . as well to determine the existence of all doubtful islands and shoals, as to discover, and accurately fix, the position of those which [lay] in or near the track of our vessels in that quarter, and [might] have escaped the observation of scientific navigators." The U.S. Exploring Squadron was authorized by act of the Congress on May 18, 1836. The United States Exploring Expedition, commonly known as the "Wilkes Expedition", included naturalists, botanists, a mineralogist, taxidermists, artists and a philologist, and was carried by the USS Vincennes (780 tons) and USS Peacock (650 tons), the brig USS Porpoise (230 tons), the store-ship USS Relief, and two schooners, USS Sea Gull (110 tons) and USS Flying Fish (96 tons). Departing from Hampton Roads on August 18, 1838, the expedition stopped at the Madeira Islands and Rio de Janeiro; visited Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, the Tuamotu Archipelago, Samoa, and New South Wales; from Sydney, Australia sailed into the Antarctic Ocean in December 1839 and reported the discovery "of an Antarctic continent west of the Balleny Islands" of which it sighted the coast on January 25, 1840. Next the expedition visited Fiji and the Hawaiian Islands in 1840. In July 1840, two sailors, one of whom was Wilkes' nephew, Midshipman Wilkes Henry, were killed while bartering for food on Fiji's Malolo Island. Wilkes retribution was swift and severe. According to an old man of Malolo Island, nearly 80 Fijians were killed in the incident. From December 1840 to March 1841, he employed hundreds of native Hawaiian porters and many of his men to haul a pendulum to the summit of Mauna Loa to measure gravity. Instead of using the existing trail, he blazed his own way, taking much longer than he anticipated. The conditions on the mountain reminded him of Antarctica. Many of his crew suffered snow blindness, altitude sickness and foot injuries from wearing out their shoes.

Pacific Northwest: 1841 Map of the Oregon Territory from Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. He explored the west coast of North America, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, the Columbia River, San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River, in 1841. He held the first American Independence Day celebration west of the Mississippi River in Dupont, Washington on July 5, 1841. After having completely encircled the globe (his was the last all-sail naval mission to do so), Wilkes had logged some 87,000 miles and lost two ships and 28 men. 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. A major witness against him was ship doctor Charles Guillou.[7] He was acquitted on all charges except illegally punishing men in his squadron. For a short time, he was attached to the Coast Survey, but from 1844 to 1861, he was chiefly engaged in preparing the report of the expedition.





City:
State: Western States,
Date: 1845

FHWAC#: 27060