Charles Wilkes

Charles Wilkes (1798-1877), American naval officer, is remembered for his exploration of the Antarctic and for his role in the controversial "Trent" affair during the Civil War.

Charles Wilkes was born on April 3, 1798, in New York City. He was educated mainly at home by tutors. He began a naval career at the age of 17 aboard the merchant ship Hibernia. In 1818 he received his midshipman's warrant and entered the British navy. He spent three years in the Mediterranean on board the Guerriere and later cruised the Pacific.

Wilkes's nautical investigations won scientific recognition and led to his appointment as head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments (later the Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office). In 1836 he headed a commission to Europe to purchase scientific instruments for naval explorations. In 1838 his dream of a great seagoing exploration was fulfilled when President Martin Van Buren authorized the U.S. Exploring Expedition. In spite of Wilkes's junior rank, he was chosen to lead the five vessels and numerous explorers and scientists. They charted 1,600 miles of the Antarctic coast and hundreds of Pacific islands and collected fossils, observed habits of seals, whales, and strange birds, investigated geological formations, and studied esoteric languages. On his return in 1842, however, Wilkes was court-martialed for "illegal punishment" of men under his command; he received only a public reprimand, and his promotion to commander followed in less than a year.

Wilkes's wife died in 1848, and in 1854 he married again. Soon after, he was promoted to captain, and for some years the family lived in Washington, D.C.

In 1861 Wilkes received orders to command the Union ironclad warship Merrimac, but when he arrived he found that it had been destroyed by the Confederates. His next assignment was the command of the San Jacinto off the coast of Africa. On the voyage homeward Wilkes intercepted the British mail steamer Trent, bound for England with Confederate commissioners James M. Mason and John Slidell on board. With characteristic audacity, he seized the commissioners. This victory, however, gave way to political embarrassment when Britain demanded an apology and the immediate release of the two men. Still, Wilkes's popularity remained undimmed, and in 1862 he was promoted to commodore and then to acting rear admiral. His orders were to capture the Confederate destroyers plaguing Union supply ships. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recalled him in 1863, complaining that instead of capturing destroyers he had used his office to collect prize monies. His commission was withdrawn, and he retired as captain (although his rank of commodore had been restored several months before his recall).

Wilkes's angry letter to Welles, which appeared in the newspapers, led to another court-martial. His sentence of a 3-year suspension from the Navy was reduced by Abraham Lincoln to a year. In 1866 he was given the rank of rear admiral, retired. Wilkes remained active, editing the unfinished volumes of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, confident that his career and reputation would be vindicated by history. On Feb. 8, 1877, he died in Washington.

Further Reading

Wilke's account of the Antarctic voyage, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (5 vols., 1845; repr. 1970), is a valuable scientific work. A recent biography is Robert Silver-berg, Stormy Voyager: The Story of Charles Wilkes (1968). Daniel Henderson, The Hidden Coasts (1953), is a good popular biography. The best account of the Trent affair is Charles Francis Adams, The Trent Affair: An Historical Retrospect (1912).

Additional Sources

Wilkes, Charles, Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, U.S. Navy, 1798-1877, Washington: Naval History Division, Dept. of the Navy: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1978. □

Wilkes, Charles (1798–1877), American naval explorer and Antarctic explorer of English parentage. After three years in the merchant marine, he joined the US Navy as a midshipman in 1818, studied under Ferdinand Hassler, founder of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, and from 1826 to 1833 served in two surveying expeditions. He was appointed in 1834 as head of the recently established depot of charts and navigational instruments of the Navy Department, out of which were to grow the National Observatory and the Navy Hydrographic Office.

When in 1836 Congress approved plans for a national expedition to the South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans, to explore the islands and waters with a view to the promotion of whaling and of commerce in general, Wilkes was sent to Europe to purchase the necessary scientific instruments. On his return he was promoted lieutenant and given the command of the expedition of six ships.

The expedition sailed in 1838, and after a season of surveying and scientific studies in the Samoa group of islands, Wilkes set out on an Antarctic cruise with the object of sailing as far south as possible between the longitudes of 160° E. and 45° E. Antarctic land was sighted on 19 January 1840, and in spite of adverse weather and ice conditions, and the poor state of his ship and crews, Wilkes sailed along the coast of the present Wilkes Land for a distance of 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mls.), sighting land at frequent intervals and naming the region, for the first time, the Antarctic Continent.

After returning from Antarctica Wilkes spent most of 1841 in a long survey of the coast of western North America, finally returning to New York in June 1842, having accomplished a monumental task of surveying and scientific exploration. Far from being loaded with honours, however, Wilkes was court-martialled for exceeding his authority. He was acquitted and spent the next few years writing up the official narrative of the expedition.

In 1861, at the start of the American Civil War (1861–5), he was in command of the Federal cruiser San Jacinto and figured in an international incident when he stopped a British mail steamer in the Bahama Channel, north of Cuba, and removed two Confederate commissioners, James Mason and John Slidell. Although Confederate sympathizers in Britain hoped to use this incident to involve Britain against the USA, the British government contented itself with a polite protest and a successful request for the release of the two men. The incident made Wilkes something of a naval hero to the American public, and in 1862, with the rank of acting rear admiral, he was placed in command of a special squadron to operate against the Confederate commerce raiders in the West Indies and around the Bahamas.

Although Wilkes accomplished as much as was possible considering the small number of vessels under his command, he was court-martialled again in 1864 and convicted of disobedience, disrespect, insubordination, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was sentenced to be reprimanded and suspended from duty for three years, but the suspension was later reduced to one year, and in 1866 he was placed on the retired list with the rank of rear admiral.

Charles Wilkes 1798–1877, American naval officer and explorer, b. New York City, educated by his father. In 1815 he entered the merchant service and received (1818) an appointment as a midshipman. For his survey (1832–33) of Narragansett Bay he was designated (1833) head of the department of charts and instruments of the navy. Although an inexperienced leader, he was put in command of a government exploring expedition intended to provide accurate naval charts for the whaling industry. Wilkes, then a lieutenant, set sail (1838) from Norfolk, Va., in charge of a squadron of six ships and 346 seamen, and accompanied by a team of nine scientists and artists. They sailed around South America, did important research in the S Pacific, and explored the Antarctic. The portion of Antarctica that he explored was subsequently named Wilkes Land. Wilkes explored Fiji in 1840, visited the Hawaiian group, and in May, 1841, entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Pacific coast of the United States, and explored the Pacific Northwest.

After having completely encircled the globe (his was the last all-sail naval mission to do so), Wilkes returned to New York in June, 1842. In four years at sea he had logged some 87,000 miles and lost two ships and 28 men. His Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (5 vol. and an atlas) appeared in 1844. He edited the scientific reports of the expedition (20 vol. and 11 atlases, 1844–74) and was the author of Vol. XI ( Meteorology ) and Vol. XIII ( Hydrography ). Moreover, the specimens and artifacts brought back by expedition scientists ultimately formed the foundation for the Smithsonian Institution collection.

Despite his accomplishments, Wilkes acquired a reputation as an arrogant, cruel, and capricious leader. The impetuosity of his nature, for which he was twice court-martialed, was demonstrated when early in the Civil War, as commander of the San Jacinto, he stopped the British mail ship Trent and, contrary to all regulations, forcibly removed Confederate commissioners John Slidell and James M. Mason . The incident almost involved the Union in a war with England (see Trent Affair ). Promoted to the rank of commodore in 1862, he commanded a squadron in the West Indies.

Bibliography: See biography by D. Henderson (1953, repr. 1971); W. Bixby, The Forgotten Voyage of Charles Wilkes (1966); R. Silverberg, Stormy Voyager (1968); A. Gurney, The Race to the White Continent (2000); N. Philbrick, Sea of Glory (2003).

Wilkes, Charles (1798–1877) U.S. naval officer, explorer, and scientist. Born in New York City on April 3, 1877, Charles Wilkes went to sea in his teens. In 1818, he entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman and served in various positions at sea and on shore, gaining a reputation as a naval scientist. In 1838, Wilkes, a junior Lieutenant, was chosen to command the U.S. Exploring Expedition, which circled the globe between 1838 and 1842 collecting valuable scientific data. A quarrelsome martinet, Wilkes was convicted by a court-martial soon after his return to the United States in 1842, for improper punishment of several sailors on the expedition. Nevertheless, he was promoted to commander in 1843 and to captain in 1855, spending most of his time editing the journals of the expedition. On November 8, 1861, while commanding the USS San Jacinto in the Caribbean, Wilkes boarded the British mail steamer Trent and arrested James Mason and John Slidell, Confederate envoys enroute to England. His actions were clearly a violation of international law, and the “Trent Affair” aroused British indignation, but Wilkes was generally applauded in the North. He later commanded the James River Flotilla, the Potomac Flotilla, and the West India Squadron before being recalled in 1863 and court-martialed in April 1864 for insubordination and disobedience of orders. He was convicted and sentenced to a public reprimand and three year's suspension (later reduced to one year). Wilkes retired from the Navy in 1866.