Michael's Reviews > Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

I never heard of this expedition, which over four years charted large swaths of Antarctica, hundreds of Pacific Islands, the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and collected sufficient thousands of new ethnographic and biological specimens to initiate the founding of the Smithsonian Insitution. I was glad to be enlightened and to be charmed again by Philbrick’s skill in synthesizing so much historical fact into a narrative that reads like a novel. The tale blends an epic of scientific discovery on the order of Captain Cook with a personal story of an overbearing leader on the order of Captain Bligh.

Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was placed in charge of the squadron of six sailing vessels and about 200 men due to his political connections, skills in navigation, and track record in founding the National Observatory. His organizational competence unfortunately could not make up for his insecurity over his low rank, limited sailing experience, and dogmatic and paranoid personality. He favored a lot of junior officers over the older officers who threatened his ego and authority, leading to terrible dissension and near mutiny through much of the voyage. Appointing himself Commodore and excessive use of flogging undermined morale. Also, his aversion to delegating tasks left him overworked to the point of nervous breakdown on many occasions.

Despite these precursors for disaster, few of his men died on the expedition and most of the mission was successfully accomplished. A couple of ships were lost due to mishaps, with recovery of the men. Aside from many close calls with storms and dodging of icebergs near Antarctica, the most danger was incurred due to arrogant treatment of some Fiji islanders. To redress a past murder of a couple of Englishment, Wilkes took a group of chiefs hostage to gain information on the guilty parties and then burned the village of their origin. When the attempted escape of one hostage stimulated a skirmish leading to the death of two of his men, a brutal slaughter of dozens of natives ensued. This part of the story was well told and helped me see in microcosm the seeds of the whole European trend of colonial conquest.

A series of sensational court marshal proceedings over charges and countercharges between Wilkes and his officers at the end of the expedition detracted popular accolades for Wilkes and undermined the credibility of his discoveries. America as whole became more interested in conquering and exploiting the West than exploring or colonization in the world beyond, so the outcomes of the expedition were not appreciated for a long time afterward. With the focus on the personalities and operational aspects of the expedition, the scientific aspects of the voyage unfortunately were given short shrift. Nevertheless, this was a satisfying read. I appreciated more Philbrick’s other works about the survival tale of the whaleship Essex (Heart of the Sea), history of the Plymouth colony (Mayflower), and account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn ( The Last Stand).