The US Exploring Expedition
At Norfolk, Virginia the Sea Gull joined the other ships of the expedition: flagship Vincennes, Peacock, Porpoise, the schooner Flying Fish, and the supply ship Relief.
The ships left Norfolk on August 18, 1838, for the tip of South America, where they would await the slower Relief and then continue to Antarctica and the Pacific Islands. After surveying and collecting specimens, the remaining ships would sail to Hawaii and then the Columbia River to survey that area then return to the United States via the Cape of Good Hope on June 9, 1842.
The Sea Gull, commanded by Lieutenant Robert Johnson and in the company of the Porpoise, headed south from Orange Bay on the tip of South America on February 25, 1839, to explore the area of the South Shetland Islands. Both ships encountered heavy seas which resulted in a broken gaff for the Sea Gull; the crew was constantly drenched by huge waves. Soon they encountered snow squalls and penguins. Huge icebergs were sighted, some said to be as large as the U.S. Capitol building. On March 1, some islands of the South Shetlands were sighted. Attempts were made to land on the islands and gather specimens but the seas proved too rough to make a landing. On March 5, the wind increased to a whole gale and the commander of the expedition — Lt. Charles Wilkes — ordered the ships about and headed north. Wilkes ordered Johnson to proceed back to Orange Bay after stopping at Deception Island to attempt to retrieve a self-reading thermometer left there by an earlier British expedition. After removing ice from the ship's rigging, the crew of the Sea Gull headed for Deception. The crew didn't find the thermometer but did experience the volcanism of the island finding it frightening and unnerving to know they were standing on an active volcano. Eventually the ship made its way to Orange Bay. After reaching Orange Bay the Sea Gull participated in a search for a missing crew in a survey launch, finding the launch eventually safe and sound with all aboard.
Read more about this topic: USS Sea Gull (1838)
Famous quotes containing the words exploring and/or expedition:
“Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“It is a sort of ranger service. Arnold’s expedition is a daily experience with these settlers. They can prove that they were out at almost any time; and I think that all the first generation of them deserve a pension more than any that went to the Mexican war.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)