Show wilkes descove discovery ry of new continent one hundred years ago gave america Ameria its first claim to antarctic lands land by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union THE HE recent departure of rear admiral richard E byrd for his third expedition tion into the antarctic an elpe expedition which has has three three purposes exploration scientific investigation and most important of all strengthening any future claims of the united states on territory in the region of the south pole recalls another intrepid american explorer who gave us our first claim to that country just years ago he was charles N wilkes of the united sta states tes navy who on january 16 1840 was the first to discover the existence of a continent in the antarctic sea As has been the case in so many parts of the world great britain was the first nation to assert sovereignty over antarctica her claims go back to january 17 1773 when capt james cook crossed the antarctic circle for the first time in history A year later he reached what was then farthest south even though thourl I 1 it was 1318 miles from the south pole and discovered a land which he named the isle of georgia in honor of george III and sandwich land in honor of the fourth earl of sandwich first lord of the admiralty during the american revolution in 1823 james weddell of the british royal navy discovered the sea which now bears his name and set a new farthest south record or 1102 miles from the pole soon after that the famous whaling firm of enderby in london became interested in antarctic exploration and sent out several expeditions in one of them in 1830 james briscoe of the brit ish navy discovered and named kemp land and in 1839 john bal bai leny discovered and named the ballany islands to aid whalers chalers Wh alers by this time the united states had become intern interested qed in south polar exploration also and in 1836 congress authorized an expedition which was intended primarily to assist american whaling industries dus tries in competing with the british by re charting and routing the south pacific islands locating islands whaling areas and industrial prospects antarctic exploration was a secondary purpose for this reason the expedition was not fitted out with vessels especially selected to buck ice packs or withstand polar winters they were ordinary naval vessels of thin walls weak prows and ext ex posed rudders the two larger vessels the vincennes and the peacock had the added disadvantage of a superimposed gun deck and exposed open gun ports ill in the lower deck there was poor and inadequate stowage space for f food and medical supplies and water and a very small supply of fuel if charles N wilkes of the united states navy commander of the expedition had been ice trapped and forced to winter within the antarctic circle he and his entire party would have been frozen or starved to death the five ships that made the cruise the sloops vincennes and peacock the relief the brig porpoise and the tenders sea GUU and flying fish totaled less than 2000 tons and yet carried a crew of 0 men this meant cramped quarters with foul air and lack of space for isolation in case of sickness also the authorities aut had failed to stock the squadron with anti to prevent scurvy wilkes has troubles further to add to the difficulties wilkes began to show condescension and almost open contempt to the group of civilian acl insists that had been signed assigned gall 91 9 10 1 11 1 RK iu V 1 1 5 1 A III 1 h il 11 1 1 lj 1 11 wt fiKet MI A 4 the vincennes in disappointment bay from an illustration in wilkes narratives him among them was titian peale artist and naturalist the third of the famous maryland artist family friction and jealousy sprang up among the officers of the command the commander of the peacock was senior to wilkes in the navy thus requiring ring a delicacy and tact almost impossible during the cruise and always galling for so downright and headstrong a man as wilkes the crew was insubordinate and there were desertions during the cruise wilkes set sail from hampton roads va on august 18 1838 and after a goodwill cruise down the coast of eastern south america he rounded cape horn and arrived off tierra del fuego february 17 1839 winter came on almost immediately four months later the vessels scattered east and west for polar explorations the little sea gull and its entire company went down to death in a storm and this catastrophe increased the depression 01 F the porpoise la in an antarctic gale from an illustration in wilkes narratives of the captain and the fear and discontent of his crew from may to november thi the squadron made a great sweep across the south pacific to australia on december 26 wilkes led his squadron of four vessels the vincennes which he commanded himself the peacock commanded by capt william L hudson the brig porpoise commanded by commander cadwalader ringgold and the tender flying fish out of sydney harbor and headed for macquarie island the first rendezvous within a week after leaving sydney the flying fish and the peacock dropped out of sight in the fog then the porpoise disappeared but wilkes pushed on southward in the vin cennes finds a new continent by january 18 16 1840 he had reached 66 degrees south latitude and had found the peacock and the porpoise they were now confronted by an ice barrier but the crews brews of the remaining ships reported that appearances beyond the barrier seemed to indicate land and in his re report art wilkes sets january 16 1840 as the date of the discovery of a new continent concerning this wilkes writes in his five volume narrative of the expedition that appearances believed to be land w were re visible from all three vessels and the comparison of the three observations when taken in connection with the more positive proofs of its existence afterward obtained has left no doubt that the a appearance I 1 ear was not deceptive F from a this day therefore we date the discovery which is claimed for the squadron from the peacock the mountains could be distinctly seen stretching to the southwest as far as anything could be discerned more discoveries on the nineteenth land was now certainly visible from the vincennes Vm cennes both to the south southeast and southwest in in the former direction most distinctly the same day hudson in in the peacock saw what appeared to be an immense land mass feet high and covered with snow on the twenty second twenty third and twenty eighth there were more appearances of land the proximity of which A was further indicated by the discoloration of the water and the character of the bottom shown by soundings on the thirtieth the vincennes entered an indentation of the icebound coast which was named biners bay we approached says wilkes within half a mile of the dark volcanic rocks which appeared on both sides of us and saw the land gradually rising beyond the ice to the height of feet it could be distinctly seen extending to the east and west of our position fully 60 miles now that all were convinced of its existence I 1 gave the land the name nam e of the antarctic continent on february 13 the record notes land distinctly seen from 18 to 20 miles distant a lofty mountain range covered with snow the following day land was again seen on the fourteenth benth by measurement the extent of coast of the antarctic continent which was then in sight 75 miles and feet high land named for him wilkes turned north when in about 97 degrees 40 minutes east 64 degrees I 1 minute south after having skirted the antarctic coast for fully 1700 miles what he had actually discovered was the large segment of antarctica afterward named wilkes land in his honor on march 11 1840 wilkes arrived at sydney and wrote to the secretary of the navy it affords me much gratification to report that we have discovered a large body of land within the antarctic circle which I 1 have named the antarctic continent and refer you to the report of our cruise and accompanying charts eri enclosed herewith for full information relative thereto on march 13 the sydney herald published a long account of the expedition in which appeared the first printed notice of the fact that a continent had been discovered in the antarctic before the end of the year a similar announcement was published in london wilkes expedition made in salling sailing ships which lacked the special equipment usually regarded as indispensable by polar explorers was a daring and splendid venture some of the positions he assigned to the coast have since been proved to be inaccurate and some of his 1 appearances of land were probably ice but the fact is undeniable that he found a vast stretch of antarctic AM arctic coast where no land of any kind was previously supposed to exist and that the knowledge we possess today concerning the outlines of the antarctic continent began to take definite shape with his discoveries but most important of all those discoveries gave the united states a real basis for its claims in antarctica and some day if we wish to establish airplane bases there thalmay that tha may be ayery a important fact indeed wilkes our first antarctic explorer clr was a native of new york city 1 bierwas ier having been een born there thuie april 3 1798 it is an interesting fact that misname his name Is iSi bettor bettar known inov to most ost americans in connection with an incident occurred red two decides decades later than it ifor his polar discoveries that jn i in cid aident nt was the famous fair of 1861 in 1855 wilkes was commissioned captain and at the outbreak of the civil war in 1861 1851 he h ar gu R 1 was placed in command of the sloop san jacinto on i november 8 the san jacinto encountered the english mail steamer trent which was on its way from havana to st thomas in the west indies aboard the steamer on this voyage were john slidell of louisiana and james M mason of virginia who had bad been appointed commissioners to enlist the sympathy and aid of france a and nd great britain for the confederate cause the san jacinto easily overtook the trent which hoisted the english colors while wilkes ran up the stars and stripes and fired a shot across the trents arents bow as a signal for her to stop when the british captain paid po no attention to this summons the san jacinto sent a shell across the water in front of her then the briton hove to willies wilkes ordered lieutenant lieutenan t fairfax to man two boats and board the trent when the lieutenant did so and asked permission of the captain to see his passenger list the request was refused however fairfax seeing mason and slidell and their see secretaries ret aries arles eustis and me mcfarlane on the deck informed them that he had orders to take them aboard the san jacinto over the vigorous protest of the british captain this was done al 4 cm though the families of the four confederates were allowed to remain on the trent which continued on its way to england hero of the hour captain wilkes took his prisoners to boston where they were imprisoned in fort warren their capture created a sensation throughout the country and for a time wilkes was the hero of the hour his act was indorsed endorsed indor sed by the secretary of the navy who wrote the captain a letter of thanks and he received a similar 1 letter from congress banquets and receptions were given him in boston new york and washington but over in england the affair was viewed in a very different light the british government made a peremptory demand upon the government of the united states for the restoration of the prisoners and an alit official apology for wilkes insult to the british flag and his violation of international law for a time it seemed that the united states and england might be embroiled in in a war over the incident for popular feeling in this country was running as high as it was across the atlantic fortunately however president lincoln and his secretary of state william H seward were by public opinion they ordered the prisoners surrendered on the ground that captain wilkes had erred in not car crying the trent to a neutral port to have the case adjudicated before a prize court in acting as the judge himself and practically cacti executing his own decree the captain had technically committed a violation of international law for which the only redress was the restoration of the status quo several years later the royal geographical society of england presented him with a gold medal int in recognition of his work as an explorer it was also striking evidence of the fact that the english people bore him no ill will because of his action in the trent affair he died in washington on february 8 1877 |