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Collection Page1838
On August 18, 1838, six United States Navy ships
left Norfolk, Virginia on an expedition to the South Pacific.
On board were 424 officers and crewmen and nine scientists, setting
off on a mission to explore and survey the islands of that region,
investigate their commercial potential, and assert American power.
The launch happened after ten years of political debate and personal
disputes between various factions, but with the departure finally
at hand, those on board felt the excitement of knowing they were
making history.
Lieutenant Charles Wilkes commanded the expedition. At the time
of his appointment he was in charge of the Depot of Charts and
Instruments at Washington, D.C., an organization now known as
the Naval Observatory. His experience in coastal surveying and
planetary physics made him an ideal candidate for the position,
but he was a junior lieutenant in terms of time-in-rank, which
in the perquisite-conscious Navy was a serious shortcoming. Several
senior lieutenants had to be passed over in appointing Wilkes,
some of whom the Navy now assigned to serve under him. He also
had relatively little sea duty, only about 6 years, less than
many junior officers.
Being a peaceful expedition of discovery,
the ships were stripped of heavy armament and its space was given
over to scientific exploration. The nine civilian scientists,
referred to as the "scientifics" by the sailors, were
tasked with observing and describing the resources of the various
islands. These men were among the most able in their fields: James
D. Dana, Minerologist, Charles Pickering, Naturalist, Joseph P.
Couthouy, Conchologist, Horatio C. Hale, Ethnographer, William
Rich, Botanist, William D. Brackenridge, Horticulturalist, Titan
Ramsay Peale, Naturalist, and Joseph Drayton and Alfred Agate,
the two artists, or "draughtsmen."
Alfred Agate was about 23 years old, just beginning a career as
an artist and miniaturist when the Navy hired him for the expedition.
He had studied under Samuel F. B. Morse and later under John Rubens
Smith, a landscape artist and engraver who made a niche for himself
in American art history by traveling throughout the early republic,
capturing and publishing images of the developing nation. Smith
was a demanding teacher, as testified to by Charles Wilkes, who
had studied with Smith some years earlier than Agate. In his own
landscapes, Smith used a camera lucida for accuracy, something
that Agate learned and used in his landscapes on the expedition.
Little is known of Alfred Agate's background before the expedition.
He was from Sparta, New York and reportedly first learned to draw
from his older brother Frederick, who also studied under Smith.
Several of his shipmates wrote appreciatively of his kind disposition.
His health was fragile and apparently he suffered from bouts of
illness during the voyage, though it did not prevent him from
signing on, nor from making several interesting side excursions.
Originally hired as a botanical illustrator, on the first leg
of the voyage Wilkes assigned him to the ship Relief with
William Rich, but eventually artistic services became so much
in demand that Wilkes decreed that all scientists were to share
both Agate and Drayton's time. In his memoirs, James Dana noted
the accuracy of Agate's portraits.
Peacock
Alfred T. Agate
Pencil
98-89-AK
Schooner
Porpoise and Flying Fish in Heavy Seas
Alfred T. Agate
Oil on board
98-89-FZ (front)
Brig Porpoise
Alfred T. Agate
Pencil
98-89-GY
During these final days of the Sail Navy it was still regular practice to take advantage of the trade winds and reach South America by first crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Madeira Islands before turning south. This was the course used by the six ships of the expedition: Wilkes' flagship, the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Vincennes, the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Peacock, the brig U.S.S. Porpoise, the storeship U.S.S. Relief, and the two tenders, U.S.S. Flying Fish and Sea Gull. Before a week was out, however, Relief proved to be intolerably slow. Wilkes ordered it to skip Madeira and head directly for the Cape Verde Islands and then on to Rio de Janeiro to await the arrival of the others. Later, when the rest of the fleet checked in at Cape Verde after spending a week at Madeira, Relief still had not arrived. It came a few days later, but the others had departed for South America.
Port Praya, Cape Verde
Original image credited to
Charles Wilkes
Engraving
98-89-X
Port Praya, Cape Verde (Reverse Image)
Original image credited to
Charles Wilkes
Pencil
98-89-Y
Port Praya, Cape Verde
Original image credited to Charles Wilkes
Ink
98-89-Z
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Collection Branch27 March 2004