1841: The US Explores the Sound 

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On May 11, 1841, the U.S. Navy ships Vincennes and Porpoise, commanded by Capt. Charles Wilkes, drop anchor in southern Puget Sound, near the mouth of Sequalitchew Creek and the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Nisqually. Wilkes' crew proceeds to chart Puget Sound and name numerous landmarks, including Elliott Bay. This United States Exploring Expedition marks America's first formal entry into Puget Sound waters.

Wilkes was an ambitious and autocratic officer who took command of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838 with the aim of circumnavigating the globe and charting Antarctica and the Pacific Coast of North America. By the time he returned to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1842, his fleet of six ships had dwindled to two.

Which "Elliott" Gets the Bay?

The expedition dropped anchor at Discovery Bay on May 2, 1838, precisely 39 years after Capt. Vancouver, and then proceeded south into Admiralty Inlet. It arrived at the mouth of Sesquilatchew Creek on May 11 and approached Fort Nisqually unsure of the welcome it would receive from its British residents. The Hudson's Bay Company turned out to be a good host, and Wilkes established a scientific observatory near the fort.

It was during this time that The Wilkes team explored and named Budd Inlet, near Fort Nisqually, the future site of the Port of Olympia, after one of the Officers under his command.

On May 17, Porpoise Master George Sinclair chose "Commencement Bay" as the point at which to begin a detailed survey of upper Puget Sound. Wilkes was not impressed by the data on the waters off the future city of Seattle -- "I do not consider the bay a desirable anchorage" -- but he did name it "Elliott Bay." Unfortunately, Wilkes did not specify the eponym. There were three Elliotts in his crew: ships' boy George, chaplain Jared, and Midshipman Samuel. Although many historians have assumed that the pious Rev. J. Elliott was the honoree, Murray Morgan believes that Wilkes had the more amiable Samuel Elliott in mind.

First Fourth of July Celebration on Puget Sound

Dr. John P. Richmond had established an American-led Methodist mission near Fort Nisqually in 1840. On July 5, 1841, Wilkes marched his crew from the shoreline to the mission to celebrate the Fourth of July (a day late because the Fourth fell on the Sabbath that year) for the first time in the Pacific Northwest. The parade and Richmond's speech, which declared the inevitability of American control of Oregon, subjected the fort's British subjects to a deliberately provocative display of American patriotism. 

Inglorious Return

Upon learning that one of his ships, the Peacock, had foundered on the Columbia River bar, Wilkes interrupted his work in the San Juan Islands and sailed south. He never returned to Puget Sound. His account of the expedition was published in abbreviated editions soon after his return to Washington, D.C. in 1842. Many years later, only 100 sets of his complete works were published and distributed to friendly powers and to each state and territory then in the Union.

Having spent less than two weeks in California, Wilkes did not hold a very high opinion of that area -- except for the great San Francisco Bay as a shipping and commercial entrepot. He concluded that San Francisco and Puget Sound were destined to become "the finest ports in the world."

The publication of Wilkes' detailed map of the Oregon Territory gave Americans a new image of that unknown land, but upon his return Charles Wilkes faced a somewhat indifferent Congress, an apathetic public, and criticism from former expedition officers. In fact, courts-martial were held over Wilkes' alleged excessive zeal with the cat-o'-nine-tails and other matters, but nothing came of the inquiries.

Interestingly, Herman Melville incorporated details of Wilkes' Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition into his masterpiece Moby Dick-or The Whale, and borrowed aspects of Wilkes' personality and conduct for his characterization of Captain Ahab.