William Pope McArthur
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William Pope McArthur (April 2, 1814 – December 23, 1850) was an American naval officer and
hydrologist Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
who was involved in the first surveys of the Pacific Coast for the
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is a United States federal agency that defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and charting; and a large number of applications ...
.


Early life

McArthur was born in
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Ste. Genevieve (french: Sainte-Geneviève ) is a city in Ste. Genevieve Township and is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,999 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1735 by French Canadian coloni ...
to John and Mary (Linn) McArthur. McArthur's maternal uncle, Dr. Lewis F. Linn, was U.S. Senator for
Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
. At Linn's request, McArthur was appointed midshipman in the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
on February 11, 1832. In 1837 he attended the Naval School at Norfolk, Virginia. During the Second Seminole War (1837–1838), McArthur was promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant and placed in command of a small craft. Among the passengers was
Joseph E. Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career army officer, serving with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia secede ...
, who accompanied the vessel as a civilian topographical engineer. He later served as a general in the US Army and then the Confederate Army during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.McArthur, Lewi
''Pacific Coast Survey of 1849 and 1850''
Private history 1915 NOAA.gov retrieved December 26, 2007
McArthur was wounded in both legs by Seminole at
Jupiter, Florida Jupiter is the northernmost town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the town had a population of 61,047 as of April 1, 2020. It is 84 miles north of Miami, and the northernmost community in the Miami met ...
. While one musket ball was pulled from one leg, a ball remained in the other leg. He was sent to the Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, for treatment and convalescence. There he met, courted, and married Mary Stone Young, the daughter of the Superintendent of the Hospital. Among their children was Lewis Linn McArthur, an
Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.Gulf Of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
aboard the brig ''
Consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...
''.


Survey of the Pacific Coast

On October 27, 1848 A.D. Bache, Superintendent U.S. Coast Survey, instructed McArthur to go to San Francisco, California to begin "the survey of the Western Coast of the United States." After sailing from New York, McArthur was delayed in Panama by the influx of settlers in the California Gold Rush. In Panama, McArthur was asked to captain a former coal storage ship to San Francisco. The ''von Humboldt'' left Panama on May 21, 1849 and took 102 days to arrive at San Francisco, the first 46 of which were spent getting to the Mexican port of Acapulco. Among the four hundred passengers on ''von Humboldt'' were Collis P. Huntington, the future president of the Southern Pacific Railroad and San Francisco Society portrait painter Stephen W. Shaw. In September 1849,
Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...
McArthur was placed in command of the US survey schooner ''Ewing'' which had been brought around the
Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...
to the west coast by Lieutenant
Washington Allon Bartlett Washington Allon Bartlett (''c.'' 1816 – February 6, 1865) was the first U.S. citizen to serve as alcalde of Yerba Buena/San Francisco, appointed by the military government during the Mexican-American War and serving from August 14, 1846, to ...
. Upon reaching San Francisco, the ''Ewing'' and the were hampered from progress in the survey due to desertions of their crews who joined the gold rush, including a mutiny when crew members rowing into the city from the ''Ewing'' threw an officer overboard in an attempt to desert to flee to the gold fields. They managed to survey
Mare Island Strait The Mare Island Strait is a channel at in the San Pablo Bay separating Mare Island and the mainland in Vallejo, California in Solano County. The strait was formerly used by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard until its closure in 1995. The strait i ...
before steaming to Hawaii to obtain crewmen from Hawaiian monarch
King Kamehameha III Kamehameha III (born Kauikeaouli) (March 17, 1814 – December 15, 1854) was the third king of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854. His full Hawaiian name is Keaweaweula Kīwalaō Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa and then lengthened to Keaweaweula K ...
. They returned to San Francisco in the spring of 1850, with the coastal survey of northern California beginning on April 3, 1850, and continuing up the coast of Oregon to the mouth of the Columbia River. On August 1, 1850, while still in Oregon, McArthur purchased a 1/16 interest in
Mare Island Mare Island ( Spanish: ''Isla de la Yegua'') is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the ...
for $468.50, then returned to San Francisco later that month to prepare charts and write reports.


Cape Disappointment and Cape Flattery Lighthouses

In 1848, Congress had appropriated funds for two
lighthouses A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...
in the act creating the
Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. O ...
. McArthur was to recommend placing one at Cape Disappointment on the Columbia and one at
Cape Flattery Cape Flattery () is the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States. It is in Clallam County, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca joins the Pacific Ocean. It is also part of the Makah Reservation, and ...
at the entrance to
Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
. In his report, McArthur wrote:
The greatly increasing commerce of Oregon demands that these improvements be made immediately… Within the last eighteen months more vessels have crossed the Columbia river bar than had crossed it, perhaps, in all time past.


Oregon Territory

McArthur and some of his shipmates were quite taken with Oregon and the
Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...
, he wrote:
The climate is agreeable and healthy. The water is not inferior to any in the world. The face of the country is too uneven to permit as general cultivation, still it will and must soon become a great agricultural and stock growing country. The scenery is beautiful and in some places and some points of view the grandest that the eye ever beheld.
Lieutenant Blunt who accompanied him on the expedition even made a
land claim A land claim is defined as "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include aboriginal land claims, A ...
on behalf of himself, McArthur and Bartlett. McArthur's uncle, Senator Linn, along with Senator Thomas Hart Benton, had been an advocate of American expansion in the West.Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo ''The Pacific Northwest - An Interpretive History''
University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...
1989 1996 Rev. and enl. ed. p. 92


Death

McArthur was not to survive the voyage to the east coast in 1850. He became ill on board with
dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
, died, and was buried in Panama. The Navy purchased the original 956 acres (387 ha) of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on January 4, 1853. McArthur's family share was $5,218.20. in 1867, his body was disinterred and he was reburied on Mare Island.


Namesakes

McArthur's name is applied to several ships and geographic features.


Ships

* ''McArthur'', a schooner launched in 1876 * USC&GS ''McArthur'', a survey ship in service in the
United States Coast Survey United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
from 1876 to 1878 and in the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...
(USC&GS) from 1878 to 1915 * SS ''William P. Mcarthur'', a
Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...
launched in 1942 *USC&GS ''McArthur'' (MSS 22), later NOAAS ''McArthur'' (S 330), a survey ship in service in the USC&GS from 1966 to 1970 and in the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA) from 1970 to 2003; since 2006 a Blackwater vessel M/V ''McArthur'' * NOAAS ''McArthur II'' (R 330), an
oceanographic Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...
research ship in service in NOAA since 2003


Geographic features

* McArthur Peak, a mountain on
Kuiu Island Kuiu Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. It lies between Kupreanof Island, to its east, and Baranof Island, to its west. The island is long, and wide. It is nearly cut in two by Affleck Canal. It has of la ...
in Alaska * McArthur Reef, a reef in the Sumner Strait off
Clarence Strait Clarence Strait, originally Duke of Clarence Strait,Statement of f ...
in Alaska


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McArthur, William Pope
1814 births 1850 deaths 19th-century American naval officers American hydrologists Burials in Panama Burials in Solano County, California Deaths from dysentery Explorers of Oregon Military personnel from Missouri People from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri People who died at sea United States Coast Survey personnel