John Rodgers: Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies

John Rodgers (1812-1882), member of one of the most conspicuous of naval families, was the first officer of the United States Navy to command an ex– ploring expedition in the Arctic Sea to the north of Bering Strait. He was born at Sion Hill near Havre de Grace, in Maryland, on August 8, 1812, the son of John and Minerva (Denison) Rodgers. His early naval chronology is that he was warranted midshipman in 1828, passed midshipman in 1834, lieutenant in 1840 and commander in 1855. He studied a year at the University of Virginia and was three years with the Brazil Squadron in connection with work of the Coast Survey. After this he was employed in surveying the Florida coast. He also spent three years in the Mediterranean and on the coasts of Africa. Thereafter he was again in the work of the Coast Survey for three years.

During 1853 a large project for exploration beyond the confines of the United States was in full swing. Congress had appropriated $124,000, a great sum in those days, for a naval and commercial survey of the China Sea, the North Pacific, Bering Strait and related seas that were or might be frequented by trading and whaling vessels. The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Ex– pedition had sailed in 1852 under Commander Cadwalader Ringgold, an officer who had accompanied Wilkes on the great U.S. Antarctic Expedition of 1838-42. The ships under Ringgold were the sloop-of-war Vincennes, the screw steamer Hancock, the brig Porpoise , the schooner J. Fenimore Cooper and the store ship J.P. Kennedy . Lieutenant Rodgers had been detached from the Coast Survey to be second in rank on the North Pacific Expedition and in command of the Hancock.

The instructions to the expedition from John Pendleton Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy, drew special attention to the growing impor– tance of the whaling industry around Bering Strait and to the consequent need of increased knowledge about the Aleutian Islands, the Bering and Anadyr seas, and the coasts of North America and Asia in the whaling region. The instructions included permission to go as far north as the commanding officer thought desirable, and called to his attention the importance of every practicable scientific study and of the increase of knowledge in any field. Suggestions from various learned bodies were made parts of the instructions. William Stimpson was naturalist, C. Wright, botanist, E.W. Kern, artist, W.D. Stuart, secretary and draughtsman, Anton Schoenborn, instrument maker.

According to Professor J.E. Nourse, American Explorations in the Ice Zones , who personally knew members of the expedition, Secretary Kennedy had selected many of its leading figures and was especially concerned about the scientific program. This is confirmed by the printed record; for in his annual report of December 2, 1852, the Secretary considers that "the constant employment of ships and men in the promotion of valuable public interests, whether in defense of the honor of our flag or the exploration of the field of discovery and the opening of new channels of trade, or in the enlarging of the boundaries of science, will be recognized by the Government and the people as the true and proper vocation of the Navy." Among other things, the thoughtful care of the Secretary brought about arrangements through the Russian Minister in Washington for a sympathetic attitude toward the expedition in Russian America and in northeastern Siberia from representatives of the Imperial government. Russian charts were to be supplied.

The expedition reached the Pacific by way of the Cape of Good Hope and spent its first year visiting Java and Australia on the way to Hong Kong. Generally the employment of the first year was in tropical and sub tropic research. Meantime the health of the commanding officer was deteriorating and he was invalided to the United States, whereupon the command devolved upon his next in rank, Lieutenant Rodgers, who transferred from the Hancock to the Vincennes . That year the duties of the various ships continued to be in low and middle latitudes. One of the ships, the Porpoise , was lost in February, 1855, in a gale between Formosa and china.

During the late winter and spring of 1855 the expedition worked north. The Hancock explored the Okhotsk Sea; the Cooper surveyed the northern Japanese, Kurile and Aleutian Islands; the Vincennes headed for Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, whence to begin her cruise to the Arctic Sea. This was to prove by general consent a notable voyage of exploration; but its story cannot as yet be told in full because of a reason deplorably frequent in connection with U.S. polar work. For it is probably neither an inaccurate nor an unfair generalization to say that we have been as niggardly in publishing the scientific results, and other contributions to knowledge, of our polar expeditions as we have been generous in furnishing those expeditions with ships, equipment and staff. We are in that respect like a farmer who cultivates the ground, plants the crop and follows it with care to maturity but does not trouble to gather the harvest. About the Rodgers case Professor Nourse said in 1884:

"Of the most important and permanently valuable work of the northern cruise of the Vincennes , it remains as yet a matter of universal regret that no official or other narrative has been published... The non– appearance of the text has been caused by the want of a sufficient appropriation for the issue by the Navy Department." This must have been more heartbreaking to Rodgers, and to all others concerned, in that the great preparations had been made for the publication. This is confirmed by Isaac Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, who wrote in December, 1857: "The work of publishing the survey of the late Expedition to the Nroth Pacific and Behring Straits under Commander Rodgers, is rapidly advancing; engagements have been made with eminent professors in the various branches of natural history, describing the most important specimens brought home." It was over again the story of the Wilkes Antarctic expedition, where extensive preparations were made, with a lot of money and labor spent, the larger part of the result to be sacrificed eventually to the penny wisdom of a subsequent administration.

A material part of the Wilkes results was published, though inadequately (considering the great preparations); those of Rodgers were not published at all except in preliminary, routine from. So we can do no other here than to depend in the main on what Nourse was able to piece together around 1880, from the fragmentary publications and then from a diary loaned by Lieutenant John M. Brooke, second-in-command of the Vincennes . Nourse also knew personally other members of the Vincennes expedition. (He goes on to say that extremely valuable maps resulting from the voyage were published by the Navy, an important though relatively small part of the total contribution to knowledge which could have been made by the full publication of the results.)

In Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, on July 8, 1855, the expedition found a village of about a hundred buildings of hewn logs, mainly deserted, a small population of non-combatants, some of them wounded, and dogs dying of hunger in the streets, because the French had been there to burn and sack the town as part of a European war. Brooke noted in his diary that the destruction appeared to him wanton and "the more mournful because the severity of the climate and the cold aspect of the mountains would incline one to think that into such a country men should scarcely carry the cruelties of war." However, in the gardens of the town, "the gooseberry bushes were just shedding their blossoms, the strawberry beds were verdant. . . Violets and heartsease were gathered for home letters."

The harbor was spacious and "in the calm of the evening the scenery was fine". The Russian government had not forgotten its promise of cooperation and "a visit to the Vincennes was made by Captain Martineff of the Russian Army who, with another officer, had been sent out by the Russian Government. . . to bring Russian charts. His journey from St. Petersburg had been made in 70 days by horse and dog."

Petropavlovsk, in that heyday of whaling for oil and bone, was a port of call and to an extent one of provisioning for the Yankee fleet and was, for that and other reasons, the destination of merchant ships as well as whalers. "On the 9th an American ship with a cargo consigned to this port arrived from New York via Valparaiso". Those were truly "the great days of sail", and the Vincennes was cooperating, through her surveys, in maintaining and extending a commerce which depended, though only in part, on the enterprise of the whalemen.

With a Cossack for interpreter the Vincennes headed for the Arctic and was on July 16 abreast of Bering Island. Around the 28th she was making oceanographic studies during a spell when little advance was possible because of head winds and calms. The sounding and dredging was done through an invention of Lieutenant Brooke's for which he later received much credit; for one of the greatest of possible authorities, Sir C.W. Thomson (Wyville Thomson) refers in his Depths of the Sea to "Brooke's deep sea sounding apparatus, of which all the more recent contrivances have been to a great extent modifications". This pioneering work in oceanography by the Vincennes was among the things which the Navy later prepared to publish but never did publish, for want of a printing appropriation.

The expedition passed between the Siberian mainland and St. Lawrence Island to enter Bering Strait August 1. On the 4th a landing was made in Siberia, at N. Lat. 65°, W. Long. 172°35′, to put ashore a party under Brooke for astronomical and other scientific observations. Rodgers was at first doubtful about the safety of an observing party, were he to leave one behing; but he and Brooke soon developed so high an opinion of the natives (Siberian Eskimos) that his fears vanished. The men were tall and well proportioned; "the women were not ugly, some of them quite pretty, particularly when they smile" (a quotation from Brooke's diary). The officers of the ship were much surprised to see persons of such an agreeable appearance living so far north.

Nourse says that "the hesitancy of Commander Rodgers to leave the observing party at this place was overcome by the prompt desires of the Lieutenant. . . Provisions were landed for eleven persons for two months and the party were thoroughly equipped for defence by the gun of the launch, twelve pounder howitzer, fifty-three pounds of canister and shell, three carbines, three muskets and three rifles with about one thousand cartridges. . . Brooke did not fear the people who seemed to be honest and independent. . . The Lieutenant found himself located on a peninsula which was almost a meadow land, luxuriantly carpeted with grass, and blue, white and yellow blossoming flowers."

The Brooke party included naturalist Stimpson, botanist W R ^ r ^ ight, artist Kern, three marines, four sailors and the Cossack interpreter. It proved that during their month ashore they made valuable observations in many fields and Nourse considers that the Smithsonian was able to make use of much valuable material gathered by this segment of the expedition.

The Vincennes had passed through Bering Strait and was in the Arctic Sea proper by August 11. She could not possibly winter, for she was provisioned for only four months; besides, Rodgers thought it likely to be advantageous for the general program of the expedition if he were to work mostly south of the narrowest part of the Strait. So there was no plan to attempt a high northing, since there would then be danger of being caught in the ice and forced to winter.

As Rodgers put it, he was "desirous to return to the work of the surveys [in Bering Sea and the North Pacific] at the earliest date con– sistent with the visiting to the land in about lat. 72° N., long. 175° W., as placed upon the Admiralty charts from the Report of H.B.M. frigate Herald , Captain Kellett; with examining Herald Island, seen by the same ship but not explored; and the endeavor to reach Wrangell Land as described to Lieutenant Wrangell's companion, Dr. Kyber, on his Polar Exploration of 1824". Rodgers is mistaken about Kellett's not having explored Herald Island, since a party from the Herald landed on this tiny islet and climbed to the top of it, whence they saw what was later called Kellett's Land and eventually named Wrangel Island. As to what he says of Wrangell Land, Rodgers is partly right and partly in error; he refers correctly to Siberian natives having seen land and having reported this to the Russians; but he fails to mention that Kellett, from the top of Herald Island, had seen land in the same location, which the British placed on their charts as Kellett's Land or Mountains Seen by the Herald .

In the light of present knowledge we recognize that looking west from Herald Island and seeing land, Kellett must have seen the east coast of what we now call Wrangel Island, in about 178° west longitude; this was what the British charts thereafter called Kellett's Land. But then looking more northerly, toward 175° West and 72° North, Kellett had reported a great land "where the clouds rose in numerous extended masses, occasionally leaving the very lofty peaks uncapped, where could be distinctly seen columns, pillars and very broken peaks, characteristic of the higher headlands in this sea — East Cape and Cape Lisburne, for example." This description the cartographers were to translate into "Appearance of Land" in the Parliamentary Blue Book of 1850.

Heading north, Rodgers met chiefly thick weather. In one stretch the ship "encountered a stream of drift timber, some of the trees of which were so large and numerous that she had frequently to alter her course of seven knots to avoid them. She ran over the tail of Herald Shoal, which had less than 18 fathoms water, and on the 13th passed the island [Herald], which appeared dimly between the clouds as two small ones. The weather became foggy, and the ship stood for the North until she ran through the position of the land as given on the Admiralty charts, R.N., and came to anchor in 42 fathoms, in latitude 72° 5′ N., Longitude 174° 37′ W. In a few hours the fog lifted, and a sudden change, peculiar to the Northern regions, flashed across the scene; it was so clear that the horizon appeared without limit. No land or appearance of land could be seen from the royal yards. The water, as far as the eye could reach, was entirely free from ice, but the weather became again foggy."

So the Vincennes would have to report, on her return south, that the genuineness of the "Appearance of Land" to the north of Herald Island was counter-indicated. This may not have been wholly unexpected to Kellett; for he must have had a doubt from the start, since he forti– fied the clear cut statement we have quoted, above, with supporting testimony: "As far as man can be certain who has one hundred and thirty pairs of eyes to assist him, and all agreeing, I am certain we have discovered an extensive land". Had he really been certain, Kellett would not have felt the need of calling the 130 witnesses. (For a discussion of how, variously placed on maps, this "Appearance of Land" or "Plover Land", as it was sometimes called, kept appearing and disappearing, to appear last in 1914, see our article, "Disappearing Islands".)

Rodgers had exercised, though he had not permanently banished, this phantom northern land. He apparently thought he had also disproved the existence of Kellett-Wrangel Land; for the horizon had seemed clear, the visibility unlimited, westward from the anchorage of the Vincennes . This land should indubitably have been visible from the royal yards, if the horizon had really been clear. What Rodgers did not understand, through lack of familiarity with arctic conditions, was that when you look through clear air toward a fog that is five or ten miles away, you will get at sea the impression of unlimited visibility. So it remained for Yankee whalers, more than a decade after the Vincennes , to sight and land upon an island about the size of Puerto Rico, thus verifying at one stroke both the eyesight of ^ the ^ British and the hearsay of the Russians.

The supposedly unlimited view from the royal yards near longitude 175° and latitude 72° had convinced Rodgers of both the absence of the "Appearance of Lane" and of Kellett Land. But he felt he had to make doubly sure; so he paused near Herald Island and sent "John Watts, an active man of the boat's crew, and with good eyesight" to the top of the island; but "no land could be seen in any direction, although the horizon was excellent." Commander Rodgers wrote:

"It would be far pleasanter to confirm the discovery of other land than Herald Island, than to believe that Commodore Kellett was mistaken in his views; yet we were convinced, however unwillingly, that appearances had deceived him. Several times land was reported to us by the man at the masthead, which eventually proved to be only clouds, and sometimes where I knew no land could be seen, since we had passed through the position on which it was said to be."

"On the 15th we ran for Plover Island [probably a small island shown on Admiralty charts as lying to the southwest of Herald Island]. The air was clear and bracing, but when half way to the position of the land, as placed on the chart, we were stopped by a barrier of ice. At but half the distance the 'Herald' had been, nothing from the royal yards in the favorable weather we had, could be seen, and I am forced to the conclusion that Plover Island does not exist. Captain Kellett could only give his honest conclusions, and it would have been wrong to omit the notice of such palpable appearances; for any navigator, under the circumstances which controlled his acts, must have followed his course in giving his convictions, and then have left the matter to the investigations of time and the confirmation or rejection of those who should have better opportunities for ascertaining the truth of what he saw as probable."

For some reason (perhaps because of maps he had with him?), Rodgers was evidently more impressed with the native reports of land seen from the Siberian mainland, which had been picked up by the Russian exped– ition of Baron Wrangel in the twenties, than he was by the eyesight report, from the top of Herald Island, of the British expedition under Captain Kellett in the forties; for Rodgers speaks of Wrangell Land, not of Kellett's Land. Nourse sums up the Rodgers testimony: "The Vincennes now ran for Wrangell Land. On the 19th the weather was foggy, masses of ice floated near, and a wall-like barrier [of ice] was before the ship. She was within ten miles of the position of Wrangell Land. . . No land could be seen though it was thought the vision extended six or eight miles in every direction."

When blocked, where he thought Wrangell Land to be, Rodgers decided not to make further efforts in this quarter, for three main reasons, two of them already given, that he was not provisioned for wintering and that he thought it more useful to explore carefully farther south. The third reason was the health of his crew. Many of then had showed signs of scurvy while yet in the Pacific; and when Rodgers now finally headed south from the Herald Island neighborhood "more than twenty men were still on the sick list with scurvy" — they were apparently taking the standard ration of lime juice and, as usual in those days, were neither receiving benefit from the juice nor losing faith in it.

September 5 the Vincennes was back south to where the Brooke party were left behind for scientific studies, and found them in good health. They had been getting along well with the natives, had done a good deal of hunting, had eaten much fresh meat and had suffered no tinge of scurvy. This immunity from the sailor's occupational disease was, of course, not then credited to the fresh meat but, apparently, to greens, which ahd been picked and eaten; for Nourse (who had information from Brooke and from other members of the expedition still surviving in the early 1880's) says of the Vincennes when she arrived to pick up the Brooke party: "A supply of greens was much needed on board the ship, on which more than twenty men were still on the sick-list with scurvy, but the lateness of the season prevented the gathering of anything, except a small quantity of sorrel. A moderate quantity of venison was obtained." Soon thereafter, the crew regained their health on a diet containing the "small quantity" of sorrel and the "moderate quantity" of venison.

The expedition had reached St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, August 31 and had reached Seniavine Strait September 5 to pick up the Brooke party. On the 24th the Vincennes passed south through the Aleutian chain of islands by way of Amukta Pass. On October 13 she was back in San Francisco.

Following their return, Rodgers and some of his officers made various recommendations to the Government for further exploration. Among the regions mentioned as both important and unknown or misknown were the Kurile Islands, Kamchatka and the vicinity of the mouth of the Amur. These recommendations had in mind the development of trading and whaling.

The planning and outfitting of the Ringgold-Rodgers expedition had been under a Secretary of the Navy keen on the value — to commerce, to the whalers and to the Navy — of improved maps and of the study of ocean and air. He had been a chief of the Navy who believed that the increase and diffusion of all forms of knowledge would benefit the nation at large, and all mankind. But the expedition came home under a Secretary who even omitted seeing to it that the usual expressions of formal public appreciation should be forthcoming, especially by Congressional resolution, as Nourse points out. Then followed administra– tions which, as already mentioned, first made extensive preparation for the publication of the expedition reports, which seem to have been universally thought of as valuable in their field. Finally came an administration which failed to secure the necessary money for the printing of the reports. Seemingly the roots of that penny wisdom were in Congress rather than in the Navy.

In 1884 Nourse pleaded that it was not even then too late to publish; for, although Rodgers had died, there still were living several officers and scientists of the expedition who could be consulted, and the records were mainly st ^ i ^ ll extant. But nothing was done.

As to spending a lot of money to gather information and then failing to spend a little more for the preservation of the gained knowledge through publication, the case of Rodgers has been compared to with that of Wilkes. It seems clear, in connection with the failure of Congress to follow through on the Wilkes Antarctic Expedition reports of 1838-42, that influential members of Congress could see nothing much in the proposal beyond pandering to the vanity of a commander and his officers who would naturally like to see a handsome report of their own work in pring; so jealousy of Wilkes seems to have been a factor in the case of his expedition. There does not appear to have been a like cause with Rodgers, for he seems to have been a popular man throughout his life. His promotion was rapid. He became captain in 1862, commodore in 1863, rear admiral in 1869.

A complete biography of Rodgers would no doubt occupy itself largely with his distinguished record in the Civil War, but in a work on the Arctic the next point we note is that when De Long was outfitting the Jeannette he asked help of Rear Admiral John Rodgers, who was then Superintendent of the Naval Observatory. Rodgers was naturally interested in this attempt to take a ship farther north along the old track of the Vincennes , and appears to have been useful to De Long. Later, when the Jeannette's return appeared too long delayed, it was natural that Admiral Rodgers should be made chairman, as he was, of the Navy's Relief Board for the De Long expedition and for the two whaling ships, Mount Wollaston and Vigilant , last seen near Herald Island the autumn of 1879. In this capacity, Rodgers arranged for the 1881 search voyages of the Corwin and the Rodgers .

In his later years Rodgers was prominent in scientific circles, especially those that had some relation to the Navy, and he was one of the charter members in the founding of the National Academy of Sciences. He died in Washington May 5, 1882.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson