Namesakes
The United States Navy named two destroyers USS De Haven in his honor.
Edwin Jesse De Haven | |
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| Born | May 7, 1816 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 1, 1865 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Buried | Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Commands | USS Advance (First Grinnell Expedition, 1850) |
Edwin Jesse DeHaven (May 7, 1816 –May 1, 1865) was a United States Navy officer and explorer of the first half of the 19th century who was best known for his command of the First Grinnell expedition in 1850, which was directed to ascertain what had happened to the lost Franklin Polar Expedition. [1]
Born in Philadelphia on May 7, 1816, De Haven became a midshipman at the age of 10, serving until 1857. From 1839 to 1842, he participated in the Wilkes Expedition, officially known as the United States Exploring Expedition.
His most notable achievement was serving as commanding officer of the Advance. Together with Rescue, the ship participated in the First Grinnell expedition, an Arctic search mission to discover the remains of John Franklin's earlier, 1847, Arctic expedition. The two ships left New York on May 5, 1850. De Haven and his crew were at sea for 16 months, spending the winter inside the Arctic Circle. [2]
After returning from the expedition, De Haven served in the United States Coast Survey before spending the rest of his career at the United States Naval Observatory under superintendent Matthew Fontaine Maury.
Suffering from impaired vision, he was placed on the retired list in 1862. He died in Philadelphia May 1, 1865, and was interred at that city's Christ Church Burial Ground.
The United States Navy named two destroyers USS De Haven in his honor.
Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares was a Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. He commanded the Challenger Expedition, and the British Arctic Expedition. He was highly thought of as a leader and scientific explorer. In later life he worked for the Board of Trade and as Acting Conservator of the River Mersey.
Sir John Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, during the Coppermine expedition of 1819 and the Mackenzie River expedition of 1825, and served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843. During his third and final expedition, an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1845, Franklin's ships became icebound off King William Island in what is now Nunavut, where he died in June 1847. The icebound ships were abandoned ten months later, and the entire crew died from causes such as starvation, hypothermia, and scurvy.
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842).
HMS Resolute was a mid-19th-century barque-rigged ship of the British Royal Navy, specially outfitted for Arctic exploration. Resolute became trapped in the ice searching for Franklin's lost expedition and was abandoned in 1854. Recovered by an American whaler, she was returned to Queen Victoria in 1856. Timbers from the ship were later used to construct the Resolute desk which was presented to the President of the United States and is located in the White House Oval Office.
Rear Admiral Lewis Ashfield Kimberly was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and the years following.
Rear-Admiral Frederick William Beechey was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer.
Vice-Admiral Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure was an Irish explorer who explored the Arctic. In 1854 he traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge, and was the first to circumnavigate the Americas.
Elisha Kent Kane was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer. He served as assistant surgeon during Caleb Cushing's journey to China to negotiate the Treaty of Wangxia and in the Africa Squadron. He was assigned as a special envoy to the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and as a surveyor in the United States Coast Survey.
The first USS Advance was a brigantine in the United States Navy which participated in an Arctic rescue expedition. Advance was built in 1847 as Augusta in New Kent County, Virginia and loaned to the Navy on 7 May 1850 by Henry Grinnell to participate in the search for Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition which had been stranded in the frozen north since 1846. After last-minute preparations, the ship, under the command of Lieutenant Edwin J. De Haven and in company with Rescue, put to sea from New York on 23 May 1850.
Sir Horatio Thomas Austin was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer.
HMS Terror was a specialised warship and a newly developed bomb vessel constructed for the Royal Navy in 1813. She participated in several battles of the War of 1812, including the Battle of Baltimore with the bombardment of Fort McHenry. She was converted into a polar exploration ship two decades later, and participated in George Back's Arctic expedition of 1836–1837, the successful Ross expedition to the Antarctic of 1839 to 1843, and Sir John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to force the Northwest Passage in 1845, during which she was lost with all hands along with HMS Erebus.
George Wallace Melville was a United States Navy officer, engineer and Arctic explorer.
USS De Haven (DD-727), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Edwin J. De Haven. De Haven served aboard the Vincennes, flagship of the Wilkes Expedition, officially known as the United States Exploring Expedition, from 1839 to 1842. De Haven also served in the Mexican–American War, assisting in the capture of the Mexican schooner Creole. He was placed on the retired list in February 1862. He died in Philadelphia on 1 May 1865.
The first USS Rescue was a brig in service with the United States Navy.
Sir James Clark Ross was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of both the northern and southern polar regions. In the Arctic, he participated in two expeditions led by his uncle, John Ross, and in four led by William Edward Parry: in the Antarctic, he led his his own expedition from 1839 to 1843.
Henry Grinnell was an American merchant and philanthropist.
Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he twice volunteered to take part in missions to search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage. He also took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in June 1857 during the Second Opium War.
Grinnell Land is the central section of Ellesmere Island in the northernmost part of Nunavut territory in Canada. It was named for Henry Grinnell, a shipping magnate from New York, who in the 1850s helped finance two expeditions to search for Franklin's lost expedition.
The First Grinnell expedition of 1850 was the first American effort, financed by Henry Grinnell, to determine the fate of the lost Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. Led by Lieutenant Edwin De Haven, the team explored the accessible areas along Franklin's proposed route. In coordination with British expeditions, they identified the remains of Franklin's Beechey Island winter camp, providing the first solid clues to Franklin's activities during the winter of 1845, before becoming icebound themselves.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History and Heritage Command . This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .| International | |
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