Silas Bent (naval officer)

Infobox Military Person
name = Silas Bent
lived = 1820-1887
placeofbirth = St. Louis, Missouri
placeofdeath = Shelter Island,
Long Island, New York


caption =
nickname =
allegiance = U.S.
serviceyears = 1836-1861
rank = Lieutenant
branch = U.S. Navy
unit = Hydrographic Division of the Coast Survey
battles = Nagasaki, Japan, rescue mission
awards = published hydrographic surveys of Japanese waters

Silas Bent was born on 10 October 1820 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a naval officer in the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War. Silas Bent sailed both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and was recognized by the Navy for his contributions to oceanography which were published by the Navy. At the outset of the American Civl War, Silas Bent resigned his commission, as his sympathy was for the Southern cause.

U.S. Naval service

Bent was appointed midshipman at age 16 and served in the U.S. Navy for the next 25 years, during which he became well versed in the science of oceanography. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean five times, the Pacific Ocean twice, rounded Cape Horn four times and the Cape of Good Hope once.

Rescuing Americans at Nagasaki

He was serving in "Preble" in 1849 when that brig sailed into Nagasaki, Japan, to secure the release of 18 shipwrecked American sailors imprisoned by the Japanese. He was flag lieutenant in Mississippi, Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship during the expedition to Japan between 1852 and 1854.

Hydrographic surveys

He made hydrographic surveys of Japanese waters. The results of his survey were published by the government in 1857 in "Sailing Directions and Nautical Remarks: by Officers of the Late U.S. Naval Expedition to Japan".

Resigned due to Southern sympathies

In 1860, Lt. Bent was detailed to the Hydrographic Division of the Coast Survey, but resigned from the Navy on 25 April 1861 at the outbreak of the American Civil War, apparently because of Southern sympathies.

Final years

He returned to St. Louis upon resigning from the Navy and took up the management of his wife's estate. Lt. Bent died on 26 August 1887 at Shelter Island, Long Island, New York, and was buried in Louisville, Kentucky.

Honored in ship naming

The USNS|Silas Bent|T-AGS-26, an oceanographic survey ship, was named in his honor in March 1964.

ee also

* Bakumatsu
* U.S. National Geodetic Survey
* Hydrography

Reference

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