- Isaac Strain
Isaac Grier Strain was born
March 4 ,1821 , inRoxbury, Pennsylvania , ofScots-Irish origin, and diedMay 14 ,1857 , in Aspinwall,Colombia . At age 17 he joined the U.S. Navy to apprentice at sea; he became amidshipman .Predisposed to exploration, he participated in an 1843 (1845 by some sources) exploring expedition to the interior of
Brazil , Province of San Paulo. By 1848 Strain was exploring the peninsula of LowerCalifornia , thence to work with the Mexican boundary commission. He was promoted tolieutenant in 1850; was Corresponding Member of theAcademy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; the Historical and Geographical Institute of Brazil; and theAmerican Ethnological Society of New York. As such, and in 1849 exploring parts ofSouth America , he wrote "Cordillera and Pampa, Mountain and Plain: Sketches of a Journey in Chili and The Argentine Provinces in 1849", published inNew York in 1853.Leading a
United States at peace, and in exercise ofManifest Destiny to expand from theAtlantic seaboard to thePacific Ocean, U. S. PresidentFranklin Pierce , taking office in 1852, envisioned an Atlantic to Pacific ship canal route through theIsthmus of Darién , a region also known as theDarién Gap , then located inColombia , presentlyPanama . Henceforth, Secretary of the NavyJames C. Dobbin in late 1853 ordered Lieutenant Strain, by then known for skilled exploration, to form and lead the United States Exploring Expedition [http://home.hot.rr.com/maury/Darien/index.html] into the Isthmus of Darién which started on January 20, 1854.It was in the densely jungled Darién that
France andEngland , to their national purposes, had sent explorers of their own. The Englishman Gisborne had put pen to perhaps fallacious or inaccurate, but certainly misleading, journals that would lend ambiguity to Strain's route for traversing the Gap. The Strain party in part proceeding upon Gisborne's records, thusly wandered circuitously, split, and became plagued by deteriorating equipment, unreliable native guides, malnourishment, footsores, flesh-embedding parasites, and infectious tropical diseases; six of Strain's party of 27 died by starvation. The ill-fated and courageous expedition contributed to future establishments of land routes, railroad, and the eventual linking of the Atlantic andPacific Ocean s by aPanama Canal completed in 1914.Notes
*Commander
Matthew Fontaine Maury of theUnited States Naval Observatory pushed hard for the Darién expedition (as he also did withWilliam Lewis Herndon 's exploration of theValley of the Amazon ) to the Secretary of the Navy. His nephew, Lieutenant John Minor Maury, ("not to be confused with Lieutenant John Minor Maury, M. F. Maury's eldest brother who died of malaria while in the navy)" had been working at the Naval Observatory with his uncle Matthew and was well prepared with both knowledge and equipment. Lieutenant Maury was appointed by Strain as the expedition's 1st assistant-engineer, as well as assistant-astronomer and secretary. Lieutenant Strain later worked on another project for Commander Maury, taking depth "soundings" of the ocean floor of theAtlantic Ocean that were compiled into sea-floor charts.
*The U.S. Naval Observatory was also known as the National Observatory. Both terms were used for ten years until an order was finally passed down to use "Naval Observatory". This is why many old writings of that time use "National Observatory", the original name given when PresidentJohn Quincy Adams signed the bill for its creation.References
*Balf, Todd; "The Darkest Jungle: The True Story of The Darien Expedition and America's Ill-Fated Race to Connect The Seas", 2003, Crown Publishers, New York, ISBN 0-609-60989-0.
*Crosby, Hon. Nathan; "Annual Obituary Notices of Eminent Persons who Have Died in the United States Navy, for 1857," Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Company, 1858, Appendix to v. [1] (p. [408] -432) includes obituary notices for the years 1851 to 1857.
*Strain, Isaac G.; "Cordillera and Pampa, Mountain and Plain: Sketches of a Journey in Chili and The Argentine Provinces in 1849", New York: Horace H. Moore, 1853; Lightning Source, Inc., 2007, ISBN 0548372756; ISBN 9780548372753.
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