Stars and Stripes in Palestine

The brooding ancient citadel loomed over the “Album Promontorium” of the ancient Romans, the wide bay of Acre on the Levantine coast. Akka, in its Arabic connotation, was a fortress city famed throughout history as a launching point of merchants, travelers, Crusaders, and dreamers to the mysteries of the East. Here the USS Supply hove to and released its intrepid landing party, which fought desperately through surf to shore. Such was the scene as the U.S. naval vessel anchored off the coast of the Ottoman Levant in 1848. By turns employing charming or business-like prose, but with unfeigned romantic allusions, Lieutenant William F. Lynch, commanding officer, recounted with boyish spirit and professional precision the many adventures of his remarkable expedition. Indeed so perilous was his arrival, Arab fishermen rescued several of his sailors tossed into the waters!

With courage, confidence, and not a little luck, they set off to explore, research, map, and report on the natural conditions and populations along the River Jordan. Then they would circumnavigate the Dead Sea, sounding, testing, and recording all manner of topography, assessing minerals, soils, inlets and natural development.

Lynch had little to guide him. Indeed, his enthusiasm much exceeded his technical resources. He cites his use of the writings by the first-century historian Titus Flavius Josephus. This Roman-era traveler’s anecdotal observations were dramatically imaginative, somewhat accurate, but only erratically true. Lynch also employed the recently published maps by Royal Navy officers James Sterling and James Mangles of parts of modern Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. These were made some 20 years earlier using modern survey instruments. Ominously, a more recent British expedition had been slaughtered along the river they set out to explore.

Lynch was an intrepid officer of the newly victorious U.S. Navy, which then stood watch off the coast of recently defeated Mexico. He proposed to his superiors, absent further requirements off Vera Cruz, Mexico, that he should take an ambitious expedition into the Levant. There, accompanied by horticultural and other naturalists, zoological collectors, and surveyors, he would evaluate the prospects of the country. Discovery as well as topographical inquiry carried this project forward, not to mention an element of pride in the new, unprecedented idea of a republic. So, as had once accompanied Napoleon's army to Egypt, or Alexander von Humboldt's explorations of South America, he would make maps, confirm vegetation, test soundings, and observe natural phenomena for the U.S. government. In all, an audacious plan, but one in spirit with the new, exuberant nation.

After gaining a firman, or permission document from the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople, they journeyed back through the Bosporus to Beirut, in the Levant. With local advice secured in Beirut from a Reverend Eli Smith, Lynch engaged an intelligent young Syrian, Ameuny, as dragoman, to translate for them. In addition, a Dr. Anderson from New York joined them, as the health of previous Western travelers cried out for professional medical attention. Time was pressing, as they desired to be on the rivers in the high water season. To that end, even the wonders of the cedar covered mountains beyond Beirut were passed without visitation.

From Beirut they traveled again by sea to the town named in Crusader times after the church of St. Jeanne d’Acre. Once landed south of the River Belus, the naval expedition raised, for the first time ever in Palestine, the Stars and Stripes of the United States over their encampment. Here, they secured their gear, purchased horses, and planned their course as best they could. So it was that Lynch's remarkable caravan command was organized. Not without woe, they discovered the horses were less than helpful. Neither screaming nor cudgels could get them to carry loads. Recriminations with the Arabs who brought them, howls of anger and frustration characterized “a day of tribulation.” Salvation came when camels were bought “and proved successful! My heart throbbed with gratitude as the huge anmals marched off with the boats with perfect ease.”

Lynch brought along two boat-sized, canoe-like vessels to travel the length of the various rivers expected near the source of the Jordan. One was made of copper, the Fanny Mason, and one of galvanized iron, the Fanny Skinner. Later, a third of wood would be purchased, named The Stars and Stripes. Each could hold roughly ten men, the latter piloted by Arabs. The expedition’s American sailors were selected for their hardiness, for the dangers, physical stress, and incalculable natural encounters could only be bested by stout-hearted men. To cross from their camp through the interior to the headwaters of the rivers, Lynch affixed “trucks” with wheels to his boats. These wheeled boats could carry burdens while not being a burden themselves. Ingeniously, he had the boats made so they could be segmented and easier to transport over mountainous passes. One item of maximum importance, however, was a flag attachment. The Stars and Stripes, affixed to the stern of a canoe, would fly wherever they went. So it was that the boats Fanny Mason and Fanny Skinner, “bearing the stars and stripes, the noblest flag of freedom now waving in the world," were the first to fly the flag in Palestine’s countryside. This remarkable decision allowed an accompanying artist to show how the new U.S. flag was displayed throughout their travels for the first time in history. In no less than two artistic renderings, the United States is represented by the flag which accompanied its finest sailors through that most ancient of lands.

And so the expedition began. Translators could bargain for food, prepared by a renowned cook procured in Beirut. Agricultural assessments “of the nature of the soil, in which grapes of extraordinary size are said to grow,” mapping, water and wind measurements, “fish within the depths,” river flow, the consistency of mountains, and mineralogical and horticultural specimen collection characterized each encounter along the way. Bedouin tribesmen were engaged to carry some expedition belongings and serve as mounted guards. These tribesmen would ride parallel to the riverine course as best they could, and bring along the camels that otherwise pulled the boats. There being no roads, the Arabs followed animal tracks, local paths, or widely divergent trails when possible. Such an adventure was not lost on Lynch, who periodically waxed poetic in his discussions of what he and others saw. A devout sailor, he also drew direct, if sometimes fanciful correspondence between natural discoveries and Biblical references:

We this day passed through the narrowest part of the land of the tribe of
Asser into that of Zebulon, where
‘Night threw her sable mantle o’er the earth,
And pinned it with a star.’

Captivating too is his description of even prosaic views:

When the wind, sweeping down the gorges of the hills passed over the plains, a broad band of crimson marked its course. For the wild grain, light and elastic, bent low, and revealed the flowers beneath—presenting the appearance of a phantom river of blood, suddenly issuing from the earth, to reappear elsewhere, at the magic breath of the breeze.

The adventurers wandered downriver, often rowing like peaceful lake enthusiasts. Indeed, the men were generally “laughing and merry.” Mostly, however, encountering seemingly endless rapids, they would disembark and swim alongside their boats. With less weight, the vessels were guided past spitted, angular rocks lurking in the shallows. Discoveries were plentiful. Rock ledges often served as overnight refuges, but sailors were compelled to swim, push, row, and repeat for days on end. The “clumsy jointed, splay footed, wry necked, vicious camel” was compelled along when they linked up with the parallel Bedouin guardians. Lynch, ever the cognizant and caring leader, carefully kept his men well fed, rested “after the day’s exertions,” and well protected. The silence of day’s end was itself noteworthy:

There was something in this solitude. In these spots forsaken  and alone in their hopeless sterility and weird silence—that begat reflection, even in the most thoughtless. In all this dreary waste everything had retired, exhausted, from the withering heat and blinding glare. Silence, the fit companion of desolation, was profound.

Bedouin tribesmen and sailors would stand watch together, becoming friends in the process. Although common enough for this era, racial castigations are made now and then. Yet, astounding even to modern ears are his comments that his personal Arab or Bedouin associates were friends, a term rarely employed in such times. Sailing together, then as now, made shipmates.

The jagged fissures, steep imposing valleys, and relentless rock formations, garlanded by vegetation but little, if any, agriculture, were described in excruciating, professional detail. Only the Jordan, “The sacred river! Its banks fringed with perpetual verdure” brought joy to his sun-seared eyes. Lynch’s professional naval observations of the width of rivers, depths, rock hindrances, temperatures, and winds were constantly applied, dated, and recorded as in a ship’s log. Maps made by Lynch’s expedition were used for more than a hundred years.

Dangerous adventures were prevalent. Noteworthy is the value of his dragoman. Ameuny not only advised on language matters, but also argued profusely on Lynch’s behalf, and was culturally attuned to the region. He reliably advised whether the sailors slept with weapons ready or with restful ease. He knew the area sheiks, requirements, and customs along their route. Comically, the entire entourage of Arab guards rode away upon coming to the ruined bridge of Semakh. It was considered a duty for the reigning local sheik to host any passersby with a feast, provided they pay obeisance to him in their travels.

Our Bedawin determined to avail themselves of the privilege. Nothing could be more picturesque than their appearance as they forded the stream, and galloped over the hill to Semakh. What a supper they will have! A whole sheep and buckets of rice! Happily, the Arabs returned, well fed and jolly.

Biblical allusions were also “guides” to Lynch’s expedition. He thought he had discovered the salt statue of Lot’s wife. Indeed, he believed the Dead Sea covered “the guilty cities” of Sodom and Gomorrah. With but one exception, recent Western travelers were either murdered along the route he had taken, or did not go far enough south to see “the torn and riven” salt mountain which could only be that of Lot’s wife. He felt this confirmed when he observed that the Dead Sea seemed to be a drowned plain, the plain of the doomed cities. 

His scholars came voluntarily, as such a trip was to be had but once in any lifetime. Indeed, they brought back so many specimens that at one point they filled three camels and had them sent on to Jerusalem to make room to collect more.

Lynch’s mapping was his hallmark. Such careful soundings, observations, and measurements were helpful in future expeditions. His government-subsidized mission East was accomplished through caring leadership and hardy naval seamanship. “More zealous, efficient and honorable associates could not have been desired,” Lynch said of his civilian associates. “They were ever in the right place, bearing their full share of watching and privation.” Further, he conveys his appreciation of their dragoman, whose excellent liaison, built through knowledgeable translation and respect for local customs, ensured they traveled safely though utterly unknown regions.

Lynch’s almost lyrical writing conveys everything from the colors of clothing to the habits of the people, and a humane appreciation of the region’s inhabitants. He and his shipmates were tried, but remained high spirited and proud of their naval fellowship and their mission.