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!
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Narrative of the United States’ Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, by William Francis Lynch, USN, Commander of the Expedition; Philadelphia, Lea and Blanchard, 1849
Naval History and Heritage Command, “Fanny Skinner,” www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/f/fanny-skinner.html,
Naval History and Heritage Command, “Fanny Mason,” www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/f/fanny-mason.html.
USS Supply, Listed under U.S. Auxiliary Ships, www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/AF/af-supply46.html.
“History of the US and Lebanon,” US Embassy, Lebanon.
An excellent context to this expedition is provided by Robert E. Rook, see, https://acorjordan.org/2018/06/20/lieutenant-william-francis-lynch-and-the-21st-century/.
