William Pope McArthur

William Pope McArthur (April 2, 1814 – December 23, 1850) was an American naval officer and hydrologist who was involved in the first surveys of the Pacific Coast for the United States Coast Survey.

Early life McArthur was born in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri to John and Mary (Linn) McArthur. McArthur's maternal uncle, Dr. Lewis F. Linn, was U.S. Senator for Missouri. At Linn's request, McArthur was appointed midshipman in the United States Navy on February 11, 1832. In 1837 he attended the Naval School at Norfolk, Virginia.

During the Second Seminole War (1837–1838), McArthur was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant and placed in command of a small craft. Among the passengers was Joseph E. Johnston, who accompanied the vessel as a civilian topographical engineer. Johnston later served as a general in the United States Army and then the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

McArthur was wounded in both legs by Seminoles at Jupiter, Florida. While one musket ball was pulled from one leg, a ball remained in the other leg. He was sent to the Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, for treatment and convalescence. There he met, courted, and married Mary Stone Young, the daughter of the superintendent of the hospital. Among their children was Lewis Linn McArthur, an Oregon Supreme Court justice.

In 1840 he began a survey of the Gulf Of Mexico aboard the brig .

Survey of the Pacific Coast

On October 27, 1848, A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, instructed McArthur to go to San Francisco, California, to begin "the survey of the Western Coast of the United States." Upon reaching San Francisco, the Ewing and the were hampered from progress in the survey due to desertions of their crews who joined the gold rush, including a mutiny when crew members rowing into the city from the Ewing threw an officer overboard in an attempt to desert to flee to the gold fields. They managed to survey Mare Island Strait

Oregon Territory McArthur and some of his shipmates were quite taken with Oregon and the Willamette Valley, he wrote:The climate is agreeable and healthy. The water is not inferior to any in the world. The face of the country is too uneven to permit as general cultivation, still it will and must soon become a great agricultural and stock growing country. The scenery is beautiful and in some places and some points of view the grandest that the eye ever beheld. Lieutenant Blunt who accompanied him on the expedition even made a land claim on behalf of himself, McArthur and Bartlett. McArthur's uncle, Senator Linn, along with Senator Thomas Hart Benton, had been an advocate of American expansion in the West.

Death McArthur was not to survive the voyage to the United States East Coast in 1850. He became ill on board with dysentery, died, and was buried in Panama. The U.S. Navy purchased the original 956 acres (387 ha) of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on January 4, 1853. McArthur's family share was $5,218.20. in 1867, his body was disinterred and he was reburied on Mare Island.

Namesakes McArthur's name is applied to several ships and geographic features.

Ships

McArthur, a schooner launched in 1876 USC&GS McArthur, a survey ship in service in the United States Coast Survey from 1876 to 1878 and in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) from 1878 to 1915 SS William P. Mcarthur, a Liberty ship launched in 1942 USC&GS McArthur (MSS 22), later NOAAS McArthur (S 330), a survey ship in service in the USC&GS from 1966 to 1970 and in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2003; since 2006 a Blackwater vessel M/V McArthur NOAAS McArthur II (R 330), an oceanographic research ship in service in NOAA since 2003

Geographic features

McArthur Peak, a mountain on Kuiu Island in Alaska McArthur Reef, a reef in the Sumner Strait off Clarence Strait in Alaska