Past and Present

Jewish World Review Aug. 4, 1999 / 22 Av, 5759


How the Dead Sea Never did become an American lake



By Herb Geduld

AMERICAN NAVY SHIPS which now regularly dock at Israel's main port of Haifa are following a little-known, but time-honored tradition. The United States Navy first landed in force at Haifa over 140 years ago, in February, 1848.

Econophone The "flotilla" which disembarked on the Haifa beaches consisted of two large rowboats, two officers and nine crewmen. Their commanding officer, Navy Lt. William Francis Lynch, a veteran of the Mexican War, had convinced the United States Navy Department to launch an exploration of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to establish a new American trade route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

Lynch's oversized rowboats had been outfitted to be carried on special wagons. A team of camels, in fact, dragged them overland from Haifa to Tiberias, where the party spent a week surveying the Sea of Galilee. In Early April, the "mighty" expedition began. Lynch divided his forces, half in water and half on land, and slowly the party marched along the banks and floated down the Jordan River.

It took Lynch's expedition nine days and more than 200 crooked miles to follow the course of the Jordan from the Kinneret to the Dead Sea, a trip now made by bus in Israel in less than three hours. Lynch's party camped along the riverbanks at night, lit fires and set up sentries for protection against marauding Bedouins. Leiters SukkahThe Bedouins never came and the entire expedition was a peaceful interlude from start to finish.

When Lynch reached the springs of Ein Gedi, he named them Camp Washington -- an appellation which thankfully has been forgotten -- and set up his base camp for exploration of the Dead Sea at this oasis. Lynch's party spent a number of weeks surveying the oppressively hot sulfurous area of the Dead Sea. Their studies of geology, zoology, and archeology of this inhospitable region were pioneering efforts in the study of the Holy Land.

The heat and barometric pressure of the lowest point on the face of the earth eventually caught up with the expedition. The men began to suffer severe headaches and drowsiness which dulled their reactions to a walking stupor. Lynch took apart his boats and built a small raft on which a small raft on which he placed the American flag. He moored this craft in the center of the Dead Sea, "claiming" it in the name of the United States, and then his party journeyed overland to Jerusalem where they were warmly received by the British consul.


Thirteen months after launching his expedition, Lynch returned to the United States and submitted his report to the Navy. Although Lynch's efforts proved that a water route from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea was impractical, the reports aroused American interest in Palestine and encouraged the popular interest in the exploration of the country in both America and England.

Lynch remained in the Navy until the Civil War, when this Palestine pioneer became the commander of the Confederate naval forces at Vicksburg, and then along the Potomac. Lynch's raft and flag sank into oblivion, and the Dead Sea never did become an American lake.


Jewish historian, cultural maven, and JWR contributor Herb Geduld lives in Cleveland.


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©1999, Herb Geduld