Jewish World Review Aug. 4, 1999 / 22 Av, 5759
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.
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. The
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.
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
How the Dead Sea Never did become an American lake
By Herb Geduld
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.
Jewish historian, cultural maven, and JWR contributor Herb Geduld lives in Cleveland.