De Haven, Edwin Jesse, 1816-1865

Naval officer.

From the description of Papers of Edwin Jesse De Haven, 1843-1854. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78240385

Edwin Jesse De Haven was born in 7 May 1816 in Philadelphia. He joined the United States Navy as a midshipman at the age of thirteen. After serving in various vessels in the West Indies and Brazil, he was posted to the Pacific in the sloop Falmouth in June 1837. Falmouth was in Callao at the same time that Charles Wilkes, Senior commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, was there replenishing his crew. De Haven joined the expedition as Acting Master on board the sloop of war Vincennes, which sailed west along the coast of what is today called Wilkes Land, discovering and charting a series of landfalls and appearances of land between longitudes 160°East and 98°East. De Haven transferred to the sloop-of-war, Peacock in August 1840 where he served for the next eleven months as lieutenant. However, in rough weather in July 1841, Peacock ran aground and sank. On 2 September 1841, while serving on the brig Oregon (a replacement ship of the expedition), he received a lieutenant's commission. The expedition reached New York in June 1842.

After the expedition, De Haven saw action in the Mexican War in 1848, commanding the flagship Mississippi in the Gulf Squadron. In 1846, he was appointed to the United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office, serving under Matthew Fontaine Maury, and whilst there he was chosen to lead the first Grinnell expedition, 1850-1851, to the Canadian Arctic in search of the lost British explorer, Sir John Franklin. This United States Franklin Search Expedition covered the Canadian Arctic archipelago combining with the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-1851 (leader Horatio Thomas Austin) and the British Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-1851 (leader William Penny). De Haven's polar career ended after this expedition and he retired from the Navy at the age of forty-six due to failing health. He died three years later on 1 May 1865 in Philadelphia.

From the guide to the Edwin De Haven collection, 1841-1850, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)