This book tells the story of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, the last all-sail expedition to circumnavigate the globe. The expedition was a European-style jaunt combining the aims of exploration, science and conquest. Its three goals were to find land below the Antarctic Convergence, chart as many Pacific islands as possible (many of these charts were still in use during World War II), and chart the mouth of the Columbia river (then controlled by England).

It accomplished all that and more, including the first--but highly contested--sighting of the Antarctic continent. The expedition was a stunning accomplishment, one that deserves a place in popular memory alongside the Lewis and Clark expedition. But when the expedition returned to the U.S., it was mired in political controversy and scandal -- many officers, including the expedition's leader, Charles Wilkes, faced courts martial, and the expedition's scientific accomplishments were buried by a White House administration with an axe to grind.

I read this book because of my Antarctic obsession (which seems to be morphing into a South Pacific obsession), but it is a well-written, fast-paced history that is exciting and endlessly interesting -- I'd recommend it to anyone.