Carlile Pollock Patterson (August 24, 1816 – August 15, 1881) was the fourth superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. He was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson. He was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy in 1830. He studied Civil Engineering at Georgetown College, graduating in 1838, and returned to the Navy, assigned to work with the U.S. Coast Survey. He left the Navy in 1853 and captained mail steamers in the Pacific Ocean. In 1861, as a civilian, he was appointed as Hydrographic Inspector of the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1874, he was made Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey (renamed the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878), a position he held until his death. In 1880, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.
Biography
Family
Patterson was born in Shieldsboro (now Bay St. Louis, Mississippi), the son of Captain Daniel Patterson. He was the brother of Admiral Thomas H. Patterson, of Elizabeth Catherine Patterson who married George Mifflin Bache (brother of Alexander Dallas Bache) and of George Ann Patterson who married Admiral David Dixon Porter.
Patterson married Elizabeth Pearson (daughter of Congressman Joseph Pearson of North Carolina) on January 23, 1851, in the Pearson family home "Brentwood" in Washington D.C. They had several children; at least three daughters reached adulthood.
Navy service
Patterson was appointed Midshipman on the US frigate Brandywine in 1830 and served in the Mediterranean Squadron for five years. He was warranted Midshipman in 1831 and Passed Midshipman in 1836. He graduated from Georgetown College in Kentucky as a civil engineer in 1838, and was attached to the United States Coast Survey from 1838 to 1841. In 1839 he was an officer of the Coast Survey brig when it captured the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, which the slaves had taken over, off Montauk, New York. (This incident became the subject of the film Amistad). He was commissioned Lieutenant in 1841. Patterson, as first commander of the Coast Survey schooner Phoenix, led the first USCS hydrographic expedition to the Gulf of Mexico in 1845, and subsequently commanded the Coast Survey steamer Robert J. Walker. He left active naval service in 1849 and resigned from the Navy in 1853.
Steamer captain
Leaving Naval service for the commercial world, he commanded steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, such as the Oregon and the Golden Gate from 1849 to about 1853, primarily running between the West Coast of Panama and San Francisco. His ships sometimes carried as many as a thousand gold-seeking men per voyage north during the California Gold Rush. He appears frequently as ship-captain in the reports of the newspaper The Daily Alta California. When California was made a state by Act of Congress, it was Patterson who brought the news to San Francisco, arriving on October 18, 1850, resulting in city-wide celebrations lasting well into the night.
Shortly after this, Patterson moved his wife and child from Washington, D.C., to Oakland. With James B. LaRue and John R. Fouratt he sought to found one of the first ferry services across San Francisco Bay, fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to provide service against a competitor. It is unclear, however, if he and his partners actually started a separate ferry line, and if so, how long it operated before being sold to another operator or shut down. He also engaged in real estate investments in San Francisco and San Diego. Several more children were born during this time in the Bay Area.
Civil War
In 1861, on the outbreak of the Civil War, the family returned to Washington, D.C. and Patterson returned to federal service, this time as a civilian hydrographic inspector in the Coast Survey. The Hydrographic Inspector was in charge of the charting and marine survey work, and that office was traditionally held by a naval officer. Patterson's experience and good connections let him step into the role smoothly. During the Civil War, the role of the Coast Survey included preparing charts and other material to help Naval ships execute the blockade of Southern ports (the strategy known as the "Anaconda Plan"). He remained in the Coast Survey after the war, eventually becoming its superintendent in 1874. During his superintendency, it was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878.