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In the 1840s, in the middle of the Mexican-American War, the secretary of the Navy authorized Lt. William Francis Lynch to command an unusual expedition east to Ottoman Palestine, now Israel and Jordan, to map the Dead Sea. Horses weren't strong enough, so Lynch improvised with foul-tempered camels to haul metal boats overland from the Mediterranean to theSea of Galilee. Traversing this backwater of a dying empire, he forged life-saving alliances with a Bedouin sheikh and a Hashemite sharif, and he and his men navigated the treacherous, uncharted rapids of the Jordan, braving fatal heat and shortages of food and water before reaching Jerusalem--but why?The expedition followed a long tradition of quasi-scientific expeditions as it tried to establish definitively, where others had failed, that the Dead Sea lay below sea level. But did it generate enough knowledge to justify the expense or the suffering of the fifteen Americans who joined Lynch's obsessive quest? Was it the result of one man's deadly ambition? A religious pilgrimage? A publicity stunt? Or the first step in returning Muslim Palestine to its former glory as a Judeo-Christian land of milk and honey? In vivid, absorbing detail--richly illustrated with engaging historical drawings and maps--Clash of Eagles masterfully recounts this seemingly foolhardy mission and America's first footsteps in the Middle East.

Author Biography

Carol Clark is an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso and has written more than fifty magazine articles, a book about nineteenth-century newspapers, and nine textbooks. The winner of a Fulbright Award to Jordan in 2008 to 2009, she discovered William Lynch's story while at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman.

Review

"Lynch's expedition—and he was the driving force—is a story worth telling and sharing. Clark's book chronicles well their considerable travails on land and sea. She also puts the expedition into the wider context of American history and provides information on previous attempts to study the Dead Sea and figure out the sea level. Given that the Dead Sea is currently disappearing at the rate of one meter per year, the documentation of Lynch and his team provides important benchmarks and data to stand as witness to the sea's conditions before this depletion began."—Barbara A. Porter, director of the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan

Long Description

In the middle of the Mexican-American War, the secretary of the Navy authorized Lt. William Francis Lynch to command an unusual expedition, not south to the war zone, but east to Ottoman Palestine, now Israel and Jordan, to map the Dead Sea. Traversing this backwater of a dying empire, Lynch forged life-saving alliances with a Bedouin sheik and a Hashemite Sharif. Horses weren't strong enough, so he improvised with foul-tempered camels to haul metal boats overland from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. He navigated the treacherous, uncharted rapids of the Jordan and braved near starvation before reaching Jerusalem. But why? The expedition followed a long tradition of quasi-scientific expeditions as it attempted to establish that the Dead Sea lay below sea level--but it didn't generate enough knowledge to justify the expense or the suffering of the fifteen Americans who joined Lynch's obsessive quest. Was it a publicity stunt? Or the first step in returning Muslim Palestine to its former glory as a Judeo-Christian land of milk and honey? In vivid, absorbing detail, CLASH OF EAGLES masterfully recounts this seemingly foolhardy mission that the Civil War soon derailed. Another hundred years would pass before America again involved itself in the Middle East.

Review Quote

"Lynch's expedition--and he was the driving force--is a story worth telling and sharing. Clark's book chronicles well their considerable travails on land and sea. She also puts the expedition into the wider context of American history and provides information on previous attempts to study the Dead Sea and figure out the sea level. Given that the Dead Sea is currently disappearing at the rate of one meter per year, the documentation of Lynch and his team provides important benchmarks and data to stand as witness to the sea's conditions before this depletion began."--Barbara A. Porter, director of the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan

Feature

The gripping, forgotten story of America's first military foray into the Middle East

Excerpt from Book

The caravan of two small boats mounted on carriages, American sailors, and a few Arabs including a dragoman and Mustafa, the cook, turned their backs on the bay at Acre and headed east, moving at the slow rhythm set by the swaying, disagreeable camels. Following what might be better described as a camel track or horse trail than a proper road, they left the coastal plain and headed into the sparsely settled low hills and valleys. Soon they would reach the Galilee mountains, a rugged barrier between the sea on the east, and the Jordan Rift Valley, a fault line bordered on the west by high plateaus. Through the Jordan Rift Valley, often called the Ghor, flowed the Jordan River, which would lead them through lands of unknown and perhaps hostile Bedouin tribes, followed by the desolation of the Dead Sea. Their circuitous route would take them to Jerusalem, fulfilling a dream of a lifetime for Lynch and the sailors. Much was uncertain, but in Galilee, its hills tinted purple and gray at sunset, all knew that adventure lay ahead. --From Clash of Eagles

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