Carlile Pollock Patterson

Carlile Pollock Patterson (August 24, 1816 – August 15, 1881) was the fourth superintendent of the United States Coast 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 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 Coast Survey. In 1874, he was made Superintendent of the Coast Survey (and then the successor United States Coast and Geodetic Survey), a position he held until his death.

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) in 1837. They had several children; at least three daughters reached adulthood.

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 Coast Survey from 1838–1841. In 1839 he was an officer of the Coast Survey brig Washington 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.

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