Silas Bent

Silas Bent III (October 10, 1820 – August 26, 1887) was a naval officer in the United States Navy before the American Civil War. Silas Bent sailed both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and was recognized by the Navy for his contributions to oceanography published by the Navy. Silas Bent resigned his commission at the outset of the American Civil War, as his sympathy was for the Southern cause. Early life and family Silas Bent III was born on 10 October 1820 in St. Louis, Missouri, a son of a judge of the Missouri Supreme Court, also called Silas, with deep family roots in Massachusetts Bay Colony. His brothers included the traders William Bent and Charles Bent, the latter being the first territorial Governor of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War (until he was assassinated in the Taos Revolt of 1847). He married Ann Elizabeth Tyler of Louisville, Kentucky on 5 November 1857. They had three children: Mary Lawrence Bent, Lucy (Bent) McKinley, and Silas Bent IV, who was a journalist. U.S. Naval service Bent was appointed midshipman at the United States Naval Academy at age 16 and served in the U.S. Navy for the next 25 years, during which he became well versed in the science of oceanography. He reached the rank of master in 1849 and lieutenant on August 1, 1849. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean five times, the Pacific Ocean twice, rounded Cape Horn four times and the Cape of Good Hope once. Rescuing Americans at Nagasaki He was serving under Commander James Glynn in Preble in 1849 when that brig sailed into Nagasaki, Japan, to secure the release of 18 shipwrecked American sailors imprisoned by the Japanese. He was flag lieutenant in Mississippi, Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship during the expedition to Japan between 1852 and 1854.