Carlile Pollock Patterson

(1816-1881)

Sea captain, hydrographer, Head of USC&GS

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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.