Wilkes, Charles, American naval officer; made explorations in the Southern Ocean in 1861; boarded on the high seas the British mail-steamer Trent, and carried off two Confederate commissioners accredited to France, who were afterwards released on the demand of the British Government (1798‒1877).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Wilhelmshaven * Wilkes, John