May 2, 2005 Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 American Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah by Andrew Jampoler AMMAN (JT) — American author Andrew Jampoler delivered a lecture on his newly published book at the Jordanian embassy in Washington, DC on Monday evening as part of the embassy's cultural lecture series. In “Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 American Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah,” Jampoler gives a fascinating account of the little known American expedition down the River Jordan and across the Dead Sea in two small boats in 1848. The mission had a scientific purpose but Lt. William Lynch, the navy officer who led it, was also interested in finding proof of the biblical story of the terrible punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah. His would be the first and last American expedition of exploration on these inland waters. Jampoler told guests that his book is more than an account of the expedition or the biography of William Lynch, according to an embassy statement. It is also a history of 1848, a description of conditions on the distant edge of the collapsing Ottoman Empire and a snapshot of navy life and life at sea during the decade when sails began to give way to steam, and an investigation of what is believed and known about the destruction of the two notorious “cities of the plain.” Jampoler lives in the Lost Corner of Loudon County, Virginia, with his wife Susan, a professional geographer. He is an alumnus of Columbia College and the School of International Public Affairs, both of Columbia University and of the Foreign Service Institute's School of Language Study. His first book, “Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586,” was published in May 2003 by the Naval Institute Press.