Naturally the further south they penetrated the greater became their danger from the increasing fields of ice and icebergs.  The Peacock and Flying Fish left Orange Harbor on the same day with the Porpoise and Sea Gull.  They were separated by a gale and the Peacock was continually beset by icebergs.  Every rope and the deck, spars and rigging were thickly coated with ice.  Some days later the Flying Fish was met and she reported that she had penetrated to the parallel of 70 degrees.  There was imminent danger of being frozen in, and, as they were short of provisions, they sailed northward.  The Flying Fish reached Orange Harbor in April, while the Peacock continued on to Valparaiso, where the storeship Relief was found.  In May the other members of the squadron arrived at the port, with the exception of the Sea Gull, which was never heard of again.

The squadron now crossed the Pacific, reaching Sydney, New South Wales, in the latter part of November.  There, after consulting with his officers, Lieutenant Wilkes decided to make another Antarctic cruise.  The Flying Fish proved so unseaworthy that, after passing through a violent storm, she was obliged to return to port and took no further part in the enterprise.

Once more among the ice fields, the ships were menaced by danger from every side.  Some of the escapes were of the most thrilling nature.  One of the ships barely missed being crushed by hundreds of tons of ice which fell from the top of an overhanging iceberg.  The weather was intensely cold and the snow and fine sleet which were whirled horizontally through the air cut the face like bird shot.

The Vincennes prowled along the edge of the Antarctic Continent as far as 97 degrees east, when Lieutenant Wilkes headed northward and arrived at Sydney in March, 1840, and found the Peacock at anchor.  The Porpoise reached 100 degrees east and 64 degrees 65 minutes south when she turned her prow away from the inhospitable solitude and in March arrived at Auckland Isle.

The following summer was spent in exploring the islands of the Southern Archipelago.  A party was engaged in a launch and cutter, when a tempest compelled them to run into a bay of the Fiji group for shelter.  While working its way back the cutter ran upon a reef and was attacked by the natives.  The ammunition of the Americans was wet and they abandoned the cutter and returned to the Vincennes.

Since these natives needed a lesson, Lieutenant Wilkes landed a force and burned the native village.  A few days later an exploring party was again attacked while trying to trade with the natives.  The men were forced to retreat to their boats, under a hot fire, many of the savages using muskets with no little skill.  Reinforcements were landed and the savages put to flight, but in the fighting Midshipman Underwood and Henry Wilkes were mortally hurt and a seaman dangerously wounded.