John Kendrick (American Sea Captain) - The Columbia Expedition

The Columbia Expedition

Not much is known about what happened to John Kendrick between the Revolution’s end and his voyage to the Pacific Northwest. A syndicate led by Boston merchant Joseph Barrell financed the Columbia Expedition in 1787. The vessels included were the ship Columbia Rediviva and the sloop Lady Washington.

The command of the larger Columbia was given to Captain Kendrick, then 47 years old, and 32-year-old one-eyed Robert Gray was given Washington. Overall command of expedition was given to Kendrick. The combined crews of the two ships numbered about 40 men, one of them being 19-year-old Robert Haswell, the only one in the crew who kept an account of the voyage that survives today and who came to dislike Kendrick. Second Officer of Columbia was 25-year-old Joseph Ingraham, a veteran of the Massachusetts State Navy and POW during the Revolution, later captain of the Hope that sailed in 1790 to compete in the fur trade, and admirer of Kendrick. The oldest man on the voyage was Simeon Woodruff, who had sailed with James Cook aboard the HMS Resolution on his famous third voyage around the world.

The Columbia Expedition set sail from Boston Harbor on the morning of October 1, 1787, after a brief party with family and friends. The vessels reached the Cape Verde Islands on November 9, where Simeon Woodruff, after a fight with Kendrick, left the Columbia and went onto the islands with all his baggage. A Spanish captain passing by the islands offered to take Woodruff to Madeira and the old man, bitter at Kendrick’s treatment of him, accepted. He eventually returned to America and lived in Connecticut most of the remainder of his life.

Kendrick continued the journey on December 21 and reached Brett's Harbor on the western side of the Falkland Islands on February 16, 1788. While at sea, an argument between Kendrick and Haswell, the 2nd Officer, a friend of the dismissed Woodruff, had arisen over the disciplining of a seaman. He was apparently demoted, but attributed it to Kendrick's wish to hasten the ascent of his own son, John Kendrick, Jr., who was serving as Fourth Officer of Columbia. Haswell also claimed that Captain Kendrick gave the young man permission to take passage on a European- or American-bound ship at the Falklands. But finding none there, Haswell agreed to transfer to the Washington. Kendrick considered wintering in the Atlantic, but was convinced to leave the islands on February 28, heading around Cape Horn instead of through the Strait of Magellan, and into the Pacific Ocean. On April 1, after Kendrick gave the order to at last turn Columbia from a southwesterly course toward Antarctica and to the north, signaling a successful passage around the Horn, the two vessels lost sight of each other, to the relief of Captain Gray.

Kendrick survived the storm and stopped at the Juan Fernández Islands with two men dead and some others sick with scurvy. The Columbia continued sailing north and eventually settled down at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound. The Washington had arrived at Nootka Sound a few weeks before Kendrick. Gray found himself again under Kendrick's command. The Americans found two British ships anchored in Nootka Sound. They were part of a fur trading venture under John Meares—the Iphigenia, under William Douglas, and the North West America, under Robert Funter. Meares had left with his command ship, the Felice Adventurer, after Gray had arrived but before Kendrick had. On October 26, 1788, the British ships left for Hawaii and China.

Once they were gone Kendrick announced that he had decided the expedition would spend the winter in Nootka Sound. They would befriend the native Nuu-chah-nulth people and gain an advantage in the fur trade over the competing British ships. During the winter Kendrick met and established friendly relations with the Nuu-chah-nulth chiefs Maquinna and Wickaninnish.

Kendrick sent the Washington under Gray out on a short trading voyage on March 16, 1789. Gray was to visit Wickaninnish in Clayoquot Sound and cruise south to look for the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He collected many sea otter pelts in Clayoquot Sound and found the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca before returning to Nootka Sound on April 22. Gray found the Iphigenia under William Douglas anchored at Friendly Cove. Kendrick had moved the Columbia to a cove known as Mawina (today called Kendrick Inlet), six miles deeper into Nootka Sound. He had built a fortified a small island and built an outpost on it, with a house, gun battery, blacksmith forge, and outbuildings. Kendrick called it Fort Washington. He had decided that the Columbia was too unwieldy for close sailing on the Pacific Northwest coast. The smaller, more maneuverable Washington was better suited for trading.

Immediately upon arrival the Washington was readied for another voyage. On May 2, days after the British ship Iphigenia set off northward to trade for furs, Gray took the Washington north as well. On the way out of Nootka Sound Gray encountered the Princesa, under Spanish naval officer Esteban José Martínez, who had come to take possession of Nootka Sound for Spain. Martínez informed the officers of the Washington that they were trespassing in Spanish waters and demanded to know their business. Gray and his officers showed him a passport and made weak excuses for being on the Northwest Coast. Martínez knew they were dissembling but let them go, knowing that the command ship Columbia was trapped in Nootka Sound.

Gray returned to Nootka Sound on June 17 to find the Spanish in control, Fort San Miguel built, and the British ships Iphigenia and North West America captured. Martínez had let the Iphigenia leave but kept the North West America. A third British ship, the Princess Royal had arrived and was being detained by the Spanish. The British command ship Argonaut under James Colnett would soon arrive, triggering the Nootka Crisis. The situation on the Northwest Coast was changing rapidly.

On July 15 the Columbia and Washington, under Kendrick and Gray, left Nootka Sound. They sailed south to Clayoquot Sound, where they stayed for two weeks. There, switching vessels, Kendrick ordered Gray to take the Columbia to China, and Kendrick would take the Washington north. Kendrick recognized that with the British driven off out of the trade due to the Nootka Crisis the Americans had a window of opportunity on the Northwest Coast. All the furs in the Washington were transferred to the Columbia and the crews were divided so Kendrick would have a full complement of experienced sailors on the Washington. On July 30 Gray sailed the Columbia out of Clayoquot Sound, making for Hawaii and China.

The reason for this exchange of ships remains unknown, but one reason could be that Kenrick thought the Washington was easier to handle because she was smaller. Whatever the reason, Gray returned to Boston via Canton, later taking a second expedition in the Columbia that would enter the Columbia River on the modern Washington-Oregon border, and result in its naming for the ship.

Kendrick sailed up the coast of Vancouver Island at the end of June. He traded with the Haida and their chief, Coyah, on the Queen Charlotte Islands. One day, some clothes were stolen from the ship. Kendrick had Coyah locked up until the clothes were returned. Coyah was released at the stolen clothes’ return, but he was deeply bitter about the incident. This incident has been cited as the basis for the hatred of the Haida of the "Boston Men" as all American traders were then called. An account of the incident has it that Kendrick had clamped two chiefs to the base of a cannon and threatened to kill them both unless the Indians let him have all of their skins for the price that Kenrick set on the pretext that laundry had been stolen.

Two years later, when Kendrick returned, the Haida had not forgotten this treatment and a battle ensued. The natives captured the arms chest of the Washington. Kendrick and his crew had to retreat below decks. He and his officers fought off the attack. Kendrick, seeking revenge, killed a native woman who had encouraged the attack in the water after her arm had been severed by a cutlass and killed many other natives with cannon and small arms fire as they retreated.