John R. Jewitt - Early Life and Voyage

Early Life and Voyage

Jewitt's father was a blacksmith and trained his eldest son for that trade, intending that John go into one of the learned professions. Accordingly, from the age of 12 he attended an academy at Donnington that provided an "education superior to that which is to be obtained in a common school" (p. 6). He learned Latin, higher mathematics, navigation and surveying. After two years his father withdrew him from school in order to apprentice him to a surgeon at Reasby, in the neighbourhood of the great traveller and naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. Jewitt pleaded with his father to be allowed to learn metalwork instead, and eventually he was allowed to do so. He quickly learned his trade. About a year later (c. 1798) the family moved to Hull, then one of the main ports and trading centres of Britain, where the Jewitt business picked up a lot of custom from the ships.

Jewitt read the voyages of explorers such as Captain Cook and became acquainted with sailors; both of these sources of stories made him wish to travel. In 1802 an American captain, John Salter, invited him to sign on as an armourer to a round-the-world trip on his ship the Boston, out of Boston, Massachusetts. They were to sail in a triangle: first to the Pacific Northwest coast of North America to trade furs with the indigenous people; then to China for further trading; and finally to the home port in New England. Jewitt was offered the chance to settle in the United States at the end of the voyage if he wished. He and the captain persuaded his father, and he signed on for 30 dollars a month. The ship left British waters in convoy on 3 September 1802. Part of his job while on board was to make hatchets, daggers, and knives "for the Indian trade" (p. 15). A month's sail took them to the Island of St. Catherine on the coast of Brazil (today's city of Florianopolis), then around Cape Horn, and straight to Vancouver Island, avoiding the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). The crew, tired of subsisting on salt meat, caught porpoises, which they called "herring hogs" (p. 19), and sharks, which they considered fishes. The captain shot an albatross with a wingspan of 15 feet (p. 20).

Ten weeks after passing Cape Horn, the Boston reached Woody Point in Nootka Sound. Salter decided to stop a few miles from any habitation to get wood and water. The next morning, 13 March 1803, several people from Nootka village, including Maquinna, came aboard to trade. (Jewitt throughout his memoirs refers to Maquinna as a king, and those subordinate to him as chiefs.) Because of the frequent British and American trading ships, Maquinna had learned enough English to communicate. Generally there was cordiality and friendliness between his people and the visiting ships, although Captain Salter took the precaution of having them searched for weapons before allowing them to come aboard. Salter gave Maquinna a fowling piece (shotgun) as a present, which was somehow broken, leading to harsh words from the captain and suppressed rage on the part of Maquinna, who decided to take revenge for offences committed by previous European ships over the years.

On 22 March 1803, the day before the Boston intended to set sail, many Nootka came aboard to trade and were given dinner. At a signal, the Nootka attacked, and all but two of the white men were killed. Jewitt suffered a serious head injury but his life was saved by Maquinna, who saw how useful it would be to have an armourer to repair weapons. (One other man—the Boston's sailmaker, John Thompson—was in hiding until the next day, when Jewitt pretended to be his son and begged Maquinna to spare his "father".) Maquinna asked Jewitt if he would be his slave and Jewitt assented under duress, as the alternative was immediate death (p. 31). This was the beginning of his three years among the Nootka.