Robert Gray (sea Captain) - Voyage To Pacific Northwest Coast 1787-1790

Voyage To Pacific Northwest Coast 1787-1790

On September 30, 1787, Robert Gray and Captain John Kendrick left Boston in two ships, to trade along the north Pacific coast. They were sent by Boston merchants including Charles Bulfinch. Bulfinch and the other financial backers came up with the idea of trading pelts from the northwest coast of North America and taking them directly to China after Bulfinch had read about Captain Cook’s success doing the same. Bulfinch had read Cook’s Journals, published in 1784, that in part discussed his success selling sea otter pelts in Canton, and thus the American merchants thought they could copy that success. Prior to this, other America traders, such as Robert Morris, had sent ships to trade with China, notably the Empress of China in 1784, but had had trouble finding goods for which the Chinese would trade. Bulfinch’s learning of Cook's pelt-trading solved this problem, so that New England sea merchants could trade with China profitably. Gray might have been the first American to visit the Northwest Coast, but Simon Metcalfe of the Eleanora may have arrived earlier—perhaps as much as a year earlier.

On the voyage of Kendrick and Gray, the ships' cargo included blankets, knives, iron bars, and other trade goods. Both ships had official letters from Congress and passports from Massachusetts for their trading voyage. Kendrick and Gray sailed around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, first stopping at the Cape Verde Islands and the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. In January after passing Cape Horn, the ships encountered a storm that separated the two vessels and damaged the Columbia Rediviva. The damage forced Kendrick to sail for the nearest port, Juan Fernandez. Juan Fernandez was a Spanish port under the control of Don Blas Gonzalez commandant of the garrison. There the Columbia was repaired before sailing for the northwest coast. Meanwhile Gray reached the coast in August. Upon reaching the coast, Gray ran aground attempting to enter a river near 46° in latitude. Here the ship was attacked by natives, with the ship losing one crew member before freeing itself and proceeding north. On September 17, 1788 the Lady Washington with Gray in command reached Nootka Sound.

The Columbia arrived soon after and the two ships wintered at Nootka Sound. They were still in the vicinity when Esteban José Martínez arrived in early May, 1789, to assert Spanish sovereignty. A number of British merchant ships soon arrived as well, and conflict between the Spanish and British resulted in the Nootka Crisis, which almost resulted in war between the two nations. Martínez seized a number of ships, including the Princess Royal. The two American ships were left alone, although Martínez captured a third American ship, the Fair American, when it arrived at Nootka Sound in the fall of 1789. Robert Gray witnessed much of the Nootka Incident.

During their trading up and down the coastlines of what is now British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California the two explored many bays and inland waters. In 1788 Gray encountered Captain John Meares of England. Meares subsequently published reports and maps of the Pacific Northwest that included a voyage by Robert Gray through a large, imaginary inland sea between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Dixon Entrance. When George Vancouver asked Gray about this in 1792 Gray said he never made such a voyage.

In 1788 Gray had attempted to enter a large river, but was unable to due to the tides, this river being the Columbia River. At the outset of the voyage, Gray captained the Lady Washington and Kendrick captained the Columbia Rediviva, but the captains swapped vessels during the voyage, putting Gray in command of the Columbia. After the switch, Kendrick stayed on the North American coast trading for pelts and furs, while Gray sailed their existing cargo of pelts to China, stopping off at the Sandwich Islands en route. Gray arrived in Canton in early 1790 and traded his cargo for large amounts of tea. Gray then continued on west, sailing through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic, arriving back in Boston on August 9, 1790. As such, the Columbia became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe. Although the commercial venture was disappointing, Gray was paraded through Boston for the circumnavigation accomplishment. Accompanying Gray was a Hawaiian native, dressed in traditional Hawaiian dress, who had taken passage on the Columbia. Gray then attended a reception held in his honor by governor John Hancock.

Also on this voyage, Kendrick and Gray were instructed to purchase as much land as they could from native Indians in the region. Kendrick did so on at least two occasions, including on August 5, 1791, when he purchased 18 square miles (47 km2) from a native tribe, near latitude 49°50′N, this purchase occurring while Gray had completed his voyage and since returned.

The success in profits realized by this voyage had the most immediate effect of Gray's setting out for the north Pacific coast again, only six weeks after returning thence. The further effect was that other New England sea merchants began to send vessels of their own thither, to take part in this new trade opportunity, including the dispatch of the Hope in September 1790, under the command of Joseph Ingraham, Gray's first mate on his first voyage. Within a few years, many Yankee merchants were involved in the continuous trade of pelts to China, and by 1801 sixteen American vessels were engaged in this triangular route. These mercantile activities encroached upon territorial claims by other nations to this disputed region, notably those of Spain and of Russia, and in the coming years they would be used in support of American claims the Oregon Country, and would contribute to the limiting to California and to Alaska, respectively, the Spanish and Russian claims.