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Robert Gray (sea captain)

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Robert Gray
Occupation(s)merchant sea-captain, explorer
SpouseMartha

Robert Gray (May 10, 1755 – c. July, 1806) was an American merchant sea-captain and explorer who is known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the world by an American ship, in 1790, and perhaps best known for entering and naming the Columbia River, in 1792. He achieved both in connection with trading voyages to the north Pacific coast of North America, which pioneered the American sea-borne fur trade there.

In 1792 Gray sailed the Columbia River, becoming the first white man to navigate into it. This was eventually used as a basis for the United States' claim on the Pacific Northwest.

Earlier life

Gray was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Little is known of his early life. He is said to have served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, but this is not documented. He is known, however, to have served in the Triangular trade of South Carolina, aboard the Pacific.

Captain Gray was a merchant ship captain born in Rhode Island.

Trading Voyages of 1787–1793

First 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. 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. 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. 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 circumnavigated the globe in between 1787 and 1790, in the course of a trading voyage out of Boston, first to the north Pacific coast of North America, to trade for furs, and then to China, to trade the pelts for tea and other Chinese goods. During his first voyage to the northwest coast, Gray was accompanied by Captain John Kendrick, who had remained in the Pacific, in command of the Lady Washington, while Gray traded in China and returned to Boston. 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, including an inland sea north of Nootka Sound. Gray then encountered Captain John Meares of England and relayed this information to him, which led to the British sending out additional ships to explore the coast under the command of Captain George Vancouver. And 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. In China he traded his cargo for large amounts of tea. Gray then continued on west, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and arriving back in Boston on August 10, 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, that took 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 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 merchantile 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.

Circumnavigation

Gray crossed the Pacific to China in 1790, and traded his furs for tea and other Chinese goods. He then carried on westerly, through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic, back to Boston. His return there, August 10, 1790, completed the first circumnavigation of the world by an American vessel.

Second Voyage to Pacific Northwest Coast, 1790-1793

It has been suggested that Gray Sails the Columbia River be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2007.

Return to the Northwest Coast

After his return from that expedition, Gray set sail for the northwest coast again on September 28, 1790, reaching his destination in 1792. Gray and Kendrick rejoined each other for a time, after Gray's return to the region.

On September 28, 1790 Gray again set sail in the Columbia, bound for the northwest coast. On this voyage Gray was sailing under papers of the United States, signed by President George Washington, though he was still a private merchant. Gray and the Columbia arrived back on June 5, 1791, and put in at at Nootka Sound. He sailed as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands during this voyage. There, the traders wintered at a stockade they built and named Fort Defiance. Over this winter the crew built a 30 ton sloop that Gray then named Adventurer, which was launched in the spring with Gray’s first mate, Robert Haswell, in charge.

After wintering on Vancouver Island, Gray set sail again on April 2, 1792 when he left the American trading post of Clayoquot on Vancouver Island. On this journey aboard the Columbia Rediviva Gray noticed muddy waters flowing from shore and decided to investigate his belief that it might be the "Great River of the West". While waiting for favorable weather, Gray spotting a ship and exchanged greetings with her on April 29. This ship was the HMS Discovery commanded by British Naval officer Captain George Vancouver, who doubted that Gray had found a navigable river-mouth.

Once April came Gray and the Columbia sailed south while the Adventurer sailed north. While traveling south, the Columbia encountered Vancouver’s expedition and the two captains met and discussed the geography of the coastlines. Gray told Vancouver about the large river he had attempted to enter in 1788, but Vancouver doubted there was a large river at that latitude. So Gray continued south, leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca on April 30, 1792, trading for more pelts as the ship sailed. On May 7, he took the Columbia into the estuarine bay of Grays Harbor, Washington. (Gray himself actually named this Bullfinch Harbor, but Vancouver's after-the-fact choice was the name that stuck.)

Entering the Columbia

Afterward, Gray carried on south to what was, he rightly suspected, the mouth of a great river, and looked further for a way into it. On May 11 his men discovered what he sought, and he took his ship through it, into the river's estuary. He named it the Columbia River, after his ship, and his discovery would eventually form part of the basis for U.S. territorial claims to the Oregon Country.

The treacherous and shifting sand bar at the mouth of the Columbia River estuary presented a challenge to any ship that attempted to enter the river. In April, Gray attempted to enter the mouth of the river, but bad weather forced him to give up. After sailing north, meeting Vancouver, and spending a time in Grays Harbor, as it later became known, Gray returned to the river. This time he ordered a small sailboat launched to attempt to find a safe passage across the sand bars in the process known as sounding. Finally in the evening of May 11, 1792, Gray's men found a safe channel, and so ship and crew sailed into the estuary of the Columbia River. Once there they sailed upriver and Gray named this large river Columbia after his ship. The natives called the river Wimahl which translated to Big River. Once entering the Columbia’s estuary, according to the ship’s log, they were met by many natives in their canoes, while the crew prepared to take on fresh water. Trading with the locals consisted mainly of exchanging nails and other small iron products for pelts, salmon, and animal meat such as deer and moose. During the nine day trip on the river, the ship traded amongst the natives and collected fresh water while traveling approximately 13 miles upriver. Trading with these natives led to a collection of over 450 animal pelts to be traded in China. In addition to naming the river, Gray also named other landmarks such as Adams Point and Cape Hancock. However, many of these places have since been re-named.

Captain Gray went ashore with his first mate Mr. Hoskins on May 15 where they buried coins and other identifying items to claim the river and surrounding land for the United States. Finally on May 20, Gray and crew sailed from the Columbia, heading north to rendezvous with their sloop Adventurer before setting sail for China.

Second return to Boston

Gray then finished filling his cargo hold with pelts and set sail for China. In Canton, Gray again traded his cargo for tea. He then returned to Boston.

A short time after entering the Columbia River and trading with the natives, ship and crew sailed to China to sell the pelts before returning to Boston in July 1793. Gray's entering of the Columbia eventually was used in support of American claims to the Oregon Country, together with the later Lewis & Clark Expedition. These claims led, ultimately, when the consequent Oregon boundary dispute with Britain was resolved by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, to undisputed American possession of the Pacific Northwest south of what became British Columbia. Upon Gray’s return, though, little was thought of his discovery. He did not publish it and the long-term consequences to which it contributed were unforeseen.

Return

Gray returned to Boston in 1793, after again circumnavigating the globe. On February 3, 1794, he took a wife named Martha, in a marriage performed in Boston by the Reverend John Eliott.

War with France

After the initial voyages to the west coast of North America, Gray became involved in the undeclared war between the United States and France. This Quasi-War was fought entirely at sea between 1798 and 1800, and was related to the Napoleonic Wars. On December 14, 1798, the bark Alert under the command of Gray was carried into the port at Montevideo by a prize crew. The ship had been captured by French privateers on November 17 aboard the La Republicaine and then sailed to this South American Spanish port on the River Plate. Gray and the Alert had been on their way back to the Northwest Coast to trade for furs and then onto China. The ship had set sail from Boston on September 10, 1798, with a cargo of ivory combs, fish hooks, fire arms, blankets, knives, forks, and other small items used to trade with the natives to obtain the pelts they would exchange in China. Upon arrival in Montevideo the cargo and ship were sold as prizes for the French ship. The Alert was then outfitted under Spanish flags with 10 or 12 guns and left port January 11 with a Spanish crew bound for the Pacific.

After returning to the United States, Gray was sent out again. On November 21, 1800, he left Boston on the James. As captain of this schooner Gray sailed to Rio de Janeiro with a cargo of iron and stone ballast. He arrived in port on April 18, 1801.

Later life

He died at sea in 1806, near Charleston, South Carolina, leaving behind his wife and four daughters, who later petitioned the U.S. Congress for a government pension, based on his voyages and a claim that he was a naval officer for the United States Navy during the Revolutionary War.

Legacy

Gray did not publish his geographic discoveries on the estuarine Columbia, nor those elsewhere along the Pacific coast (although Vancouver did so, in England, along with his own explorations, and giving Gray due credit), and at the time they neither gained him any renown nor were considered greatly important. However, the trading opportunities that Gray had pioneered (with regard to his own countrymen, that is) were soon followed up by other New England merchants, with the result that the Indians of the northwest coast came to call Americans "Boston men". Moreover, Gray's priority in entering of the Columbia estuary was later used by the United States as a basis for its territorial claims to the "Oregon Country", as it was called by Americans. To the rival British claimants, "Columbia District" was the most nearly equivalent term, deriving from the river-name chosen by Gray. This eventually leant itself to the name of the mid-19th century British colony and, beginning in 1871, Canadian Province of British Columbia.

Gray's Harbor, somewhat north along the coast from Columbia's mouth is named for Robert Gray. Present day Astoria, Oregon where John Jacob Astor would establish his trading post less than 20 years after Gray’s discovery is situated on the south shore of the Columbia estuary.

Namesakes

Notes

  1. ^ Oregon Blue Book (online)
  2. ^ Greely
  3. ^ Hittell
  4. ^ Kushner
  5. ^ Flora
  6. ^ Lockley
  7. ^ Skinner, Constance Lindsay (1920). Adventurers of Oregon: A Chronicle of the Fur Trade. Yale University Press. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Oldham
  9. Garibaldi Museum
  10. ^ Mussulman
  11. ^ Makela
  12. ^ The American Historical Review

References

Books

  • Greely, Adolphus Washington (1893). Explorers and Travelers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Hittell, Theodore Henry (1885). History of California, v. 3-4. Occidental Publishing. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Kushner, Howard I. (1975). Conflict on the Northwest Coast: American-Russian Rivalry in the Pacific Northwest, 1790-1867.
    Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. xii/227pp. ISBN 08-3717-873-8.     {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Lockley, Fred (1929). Oregon Trail Blazers. New York, NY: The Knickerbocker Press. pp. 369pp. LCCN 29030534. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Journal Articles

  • "The River Plate Voyages, 1798-1800". The American Historical Review. 23 (4): 816–826. July, 1918. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Websites

  • Flora, Stephenie (n.d.). "Captain Robert Gray". The Oregon Territory and its Pioneers: Northwest Explorers. OregonPioneers.com. Retrieved 2006-12-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Garibaldi Museum (n.d.). "Captain Robert Gray". Garibaldi Museum: Maritime History. Garibaldi Museum. Retrieved 2006-12-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Makela, Virginia (n.d.). "Captain Robert Gray". Gray Middle School: History Pages. Tacoma Public Schools. Retrieved 2006-12-26. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

See also

Gray Sails the Columbia River

External links

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