2/29/2024 0 Comments Captain cook nootka soundHowever, Gray's report reinforced Vancouver's conclusion that no river existed, and the British captain proceeded with his plan to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Gray also told the British explorer about the great river he had tried unsuccessfully to enter, explaining that he was on his way to try again. Gray had only been a little way up the Strait, but he provided Vancouver the information he had. Vancouver sent two officers to get information from Gray about the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which he thought Gray had explored on his first voyage. The discrepancy of one day is not uncommon in ship's journals of that time, and may be accounted for by the fact that the two expeditions had sailed in opposite directions to reach the Northwest Coast. Gray's crew recorded the date of the encounter with Vancouver's ships as April 28, 1792, while Vancouver noted it as April 29. ![]() However, Vancouver relied on the reports of an English captain named John Meares (1756?-1809), who investigated the purported river mouth in 1788 and concluded decisively (though wrongly) that no such river existed. Like Gray, he noted signs indicating a river flowing into the ocean. Two days before encountering Gray, Vancouver sailed past the mouth of the Columbia. Vancouver's expedition had left England in 1791, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, explored the South Pacific, and wintered in the Hawaiian Islands, before reaching the Northwest Coast in April 1792. Just before reaching the Strait, the Columbia met the British naval ships Discovery and Chatham, under the command of Capt. Bad weather prevented him from investigating further, and he continued northward toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca. While passing the mouth of the Columbia River, Gray detected a strong current flowing outward, which he had also noted on his first voyage in 1788, and suspected the existence of a major river. In early April, Gray left anchorage and headed the Columbia south, exploring the coast of what is now Washington and Oregon to near the California border, before turning and heading back north. Gray spent the summer and fall of 1791 trading along the coast, and the winter in Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. In September 1790, barely six weeks after returning home, Gray left Boston in command of the Columbia on his second voyage around the Horn to the northwest fur country. ![]() From China, Gray continued on to Boston, becoming the first captain to carry the United States flag around the world. After a year of trading for otter and other furs on Vancouver Island, the captains switched ships, and Gray sailed for China in the Columbia to sell the furs and buy tea. Gray initially captained the expedition's second ship, the sloop Lady Washington. John Kendrick, in command of the ship Columbia Rediviva, led the expedition. In 1787, a group of Boston merchants led by Joseph Barrell outfitted two ships for a voyage around Cape Horn. Reports from British Captain James Cook's 1778 explorations, describing the riches in sea otter furs available on the Northwest Coast, inspired New Englanders to outfit trading expeditions to the region. Robert Gray, born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, on May 10, 1755, was on his second trading voyage to the Northwest. Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806), an American in search of furs, soon finds the Columbia River, which Vancouver, like all prior European navigators, has missed, thus giving the young United States its primary claim to the lands of the Pacific Northwest. Captain George Vancouver (1758-1798) goes on to explore and name much of Puget Sound as well as Vancouver Island. ![]() On April 28 (or 29), 1792, two of the first non-Indian navigators to explore significant parts of what is now Washington meet on the high seas off Cape Flattery, just south of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |