The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-28

On the morning OF the Sth of Sep
TENDER, 1910, two ships were running
side by side before a fresh Southwestern
ly breeze off Sandy Hook, New York.
one was the United States ship Con-
stitution, Captain Isaac Hull: the other
was the full-rigged ship Tonquin, of
two hundred and ninety tons burden.
This little vessel was captained by
one Jonathan Thorn, who was at the
time lieutenant in the United States
navy. He had obtained leave of alb
sence for the purpose or making a
cruise in the Tonquin. Thorn was a
thoroughly experienced seaman and
a skilled and practised navigator. He
was a man Of magnificent courage
with fine war record
He was with Decatur in the Intrepid
when he put the captured PHILADELPHIA
TO flames six years before. In the subse-
quent desperate gunboat-fighting at
Tripoli Mfdshipman Thorn had borne so
distinguished a part that he received
special commendation by Commodore
Preble. As to his other qualities, Wash
ington Irving, who knew him from
infancy, writes of him to the last
with a warm affection which nothing
could diminish.
Mr.. John Jacob Astor, merchant. fur
Thorn as the best man to take the ship
bearing the first representatives of the
Pacific Fur Company around the Horn
and up to the far northwestern Amer
lean coast to make that first settlement
at Astoria. whose history is so inter-
woven with that of our country
Mr.. Astor already monopoliZ,sd the
fur trade of the Far West south of the
Great Lakes. His present plan was
to form a fur company and establish a
series of trading posts along the Mis-
souri, River, reaching overland across
the Rocky Mountains until they joined
the posts on the Pacific. The place
he selected for his Pacific depot was the
mouth of the Columbia River.
The principal rival of the Astor Fur
Trading Company was the Northwest
Company. Aston tried to persuade the
company to Join him in his new venture.
When it refused to do so as an organi-
cation, he approached individual en-
ployees of the company, and in 1910
formed the Pacific Fur Company.
Among the incorporators We're four
Scottish Canadians, Messrs Mckay,
McDougall David Stuart, and Robert,
his nephew. There were several other
partners, including Wilson Price Hunt,
of New Jersey.
It was planned that Hunt should lead
an overlandsexpedition from st. Louis,
while the four Scotsnen mentioned
went around the Horn, and that they
should meet at,the mouth of the Column
bia River. where the trading post was
to be situated. Most of the employees
of the company We're Canadians who
had large experience in the fur busi-
ness. Among these We're included
number of French voyageurs.
Thus the Tonquin, owned by Ger
man, captained by an American. with
a crew including Swedes, French, Eng
Iish, negroes, and Americans, carrying
out a party of Scottish and French
Canadians and one Russian, started on
her memorable voyage to establish Il
trading post under the American f1agi
The crew of the Tonquin numbered
twenty-one men. The number of pas
sengers was thirty three.
The story of her voyage is related in
the letters of the captain to Mr.. Astor,
and more fully in quaint and curl
Gus French journal published at Mont
real in 1919. by NJ. Gabriel Franchere,
one of the Canadian clerks who made
the voyage.
The Tonquin was pierced for twenty
guns, only ten small ones being mount
ed. The other ports were provided with
imposing wooden dummies. She had
high poop and a topgallant forecastfe.
The four partners, with James Lewis,
acting captains clerk, and one other,
with the two mates, slept in the cabin
or ward-room below the poop, in which
was the captains cabin Forward of
this main cabin was a large room ex-
tending across the ship. called the
steerage in which the rest of the clerks,
tine mechanics, and the Canadian boat
men were CHARTERED.
Thorn seems to have felt to the full
all the early naval officers utterly UNI
merited contempt for the merchant SER
vice. It is also the unfortunate habit
of the Anglo-Saxon to hold the French
in contempt on the sea. The Canadians
were wretched sailors, and Thorn de-
spised them. Thorn also cherished a
natural hatred toward the English, who
were carrying things with a high hand
on our coast. He began the voyage
with a violent prejudice against the
four partners on his ship. Indeed, the
Constitution had conveyed the Tonquin
to sea because it was rurored that
British war-brig intended to swoop
down upon her and take off the English
subjects on board. 1t was quite evil
dent that war would shortly break out
between England and the United States,
and the Scottish partners had surrep-
consulted the English consul
as to what they should do if hostilities
began. They were informed that in
that case they would be treated as
British subjects-a fine situation for an
American expedition.
With such a spirit in the captain, and
=. Q .. % o... e.s.s .s.e
The Body a Poison Factory.