page_title: John Kendrick (American sea captain)
section_title: Nootka Sound 1788–1789
hierarchical_section_title: John Kendrick (American sea captain) / The Columbia Expedition / Nootka Sound 1788–1789
caption_attribution_description: Abbildung aus der italienische Ausgabe, Neapel 1796
context_page_description: John Kendrick was an American sea captain during the American Revolutionary War, and was involved in the exploration and maritime fur trading of the Pacific Northwest alongside his subordinate Robert Gray. He was the leader of the first US expedition to the Pacific Northwest. He is known for his role in the 1789 Nootka Crisis, having been present at Nootka Sound when the Spanish naval officer José Esteban Martínez seized several British ships belonging to a commercial enterprise owned by a partnership of companies under John Meares and Richard Cadman Etches. This incident nearly led to war between Britain and Spain and became the subject of lengthy investigations and diplomatic inquiries.
  Kendrick was the first American to try to open trade with Japan. He began the Hawaiian sandalwood trade. He was killed by his enemy, Captain William Brown, during a ship cannon salute when one of cannons was loaded, purportedly by accident.
context_section_description: Washington arrived at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound on September 16, 1788, finding another ship already there: Felice Adventurer, under John Meares, a British vessel but flying a Portuguese false flag to avoid paying for an East India Company licence, required of British merchants in China. Two more vessels arrived, Iphigenia Nubiana under William Douglas, who would later partner with Kendrick, and North West America under Robert Funter. The North West America was built at Nootka Sound and launched on September 20. All three vessels were part of a fur trading venture under Meares. After a few days Meares left, and shortly after, on September 22, Kendrick's Columbia arrived. Kendrick re-assumed command of both ships and the expedition as a whole. On October 26, 1788, the remaining two British ships left for Hawaii and China. Once they were gone Kendrick announced that the expedition would spend the winter in Nootka Sound. They would befriend the native Nuu-chah-nulth people and gain an advantage in the fur trade over the competing British ships. During the winter Kendrick met and established friendly relations with the Nuu-chah-nulth chiefs Maquinna and Wickaninnish. Kendrick knew Meares's ships would return after the winter. By staying at Nootka Sound he hoped to preempt the British by getting an early start.
  After the winter, Kendrick sent Washington under Gray out on a short trading voyage to the south. Departing on March 16, 1789, Gray visited Wickaninnish in Clayoquot Sound and cruised south looking for the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He collected many sea otter pelts in Clayoquot Sound and found the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca before returning to Nootka Sound on April 22. Gray found the Iphigenia under William Douglas anchored at Friendly Cove, having arrived on April 19 after wintering in Hawaii. A few days later Funter's North West America arrived, also from Hawaii. Kendrick had moved Columbia to a cove known as Mawina or Mowina, today called Marvinas Bay, about 5 miles (8.0 km) deeper into Nootka Sound. He had fortified a small island and built an outpost on it, with a house, gun battery, blacksmith forge, and outbuildings. Kendrick called it Fort Washington. It was the first US outpost on the Pacific coast. Kendrick intended it to be the foundation of an American presence on the Pacific Northwest coast, and as a headquarters for controlling the fur trade. Over the summer Kendrick used the outpost and his friendship with the Nuu-chah-nulth to collect hundreds of furs from the region.
  Kendrick had decided that Columbia was too unwieldy for close sailing on the Pacific Northwest coast. The smaller, more maneuverable Washington was better suited for trading. Therefore, almost immediately after arriving Washington was readied for another trading voyage. The British captains Douglas and Funter had discovered that Kendrick had control of the fur trade around Nootka Sound and that Gray had been trading in the south. Therefore the North West America set off northward to seek furs and Iphigenia prepared to do likewise. On May 2, days after North West America had left, Gray took Washington north as well. 
  While sailing away from Nootka Sound Gray encountered Princesa, under Spanish naval officer Esteban José Martínez, who had come to take possession of Nootka Sound for Spain. Martínez informed the officers of the Washington that they were trespassing in Spanish waters and demanded to know their business. Gray and his officers showed him a passport and made weak excuses for being on the Northwest Coast. Martínez knew they were dissembling but let them go, knowing that the command ship Columbia was trapped in Nootka Sound.
  Martínez anchored in Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, on May 5, 1789. Within the day Douglas and Francisco José Viana, the nominal captain of the Iphigenia, were meeting with Martínez on Princesa. Kendrick soon arrived and joined them. When questioned about his presence at Nootka Sound Kendrick dissembled, saying Columbia had been badly damaged and the crew suffering from scurvy. They had put into Nootk
caption: Callicum and Maquinna from the Italian translation of John Meares' Voyages (Naples 1796).
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