page_title: John Kendrick (American sea captain)
section_title: The Columbia Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: John Kendrick (American sea captain) / The Columbia Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: A painting showing the Columbia Rediviva, under Captain Robert Gray, heeling as it approaches a squall. It was painted by George Davidson, the ship's artist, in 1793.
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: Not much is known about what happened to John Kendrick between the Revolution's end and his voyage to the Pacific Northwest. A syndicate led by Boston merchant Joseph Barrell financed the Columbia Expedition in 1787. The vessels included were the ship Columbia Rediviva and the sloop Lady Washington.
  The command of the larger Columbia was given to Captain Kendrick, then 47 years old, and 32-year-old one-eyed Robert Gray was given Washington. Overall command of expedition was given to Kendrick. The combined crews of the two ships numbered about 40 men, most hailing from Cape Cod, Boston, Rhode Island, and the North Shore of Massachusetts. Many were veterans of the Revolutionary War.
  The first officer of the Columbia was Simeon Woodruff, the oldest man on the voyage. Woodruff had sailed with James Cook aboard HMS Resolution on his famous third voyage around the world. As such, Woodruff had already been to the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and China.
  The second officer of Columbia was 25-year-old Joseph Ingraham, a veteran of the Massachusetts State Navy and POW during the Revolution. Later, Ingraham became captain of the Hope, which sailed in 1790 to compete in the fur trade. Unlike Gray and Haswell, Ingraham was an admirer and supporter of Kendrick. Ingraham kept a journal of the voyage, but it has been lost. He wrote a separate journal describing Nootka Sound in 1789, which has survived.
  The third officer of the Columbia was 19-year-old Robert Haswell, who kept an account of the voyage that came to serve as the main chronicle of the first two years. He also kept a journal during Gray's second voyage without Kendrick. Haswell came to dislike Kendrick and his journal is very critical of Kendrick's choices and abilities.
  The first officer of the Lady Washington was Robert Davis Collidge. Kendrick also brought two of his sons: Eighteen year old John Kendrick, Jr, as fifth officer of the Columbia, and sixteen year old Solomon Kendrick, as a common seaman.
caption: Columbia heeling as she approaches a squall. Drawing by George Davidson in 1793, who served as the ship's artist.
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