"rival British claimants called the more southerly portion of this disputed area the Columbia District, which they derived from the river-name chosen by Gray. Columbia District eventually lent itself to the name of the mid-19th-century colony of British Columbia. When that colony joined Canada in 1871, it became the existing province of British Columbia. Robert Gray (sea captain) Robert Gray (May 10, 1755 – ""c."" July, 1806) was an American merchant sea captain who is known for his achievements in connection with two trading voyages to the northern Pacific coast of North America, between 1790 and 1793, which pioneered the"
"who was subsequently later known as ""Captain Hanna"" as a consequence of an exchange of names in accordance with local custom. But his success in trading for pelts was limited, and shortly after his arrival in Macao in early 1787 he died before he was able to make a planned third voyage to America. James Hanna (trader) James Hanna (?-1787) was the first European to sail to the Pacific northwest to trade in furs. This Maritime fur trade was an important factor in the early history of the Pacific Northwest and the westward expansion of the United States and Canada."
"1778, during James Cook's third voyage, and by land in 1793, when Alexander Mackenzie's transcontinental explorations reached the Pacific. The first British maritime fur trader, James Hanna, arrived on the Northwest Coast in 1785. The first American traders, Robert Gray and John Kendrick, arrived by sea in 1788. The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived overland in 1805. The early maritime fur traders were explorers, as well as traders. The Northwest Coast is very complex — a ""labyrinth of waters"", according to George Simpson— with thousands of islands, numerous straits and fjords, and a mountainous, rocky, and often very steep shoreline."
"James Hanna (trader) James Hanna (?-1787) was the first European to sail to the Pacific northwest to trade in furs. This Maritime fur trade was an important factor in the early history of the Pacific Northwest and the westward expansion of the United States and Canada. In December 1780, the ships of James Cook’s third expedition, ""Resolution"" and ""Discovery"", called at Canton on their return voyage from the North Pacific. While there, the crews of the ships enjoyed unexpected success in selling for high prices the sea otter pelts they had obtained for trinkets on the North West Coast of"
"ship captain born in Rhode Island, who circumnavigated the globe between 1787 and 1790 on the ""Columbia Rediviva"", a trading voyage out of Boston, Massachusetts. He traveled 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. After his return from that expedition, Gray set sail for the northwest coast again on September 28, 1790, reaching his destination in 1792. During his first voyage to the northwest coast, Gray was second-in-command of the ""Columbia Rediviva"" under Captain John Kendrick, who remained in the"
"was James Hanna from Macao in 1785. Robert Gray in 1787 was the first American. This Maritime fur trade reached its peak about 1810, drew many ships into the Pacific and drew Canadians and Americans to the coast. The first Pacific whaling ship left London in 1788 and by the nineteenth century there were hundreds of whaleships in the Pacific each year. Clipper ships cut the sailing time from Europe to the Pacific. England founded a colony in Australia in 1788 and New Zealand in 1840. After about 1800 England began to replace the Dutch Republic along the Asian coast."
"year were using Hawaii (then called the Sandwich Islands) as a temporary base. Shortly after the United States gained independence in 1783 trade was instituted from East Coast ports with the West Coast to gather furs in the Maritime Fur Trade to trade with China for porcelain, silk, spices etc.. British Royal Navy commander George Vancouver sailed up the west coast past the mouth of the Columbia River and in April 1792 and observed a change in the water's color, which implied there may be a major river emptying into the Pacific. Later that month, Vancouver encountered the American captain"
"part of the North West Coast, including the Columbia River. Although the mouth of the river had been spotted by the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta in 1775, no other explorer or fur trader had been able to find it. Gray was the first to do so. He named the river after his ship. The event was later used by the United States in support of their claims to the Pacific Northwest. Other notable American maritime fur traders include William F. Sturgis, Joseph Ingraham, Simon Metcalfe and his son Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, and Daniel Cross, among others. One of the"
"Russel Farnham Russel Farnham (1784 – October 23, 1832) was an American frontiersman, explorer, and fur trader. An agent of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, he oversaw fur trading in the Great Lakes region throughout the 1810s and 1820s. A member of the Pacific Fur Company headed by Wilson P. Hunt during 1810–1812, he is also the first American to semi-circumnavigate the world traveling by foot from Fort Astoria (now Astoria, Oregon) to St. Petersburg, Russia, to New York City. Russel Farnham was born in Massachusetts in 1784 and left home to join one of two expeditions organized by"
"in Alaska, are named for Joseph Ingraham. Joseph Ingraham Joseph Ingraham (1762–1800) was an American sailor and maritime fur trader who discovered several islands of the Marquesas Islands while on his way to trade along the west coast of North America. He was also a prisoner in the American Revolutionary War and an officer in the United States Navy. During the War of Independence, Ingraham was a sailor captured by the British. He spent part of the war on a prison ship. In 1787, he was second mate aboard the ""Columbia Rediviva"" under the command of John Kendrick when it"
"of pelts to China, stopping off at the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii, en route. Gray arrived in Canton in early 1790 and traded his cargo for large amounts of tea. Gray then continued on west, sailing through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic, arriving back in Boston on August 9, 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, who"
"Fanning & Coles Fanning & Coles was an American firm engaged in the Old China Trade and related Maritime fur trade. The two principal partners were sea captain Edmund Fanning and financier Willet Coles. The firm existed from 1798 to 1815, owning several large mercantile vessels. Sailing from New York City to South America and later the Pacific Ocean, the American vessels would gather and purchase seal skins throughout southern Atlantic and Pacific. These valuable pelts included hides from the South American fur seal. After a successful voyage around Cape Horn and enough animal furs were gathered, the vessels from"
"Joseph Ingraham Joseph Ingraham (1762–1800) was an American sailor and maritime fur trader who discovered several islands of the Marquesas Islands while on his way to trade along the west coast of North America. He was also a prisoner in the American Revolutionary War and an officer in the United States Navy. During the War of Independence, Ingraham was a sailor captured by the British. He spent part of the war on a prison ship. In 1787, he was second mate aboard the ""Columbia Rediviva"" under the command of John Kendrick when it sailed to the Pacific Northwest to engage"
"the mainland. Between the two of them Douglas and Meares had collected a valuable cargo of hundreds of furs. Meares decided that as soon as the new schooner, ""North West America"", was launched he would sail ""Felice"" to Macau, China, with the combined cargo of furs. Douglas and ""Iphigenia"" would remain at Nootka Sound until ""North West America"" was ready for sea, then the two vessels would sail to Hawaii and spend the winter there. The following spring they would return to the Northwest Coast. On 17 September 1788, before ""North West America"" was finished, the American maritime fur trader"
"over Metcalfe settled his family in Albany. In the 1780s, Metcalfe took a consignment of seal furs from the Falkland Islands that were being stored in New York City. In 1787 he acquired the brig ""Eleanora"" (sometimes spelled ""Eleanor""). In September 1787 he set sail on the ""Eleanora"" with a cargo of furs for China. He continued as a maritime fur trader for the next seven years. He probably did not return to New York after leaving in 1787. Metcalfe might have been the first American to sail to the Pacific Northwest coast in search of furs. In command of"
"California's early fur trade, more than any other single factor, that opened up the West, and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular, to world trade. Just three years after Juan de Ayala sailed the first ship to pass through the Golden Gate in 1775, North America's Pacific Coast fur trade began, but not by the Spanish who had sailed the California coast since João Rodrigues Cabrilho's voyage in 1542 and Sebastián Vizcaíno's mapping of coastal California in 1602. It began in 1778 with Captain James Cook's third voyage, when otter skins were obtained at Nootka Sound on the Northwest"
"Robert Haswell Robert Haswell (November 24, 1768 – 1801?) was an early American maritime fur trader to the Pacific Northwest of North America. His journals of these voyages are the main records of Captain Robert Gray's circumnavigation of the globe. Later during the Quasi-War he served as an officer in the United States Navy. Robert Haswell was born November 24, 1768, probably at Hull, Massachusetts, eldest son of Lieutenant William Haswell, a Royal Navy Customs officer, and his second wife, Rachel Woodward. This family had a naval history, Robert's grandfather having been Master Attendant of the royal docks at Gibraltar,"
"and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly traded in China for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified"
"west of the Columbia River. In 1793, Sir Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to journey across North America overland to the Pacific Ocean, inscribing a stone marking his accomplishment on the shoreline of Dean Channel near Bella Coola. His expedition theoretically established British sovereignty inland, and a succession of other fur company explorers charted the maze of rivers and mountain ranges between the Canadian Prairies and the Pacific. Mackenzie and other explorers—notably John Finlay, Simon Fraser, Samuel Black, and David Thompson—were primarily concerned with extending the fur trade, rather than political considerations. In 1794, by the third of a"
"most successful American firms involved in the Northwest Trade was Perkins and Company. The maritime fur trade was dominated by American traders from the 1790s to the 1820s. Between 1788 and 1826, American merchant ships made at least 127 voyages between the United States and China, via the Northwest Coast. The returns were lucrative. During the late 1810s, the return on investment ranged from about 300% to 500%. Even higher profits were common in the first decade of the 19th century. Returns of 2,200% or higher were common, although when taking into account the cost of buying and outfitting vessels,"
"since its inception in 1670 by Prince Rupert and others. Henry Hudson was the first European to explore and map the shores of the great bay. The first Hudson's Bay Company trading forts were built along the southern shores of Hudson Bay to provide the shortest trade route to Europe from the middle of North America. Rupert's Land consisted of the vast watershed of rivers that drained into Hudson Bay which gave access to the far western and central parts of North America. The abundance of archival documents provide the original written history of the fur trade, North American exploration"
"largely influenced by an unauthorized report published by John Ledyard in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1783. By the 1790s American traders were outcompeting the British and soon came to dominate the maritime fur trade south of Russian America. The opening of the trade came at a good time for New England's merchants. It provided a way to escape the depression that had followed the American Revolutionary War. It presented new trading opportunities that more than made up for the closure of British home and colonial ports to US imports. First Nations along the coast referred to American traders in the Chinook"
"accompanying sloop, the ""Lady Washington"" (Captain Robert Gray). Although still second mate, the move to the much smaller vessel represented a demotion, which Haswell attributed to Kendrick's desire to promote his own son. In this role he cruised up and down the coast, trading for furs. In mid-1789, Gray and Kendrick exchanged ships, and Haswell accompanied Gray on the ""Columbia"" across the Pacific, stopping at the Sandwich Isles, and sailing on to Canton, China to sell the furs. They returned to Boston via the Cape of Good Hope and Saint Helena, the voyage being the first American circumnavigation of the"
"By the mid-1800s changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices. The American Fur Company and some other companies failed. Many Native communities were plunged into long-term poverty and consequently lost much of the political influence they once had. French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with sixteenth century and later explorations in North America. Cartier attempted limited fur trading with the First Nations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and"
"and American maritime fur traders had begun a busy era of commerce with the coastal peoples to satisfy the brisk market for sea otter pelts in China, thereby launching what became known as the China Trade. In 1789 war threatened between Britain and Spain on their respective rights; the Nootka Crisis was resolved peacefully largely in favor of Britain, the much stronger naval power. In 1793 Alexander MacKenzie, a Canadian working for the North West Company, crossed the continent and with his Aboriginal guides and French-Canadian crew, reached the mouth of the Bella Coola River, completing the first continental crossing"
"Maritime fur trade The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast"
"was the first European to see Yaquina Head on the Oregon Coast. In 1775 another Spanish expedition, under Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and Bruno de Heceta, explored the coast. While returning south Heceta found the mouth of the Columbia River, but was unable to enter. British explorer James Cook explored the Oregon Coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. Beginning in the late 1780s many ships from Britain, America, and other countries sailed to the Pacific Northwest to engage in the region's emerging Maritime Fur Trade business. American sea captain Robert Gray entered the Columbia"
"Coast and, although Cook was killed in Hawaii on the way to China, his men were shocked at the high prices paid by the Chinese. A profit of 1,800% was made. In 1783, when John Ledyard reported in Connecticut that enormous profits could be made selling otter skins to China, New England began sending American ships to hunt sea otter, and later, beaver, on the Pacific coast as early as 1787. That the California fur trade had begun by 1785, just ten years after Ayala discovered San Francisco Bay, is evidenced by the Spanish issuance of regulations to govern the"
"in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent. Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship. He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and"
"Edmund Fanning Edmund Fanning (July 16, 1769 – April 23, 1841) was an American explorer and sea captain, known as the ""Pathfinder of the Pacific."" Born in Groton, New London, Connecticut, USA, he went to sea as a cabin boy at the age of 14, and by the age of 24 was captain of a West Indian brig in which he visited the South Pacific for the first time. A successful trader, Fanning made a fortune in the China trade, killing seals in the South Pacific and exchanging their skins in China for silks, spices, and tea; which he in"
"Siberia. Bering's first voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 a second voyage by Bering and Aleksei Chirikov made sight of the North American mainland. Russian ""promyshlenniki"" (trappers and hunters) quickly developed the maritime fur trade, which instigated several conflicts between the Aleuts and Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade proved to be a lucrative enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations. In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska. In 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great, explorer Grigory Shelekhov"
"James Colnett James Colnett (1753 – 1 September 1806) was an officer of the British Royal Navy, an explorer, and a maritime fur trader. He served under James Cook during Cook's second voyage of exploration. Later he led two private trading expeditions that involved collecting sea otter pelts in the Pacific Northwest of North America and selling them in Canton, China, where the British East India Company maintained a trading post. Wintering in the recently discovered Hawaiian Islands was a key component of the new trade system. Colnett is remembered largely for his involvement in the Nootka Crisis of 1789—initially"
"of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian-American Company. The term ""maritime fur trade"" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and the American Fur Company. Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the ""North West Coast trade"" or ""North West Trade"". The term ""North West"" was rarely spelled as the"