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 1787 and 1793, which pioneered the American maritime fur trade in that region. In the course of those voyages, Gray explored portions of that coast and in the year 1790 he completed the first American circumnavigation of the world. He was also noted for coming upon and naming the Columbia River, in 1792, while on his second voyage.
Gray's earlier and later life are both comparatively obscure. He was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and may have served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. After his two famous voyages, he carried on his career as a sea captain, mainly of merchantmen in the Atlantic. He intended a third voyage to the Northwest Coast, but his ship was captured by French privateers, during the Franco-American Quasi-War. Later in that conflict, Gray commanded an American privateer. He died at sea in 1806, near Charleston, South Carolina, possibly of yellow fever. In his honor, many geographic features along the Oregon and Washington coasts were named for Gray, as were numerous public schools established later in the region.
Robert Gray was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, on May 10, 1755, to William Gray and his wife. Little is known of his early life.
Voyage to the Pacific Northwest coast, 1787–1790
On September 30, 1787, Robert Gray and Captain John Kendrick left Boston, to trade along the north Pacific coast. Captain Gray commanded Lady Washington and Captain Kendrick commanded Columbia Rediviva. They were sent by Boston merchants including Charles Bulfinch. Bulfinch and the other financial backers came up with the idea of trading pelts from the northwest coast of North America and taking them directly to China after Bulfinch had read about Captain Cook's success in doing the same. Bulfinch had read Cook's "Journals", published in 1784, that in part discussed his success selling sea otter pelts in Canton. Prior to this, other America traders, such as Robert Morris, had also sent ships to trade with China, notably Empress of China in 1784, but had had trouble finding goods for which the Chinese would trade. Bulfinch's learning of Cook's pelt-trading solved this problem, so New England sea merchants expected to trade with China profitably. It is uncertain whether Gray was the first American to visit the Northwest Coast, as Simon Metcalfe of Eleanora may have arrived earlier, perhaps as much as a year earlier.
On the voyage of Kendrick and Gray, the ships' cargo included blankets, knives, iron bars, and other trade goods. Both captains carried official letters from Congress and passports from Massachusetts for their trading voyage. Kendrick and Gray sailed around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, first stopping at the Cape Verde Islands and the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. In January after passing Cape Horn, the ships encountered a storm that separated the two vessels and damaged Columbia Rediviva. The damage forced Kendrick to sail for the nearest port, Juan Fernandez. Juan Fernandez was a Spanish port under the control of Don Blas Gonzalez commandant of the garrison. There, Columbia Rediviva was repaired before sailing for the northwest coast.
Gray reached the northwest coast in August 1788. He entered Tillamook Bay and came ashore for supplies, making his crew the first recorded European Americans to visit the bay. Fighting erupted with the local Tillamook people, and Marcus Lopez, Gray's black cabin boy and cook from West Africa's Cape Verde Islands, was killed. Gray named the bay Murderer's Harbor.
Further north along the coast, Gray ran aground attempting to enter a river near 46°N latitude. Here the ship was attacked by natives, with the ship losing one crew member before freeing itself and proceeding north. On September 17, 1788, Lady Washington with Gray in command reached Nootka Sound.
Columbia Rediviva arrived soon after and the two ships wintered at Nootka Sound, near what is now known as Vancouver Island. They were still in the vicinity when Esteban José Martínez arrived in early May 1789, to assert Spanish sovereignty. A number of British merchant ships soon arrived, as well, and conflict between the Spanish and British resulted in the Nootka Crisis, which almost resulted in war between the two nations. Martínez seized a number of ships, including Princess Royal. The two American ships were left alone, although Martínez captured a third American ship, Fair American, when it arrived at Nootka Sound in the fall of 1789. Robert Gray witnessed much of the Nootka Incident.
During their trading along the coastlines of what are now British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, Oregon, and California, United States, the two Americans explored many bays and inland waters. In 1788, Gray encountered Captain John Meares of England. Meares subsequently published reports and maps of the Pacific Northwest that included a voyage by Robert Gray through a large, imaginary inland sea between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Dixon Entrance. When George Vancouver asked Gray about this in 1792, Gray said he never made such a voyage.
In 1788, Gray had attempted to enter a large river, but was unable due to the tides. Later he named this waterway as the Columbia River. At the outset of the voyage, Gray captained Lady Washington and Kendrick captained Columbia Rediviva, but the captains swapped vessels during the voyage, putting Gray in command of Columbia Rediviva. After the switch, Kendrick stayed on the North American coast, trading for pelts and furs, while Gray sailed their existing cargo 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 continued to the west, sailing through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic, reaching Boston on August 9, 1790. As such, Columbia Rediviva became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe. Although the commercial venture was financially disappointing to investors, Gray was paraded through Boston for the circumnavigation accomplishment. Accompanying Gray were Hawaiian natives named Atu (Attoo) and Opai (Opie), who had taken passage on Columbia Redivivaand were the first Hawaiians to visit New England. Gray had Atu paraded through the streets of Boston, dressed in traditional Hawaiian war dress. Governor John Hancock held a reception in honor of Gray and his circumnavigation achievement.
Also on this voyage, Kendrick and Gray were instructed to purchase as much land as they could from native Indians in the Northwest region. Kendrick made at least five such purchases over the summer of 1791, from Maquinna, Wickaninnish, and other chiefs of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. Collectively, these purchases gave Kendrick title to over 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2) of Vancouver Island, including almost the entirety of Nootka Sound and Clayoquot Sound. These purchases occurred while Gray had completed his voyage and since returned.
The success in profits realized by this voyage had the most immediate effect of Gray's setting out for the north Pacific coast again, only six weeks after returning thence. The further effect was that other New England sea merchants began to send vessels of their own to take part in this new trade opportunity, including the dispatch of the brigantine Hope in September 1790, under the command of Joseph Ingraham, Gray's first mate on his first voyage. Within a few years, many Yankee merchants were involved in the continuous trade of pelts to China, and by 1801, 16 American vessels were engaged in this triangular route. These mercantile activities encroached upon territorial claims by other nations to this disputed region, notably those of Spain and Russia, and in the coming years, they would be used in support of American claims to the Oregon Country, and would contribute to the limiting to California and to Alaska, respectively, of the Spanish and Russian claims.