the
UARTERDECK
Vol. 17 No. 3
Spring 1991
A review and newsletter from the Columbia River Maritime Museum at 1792 Marine Drive in Astoria, Oregon
Haswell drawing of the ship Columbia Rediviva and the sloop Lady Washington from the title page of his journal of the first voyage, 1787-1789. Original in collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Regional Maritime Bicentennial Draws Near The year 1992 will be of special significance to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Next year we celebrate our 30th anniversary as an institution and the 200th anniversary of Robert Gray's exploration of the Columbia River. The early 1790s were pivotal in the history of the Pacific Northwest for several reasons . The British naval expedition under the command of George Vancouver, sent to resolve conflicting claims along the Northwest Coast by Great Britain and Spain, also produced the first accurate charts and maps of the region. The legacy of the Vancouver expedition lives on in the preponderance of place names in the Pacific Northwest having British origins: Puget Sound, Mounts Hood, Rainier, and St. Helens, to name a few .
The Spanish ultimately lost their claim to the Northwest Coast. Yet their presence remains in Spanish place names, such as in the San Juan Islands, as well as in some of the earliest surveys of the region's natural history and ethnography, conducted during the Malaspina expedition. Driven to explore the northern reaches of the Pacific Coast by fears of Russian encroachment from the north, the Spanish encountered the British along the way. The ensuing controversy over sovereignty helped to open an avenue of opportunity for the newest comers upon the scene, the Americans. Yet, in contrast to the naval presence by the European powers, the early American initiatives on the Northwest Coast were characteristically mercantile in nature.
Exploration incidental to the pursuit of trade had far-reaching implications. On May 11, 1792, Capt. Robert Gray entered the elusive River of the West, thereby helping to establish the first American claim along the Pacific Coast. But such territorial claims carried with them a basic contradiction. The European and American voyagers found here native peoples who had lived along the Northwest Coast for thousands of years before contact with Euro-Americans. In this issue of the Quarterdeck, we explore the complex interactions between very different cultures brought about by the maritime fur trade . A series of articles about the Lady Washington and ''The Bold Northwestman," the oldest American ballad concerning a Northwestern event, begin on page 4.