A review and newsletter from the Columbia River Maritime Museum at 1792 Marine Drive in Astoria, Oregon
The Rediscovery of the Great River of the West
The year 1992 marks the observance of the Northwest regional maritime bicentennial, which commemorates the voyages of discovery along the Northwest Coast during the late 18th century. Often referred to as the "Northern Mystery," the Pacific coast of North America from California to Alaska was the world's last temperate coastline to be explored. The 18th-century quest for geographical knowledge and trade by mariners from several nations had profound and far-reaching consequences. In this context, the focus of the bicentennial along the Columbia River is on Captain Robert Gray's entrance into the legendary River of the West on May 11, 1792, and how ensuing events shaped the history of the region
In many ways this is a familiar story: of the triumph of technology; of a once self-contained region opened up to foreign influences; of the environmental consequences of resource exploitation. It is also a story of danger and adventure, of sailing into the unknown.
Few events in history happen without precedent By curious historical accident, the Northwest regional maritime bicentennial of 1992 coincides with the Columbus quincentenary commemorating what has been called the single most important voyage in history Yet, thematically, the epic voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the maritime exploration of the Northwest Coast three centuries later share a great similarity. Both are part of the larger picture of the clash of peoples and cultures, of the colonization of the New World by the denizens of the Old. Here, just as in the Spanish conquest of Meso-America, microbial colonists unwittingly set loose by outsiders changed the human landscape of the Northwest Coast forever.
In this issue of the Quarterdeck, we examine those who came before Captain Robert Gray In 1792 , Gray found on Columbia's River a highly developed native culture in residence for thousands of years. And, though Gray may not have known it, in 1775, Bruno de Hezeta had charted and named the entrance to the river, but was unable to explore it . Had Hezeta done so, he might have encountered descendants of his own countrymen here on the lower Columbia Read on.
the UARTERDECK Vol. 18 No. 2 Winter 1992
Steel engraving, "Chinook Lodge," drawn by A.T. Agate and published by G.P. Putnam in 1856. Alfred Agate was a botanical artist with Lt. Charles Wilkes on the U .S. Exploring Expedition, 1836-1842. Agate's rendering of the inside of a Lower Chinookan cedar plank dwelling, dating from 1841, is one of the best period illustrations of lifeways of the native people of the lower Columbia River. Chinookan use of Euro-American trade goods is clearly depicted. Look for muskets, Hudson Bay blankets, and a cookpot. 1978.94.9
The boat, its origins, and its name nicely symbolize the spirit of regional cooperation. It is the right boat at the right time. Thank you, Thomas and Sherry Vaughan!
As the highlight of the January 8, 1992 meeting of the Columbia River Bicentennial Commission, Thomas and Sherry Vaughan formally presented the oars to a 16-foot reconstruction of Captain Robert Gray's jolly boat to Al Goudy, president of our Board of Trustees.
The QUARTERDECK is published four times a year by the Columbia River Maritime Museum, 1792 Marine Dr, Astoria, OR 97103.
Editor, Hobe Kytr. Editorial Staff: Jerry Ostermiller, Anne Witty, Barbara Minard, Rachel Wynne, Hewitt Jackson.
For the past two years, this graceful craft has been a notable addition to the boating scene here on the lower Columbia. Many of you have no doubt admired it at its berth alongside the Vaughan's lovely home at the mouth of Skamokawa Creek below Redman Hall.
May 11, 1992
QUARTERDECK
April 23-26, 1992 The Vancouver Conference on Exploration and Discovery, Vancouver, B.C .
''Its construction marked one of the last and most pleasurable projects during my 35-year service with the Historical Society, 11 Vaughan said recently. "Sherry and I were deeply touched when the volunteers who built it under the guidance of Sam Johnson's direction voted to give it to me . I have enjoyed personally manning the oars to test its seaworthiness in the lower Columbia estuary where Gray, Broughton, and other great sailors plied."
Contact : Dr. Hugh Johnston, Dept. of History Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6
May 1-3, 1992
After the close of the exhibition, the jolly boat was presented to Mr. Vaughan upon the occasion of his retirement He named the boat Peace and Friendship, in honor of the Oregon Historical Society's motto as inscribed on its seal. The design of the seal, in turn, is based on the "Peace Medal" of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
preparation for the International Maritime Bicentennial. As Tom Vaughan declared, "It is truly a work of the finest boatbuilder's art! But some works of art eventually belong in museums, and this is one of them I trust this further gesture seals the longtime cordial collegial association between the Columbia River Maritime Museum and the Oregon Historical Society "
April 8-11, 1992
Volume 18 No. 2
Great River of the West Conference University of Washington/Vancouver, Center for Columbia River History Contact: Dr. William Lang, 206-737-2044
Peace and Friendship's first major assignment at the Columbia River Maritime Museum will be as a featured part of the Bicentennial exhibit, "This Noble River: Captain Gray and the Columbia " The exhibition, which opens May 11, 1992, is a production of the Columbia River Bicentennial Commission and is co-sponsored by the National Park Service. After the bicentennial exhibit the jolly boat will serve as the Museum's ambassador to the many wooden boat activities throughout the Northwest.
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Printed at Anchor Graphics, Astoria, Oregon
Columbia River Bicentennial Weekend Events in Astoria, Ilwaco, and other river communities Watch the newspapers for details.
Photo and illustration credits: page 1, CRMM archives; Davidson's "Winter Quarters," page 3, on loan from Elizabeth T. Dubois, used by permission; pages 4 and 7, James G. Swan, The Northwest Coast, 1857; figure, page 5, by permission of the Smithsonian Institution; "Four Clackamas Indians," oil on paper (11-l/2"x9-3/8") by Paul Kane, page 6, courtesy Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas; Hewitt Jackson, ''Santiago,'' page 8 (OHS neg. #61966), used by permission, and Plano de Bahia de la Asuncion, page 9 (OHS neg. #48234), courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society; woodcut, page 10, from Hakluyt's Voyages, L.H. Irving, 2nd edition (New York, 1927); Charles Cultee, page 11, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, neg. #2800; Gerard d' Aboville, pages 12, 13, 15 and 16, Bill Wagner photos, courtesy of The Daily News, Longview, Washington.
June 27, 1992
Thomas Vaughan is, of course, well known to most Northwesterners as Oregon historian laureate and former executive director of the Oregon Historical Society. The reconstruction of the Columbia's jolly boat was built in 1989 by volunteers in the Society's wooden boat shop in conjunction with an exhibit entitled ''By Paddle, Oar and Sail: Small Boats of the Pacific Northwest."
May 8-11, 1992
Folk Culture and the Lower Columbia One-day symposium sponsored by Center for Columbia River History at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria (pending funding approval)
It's just the right boat for us. It is small. It can be easily trailered with a small vehicle. It is a joy both to row and to sail. A half dozen people makes a full crew, but two can handle it in a pinch Called a "jolly boat," and for good reason, the 18th-century term describes the smallest and easiest to handle of a ship's boats (what we would now call dinghy or tender). The Columbia's jolly boat now has a new home at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. And it has all the right historical connotations to be a terrific addition to our growing watercraft collection.
"This Noble River" Exhibition Opens Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria Contact: CRMM, 503-325-2323
Highlights of the Maritime Bicentennial Calendar for Spring 1992
from the Wheelhouse
The jolly boat was built with plans drawn by Gregory Foster of Whaler Bay, Galiano Island, British Columbia-one of more than twenty handmade replicas of ship's boats that have been finished in
Council of American Maritime Museums meeting Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria Contact: CRMM, 503-325-2323
-Jerry Ostermiller Executive Director
-Excerpted with permission from COLUMBIA CURRENTS, the Newsletter of the Columbia River Bicentennial Commission, Number 2 (December 1991) .
Finally, the story would not be complete without a glance at the sequelthe consequences of Gray's voyage for the river and its shore, for the United States, and for the Native Americans of the region. The series of events leading to Oregon's territorial status and eventual statehood has important and often neglected roots in Captain Gray's epochal second voyage.
These intruders would arrive at the river's mouth in May of 1792, bringing with them new commodities and an insatiable desire for furs-especially sea otter pelts, the "soft gold" described by Russian, Spanish, and British newcomers in regions to the north. Gray, an American sailor employed by merchants from Massachusetts and New York, came specifically to trade for these valuable goods
More important, perhaps, was the Chinook's trade network. Native copper from Alaska, obsidian from the inland Cascade mountains, sea shells from British Columbia, and many other commodities had their place in this network. So did communication, and with it tales of sea-borne intruders on the Northwest Coast.
George Davidson watercolor from the 2nd voyage of the Columbia. L 1971.68.1
"The exhibition's account of the river begins, appropriately, with the native Americans who first occupied its shores," according to Garry Breckon, program director for the Bicentennial Commission and guest curator for the exhibition. ''For generations, the river had provided them with sustenance, with the raw material for their practical crafts, with communication and transportation, and with the concrete basis for a rich aesthetic and spiritual life."
''We directed our course up this noble river in search of a village " With these words, John Bait-the young chronicler of the Columbia's second voyage to the Northwest Coast-records the first entry by non-native mariners into the longsought River of the West.
Like other major exhibitions, ''This Noble River" benefits from the collaboration of many institutions. The Nation al Park Service is providing assistance with exhibition content as well as the funding that makes it possible. The Columbia River Maritime Museum, in addition to being the venue for the exhibition, is assisting with content develop ment and the arrangement of loans from other contributors Special mention goes to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Peabody Museum of Salem, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Eth nology at Harvard University, the Oregon Historical Society, and the Thomas Burke Memorial Museum of the University of Washington, among many others All have been tremendously helpful, indeed invaluable, to the development of this exhibition.
When Gray and his crew first encountered them, the Clatsop and Chinook peoples had highly developed techniques for hunting and fishing. The exhibition will show these, as well as the elaborate social system that characterized the Chinook in particular.
Quarterdeck, Vol. 18 No. 2
Bait's words provide the title of a major exhibition planned by the Oregon Columbia River Bicentennial Commission to commemorate Captain Robert Gray ' s historic achievement. ''This Noble River: Captain Gray and the Columbia" is set to open at the Columbia River Maritime Museum on May 11, 1992 (exactly two hundred years after Gray's entry). The exhibition uses artifacts, documents and text to illustrate portions of the "noble river's" history. To be located in the Museum's Great Hall, the exhibition will run until November 29, 1992.
Thomas Jefferson, and many other factors played important roles Between 1787, when Gray left on his first voyage, and 1793, when he returned from his second, the world underwent considerable change
For copies of this publication, contact: Program Director, Oregon Columbia River Bicentennial Commission, 1230 S. W Park Ave., Portland, Oregon 97205.
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The voyages themselves, fraught with risk and promise, form the crux of the exhibition Logs, personal effects, and journals describing the voyages will be on view, along with watercolor paintings by George Davidson, ship's painter and a talented artist, who depicted scenes encountered by Gray and his crew. This visual imagery from the Columbia's voyage reinforces the exhibition's content.
Gray's voyage emerged from a complex context in which European explorers, the American colonies' recent independence from Britain, a shaky economy in the young United States, the personalities of Gray and his associate Capt. John Kendrick, the vision of President
"This Noble River" Exhibition Opens Here on May 11th; To Serve as Centerpiece of Oregon's Maritime Bicentennial
Beach seining at Chinook village, from an engraving based on a sketch by James G. Swan and published as an illustration for The Northwest Coast: or Three Years Residence in Washington Territory, 1857. Natives of the lower Columbia depended on salmon for their principle form of subsistence, being primarily fisher/gatherers rather than hunter/gatherers. Villages along some parts of the river swelled in population in late winter early spring as neighboring peoples came to share in harvesting eulachon (smelt) and to join in the first salmon ceremonies welcoming the return of the prime spring Chinook salmon.
Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Lower Chinookan culture was their skill at pursuing wealth in trade. Before white traders ever arrived on the scene, an extensive trade network was in place both up and down the coast and from the coast far into the interior. Situated firmly in control of the place where the crossroads met at the mouth of the Columbia were the Chinookans.
"We Have Always Been Here"
The Chinookans jealously guarded their position as middlemen in the trade network, preventing contact between interior and coastal groups except through their own hands They were able to maintain this position well after the arrival of Euro-Americans on the scene. In this light, when Robert Gray arrived in 1792, he was simply a new trading partner.
Coming south along the coast were such items as fine seagoing canoes, furs, and dentalia (tooth-shaped seashells). Traded north were slaves and clamons (elkhide armor that could turn away an arrow), in demand among the warlike people of the northern part of the coast. Dentalia gathered on the west coast of Vancouver Island, traded down the coast and inland along the Columbia, were known as far east as the Great Lakes.
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Much of what we know about the cultures of the native peoples of the lower Columbia is based upon early written accounts from Euro-American traders, explorers, missionaries, and settlers. These contain what anthropologists call the ethnohistorical record. However, these same early accounts can be quite misleading for three very basic reasons: decimation because of early introduction of European diseases, rapid acculturation to accommodate new trading partners, and observer bias on the part of the writers
SALMON FISRll(G AT Cl.lKMOOX.
Going upriver to the interior were marine mammal products, dried clams and other seafood, and coastal trade goods . Coming downriver from the great trading center at The Dalles were buffalo robes, Rocky Mountain sheep horns, bear grass for making baskets, and driedpounded salmon A specialty of the Wasco/Wishram , Upper Chinookans who lived in the vicinity of The Dalles of the Columbia, sun-dried salmon was pounded and packed tightly into baskets lined with fish skin. Preserved in this manner, the fish would keep for up to two years. Downriver from the marshes of the Wapato Valley (sometimes called the Portland Basin, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers) came wapato and camas, staple root crops which did not grow near the river's mouth.
Bait's Log [Howay, pp. 397, 398]
"[May] 12. The beach was lin'd with natives, who ran along shore following the Ship. Soon above 20 Canoes came off, and brought a good lot of Furs and Salmon, which last they sold for a board Nail. the furs we likewise bought cheap, for Copper and Cloth. they appear'd to view the Ship with great astonishment and no doubt we was the first civilized people that they ever saw. We observ'd some of the same people we had before seen at Gray's harbour, and perhaps that is a branch of this same River . at length we arriv'd opposite to a large village, situate on the North side of the river about 5 leagues from the entrance
The Native Americans of the lower Columbia are commonly known as the Chinook people, after the village on the north bank of the river mentioned by Boit in 1792. In a larger sense, a number of different groups in the region spoke related languages and shared a common culture. Called by anthropologists Lower Chinookans, this grouping includes the Shoalwater Bay and Clatsop peoples, and, by extension, the Kathlamet/Wahkiakums.
11 18. Shifted the Ship's berth to her Old Station abrest the Village Chinoak, command'd by a cheif name Polack. Vast many Canoes full of Indians from different parts of the river were constantly alongside.''
Robert Boyd and Yvonne Hajda in '' Seasonal Population Movement along the Columbia River: The Social and Ecological Context" (1987) comment concerning the accuracy of early historical accounts: "Commercial interests unavoidably affected the trader's accounts, religion those of the missionaries. Lewis and Clark had formed opinions of Indians based on contact with eastern groups. 11 These preconceptions in the historical record pose a genuine problem. Our earliest and in some cases only sources of information are not complete1y reliable. Much of what has appeared in print about the Chinooks and Clatsops requires a good bit of reading between the lines.
As we commemorate the maritime explorations of the late 18th century, it is fundamental that we remember that when Euro-Americans arrived on the Northwest Coast, it was inhabited, and had been inhabited by vigorous cultures for several thousand years. Robert Gray did not discover the Columbia River. There were others here long before him.
Other common threads ran throughout the entire Northwest Coast cultural area. The people gathered during winter in fixed villages, with multi-family groups residing together in lodges made from split cedar boards. Their natural environment was one of incredible abun dance, providing for food surpluses and adequate leisure time to devote to other activities, such as trade and the accumulation of wealth. The entire coast was a densely forested region where the most usable transportation routes were waterways. Canoes were central to the way of life throughout the cultural area. But it is important to remember that the Northwest Coast is an enormous area. Many different peoples speaking a multitude of languages lived along this coastline. The people who lived near the mouth of the Columbia were quite distinct from those farther north or south, as indeed from those farther inland.
Fig. 5. Northwest Coast population history, 1774-1874.
times of the year. Principal village sites were winter villages, generally composed of 4-10 lodges (and up to as many as 50) with each lodge inhabited by several family groups. Each village had its own head man or "chief" and was completely independent. Presiding over each lodge was its highest ranking wealthy man, who was the owner of the house As many as three generations of his family would live in the same lodge. Here in the winter lodge also were held the winter ceremonials, rituals and story telling which helped to establish cultural identity
5
When Old World diseases were introduced into the New World, Native Americans died in great numbers from illnesses to which they had no immunities This chain of events began on the Northwest Coast well before Robert Gray entered the Columbia River in 1792. smallpox smallpox
When Lewis and Clark were on the lower Columbia in 1805 and 1806, they often described the people of the region in such terms as Chinook/Chehalis, Clatsop/Chinook and Clatsop/Killamox, etc. Although they could recognize different languages being spoken, they couldn't figure out exactly who these people were One possible explanation for this is that the people belonged to 190
From Robert Boyd, "Demographic History, 1774-1874," in Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, of the Handbook of North American Indians, Smithsonian Institution, 1990, page 147.
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160
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The lower Columbia and adjacent coastal region supported a number of different ethnic groups who spoke several distinct languages and dialects One standard approach to describing them has been to divide them into linguistic families and tribal groups. By this means, the Chinooks on the north bank of the Columbia near its mouth and the Clatsops on the south bank spoke similar dialects of Lower Chinookan . Just above them on the river, the Wahkiakums on the north shore and Kathlamets on the south were ethnically Lower Chinookans but spoke a dialect of Upper Chinookan. On the coast, adjoining and overlapping the territories of the Chi-
Perhaps even as early as 1750, disease may have swept down the coast from Russian Alaska. Smallpox was introduced during the 1770s. The accompanying chart covers the entire Northwest Coast cultural area, but the general trend is quite clear and accurate on a more local scale as well.
"mortality'' Perhaps the most dramatic killer on the lower Columbia was the "cold sick" or "fever and ague" of the 1830s, now generally believed to have been malaria. Throughout the malarial areas of the Northwest, losses may have been as high as 85% of the total"fever and ague" population. smallpox
Many villages lined the banks of the Columbia and other main waterways of the region. Not all village sites were occupied at all times, because the people depended on the availability of food resources in different locations at different
I I110 z 0 100 ..J :::i D.. 0 D..90 80 70 60 50 40 30 0 0 0 0 0 ,._ (0 "' 0 ,._ (0 ai
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Quarterdeck, Vol. 18 No. 2
nooks and Clatsops, were bands of Coast Salish, the Lower Chehalis to the north, and the Nehalem Tillamook to the south. In the coastal highlands and tributaries of the Columbia were other Salish speakers, the Upper Chehalis and the Cowlitz. Just over the hills from the Columbia were recent arriving bands of Athabascans, the Kwahiolkwa to the north along the Naselle River and the Clatskanie to the south along the Nehalem. Upper Chinookan speakers extended all the way up the river past the major population center of Wapato (Sauvie) Island to the major inland trading center at The Dalles of the Columbia, where the Wasco and Wishram held sway On average, the linguistic groups changed about every 30-50 miles.
The Lower Chinookans were part of the great and diverse Northwest Coast cultural complex which stretched from northern California to southeast Alaska The phrase Northwest Coast Indians usually brings to mind the totem pole carvers of British Columbia and the Alaskan panhandle: the Kwakiutl, Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, etc. Is that what we are talking about when we consider the natives of the lower Columbia? In a word, no But like the other native cultures of the Northwest Coast, those of the lower Columbia were "cedar and salmon people." Salmon, the most important food resource throughout the region, also attained elevated ritual significance and spiritual importance among all these diverse peoples Abundant cedar resources, easily split and worked without iron cutting tools, provided the raw materials for lodge and canoe building The soft inner bark of cedar also provided fibers for a broad assortment of useful items, from mats to clothing to rope .
180 170
Four Clackamas men, painted by Paul Kane in 1847. The Clackamas were Upper Chinookans of the Portland Basin and Clackamas River valley. Their village known as wal-lamt, opposite present day Oregon City, is the origin of the name of the Willamette River. The individual at lower left displays the characteristic flattened head of the region.
villages rather than to "tribes." Usually, the family resided in the father's village, though it was not uncommon for a male marrying into a wealthy family to live with the bride's higher status kinship group. Strict exogamy was practiced; daughters married out of the family, out of the village, and out of the clan. This meant that most families were multilingual, since marrying outside of the group often meant marrying outside the language as well.
Courtesy Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas: 31. 78/208 WOP 11
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Early observers of the Chinook people invariably commented on the practice of flattening the heads of infants. But not all infants underwent this process. The principle division of the social structure in this region was between free and slave Head flattening was both a mark of distinction and the visible out ward sign of being free born; i.e. one of "The People." It was something that couldn't be changed or imitated. And it could only be done during the first 12 months of life Slaves (round-heads) were outsiders, typically women and chil dren obtained in trade from interior tribes, and secondarily by raiding and warfare. Slaves performed most of the labor, ate what was left for or thrown to them, died unburied, and suffered a host of other indignities. Once a slave, always a slave, and the child of a union between slave and free also became a slave. However, slaves could acquire property, and could even own other slaves. Both slave and free were expected to acquire spirit helpers through the means of the vision quest Indeed, becoming a shaman through acquisition of tomanawis (spirit power) was one of the only avenues open for a slave to escape bondage. The deformation of the skull produced by placing the head between cradle boards during infancy apparently caused no mental impairment, though there were suggestions later on that the practice caused an increase in infant mortality when it spread farther south along the coast during the 19th century.
The Indelible Mark
Going back to the excerpt previously quoted from Boit's Log of the second voyage of the Columbia Rediviva, young Mr. Boit notes that, " We observ'd some of the same people we had before seen at Gray's harbour." This has been var ious ly interpreted. One possibility res t s on the ease of falling into racial stereotypes: "They all look alike." Another possi bility which simply cannot be discounted is that some of the same individuals Boit had seen a few days before and 40 miles to the north were present among their relatives at Chinook village by the time the Columbia arrived there. Canoe travel along the inland water and portage route between the two points would have been entirely possible in the inter val. Further, hostilities in which several natives were killed at Grays Harbor could have provided incentive to spread the news of the Americans' presence on the coast.
Throughout the region, kinship was traced on both sides of the family. Clear distinctions were made between the mother's kinship group and the father's, but children often grew up with time divided between the mother's and the father's birth villages. Today we might call such an arrangement dual or perhaps even multiple citizenship. Because the Chinookans were in the dominant position of wealth and power within the re gion's social structure, head-flattening of infant females was sometimes practiced by outlying groups, such as the Plateau tribes, to make them acceptable as brides in a Chinookan village.
Ethnohistorical researchers Robert Boyd and Yvonne Hajda suggest that a revealing way to view the cultures of the lower Columbia and adjoining coastlines is as an ecological region . Food was abundant but spotty throughout the entire area, with the most difficult time of year being the season of scarcity during late winter early spring. Starvation likely was less a problem than getting enough variety for a reasonably balanced diet This was one reason why it was a distinct advantage to have relatives scattered throughout the vicinity, particularly in areas where important resources
-Hobe Kytr with Barbara Minard
In reading the early accounts of the Chinookans, one is struck by the process of rapid acculturation. As shrewd traders, they adopted enough of what the whites expected of them to gain advantage in the trade. With a long tradition of adapting new goods to their own use,
nooks and Clatsops seem to have been just as likely to acquire things in trade as to make them. For example, they made canoes themselves, including a type called the "image" canoe not found elsewhere on the coast . However, most of their canoes, including the so-called "Chinook" canoes, were acquired in trade. The sea otter pelts they traded to Robert Gray very likely were traded to them from farther up the coast. Trade in and use of language seems to have been just as flexible . Before Robert Gray, an existing trade language is believed to have been in use in the lower Columbia region, with gradually changing vocabulary depending on specific location and which people(s) were doing the trading. Euro-American fur traders, by traveling widely along the coast in sailing vessels, introduced a more standardized vocabulary over long distances. Gray's crew reported the words used at Nootka were not understood on the lower Columbia A few years later, vocabulary was standard all along the coast. The developing Chinook Jargon trade language became the lingua franca of the trade throughout the entire region, and is a prime example of linguistic adaptation to accommodate new situations and new trading partners.
Ironically, it may have been the emphasis placed on gaining wealth in trade in Chinookan culture that made them unusually susceptible to disease and cultural change. In their society, wealth meant power; leaders had to be wealthy enough to distribute wealth to others. A modified form of the potlatch system was in place on the lower Columbia, though it never reached the extremes found farther horth along the coast. An individual's ability to acquire wealth in trade depended on developing outside contacts For higher status individuals, multiple marriages in outlying villages were a means of extending trade relations and influence. This helps explain the eagerness of prominent Chinookans to achieve elevated trading status with white traders, to establish relations by marriage, and at all costs to prevent losing their position as middlemen in the trade network Another outcome of developing trade relations with whites was probably introduced by early contact with sailors of the maritime fur trade: prostitution. The practice later was defended by Chinookan wives of Fort George traders as a means for Chinookan women to gain independent income. However, widespread sexual contact with Euro-Americans had disastrous consequences, as Chinookan women and female slaves imported exotic diseases, venereal and otherwise .
The social structure of Chinookan villages was clearly divided along the lines of wealth and prestige. Gabriel Franchere of the Astorian party described it this way :
Handbook of Northwest Coast Indians
The best contemporary source of information on the Northwest Coast cultural area is Volume 7, Northwest Coast, Wayne Suttles editor, of the Handbook of North American Indians (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1990). The contents include a comprehensive overview of related topics, such as environment, languages, history of research and history of contact, as well as individual monographs on the peoples of the Northwest Coast. Intriguing discussions on a number of wide-ranging subjects make fascinating reading. Among them are: Northwest Coast art; the role of head deformation in regional social systems; Franz Boas and the history of research in ethnology; and continuing disagreement over the validity of the concepts of chiefdom and class division between "nobility" and "commoners" as they apply to the entire Northwest Coast cultural area.
Quarterdeck, Vol 18 No. 2
they quickly embraced the material culture the whites had to offer. During the early period of contact, however, they were in a position to pick and choose what they wanted . Acc.:ounts by maritime fur traders and land-based traders alike indicate continual vexation with being a step or two behind changes in native tastes, with having last year's trade goods rather than what currently was being demanded for their furs. The Chinookans were old hands at driving a hard bargain. Before the ravages of disease and the pressures of American settlement in the Oregon Country dispossessed them of their lands and much of their traditional culture, the Chinookans were quite successful at taking advantage of what the newcomers had to offer. They were the real masters of the trade, just as they always had been. In the final analysis, perhaps the best description of the Chinookan people is what they said of themselves: "We have always been here."
"Indian Cradle," James G. Swan
The second point has to do with willingness to accommodate new influences to gain an advantage with new trading partners. Although they had their own crafts and material culture, the Chi-
"Among the Columbia River natives, the political structure is reduced to its simplest form. Each village has its chief, but he does not appear to exercise great authority . .. However, at his death they render him great honors. They practice a kind of mourning and chant his funeral song for almost a month. These chiefs are honored in proportion to their wealth; the one who has many wives, slaves, strings of beads, and so forth, is a great chief. In this respect, the savages follow the patterns of civilized peoples among whom a man is esteemed according to the money he possesses."
were located. Spring through fall, many small bands were migratory but not freeroaming, traveling to where marriage or blood ties gave them resource-gathering or trading rights.
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"Chinookans of the Lower Columbia" by Michael Silverstein of the University of Chicago provides a thorough study of the Chinookan-speaking peoples below the Cascades. Included is a complete review of the literature available on the subject This monograph is all the more valuable for being placed in context with monographs on neighboring peoples, such as "Southwestern Coast Salish" by Yvonne Hajda, "Kalapuyans" by Henry B. Zenk, and "Tillamook" by William R. Seaburg and Jay Miller. An overview of the maritime fur trade and its consequences for the peoples of the Northwest Coast is contained in "History of the Early Period" by Douglas Cole and David Darling
Bruno de Hezeta and the Discovery of Rio San Roque, 1775
The thrust of extending Spanish dominion up the coast was to be two-fold. Colonization of Alta California began with strategic occupation of Monterey and the establishment of a chain of Franciscan missions at key locations north from the Baja peninsula. The second objective was to be met by maritime exploration to the northerly latitudes In January of 1774, the frigate Santiago, under command of Juan Perez, sailed north with orders to proceed to 60° N, thence to return closely following the coastline and to take possession of all lands discovered. Perez, hampered by scurvy and short of fresh water, only partly fulfilled his mission With the fateful exception of discovering the strategic port at Nootka Sound, his superiors regarded the voyage as a wasted effort.
What finally shook the Spanish from their lethargy was a challenge from an unexpected quarter. Russian imperial expansion across Siberia in the late 1600s spilled over onto the Aleutian Islands by the mid 18th century. It was only a matter of time before Russian colonization of North America would begin stretching to the south Alarm at the Spanish court resulted in renewed interest in extending Spanish influence along the Northwest Coast. In 1767, the naval department established a new base at San Blas on the Mexican coast due west of Guadalajara, expressly for supporting mission and naval expansion to the north.
By mid 18th century, Spain had long considered the Pacific, the Mardel Sur, a Spanish lake. With control over the riches of Central and South America and a firm grip over trade from the Philippines, the Spanish had been content with leaving the largely unexplored reaches
In 1775, another expedition was sent north in the Santiago, under Bruno de Hezeta, and the schooner Sonora, under Bodega y Quadra . Landfall was made
"La Fragata SANTIAGO, Capitan Bruno de Hezeta," by Hewitt Jackson, 1975. The Santiago was built in San Blas, Mexico, in 1773. This view gives a good idea what Hezeta probably saw on 17 August 1775. Landmarks, from left, behind stern: North Head, McKenzie's Head, Cape Disappointment , and Baker's Bay. Forward of the vessel, from left: Point Ellice, Jim Crow Point, Tongue Point, Mount St. Helens, and Point Adams. Original in the collections of the Oregon Historical Society. OHS Neg. #61966.
8
north from New Spain in the hazy realm of geographical fantasy. After 1629, official policy had discouraged exploration northward, with the view that if the fabled Straits of Anian were discovered and explored, the seaway through the North west Passage would only serve to benefit Spain's northern European rivals.
To say that Robert Gray did not dis cover the Columbia River may conform with recent interpretation, but it also can be overstated. As a mariner ap proaching from seaward, he did discover the entrance to the waterway, and is properly credited with introducing knowledge of it to the outside world. It is, moreover, entirely fitting to place Gray's achievement in the context of successive maritime discovery along the Northwest Coast. He was not the first to sight the river, nor indeed the first to report it. Credit for this belongs to a Spanish mariner, Bruno Heceta, or Hezeta (pronounced Ey-they-ta) as the name appeared in 18th century Spanish
near the present Oregon-California border and again off Point Grenville on the Washington coast, where several crew members were attacked and killed by the Quinault. In the following weeks, Hezeta, his crew debilitated by scurvy, battled contrary winds. On July 29, the Sonora and Santiago parted company in foul weather. By August 11, Hezeta finally had been persuaded that to continue north was foolhardy.
-Excerpted from For Honor ev Country: the Diary of Bruno De Hezeta, translation and annotation by Herbert K. Beals (OHS Press, 1985)
Quarterdeck, Vol 18 No 2
The 18th, I surveyed the Cabo Frondoso, which is situated with another cape that I named Falcon located in latitude 45 °43', running through an angle of 22 ° of the third [SW] quadrant. Beyond this cape the coast continues through an angle of 5 ° of the second [SE] quadrant. This land is mountainous but not very elevated, nor as well forested as that from latitude 48 °30' down to 46 °
A level mountain, which I named La Mesa [the table], will enable any navigator to be sure of the position of Caba Falcon, even if it could not be oLserved, for it is in latitude 45 °28 ', and it can be seen at a considerable distance, being fairly high.
I did not enter and anchor in the port that appears on the map, formed by what I suppose is an island, despite my ardent desire to do so This was because, having taken the opinion of second captain and pilot Don Juan Perez and that of pilot Don Cristobal Revilla, they insisted that I should not attempt it, for in letting go the anchor we did not have men with which to get it up, nor to attend to the work that would thereby result Considering these reasons, and that in order to head into the anchorage I would have to put in the launch (the only boat I had) and man it with at least fourteen members of the crew, without whom I could not commit myself, and noting at the same time it was late, I resolved to put about heading outward Finding myself at a distance of three or four leagues, I lay to That night I experienced intense currents to the SW that made it impossible for me to attempt to enter this bay on the following morning, being far to leeward. The currents likewise convinced me that at ebb tide a great quantity of water issues from this bay
Having arrived a longside the bay at six in the evening, with the frigate placed almost midway between the two capes, I sounded in 24 brazas. The swirling currents were so swift that despite having a full press of sail it was difficult to get clear or separate myself from the cape to the extreme N., toward which the current tended to run, its direction also being to the E , depending on the tidal flow.
As he sailed down the coast, Hezeta came upon what he believed to be the entrance to a great river or the passage to another sea near the 46th parallel. But, considering the weakness of his crew, he was urged by his second in command, Juan Perez, not to investigate further. Perez himself died of scurvy before the voyage's end. This opportunity lost, Hezeta's discovery was obscured by t ime and official secrecy, and it was left to Robert Gray to become the first to enter the river.
Hobe Kytr with Hewitt Jackson
9
These currents and seething waters have led me to be l ieve that it may be the mouth of some great river or some passage to another sea.
In the afternoon of this day I discovered a large bay that I named Bahia de la Asuncion [assumption bay], the shape of which is shown on the map that is going to be inserted into this diary. Its latitude and extent are subject to the most exact determinations that theory and practice offer in this career
Hezeta's entries for 17 and 18 August 1775 (left) and chart (above) are intriguing for several reasons. His Caba San Roque is clearly Cape Disappointment Connected to the mainland by a low isthmus, it resembles an island from seaward. Caba Frondoso is less clear. Point Adams, a low-lying sandy peninsula, would have little resembled a cape. Positive identification yet requires further scholarly study . Since the point of view is crucial; equivalent measurements are helpful. The Spanish braza was close to a fathom, measuring about 5½ feet. Two varas equaled a braza. A maritime league is three nautical miles.
Despite the considerable difference in the position of this bay and the passage mentioned by de Fuca, it is rather difficult to doubt that it is the same one, because there is equal or great variation observed in the latitudes of other capes and parts of this coast, as will be mentioned in its proper time . In all instances, the latitude given for them is greater than their true positions
The two capes shown on the map as San Roque and Frondoso [luxuriant] run through an angle of 10° of the third [SW] quadrant; both are steep, of ruddy earth and little elevated
In sounding I found a considerable difference , for at a distance of seven leagues I sounded in 84 varas but as I approached the coast sometimes I found no bottom . This leads me to believe there are some reefs or sandbanks on this coast, which is also shown by the color of the water In some places the coast ends in a beach , in others in steep cliff s.
The latitudes of the most prominent capes of said bay, particularly the one on the N ., are calculated from the observation of this day.
The 17th, I passed along the coast down to 46° and saw that, from the latitude of 4 7 °4' down to 46 °40' , it ran through an angle of 18 ° of the second [SE] quadrant and from that latitude down to 46 °4 ', through an angle of 12 ° of the same quadrant, with the same depth , shore, luxuriant vegetation and small islands as on the previous days.
Had I not the firm evidence of the observation of that day as to the latitude in which the bay is located, I might have readily believed it to be the passage discovered in the year [1592] by Juan de Fuca, which is located on the maps be tween 48 ° and 47 ° latitude; where I am certain no such strait exists, for I an chored on the 14th of July in the middle of these latitudes and I examined on various occasions everything thereabouts.
When the ship Columbia entered the River of the West in 1792, the natives of the region already knew about EuroAmericans from shipwrecks in these latitudes during the hundred years or so before Robert Gray's arrival.
"From the manner of the coming of these castaways, the Clatsops and Chinooks named all white persons without respect to their nationality Tlo-honnipts, that is, "Of those who drifted ashore.''
"His skin was fair and his face was freckled, and his hair quite red. He was about five feet ten inches high, was slender and remarkably well made; his head had not undergone the flattening process; and he was called Jack Ramsey, in consequence of that name having been punctured on his left arm."
Despite the impression he left upon them, Konapee the iron-maker did not remain long with the natives of the lower river. As Mr. Smith relates, Konapee made his way upriver in the attempt to reach the land of the sunrise. At the Cascades he took a wife. Gabriel Franchere of the Astor party in 1811 met an 80-year-old man by the name of Soto at the Cascades who claimed to be the son of a Spaniard who had survived a shipwreck at the mouth of the river. Soto's father departed overland when the lad was quite young, never to be seen again From Soto's advanced age it has been reckoned that Konapee's vessel must have come ashore about 1725.
Tlo-hon-nipts: Those Who Drift Ashore
It appears likely that two or three different European vessels stranded on the north Oregon coast during (or prior to) the 18th century. One of these was the "beeswax ship" of the Nehalem sandspit. Warren Cook in Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543-1819, suggests this vessel is the San Francisco Xavier, a Manila galleon that "strayed off course or, as some versions suggest, was pursued to the Oregon coast by an assailant." Some twelve tons of beeswax have been collected on the north Oregon coast over the years, much of it traded to the Hudson's Bay Company during the first half of the 19th century. Various artifacts have been recovered from the vessel itself. In the collections of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, for instance, is a silver urn from the vessel. They also have a chunk of beeswax bearing the numerals "67" and partial numerals on either side, apparently dated 1679.
A number of natives of part-European descent were living on the lower Columbia at the beginning of the 19th century. Red-haired Jack Ramsey, said to be the son of "Old Ramsey," a Scotsman, was seen by Lewis and Clark Ross Cox described him in 1814:
Best documented of the legends of shipwrecked mariners is the story of Konapee. It was among those collected by Franz Boas from Charles Cultee of Bay Center, Washington in the 1890s (see opposite page). Another widely published version is based on an account by attorney Silas Smith, son of Solomon and Celiast Smith of Clatsop Plains. Celiast was a daughter of Coboway, head man of the Clatsops in the early 19th century. Several other versions of the tale were collected during the 19th century. From Smith we learn several intriguing details not related by Charles Cultee. The old woman who had lost a son was from the village of Ne-Akstow, near Tansey Point. She encountered the shipwreck near Clatsop (at that time meaning only a village midway down Clatsop beach, and not an area or tribal group). Most perplexing to the natives on the beach who had come to see the bears who looked like men was that the strangers built a fire and made popcorn in their copper kettles. Never before had they seen the like.
When Cox met him, Ramsey was about thirty years of age. Old Ramsey had died twenty years before. As Warren Cook correctly notes, red hair and light skin are recessive genetic traits. This means Ramsey inherited his coloration from both sides of his family. Red hair and freckles, known among the Nehalems, were attributed to offspring of sailors from the beeswax ship. Persistent reports of intermixing with Japanese and Negro castaways among the Tillamook lend further credence to presence of shipwrecked mariners in the centuries before official "contact."
The two strange men who looked like bears but had the faces of human beings were claimed as slaves. One of them, a man by the name of Konapee, was an iron worker. After much hard labor, because of his craft, he gained great favor and was given his liberty. The site he chose to build a dwelling was known down through the time of white settlement as "Konapee." Among the articles salvaged by Konapee from the shipwreck was a quantity of Chinese cash, thereafter known among the Clatsops and Chinooks as "Konapee's money."
10
Mokst Itswoot Kopa Yaka Klonas Tillikums
-Charles Cultee, in Boas, "Chinook Texts," 1894
Quarterdeck, Vol. 18 No. 2
The people made themselves ready ; they took their arrows. An old man said "Listen!" Then the people listened Now she said all the time, "Oh, my son is dead, and the Thing we have heard about in the Ekanum stories is on the shore." The people said, "What may it be?" They went running to meet her They said, "What is it?" She answered, "Oh, something lies there, and it is there; there are two bears on it; perhaps they are people."
It is difficult for an English-speaking person with modern eyes to peel away the layers of culture and language which hide the treasure within the passage at left from "Chinook Texts," but it is well worth the effort. We have given it a title in Chinook Jargon, meaning,' 'Two bears [are] on it-perhaps people ."
"My work of translating and explaining the texts was greatly facilitated by Cultee's remarkable intelligence. After he had once grasped what I wanted, he explained to me the grammatical structure of the sentences by means of examples, and elucidated the sense of difficult periods.
The son of an old woman had died She wailed for a whole year, and then she stopped . Now one day she went to the Sea Side . There she used to stop, and returned . She returned walking along the beach . She nearly reached Clatsop; now she saw something She thought it was a whale. When she came near to it she saw two spruce trees standing upright on it She thought, "Behold, it is no whale ; it is a monster." She reached the thing that lay there Now she saw the outside was all covered over with copper . Ropes were tied to the spruce trees, and it was full of iron . Then a bear came out of it . He stood on the Thing that lay there. He looked just like a bear, but his face was that of a human being. Then she went home; now she thought of her son, and cried, saying,"Oh, my son is dead, and the Thing about which we have heard in the tales (Ekanum) is on the shore ." When she nearly reached the town she continued to cry. The people said, "Oh, a person comes crying; perhaps someone has struck her."
''This work was more difficult as we conversed only by means of the Chinook Jargon."
''I went to search for the remnant of the Clatsop and Chinook peoples, and found them located at Bay Center, Pacific County, Washington The only individuals who spoke Chinook were Charles Cultee and Catherine ... Cultee proved to be a veritable storehouse of information. His mother's mother was a Katlamat and his mother's father a Quilapax; his father's mother was a Clatsop, and his father's father a Tinneh of the interior. His wife is a Chehalis, and at present he speaks Chehalis almost exclusively, this being the language of his children He has lived for a long time in Katlamet, on the southern bank of the Columbia River, his mother's town, and for this reason speaks the Katlamat dialect as well as the Chinook dialect. He uses the former dialect in conversing with Samson, a Katlamet Indian, who is also located at Bay Center. Until a few years ago he spoke Chinook with one of his relatives, while he uses it now only rarely when conversing with Catherine, who lives a few miles away from Bay Center . ..
Charles Cultee
11
When Franz Boas came to the lower Columbia region in the 1890s looking for the remnant population of Chinookan speakers, there were but three left . One of them, Celiast Smith, was on her death bed. Boas was directed to the Chinook/ Chehalis community at Bay Center, Washington, where he met a most remarkable individual, Charles Cultee. It is only because of Cultee's long memory and fluency in several languages that any of the traditional tales (Ekanum) of the Chinookan peoples as spoken in their original dialects remain. As Boas related it in the Introduction to "Chinook Texts" :
Then the people ran; they reached the thing that was there. Now the two people on the Thing-people or whatever else they might be-held two copper kettles in their hands. The first of the two soon reached them; then the other quickly arrived Now they lifted their hands to their mouths and gave the people their kettles; the kettles had lids . The two men pointed inland, and asked for water. Then two of our people ran inland; they hid behind a log They returned again and ran to the beach. One of our men ran and climbed up into the Thing; he went down inside. He looked down into the interior of the ship It was full of boxes He found brass buttons in strings half a fathom long He went out again to call his relatives, but they had already set fire to the ship . He jumped down; the two persons had already got down. It burnt just like fat The Clatsops got the iron, the copper, and the brass. Then all the [other] people heard about it. The two persons were taken to the chief of the Clatsops. Then the chief of one of the towns said, "I want to keep one of the men with me." The people almost began to fight. Then one of them was taken to one town, and the chief was satisfied. Now the Quenaiult, the Chehales, the Cascades, the Cowlitz, and the Klikitat heard about it, and they all went to Clatsop. The Quenaiult, the Willapa, and the Chehales went The people of all the towns went there. The Cascades, the Cowlitz, and the Klikitat came down river. All those of the upper part of the river came down to Clatsop. Strips of copper, two fingers wide, and going around the arm, were exchanged for one slave each. A piece of iron as long as half the forearm was exchanged for one slave. A nail was sold for a good curried deer skin. Several nails were given for long haiqua(dentalia) . The people bought this and the Clatsop became rich . Then the iron and the brass were seen for the first time. Now they kept the two persons. One was kept by each chief [One at Clatsop and one at the Cape.]
and stepped ashore for the first time in four months. His family's arms surrounded him. Cameras from all over the world recorded the moments His support team, from all over Europe and the U S , released the long tense time of waiting in emotional greetings and statements to the press. Boats circled around the harbor.
Gerard d'Aboville is no stranger to adventure, but an accomplished sportsman and, not so incidentally, an expert navigator. In 1980, he completed a solo row across the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, he was quoted as saying, ''Never again." His book L'Atlantique a Bout de Bras ("The Atlantic at Arm's Length"), won a first prize for "Lived Adventure" books, and d' Aboville went on to other exploits on motorcycles, competition catamarans, and motor boats.
Bienvenue et Felicitations! Transpacific Rower Lands at CRMM
When he finally entered the River on the clear midday of No v ember 21, hundreds of cheering people crowded into the small fishing village of Ilwaco, Washington, to welcome Gerard d' Aboville Worn, thin, but clearly elated, he ma neuvered his 26-foot boat into the docks
And ten years from now? Gerard d' Aboville laughs. "Who knows? I hope I will be tending my garden."
Anne Witty
The rumor circulated : a speck on the horizon, a man from France, in a small rowing boat, was within 200 miles of completing a solo crossing of the North Pacific. He lingered beyond the Columbia River Bar for days, battling the waves. The November weather was terrible ashore : high winds, rain. We could barely imagine how terrible it was "out there. 11
Later, the high-tech, Kevlar reinforced rowing boat with carbon-fiber oars in which M. d'Aboville made his remark able journey was towed through high waves across the river to Astoria. There it was berthed next to the Lightship Columbia at the Museum. Satellite dishes, television trucks, and press representatives from all over the world crowded the Museum plaza A press conference was set up. By the time d'Aboville arrived, the Great Hall was filled with people whose rousing welcome echoed from the rafters.
D' Aboville struggles against a swell near the Columbia bar. Bill Wagner photo
12
Eleven years after his Atlantic cross ing, d'Aboville crossed an even more immense ocean by rowboat In obtaining sponsorship from Sector, d'Aboville joined the ranks of the daring sports fanatics who make up the "Sector :ream." These athletes' "no limits" exploits include free diving below a hundred meters, freeclimbing using only the natural holds offered by rock, speed skiing and highgradient skiing, and sailing to Antarctic waters. Now, they include rowing the world's widest ocean.
The excitement of Gerard d' Aboville's arrival left Astoria spinning for several days. Hundreds of people flocked to the Museum to see the 26-foot Sector. After it was whisked away on an Air France jet to appear at the Paris boat show, even more people viewed the scale model pre sented to the Museum by the Sector team. But beyond the off-season excitement and publicity, Astorians came away with something greater: a sense of awe and respect for a fellow human being who has accomplished what most would not dream of beginning.
After the long days, weeks, months of solitude, this day must have been the longest for the rower. Answering questions in beautifully articulate English, in a voice he said was weak from lack of use, Gerard d' Aboville confessed that he felt some letdown . Years of preparations, and months of aiming towards this day when he would reach his journey's end, had left him little time to think ahead to "What next?" His entire concentration, he said, had been focused towards completing the journey.
Watching from shore, it seemed incredible but we would soon witness seafaring history in the making. Gerard d' Aboville joins a select group of sailors and seamen who have been breaking records for hundreds of years. Round-theworld voyages under sail, solo crossings, small boats challenging the open ocean daredevils facing the sea, and them selves have made passages equivalent to scaling the world's highest peaks. The first ascent of Mount Everest and the first solo crossing of the North Pacific have more in common than it might appear. Only people of extraordinary tenacity undertake such feats. It would soon become clear to those waiting for his arrival that Gerard d' Aboville is such a person
D' Aboville left Choshi, Japan, on July 11, 1991, and spent 134 days at sea, during which he traveled 6,294 miles He marked his 46th birthday at sea in September. He covered an average of 47 miles a day, moving through the water at an average of 2 knots per hour His sponsors at Sector, the Swiss watch manufacturing company, provided him not only with the fully equipped boat, but also with navigational devices. Among these, naturally, was a professional underwater watch, a chronometer that aided him in determining his location. A state-of-the art, hand held global positioning navigational system (a satellite based system which reads out latitude and longitude on a liquid crystal screen) gave position with accuracy within 50 feet
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D' Aboville' s experience once again demonstrated the power of transpacific drift. Intending to make landfall at San Francisco, the relentless Kurushio lJapanese) current set him towards the latitude of the Columbia River. This same phenomenon, familiar to North Coast beachcombers, swept Japanese fishermen to the coasts of Washington and Oregon for hundreds of years. Interested readers may want to see The Shogun's Reluctant Am, bassadors by Katherine Plummer {OHS Press, 1991), new at the Museum store.
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Quarterdeck, Vol. 18 No. 2
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Gerard d' Aboville arrives in Ilwaco to an emotional greeting from his overwhelmed wife, Cornelia, and children, Anne and Guillaume. Note broken oar, lower right. His craft was capsized at least 35 times during the solo voyage across the Pacific. On one occasion, he was trapped in his rowing harness underneath the overturned Sector. Bill Wagner photo, courtesy of The Daily News.
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Mr. & Mrs. George Abrahamson Jon & Helen Altheide Jean Anderson Joe & Gwynn Bakkensen Ernest &. Virginia Barrows Mr. & Mrs. O.W. Beasley
AGNES EMILY LOFGREN Mr. & Mrs. Albin Ihander
JEAN HAYES HALLAUX
VICTOR DAVID LEWIS Mr. & Mrs. Arnold B. Curtis Mr. & Mrs. George Fulton A.J. L'Amie Dr. & Mrs. Robert D. Neikes
HARRY M. STEINBOCK
Ernest & Ebba Brown Capt. & Mrs. Joseph L. Bruneau Jane Byerly John & Alice Codd Mr. & Mrs. George Crandall Arnold & Erica Curtis
Victor & Ruth Horgan Dick & Betty Huckestein
Mr. & Mrs. Elmer Koskelo
Mary Townsend
ELSIE WOLSIFFER
Evelyn & Maurice Georges
Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Kairala
Dorothy V. Kuratli
THOMAS J. WHITE Margaret Ann Rothman
Dr. & Mrs. Richard Kettelkamp
15
Sion & Eleanor Wentworth
Capt. & Mrs. Dale A. Dickinson
Mr. & Mrs. Clarence 0. Dreyer
Hannah Seeborg
Frances M. Straumfjord Mr. & Mrs. Arnold C. Swanson Donna M. Syvanen
RICHARD A. STEINBOCK
RAY UTTER
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Lowe
Yergen & Meyer
Jerry Ostermiller Louise Phillips Hampton Scudder David Souza Mark Tolonen
Staff of the Columbia River Maritime Museum: Rino Bebeloni Chris Bennett
Barbara Minard
John & Anne McGowan
Elsa Simonsen
Mr. & Mrs. George Siverson
Margaret Ann Rothman
Mr. & Mrs. Dan Thiel
Fleming & Ethel Wilson
Mr. & Mrs. George Hediger David, Nancy, Brian & Amy Helmerson
John, Janet, Jennifer & Jeffrey Deeder
Mr. & Mrs. Charles M. Gustafson
Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Taylor
Mr. & Mrs. Frank M. Thorsness Mr. & Mrs. Carvel R. Tinner
Helene C. Zatterlow
Doris Goss
Dr. & Mrs. Robert D. Neikes
Viola M. Johnson
Donald & Molly Ziessler
Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Lilley , Jr.
Buddy Hoell & Rae Goforth
Helen Utti
Nick Trondsen
Bill & Shirley Gittelsohn
A.J. L'Amie Ardena Larson C.J. & Lucy Layton Evelyn H. Lazarus
Mr. & Mrs. William L. Vernon Mr. & Mrs. John Warila
Pier 11 Feed Store Restaurant James Pilgreen Stephen & Susan Recken Jim & Greta Robinson
Mr. & Mrs. Trygve Duoos Judge & Mrs. Thomas Edison
Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Wolfgram Agnes Wolleson
Mr. & Mrs. Albin !hander
Brix Maritime Co.
Mr. & Mrs. Don Seago
Bill & Sue Dryden
Alan & Jane Goudy
Quarterdeck, Vol. 18 No. 2
Jerry Ostermiller & Lynne Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. Hutchens
Jean Anderson
Patricia Longnecker
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Knutsen Betty & Eldon Korpela
Jim & Curie O'Connor Lila A. Olsen & Gary Mr. & Mrs. Erling Orwick Elsie C. Osterlund
Tom & May Georges
ROY WAIT
Elizabeth Bradley
Mr. & Mrs. Richard C. Paulsen Dave Palmberg
Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert V. Kamara
Barbara Thompson
Judge & Mrs. Thomas Edison
Capt. & Mrs. Robert W. Gibson
Paul & Louise Phillips
Mr. & Mrs. Ragnar W. Julin
Mr. & Mrs. Arvid North Paul A. Stangeland
John Davis
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene C. Petersen
J. Dan Webster
FRED E. WILKINS
Sven & Vi Lund
Torvald Trondsen
LOUIS R. WASHER George & June Moskovita Margaret V. Mund Don Riswick Yergen and Meyer
Annabell Miller
J.R. & Margaret F. Thompson
Sam & Marie Steinbock Morrie & Sally Steinberg Mr. & Mrs. Lawson Stevenson
Mr. & Mrs. Harold Jacob
Eldon & Betty Korpela
Nancy L. Grimberg
Margaret I. Hughes
Charles & Muriel Simpson
Hobe & Gina Kytr
Marietta Doney Charlotte Jackson Steve Kann Hobe Kytr Patricia Longnecker Siony Lorange Walt McManis
Capt. & Mrs. Gene Itzen
Mr. & Mrs. Robert H. Smith
Mr. & Mrs. Veikko A. Manners Warfield & Elizabeth Martin Charles & Pauline Mestrich Mr. & Mrs. Chris P. Mestrich
Mr. & Mrs. Robert C. MacDonald
Catherine & Tonya Van Horn
Edith Miller
Mr. & Mrs. Jean H. Hallaux
Mr. & Mrs. William J. Leahy Patricia Longnecker
RICHARD 'RITCHIE' WIKSTROM
Mr. & Mrs. Nick Zafiratos
Mrs. J.E. Niemi
Don & Wini Doran
Capt. & Mrs. Joseph Bruneau Don & Jean Brunner
Mr. & Mrs. Larry Perkins Leona A. Perkins
Mr. & Mrs. Trygve Duoos
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Roeser RADM. & Mrs. David L. Roscoe, Jr.
Freda Englund
Mr. & Mrs. John McLoughlin
Mr. & Mrs. Walter Fransen
Jim & Curie O'Connor
Mr. & Mrs. Walter Gadsby, Jr.
Kevin Violette Anne Witty Cynthi Witty Rachel Wynne
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Dichter
Don, Jean & Donna Brunner
Nora Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Farmer
Mr. & Mrs. J.W. Forrester
Mr. & Mrs. Don Haskell
Mr. & Mrs. Maurice Hendrickson Jewel Hobbs
Capt. & Mrs. Kenneth McAlpin
Mr. & Mrs. Howard Lovvold Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Lowe
Mr. & Mrs. David Crawford
Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Lovell
Mr. & Mrs. Edward G. White
Mr. & Mrs. Veikko A. Manners
Kay Trondsen
Ethel Berry
Pier 11 Feed Store Restaurant
Mr. & Mrs. James W. Mccafferty
J.R. & Mary Dant
Marguerite S. Moyer
James & Stephanie Gallagher
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Dichter
Patricia Simonsen
George & Louise Fulton
Susan L. Hoffman
Mr. & Mrs. Arnold F. Johnson Gil & Esther Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. John E. Griffith
Dr. & Mrs. Richard Kettelkamp
Mildred L. Nicholas & Susan L. Hoffman
Mr. & Mrs. Jack L. Spence
Don, Helen & Chris Fastabend Ed & Ann Fearey
ADM. JOHN G. WILLIAMS, USNRET.
Mr. & Mrs. George Moskovita Marguerite S. Moyer
Lynne Johnson
Marguerite S. Moyer
Margaret Ann Rothman
Special Donations
David E. Maki
RADM. & Mrs. Ed Nelson
50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY OF AL AND VERNA DAVIS
1792 MARINE
Ernest & Ebba Brown
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Warren
COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME
An exhausted but triumphant Gerard d' Aboville arrives in Ilwaco, Washington, at the conclusion of his solo rowing voyage across the North Pacific, 21 November 1991. Later the same day, an international press conference was held in the CRMM Great Hall. See article, page 12. Bill Wagner photo, The Daily News.
Mr. & Mrs. Alan C. Goudy
ASTORIA,
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED ISSN 0891-2661
Ted Natt
Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Digital Equipment Corporation
Astoria, Oregon No. 328
Non-Profit
Mr. & Mrs. Ward Cook
Permit
Edward & Sharon Beall
Mr. & Mrs. Jon Englund
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Dichter MUSEUM DRIVE OREGON 97103