rook the trouble to lea rn their language. H e repeatedly deno un ced the perpetrato rs of fraud and viol ence upon these hardy and ge nerous fi shermen . In a memorabl e passage he called them "victims of injustice, cruelty and oppression, and of a policy that seems ro recognize power as th e so le standard of right." Ir rakes nothin g from this wo rth y sentim ent to note rhar the Noorka Indi ans of Va ncouve r Island were wa rlike and attacked each other as well as rhe in rrusive op presso rs. Sturgis rook ca re to have armed guards ready on his ships and The "venturesome pursuit ofcommerce " took American ships like the 0 rpheus (473 registered when he we m ashore. As he later wro te of tons, launched in 1832) around the world carrying raw materials, manufacturedgoods and the his own experience: immigrants whose labor created the commodities and who purchased what was brought to the His own safety was owing to his habitual burgeoning markets ofthe US. This particular ship, in john Stobart's "The Black Ball Packet vigilance, to his familiarity with the habits Orpheus L eaving New York's South Street in 1835, "(oil on canvas, 30 "x 50 ') made a record and manners of the different tribes, which journey in 1838,from New York to Cork- 12-and-a-halfdays-and was in Liverpool oneenabled him to appreciate at once any slight and-a-halfdays later. (Courtesy Maritime H eritage Prints, Boston MA) change in their reception ofhim and to see that things did not look exactly right. " H e mentions also warni ngs he might receive from the "warm friends" co nfrontation al coexistence in the No rthwes t. he had made amo ng these people of such different backgro unds. In rhe years 1795-1804, rhe scholar John Schofield informs us In later life, as a wealthy Boston m erchant, Sturgis served in the in his book Hail Columbia (O regon Historical Press), rhar of 59 Massachusetts Legislature. Wearying of the pretentious classic fur tradin g voyages, fu ll y 50 we re Am erican. T his was nor a matter quotations used by a legislato r, he rose to deliver a response of accessibi li ty, for E ngland was for all practical purposes as close liberally salted wi th observatio ns in rhe Noorka language, which , as Bosto n o r New York ro rhe Northwes t by the Cape Horn road, he ave rred, we re just as germane to the subj ect at hand as the Larin bur the British had begun to concentrate on the Indi a/China trade. and G reek rags used by his adve rsary-a nd just about as likely to This American domin ance in the fur trade did nor last long, as the sea otter populatio n dwindl ed away rapidly under American be understood. Sturgis furnished the US Government with documentation for assault. Samuel Eli ot Morison , in his classic Maritime H istory of rhe US claim to th e No rthwes t Coast when Russia claimed the Massachusetts, cites 18 Bosto n vessels on th e Northwest coast in territory aga in st de facto US and British occupation. And in 1844 182 1. By 1830, he no tes o nl y 2 vessels in th e trade, and by 1837, he urged moderation in a simil ar co nfromarion w ith rhe British. he says, rhe trade was "a thin g of the past. " New York, mea nwhile, forged ahead in oth er fields, creating a His pamphlet o n rhe subj ect, widely read in both th e US and Britain, affirmed: "Each has so me ri ghts, which should be ad- marker in Lower Ma nhattan which bent the force lines of trade. justed by co mpromise and material co ncess ions. " And this was rhe The booming industrialized mills of E ngland's Midlands created view rhar prevailed, after so me anxio us momem s with hotheads an insatiable demand fo r co tton grown in America's agricultural So uth . Southern plamers needed No rthern funds to finance their on both sides. Sturgis retired to his nati ve Barnstable, where he di ed , aged 87, cro ps a nd soon lea rn ed to acce pt New Yo rk marketing and leaving his extensive library to rhe town. The Sturgis Library transportation as well. So as Southern cotto n we nt to E ngland via New York, indusflourishes today as part of a Iively histori ca l studies center in the well-kept town of Barnstabl e o n Ca pe Cod, a place well wo rth a trial products, fro m boo ks and hunting guns to hoes and plows, visit ro anyo ne seeking o ur the hero ic days ofNew E ngland sail on came back ro the South ern pons in the New Yo rk ships. And after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in which Na poleo n, locked in allthe far side of the continen r. out wa r against the British , so ld a vas t tract of land west of the Mississippi ro rhe Uni red Stares for des perately needed cash, New A Changing World Grear change had come over Ame ri ca and indeed the wo rld while York packers began to serve rhe American Gu lf Coast pons. Due to these coastal trades and th e burgeoning trade with Captain Sturgis lived our his long life of service to his principles of humanity and fa ir deal ings. Amon g a host of other things, rhe Britain, which was fast becoming Ea rth 's first industrial nation , New York becam e the place to bring what yo u had to sell and rake C hin a trade had changed. Ar first several nations had bee n in volved in the fur trade to away what yo u had to buy. Bigger ships were justifi ed by the C hin a. In 1791 fi ve-S pain, France, Russ ia, Bri tain and rhe US- growing vo lume of trade, and these sail ed faste r and moved cargo had been at loggerheads over tradin g ri ghts o n the No rth wes t more reliably and efficiently than the small er ships sa ilin g from coast. Britain and the US, th e survivors of th ese showdowns, smaller ports. As a child in the small Co nn ecticut River village of Essex, I was settled down to an uneasy, occasionally cooperati ve, occas io nall y
SEA HISTORY 87, WINTER 1998-99
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