Tonquin was a 290-ton American merchant ship initially operated by Fanning & Coles and later by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC), a subsidiary of the American Fur Company (AFC). Its first commander was Edmund Fanning, who sailed to the Qing Empire for valuable Chinese trade goods in 1807. The vessel was outfitted for another journey to China and then was sold to German-American entrepreneur John Jacob Astor. Included within his intricate plans to assume control over portions of the lucrative North American fur trade, the ship was intended to establish and supply trading outposts on the Pacific Northwest coast. Valuable animal furs purchased and trapped in the region would then be shipped to China, where consumer demand was high for particular pelts.
Work began in May 1811 on the sole trading post founded by Tonquin, Fort Astoria, on the present-day Oregon coast. After construction was completed, the ship departed with a majority of the trade goods and general provisions from the fort, intending to trade them with indigenous tribes on the coast of Vancouver Island. When the crew began bartering with Tla-o-qui-aht natives at Clayoquot Sound in June, a dispute arose due to Captain Thorn's poor treatment of an elder.[5] All but four members of the crew were killed by armed Tla-o-qui-aht led by chief Wickaninnish. The survivors intentionally detonated the ship's powder magazine, and Tonquin was destroyed and sunk. Joseachal, a Quinault interpreter previously hired by Thorn, was the sole crew member to survive the entire incident and return to Fort Astoria. While there, he held several conversations with Duncan McDougall and gave the only detailed account of how Tonquin was destroyed.
Tonquin was first purchased by Fanning & Coles to participate in the Old China Trade. It originally had a crew of 24, including its captain, Edmund Fanning.[6] She departed New York City harbor on 26 May 1807 for the port of Guangzhou. Outside the port cities of China, Tonquin survived a typhoon while crossing the Macclesfield Bank.[7] From there the vessel passed the Wanshan Archipelago on its way to Guangzhou. Prior to returning to the United States, Tonquin was detained by CommodoreEdward Pellew. Apparently Fanning was previously acquainted with both Pellew and his father, and after a discussion with Pellew, Fanning subsequently was allowed to start the return voyage, leaving the port on 18 November 1807.[8]
Another vessel owned by Fanning & Coles, Hope, was encountered the same day. After meeting with its captain, Reuben Brumley, Fanning continued to sail towards the Bocca Tigris. A squadron of British vessels stationed there stopped Tonquin and detained it for a day. The following day, orders from Commodore Pellew arrived, detailing that Tonquin was to be freed immediately and sent Fanning "his apology for your detention, and his good wishes, that you may have a pleasant and safe passage."[9] Prior to the departure of the principal British officers, a toast to the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was held. Fanning returned to New York City with a full cargo of valuable trade goods on 6 March 1808.[1]
Second voyage
Organized in 1808, the second voyage of Tonquin was focused on the active sandalwood trade throughout the Pacific Ocean. The previous year, an arrangement with a group of iTaukei people on Fiji was made by Captain Brumley of Hope. The sandalwood tree Santalum yasi was to be cut, collected, and processed by the iTaukei until Brumley returned in 18 months.[10] The then still active Embargo Act of 1807 was a potential roadblock in this overseas project. Coles and Fanning both went to Washington, D.C. to request federal approval for the voyage to Fiji. There they held meetings with Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. Gallatin sent the proposal to PresidentThomas Jefferson, who formally approved it.
Tonquin was dispatched to Fiji on 15 June 1808.[10] Brumley was appointed captain, with Coles and Fanning both on board. From New York City, the vessel went south through the Atlantic Ocean and sailed past part of the Brazilian coast and later Gough Island. After passing Cape Horn, the ship continued to sail west, landing at King George Sound in modern Western Australia on 8 October 1808. A tent there was made to allow crew members with scurvy to recover. Local Noongar groups frequently visited the Americans at their tent. Through signs the Noongar would initiate potential commercial transactions by establishing their peaceful intentions through dropping their weapons. Only after the Americans would put down their firearms would a spirited trade begin between the two groups. American goods such as beads, metal buttons and knives were often exchanged in return for Noongar-manufactured stone tools and food supplies. Those of the crew afflicted with illness were restored to health over the following days. Tonquin left the sound on 21 October for Tongatapu, where local peoples sold the crew stockpiles of "hogs, bread-fruit, [and] yams" among other products.[11]
On 10 December, Tonquin passed Vatoa and landed at Vanua Levu the following day. Greeted by a group of iTaukei men bearing gifts of fruit, the Americans informed their hosts of the previous agreement made over sandalwood. The dignitaries soon departed to transmit news elsewhere. Shortly after sunrise the next day, iTaukei men gave fresh coconuts, breadfruit, hogs, and yams from their assembled canoes. The local leader, Tynahoa, arrived with his followers and announced that he had the agreed amount of sandalwood harvested and stockpiled. Over the course of an hour the Americans and Tynahoa held a discussion on board Tonquin. He told the merchants that several British ships from Port Jackson had visited and were still anchored nearby during the time of Brumley's absence. However, he was insistent that no sandalwood had been sold to them, as he had declared a tabu on the sale of sandalwood among his subordinates.[12]
The sandalwood was delivered gradually to Tonquin from subjects of Tynahoa. This process would span several months, although the wait was apparently worth it. Fanning later stated that the entire hull and part of the deck were loaded with the raw material. The tabu was formally absolved by Tynahoa, allowing the waiting British merchants to finally purchase their own supplies of sandalwood. Tonquin departed for Guangzhou on 22 March 1809.[12] Sailing roughly northwest from Vanua Levu, the islands of modern Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands were sighted, in addition to parts of the Federated States of Micronesia, such as Kapingamarangi, which Fanning called the Equator Isles.[13] After entering the Guangzhou port, the sandalwood cargo was sold in return for various Chinese products. Tonquin safely returned to New York City.[14]
Tonquin was sold for $37,860 (equivalent to $738,000in 2023) to German-American businessman John Jacob Astor on 23 August 1810.[15] Astor purchased the vessel to spearhead his plans for gaining a foothold in the ongoing maritime fur trade on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.[16]Tonquin was assigned to the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) to accomplish this major commercial goal. The PFC was a subsidiary venture funded largely by the American Fur Company, the original fur enterprise founded by Astor in 1808. Astor was able to gain the services of United States Navy lieutenant Jonathan Thorn and put him in command of the 10-gun merchant vessel.[16]
Atlantic Ocean
On 8 September 1810, Tonquin departed New York harbor bound for the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.[17] Cargo on board included fur trade goods, seeds, building material for a trading post, tools, and the frame of a schooner to be used in the coastal trade.[16] The crew consisted of 34 people including the captain, 30 of whom were British subjects.[18] Four partners of the company were on board: Duncan McDougall, David and Robert Stuart, and Alexander McKay.[16] Additionally there were 12 clerks and 13 Canadian voyageurs, plus four tradesmen: Augustus Roussel, a blacksmith; Johann Koaster, a carpenter; Job Aitkem, a boat builder; and George Bell, a cooper.[19]
After leaving the national waters of the United States, Tonquin sailed southeast into the Atlantic. On 5 October, the ship came within sight of Boa Vista in the Cape Verde Islands.[20] The enforced policy of impressment by the United Kingdom made Thorn wary of passing British vessels. Consequently, he decided against staying at the holdings of the Kingdom of Portugal and avoided the Cape Verde Islands.[21] After sailing down the coast of West Africa, Tonquin made way for South America. Off the coast of Argentina an extreme storm struck, ruining many of the sails and adding two additional leaks in the hull.[22] As the voyage continued on, the freshwater supplies dwindled to three gills a day per sailing member.[23]
The vessel landed at the Falkland Islands on 4 December to make repairs and take on water supplies, with a suitable source of freshwater located at Port Egmont.[24] Captain Thorn set sail on 11 December without eight of the men, including partner David Stuart, Gabriel Franchère and Alexander Ross.[3][4] Having only a rowboat, the eight men spent over six hours rowing before they caught up with Tonquin.[3][4] Robert Stuart quickly threatened Thorn to stop the ship, saying if he refused then "You are a dead man this instant."[4] This display made Thorn order the Tonquin crew to sail back and pick up the stranded crew. Thorn's actions led to increasing tensions between him and the employees of the Pacific Fur Company. Communication between company workers was no longer held in English to keep the captain excluded from discussions. Company partners held talks in their ancestral Scottish Gaelic and hired PFC workers used Canadian French. The atmosphere of "their jokes and chanting their outlandish songs" greatly frustrated Thorn.[4] On 25 December, Tonquin safely traversed around Cape Horn and sailed north into the Pacific Ocean.
Pacific Ocean
Tonquin reached the Kingdom of Hawaii on 12 February 1811, dropping anchor at Kealakekua Bay.[25] The possibility of men deserting the ship in favor of the islands became a major threat. Thorn had no choice but to make amends with the PFC partners to police the crew.[26] Several men abandoned ship but the cooperation of the nearby Native Hawaiians saw their return. One man was flogged, another put in chains. Thorn assembled all of the crew and PFC employees and harassed the men to remain on the ship.[26] Commercial transactions eventually began with the Hawaiians; the crew purchased cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts, watermelon, breadfruit, hogs, goats, two sheep,[27] and poultry for "glass beads, iron rings, needles, cotton cloth".[26][25] A courier from government agent John Young ordered Tonquin to visit him for meat supplies and then to have an audience with King Kamehameha I who resided on Oʻahu.[28][22]
Upon entering Honolulu, the crew was greeted by Francisco de Paula Marín and Isaac Davis. Marín acted as an interpreter in negotiations with Kamehameha I and Kalanimoku, a prominent Hawaiian government official.[29] Besides his work in discussion between the Hawaiian Monarch and the PFC officers, Marín also acted as the pilot to guide the ship into port, for which he received five Spanish dollars.[30] Twenty-four Hawaiian kanakas were recruited for three years service, half in the fur venture and the other half as laborers on Tonquin.[31] One of the Hawaiians, Naukane, was appointed by Kamehameha I to oversee the interests of these laborers. Naukane was given the name John Coxe while on Tonquin and later joined the North West Company.[32]Tonquin and its crew left the Hawaiian Kingdom on 1 March 1811.[33]
Tonquin (left) in 1811 at the Columbia River
The Columbia River was reached on 22 March 1811, but its dangerous bar posed a major problem.[34] Thorn sent five men in a boat to attempt to locate the channel, but the rough surf capsized the vessel and its crew was lost. Two days later another attempt by an additional small boat also sank. Of the five crew members, which included two Hawaiian Kanakas, only an American and a Hawaiian survived. In total eight men died attempting to find a safe route past the Columbia Bar.[35] Finally, on March 24, Tonquin crossed into the Columbia's estuary and laid anchor in Baker Bay. The personnel then proceeded fifteen miles up the river to present-day Astoria, Oregon,[16] where they spent two months laboring to establish Fort Astoria. Some trade goods and other materials that composed the cargo were transferred to the new trading post.[36] During this work, small transactions with curious ChinookanClatsop people occurred.
On 5 June 1811, Tonquin left Baker's Bay with a crew of 24 and sailed north for Vancouver Island to trade with various Nuu-chah-nulth peoples living on the island's west coast.[16] Alexander McKay was aboard the ship as supercargo and James Lewis as clerk.[16] Near Destruction Island, a member of the Quinault nation, Joseachal, was recruited by Thorn to act as an interpreter, being recorded as "Joseachal" by McDougall in company records. He had a sister married to a Tla-o-qui-aht man, a factor that has been attributed to his later survival on Vancouver Island.[37]
While anchored at Clayoquot Sound, the Tonquin crew engaged in fur trading activities with the natives. Members of the neighboring Tla-o-qui-aht nation boarded the ship in large numbers to trade. Commercial dealings were negotiated between an experienced elder, Nookamis, and Thorn. Thorn offered an exchange rate found to be unsatisfactory by the elder, who wanted five blankets for every fur skin sold.[37] These discussions continued on throughout the day and Thorn increasingly became frustrated at the indigenous intransigence to accept his terms. The interpreter later informed McDougall that Thorn "got in a passion with Nookamis", taking one of Nookamis' fur skins and hitting him on the face with it.[37] After this outburst, Thorn ordered the ship prepare to depart, with the Tla-o-qui-aht still on board.
The Tla-o-qui-aht consulted among themselves and on 15 June, as Tonquin was close to leaving the area, offered to trade their fur stockpiles again. They proposed that in return for a skin, the PFC officers sell three blankets and a knife. McDougall recounted that "A brisk trade was carried on untill all the Indians setting round on the decks of the Ship were supplied with a knife a piece."[38] Violence immediately erupted as warriors led by Wickaninnish attacked the crew on board, killing all but four of the men. Three crew members escaped in a rowboat during the confusion, and one badly wounded man, James Lewis, was left aboard the ship. The following day, 16 June, Lewis allegedly scuttledTonquin by lighting a fuse that detonated the ship's powder magazine when the Tla-o-qui-aht returned to loot the ship; the explosion may have killed more than 100 natives. The crew members who had escaped during the initial massacre were allegedly captured and tortured to death by the Tla-o-qui-aht following the explosion. The only known survivor of the crew was Joseachal, who arrived back at Fort Astoria with the assistance of prominent Lower Chinookan noble Comcomly.[37] His account is the only one detailing the fate of the Tonquin.
Legacy
Notable namesakes include Tonquin Beach in Tofino, Canada; and Tonquin Valley and Tonquin Pass, both in the Canadian Rockies. A movie was in planning stages in 2008, to portray the events ending with the 1811 destruction of Tonquin.[39]
See also
John R. Jewitt, whose ship Boston was similarly captured nearby
Duncan, Janice K. (1973), "Kanaka World Travelers and Fur Company Employees, 1785–1860", Hawaiian Journal of History, 7, Hawaiian Historical Society: 95, hdl:10524/133
The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades among the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Spanish Empire, the United States of America and the Russian Empire.
Fort Astoria was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff was sent on board the Tonquin, while another party traveled overland from St. Louis. This land based group later became known as the Astor Expedition. Built at the entrance of the Columbia River in 1811, Fort Astoria was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast of North America.
Jonathan Thorn was a career officer of the United States Navy in the early 19th century.
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 under which the Columbia District became known as the Columbia Department. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 marked the effective end of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department.
Robert Stuart was a Scottish-born, Canadian and American fur trader, best known as a member of the first European-American party to cross South Pass during an overland expedition from Fort Astoria to Saint Louis in 1811. He was a member of the North West Company (NWC) until recruited by John Jacob Astor to develop the new Pacific Fur Company, which was based at Fort Astoria, on the coast of present-day Oregon. Astor intended the venture to develop a continent-wide commercial empire in fur trading.
Fort Defiance was a small outpost that the crew of the Columbia Rediviva built as winter quarters during 1791–1792 on Meares Island in present-day British Columbia, Canada. American merchant and maritime fur trader Captain Robert Gray was in command.
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 Fanning & Coles then typically sailed for the Qing Dynasty port of Guangzhou, China. Here valuable Chinese manufactured goods were purchased, which included nankeens and porcelain, in addition to stockpiles of tea commonly valued and sold for $40,000 in profits annually.
Alexander MacKay was a Canadian fur trader and explorer who worked for the North West Company and the Pacific Fur Company. He co-founded Fort Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific coast.
Wickaninnish was a chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht people of Clayoquot Sound, on what is now Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, in the 1780s and 1790s, during the opening period of European contact with the Pacific Northwest Coast cultures. His main name is also transliterated as Wickaninish, Wickananish, Wikinanish, Huiquinanichi, and Quiquinanis, and he was also known as Hiyoua.
Opitsaht, spelled also as Opitsat and Opitsitah, is a Tla-o-qui-aht settlement/community in the Southwest area of the Meares Islands, Clayoquot South, British Columbia. This peninsula-like region is the home to the Tla-o-qui-aht people from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation, a tribe from the Pacific Northwest region in the lower Vancouver area, known for their lifestyle revolving around the marine life trade and culture within the community.
Naukane, also known as John Coxe, Edward Cox, and Coxe was a Native Hawaiian chief who traveled widely through North America in the early 19th century. He was either considered a member of the royal household of Kamehameha I or a chiefly retainer, possibly the same person as Noukana, the son of High Chief Kamanawa, the King's uncle and trusted advisor.
The Battle of Woody Point was an incident in western Canada in June 1811 involving the Tla-o-qui-aht natives of the Pacific Northwest and the Tonquin, an American merchant ship of the Astor Expedition. The vessel had traveled to Clayoquot Sound off Vancouver Island to trade for furs. Following an argument begun during the bartering, the Tla-o-qui-aht captured the vessel and massacred most of the crew; one remaining sailor then scuttled her by detonating the powder magazine.
The Wallace House, Wallace Post or Calapooya Fort, was a fur trading station located in the French Prairie of the Willamette Valley. Opened by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) in 1812, it was an important source of beaver pelts and venison. The possibility of either the Royal Navy or North West Company (NWC) competitors attacking Fort Astoria during the War of 1812, motivated the PFC management to sell its assets to the NWC in late 1813. Wallace House was utilized by the NWC until 1814, when they abandoned it in favor of the nearby Willamette Trading Post. The station is now located in Keizer, Oregon.
Beaver was a 427-ton merchant ship owned by John Jacob Astor that was in service from 1806 to the middle of the century.
Ovide de Montigny was a French-Canadian fur trapper active in the Pacific Northwest from 1811 to 1822.
Joseachal was a Quinault man who lived in the early 19th century. Notably he was the sole survivor of the Tonquin, a trading vessel owned by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) that was destroyed near Vancouver Island. He was hired to act an interpreter for the vessel in negotiations with various Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. Enraged at the prices that the Tla-o-qui-aht insisted upon, captain Jonathan Thorn struck an elder with a pelt. After purchasing PFC blades, the Tla-o-qui-aht attacked and killed the crew. Only Joseachal survived to reach Fort Astoria to inform the PFC officers of the Tonquin's destruction.
David Stuart (1765-1853) was a fur trader who worked primarily for the North West and Pacific Fur companies throughout his varied career.
François Benjamin Pillet was a French-Canadian fur trapper active in the Pacific Northwest in the early 19th century, primarily employed by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC).
Coalpo was a Clatsop Chinookan leader alive in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He married a daughter of Comcomly, the most prominent Chinookan headman on the lower Columbia River.
Margaret was an American ship built at Boston and launched in the fall of 1791. It was built for use in the maritime fur trade and was owned by Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Russell Sturgis, James and Thomas Lamb, and James Magee. It was armed with eight cannon and six to eight swivel guns. On its maiden voyage it left Boston with a crew of 25.
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