James Hanna

James Hanna (* before April 15, 1785 , † after October 1787 ) was a British navigator and pioneer of the maritime fur trade on the northwest coast of America .

Life

Information about Hanna's life is very poor and relates solely to the first purpose-built maritime fur trade by a European to the northwest coast of America. In December 1779, the participants in James Cook's third circumnavigation of the world brought news of the abundance of fur in the Nootka sound (or King George's Sound , as Cook first called it) to Macau . After the publication of the official three-volume report of this trip in 1784, the first alliances of merchants and seafarers formed in India and Macao to develop these riches.

On April 15, 1785, James Hanna, known as a capable seaman, was the first to leave Macau with the 60-ton brig Harmon and a crew of 20 for the voyage across the Pacific. The Harmon was renamed the Sea Otter shortly before or during the voyage . It is not clear whether Hanna sailed under the Portuguese or British flag because of the monopoly rights of the East India Company . The ship was owned by British merchants John Henry Cox and John Reid, who were Austrian consul in the neighboring canton at the time . Two logbooks that were kept on board have survived in fragments and are now in the Provincial Archives in Victoria, British Columbia . The first (probably a copy of the original by Hanna) has survived for the period from April 15 to August 9, 1785 (but without an entry between May 27 and June 7). The second log is valid for the period from April 15th to June 8th (but without an entry between April 18th and 27th).

In August Hanna reached the Nootka Sound and was attacked by the Indians there. 20 of the locals, including women and children, lost their lives. Hanna claimed the attack came after the British opened fire on locals for a theft. The chief of the Nootka Indians, Maquinna , told the Spaniard Martinez a very different story in 1789. The British then allowed themselves a humiliating 'joke' with the chief by placing him on a chair under which they had previously spread gunpowder and then set it on fire. Maquinna confirmed his prisoner, John R. Jewitt , opposite later (1803-1805), however, the first story. Peace was restored even after this carnage and Hanna traded 560 sea otter furs. He then sailed further north from Nootka Sound to the tip of Vancouver Island , sighted the broad Dixon Entrance strait , which he believed to be the possible entry into the Northwest Passage. Hanna was only about one degree south of the landing point of Tschirikows in 1741 ( Second Bering Expedition ). In December 1785 Hanna returned to Macao, where he furs for a total of 20,600 US dollars sold, at that time a considerable income.

Second expedition

Encouraged by this win, another expedition was equipped for the following year. Hanna left Macau in May 1786 in the 120-ton ship, also known as the Sea Otter , with a crew of 30. Sea Otter was a popular name for a ship with that purpose at the time. The ship of the British captain Tipping on a “fur voyage” in 1786 was also called Sea Otter . It is considered lost. When Hanna arrived in Nootka Sound in August, he discovered that the British James Charles Stuart Strange had already arrived from Bombay a month earlier and had bought all of the furs. So by the end of September, Hanna was only able to sell 100 first-class quality furs. On October 1, he started his return journey and reached Macao on February 8, 1787. Chief Maquinna's young brother Comekela was also on board (voluntarily) on this journey . He was brought back to Nootka in May 1788 by Captain Meares on the Felice . It was now clear to everyone that the “race for the furs” was in full swing. But not everyone was aware that at that time not only Hanna and Strange were on the way, but ships from (or under the flag of the country) Great Britain, France, the USA, India and Austria were either already on their way to Nootka or were prepared for the expedition. Even the Russians, themselves the greatest sea otter hunters in Alaska, knew what their European competitors were doing further south. The Spaniards, who were already on their own exploratory expeditions in the direction of Alaska in 1774 and 1775 because of the Russians, were now extremely alarmed about the activities in the Nootka Sound and sent two expeditions there in 1788 and 1789, the last of which ultimately went to Nootka Sound Controversy resulted.

Despite the small amount of furs, the proceeds of Hanna's second trip were still $ 8,000. Preparations were made for a third trip, but Hanna suddenly passed away. He was probably still alive in October 1787, since Meares mentions him for this period. James Hanna's influence was negligible due to his early death; his successors benefited most from the information he gained and the nautical charts of his two voyages.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The "Cook Veterans" Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon also started an expedition with the same goal in 1785, but had the much longer sea route from London and only reached the American northwest coast in 1786. See: Portlock, Nathaniel, A Voyage Round the World; But More Particurly to the North West Coast of America, performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, in the King George and Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock and Dixon. London 1789.
2. ↑ The Evacuation of Nootka ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

literature

• Robin Fisher and JM Bumstead (eds.): An Account of a Voyage to the North West Coast of America in 1785 & 1786 by Alexander Walker . Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1982.
• FW Howay: A List of Trading Vessels in the Maritime Fur Trade, 1785-1825 . Edited by Richard A. Pierce, Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario, 1973.
• FW Howay: Indian Attacks upon Maritime Traders of the North-West Coast, 1785-1805 , in: Canadian Historical Review , Vol. 6, 1925, pp. 287-309.
• John Meares: Voyages made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America . London 1790.
• W. Kaye Lamb and Tomas Bartroli: James Hanna and John Henry Cox: the First Maritime Fur Trade and His Sponsor . In: BC Studies . No. 84 (Winter), 1989-1990, pp. 3-36.
• W. Kaye Lamb: Postscript [to: W. Kaye Lamb and Tomas Bartroli, James Hanna and John Henry Cox: the First Maritime Fur Trade and His Sponsor] . In: BC Studies . No. 88, 1990-1991, pp. 93-94.
• Richard A. Pierce (Ed.): Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1990, pp. 188-189.

Web links

• Biography (English).