John Meares

John Meares

John Meares (* probably 1756; † 1809 ) was an English seafarer , navigator and explorer as well as a marine.

Live and act

Meares joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 as a captain cabin boy and made several trips to Newfoundland , Labrador and Greenland as a seaman and officer candidate . In 1778, at the age of 22, he was promoted to lieutenant. He then took part in actions against the French in the West Indies during the American War of Independence .

After the end of the war in 1783, he temporarily resigned from the Royal Navy (with the usual retention of his rank and half pay). In 1785 he sailed on a merchant ship to Calcutta to try his luck there. On this voyage he studied in detail the recently published edition of Captain Cook's third voyage around the world. It contained a description of the trade in sea otter pelts between the Cooks team and the Indians on Nootka Sound ( Vancouver Island , now British Columbia , Canada ). These furs were later sold to Chinese dealers in Canton by the Cooks team at very high prices ($ 70-90 each).

In 1786 Meares had enough interested parties and money to carry out a fur expedition to the American northwest coast himself . He sailed with the 200 ton sailing ship Nootka to Prince William Sound and wintered there in 1786/87. He underestimated the harsh conditions of winter in Alaska . Only a few, including himself, barely survived.

In Macau he organized a second expedition, to which he set off on January 22, 1788 with two sailing ships. He built a temporary hut in Friendly Cove at the entrance to Nootka Sound (Meares later claimed to have 'bought' the land) and promised the local chief Maquinna on his departure that he would come back next year and establish a permanent British settlement. That year, the first ship on this coast, Northwest America , was built from prefabricated parts brought along.

On his return to Macao in 1788/89 he made the acquaintance of James Colnett, as he was an officer who had been temporarily discharged from the Royal Navy. Colnett was given overall command of four ships that were to trade in fur on the northwest coast in 1789 and set up a permanent settlement in Nootka Sound. The four ships belonged to a British investor group, whose main representatives were the Etches brothers from London. Meares remained in Macau as the local representative.

Arrival of the ships of the Meares in Nootka Sound

When Colnett reached Nootka Sound in the spring of 1789, the Spaniard Martinez was already there. The Spaniards, fearing the Russians and other nations pushing south from Alaska, also had the plan to permanently settle in Nootka Sound and thus secure their Pacific coast. Martinez captured a total of four British ships (two of which sailed under the Portuguese flag for dishonest reasons) and thus triggered the Nootka Sound controversy in 1789. After the circumstances in Nootka Sound in Great Britain became known in January 1790, this affair came to a dramatic head in the course of the year. Both nations mobilized their navy ; war was imminent over the right to settle and trade on the American northwest coast. At the last moment the Spanish government under Floridablanca gave a 10-day ultimatum to the Pitt the Elder government . J. after, and on October 28, 1790, the controversy was peacefully settled with the first Nootka Convention. Detailed negotiations continued until 1795, which ended with both nations leaving the area completely.

Meares testified in his memorial for the British government on his return from Macau to Great Britain in April 1790 and published his travelogue Voyages in the Years 1788-'9 from China to the Northwest Coast of America in 1791 . However, the British navigator George Dixon (who met Meares in Alaska on his voyage with Portlock in 1787 at the end of his disastrous wintering) accused him of declaring, among other points, discoveries by other seafarers than his own. For this reason, Dixon wrote three pamphlets in which he set out his position. This process became known as the 'Dixon-Meares Controversy'.

After the controversy ended, Meares rejoined the Royal Navy and was promoted to Commander in 1795. A year later he was in the press service in Ireland . 'Pressing' was the term used for the brutal manner in which the Royal Navy recruited sailors; here for the revolutionary war that has broken out with France.

John Meares died presumably at the age of 53 on January 29, 1809 in Bath , England.

Meares was one of the protagonists of the Pacific sea otter fur trade, which flourished among European nations especially after James Cook's third voyage. He was not the first among them (the British James Hanna was in Nootka Sound as early as 1785), nor was he the most successful. Meares gained fame through the Nootka Sound controversy, in which he became a welcome (and probably compliant) 'pawn' in the British-Spanish game of chess for the Pitt government. Spain's yielding to massive pressure from Britain in the Nootka Sound controversy is widely viewed as the beginning of the end of the Spanish Empire in America. As early as 1810, 20 years after the controversy, the first states of Latin America began to declare themselves independent.

Cape Meares in what is now the US state of Oregon and Meares Island ( British Columbia , Canada ) were named after him.

literature

• James Colnett: The Journal of Captain James Colnett aboard the Argonaut from April 26, 1789 to Nov. 3, 1791 (= The Publications of the Champlain Society. Vol. 26, ISSN  0384-6202 ). Edited with introduction and notes by Frederic W. Howay. The Champlain Society, Toronto 1940 (Reprinted. Greenwood Press, New York NY 1968).
• Frederic W. Howay (Ed.): The Dixon-Meares Controversy. Containing, Remarks on the Voyages of John Meares by George Dixon, An answer to Mr. George Dixon by John Meares, and Further Remarks on the Voyages of John Meares by George Dixon (= The Canadian Historical Studies. Vol. 1, ZDB -ID 2637760-3 ). Phyerson Press et al., Toronto et al. 1929 (reprint. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1969).
• John Meares: Voyages made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America. To which are prefixed, an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka. Observations on the probable Existence of a North West Passage and some Account of the Trade between the North West Coast of America and China and the latter Country and Great Britain. Logographic Press, London 1790 (reprint. (= Bibliotheca Australiana. No. 22, ZDB -ID 1222110-7 ). N. Israel et al., Amsterdam et al. 1967).
• John Meares: Authentic Copy of the Memorial to the Right Honorable William Wyndham Grenville, one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. Dated 30th April, 1790, and presented to the House of Commons May 13, 1790, containing every particular respecting the Capture of the Vessels in Nootka Sound. Printed for J. Debrett 1760 (ie 1790?) (Reprinted as: The Memorial of Lt. John Mears of the Royal Navy. Dated 30th April, 1790, and presented to the House of Commons, May 13, 1790, containing every particular respecting the Capture of the Vessels in Nootka Sound. Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield WA 1985, ISBN 0-87770-341-8 ).
• J. Richard Nokes: Almost a Hero. The Voyages of John Meares, RN, to China, Hawaii and the Northwest Coast. Washington State University Press, Pullman WA 1998, ISBN 0-87422-158-7 .

Web links

Commons : John Meares  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• William S. Hanable: English fur trader John Meares names Cape Disappointment on July 6, 1788. 2003, English.
• Murray C. Morgan: The John Meares Expeditions. ( Memento of January 4, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) In: Murray C. Morgan: The Last Wilderness. University of Washington Press, Seattle WA 1955, pp. 18-22.
• John Meares Describes Trade in the Northwest ( August 29, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ). In: John Meares: Voyages made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America. To which are prefixed, an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka. Observations on the probable Existence of a North West Passage and some Account of the Trade between the North West Coast of America and China and the latter Country and Great Britain. Logographic Press, London 1790, pp. 114-123, Document 13.