Robert Haswell

Robert Haswell

Signature of Robert Haswell

Haswell's drawing of the ships Columbia and Lady Washington from his journal

Haswell's drawing of the ships Columbia and Northwest from his second journal

Robert Haswell (born November 24, 1768 , † after October 10, 1801) was one of the American traders who were active in the North Pacific in the late 18th century. His journals are one of the main sources for the travels of Robert Gray , the first American to circumnavigate the world. Haswell also took part in the quasi-war , an undeclared war between France and the United States.

Origin and move to England

Robert Haswell was probably born in Hull , Massachusetts, the eldest son of Lieutenant in the Royal Navy William Haswell and his second wife Rachel Woodward. Both parents came from families with a seafaring tradition. William Haswell was placed under house arrest in Hull during the American Revolutionary War , then interned in Hingham and Abington . In 1778 the family was sent to England via Halifax , where they lived in Kingston upon Hull . Until the British government made up for his loss of property in America, the family had to live extremely frugally.

Fur traders in the North Pacific

It is unclear how Robert Haswell became a seaman, but in December 1787 he lived in Boston and was hired as a third mate on the Columbia Rediviva, heading for the North Pacific. There should be a flourishing fur trade, in which Joseph Barrell and five other Boston investors wanted to participate. After disputes with Captain John Kendrick at the height of the Falkland Islands , he switched to the sloop Lady Washington , a ship led by Robert Gray. Haswell was second mate there. He also held this position when the ship landed in Nootka Sound in September 1788 , on the west coast of what would later be known as Vancouver Island off the Canadian Pacific coast.

While the main ship was anchored in Nootka Sound until the next spring, Haswell made trips into the hinterland and got to know Chief Maquinna and Callicum. He wrote down a variety of vocabulary.

In July 1789, Gray and Kendrick exchanged ships, and Haswell now accompanied Gray on the Columbia Rediviva . They sailed to Hawaii and from there to Canton , where they sold their furs. They returned to Boston via the Cape of Good Hope in August 1790. This was the first US circumnavigation of the world.

When Columbia set out on another voyage six weeks later, Haswell was first mate. This time the ship reached Clayoquot Sound (June 5, 1791), because the Spaniards had built a garrison under Francisco de Eliza in Nootka Sound . This time the ship wintered on Meares Island in Adventure Cove , Lemmens Inlet . In March 1792, the crew built the 45-ton sloop Adventure that Haswell was to run - his first command. Haswell sailed north to the Queen Charlotte Islands and delivered the captured and exchanged otter skins to Gray, who was coming towards him from the south, in Nasparti Inlet . But the Columbia ran into a rock and had to seek help from the Spaniards in Nootka Sound. The commandant there, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra , met the Americans and even bought the sloop from them in September - in exchange for 75 first-class otter skins.

Haswell returned to Boston with Gray, again as first mate, in July 1793.

The journals about the voyage achieved great fame because of the accuracy with which they described the natives , so that when the Columbia returned , John Quincy Adams wrote: “One of the passengers, it is said, should have kept a very precise journal of the voyage "And as early as 1791 David Humphreys wrote in Portugal :" I was informed by a young gentleman from Boston that a clever and accurate journal had been kept by one of the officers on the Washington . "However, the journal was not fully published until 1941.

After this return voyage, Haswell was given command of the Hannah for a 27-month voyage to East India , after which he led the John Jay .

On October 1, 1798, in Reading , Massachusetts , he married Mary Cordis, sister of the Columbia boatswain's John Blake Cordis . The couple went to Charlestown where two daughters named Mary and Rebecca were born. The latter was the great-grandmother of the poet EE Cummings .

Navy

At the beginning of the quasi-war against France , Haswell became a lieutenant in the United States Navy on March 4, 1799 . He did his military service from 1799 on the frigate USS Boston as a midshipman . Haswell's brother Monty was seriously injured in the attack on the French corvette La Berceau in October 1800 . Haswell received a share of the prize money .

Last trips

In April 1801, Haswell left the Navy and went on a trade voyage to India . Then he took command of the Louisa , on which he drove north-west to China . However, the ship never arrived.

literature

• Frederic W. Howay (Ed.): Voyages of the "Columbia" to the Northwest Coast 1787-1790 and 1790-1793 (= Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society , Volume 79, ISSN  1046-1396 ). The Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston 1941.

Web links

• Robert Haswell . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).

Remarks

1. ↑ His journals A voyage round the world onboard the ship Columbia-Rediviva and sloop Washington [1787-89] and A voyage on discoveries in the ship Columbia Rediviva [1791-93] are owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society .