On September 30, 1787, the full-rigged ship Columbia Rediviva departed Boston, Massachusetts, on a voyage that would make it the first American-flagged vessel to circumnavigate the globe. Commanded at the outset by John Kendrick, Columbia sailed alongside the sloop Lady Washington, commanded by Robert Gray. Boston investors had sent the two vessels around Cape Horn to the Pacific Northwest, where they hoped to acquire sea otter pelts and carry them to China for trade.
The expedition marked an important early American entry into the Pacific maritime fur trade. After a difficult passage around Cape Horn, the ships reached Nootka Sound in 1788 and traded along the Northwest Coast, operating within—and profoundly affecting—long-established Indigenous homelands and trading networks. After Kendrick and Gray exchanged commands, Gray took Columbia by way of Hawaiʻi to Canton, where he sold furs and obtained Chinese goods, including tea. He returned the ship to Boston on August 9, 1790, completing the first circumnavigation by an American ship and crew.
On a second voyage, Gray entered the mouth of the river now called the Columbia River in May 1792 and named it for his ship. That voyage later strengthened U.S. claims to the Oregon Country, although it did not by itself establish American sovereignty over the region.
The Columbia’s voyages helped establish a Boston–Pacific Northwest–China commercial route and encouraged further New England participation in the maritime fur trade. They also signaled the young republic’s growing ability to participate in long-distance commerce beyond the established British imperial system.
Image credit: George Davidson painting of the Columbia Rediviva, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
