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September 23, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Future Captains

Captain James Cook set sail on three voyages to the South Seas. His first Pacific voyage (1768-1771) was aboard the Endeavour and began on May 27, 1768. It had three aims; go to Tahiti to record the transit of Venus (when Venus passes between the earth and sun – June 3, 1769;) record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks; and search for the Great South Land.

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

“Every Fighting Service has, and must have, two main categories – ‘Officers’ and ‘Men.’ The Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was no exception. The distinction existed: was indeed more than ordinarily marked. It was not only a naval distinction, but a sharp social one too.”

“‘Officers’ as contemporary society used that word, came from one walk of life, ‘Men’ from another: and, as it was not easy in Society to pass from a lower stratum to a higher, so in the Navy, it was not easy for a ‘Man’ to become an Officer. But it was possible.” (Captain Cook Society)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society)

“All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers. Bligh, Portlock, Vancouver, Colnett, Riou, and Hergest all got their commands and served with great distinction. These men then passed on their skills to a second generation of men such as Flinders and Broughton.” (Mackay, Captain Cook Society)

We’ll look at three of these familiar names, here in the Islands, as well as the Pacific – Portlock, Bligh and Vancouver.

Nathaniel Portlock was born in Norfolk, Virginia in about 1748. At about the age of 24, he entered the Royal Navy as an able seaman on the St Albans. On March 30, 1776, he served as master’s mate on Captain James Cook’s third Pacific voyage aboard the Discovery. Portlock was transferred to the Resolution, also on the expedition, in August 1779.

Then, in 1785, a group of London merchants formed the “King George’s Sound Co” (also known as Richard Cadman Etches and Company,) for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade from the western coast of America to China, bringing home cargoes of tea from Canton for the East India Company. They bought two boats; Portlock and George Dixon were selected to sail them (Dixon also previously sailed with Cook to Hawai‘i.)

That year, the two traveled to the North Pacific. Portlock commanded the 1785-1788 expedition from the ship King George, while Dixon captained the Queen Charlotte. The purpose of the expedition was to investigate the potential of the Alaskan fur trade and to resume Cook’s search for a Northwest Passage through the continent.

The pair left England on August 29, 1785, and took nearly a year to reach Alaska, rounding Cape Horn and touching at Hawaiʻi on the way. During the course of their 3-year expedition, they made three trips to Hawaiʻi, first arriving off the coast of Kaʻū, May 24, 1786.

A favorite anchorage on Oʻahu for Portlock was at Maunalua Bay, between Koko Point and Diamond Head (which Portlock named King George’s Bay.)

Maunalua was thought to be well-populated in ancient times. Maunalua was known for its offshore fishing resources, a large fishpond, and sweet potato cultivation. Taro was farmed in wet areas, sweet potato was grown in the drier regions and a series of fishing villages lined the coast. (McElroy) Part of that area now carries the Portlock name.

William Bligh was part of the Cook’s crew on its third voyage. Bligh later captained the Bounty on a voyage to gather breadfruit trees from Tahiti and take them to Jamaica in the Caribbean. There, the trees would be planted to provide food for slaves.

According to a legend, the chief Kahai brought the breadfruit tree to Hawaiʻi from Samoa in the twelfth century and first planted it at Kualoa, Oʻahu. Only one variety was known in Hawaiʻi, while more than 24 were distinguished by native names in the South Seas. (CTAHR)

“This tree, whose fruit is so useful, if not necessary, to the inhabitants of most of the islands of the South Seas, has been chiefly celebrated as a production of the Sandwich Islands; it is not confined to these alone, but is also found in all the countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean.” (Book of Trees, 1837)

Bligh didn’t make it back on the Bounty, his crew mutinied (April 28, 1789;) one reason for the mutiny was that the crew believed Bligh cared more about the breadfruit than them (he cut water rationing to the crew in favor of providing water for the breadfruit plants.) Bligh’s tombstone, in part, reads he was the “first (who) transplanted the bread fruit tree.”

In the introduction to Captain George Vancouver’s journals of his voyage to the Pacific, his brother John wrote, “that from the age of thirteen, his whole life to the commencement of this expedition, (to the Pacific) has been devoted to constant employment in His Majesty’s naval service.” Vancouver was one of the seamen and midshipman who had travelled with Cook on his second and third voyages.

In 1791, Vancouver later entered the Pacific a dozen years later in command of the second British exploring expedition. (HJH) Vancouver visited Hawaiʻi three times, in 1792, 1793 and 1794.

On the first trip, Vancouver’s ships “Discovery” and “Chatham” first rounded the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and traveled to Tahiti, via Australia and New Zealand, and then sailed north to the Hawaiian Islands.

On his second trip in February 1793, the “Discovery” and “Chatham” first circled and surveyed the Island Hawaiʻi. From a meeting he had with Kamehameha, he noted in his Journal, that he was …

“… agreeably surprised in finding that his riper years had softened that stern ferocity, which his younger days had exhibited, and had changed his general deportment to an address characteristic of an open, cheerful, and sensible mind; combined with great generosity, and goodness of disposition.” (Vancouver, 1798)

When Kamehameha came aboard the ship, taking Vancouver’s hand, he “demanded, if we were sincerely his friends”, to which Vancouver answered in the affirmative. Kamehameha then said “he understood we belonged to King George, and asked if he was likewise his friend.”

“On receiving a satisfactory answer to this question, he declared the he was our firm good friend; and according to the custom of the country, in testimony of the sincerity of our declarations we saluted by touching noses.” (Vancouver, 1798)

In the exchange of gifts, after that, Kamehameha presented four feathered helmets and other items, Vancouver gave Kamehameha the remaining livestock on board, “five cows, two ewes and a ram.”

The farewell between the British and the Hawaiians was emotional, but both understood that Vancouver would be returning the following winter.

Just before Vancouver left Kawaihae on March 9, 1793, he gave Isaac Davis and John Young a letter testifying that “Tamaahaah, with the generality of the Chiefs, and the whole of the lower order of People, have conducted themselves toward us with the strictest honest, civility and friendly attention.” (Speakman, HJH)

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George_Vancouver-arriving_at_Kealakekua_Bay
George_Vancouver-arriving_at_Kealakekua_Bay
Mutiny_HMS_Bounty
Mutiny_HMS_Bounty
Kahai-The_Grandson_of_Moikeha-(herbkane)
Kahai-The_Grandson_of_Moikeha-(herbkane)
Transplanting_of_the_bread-fruit_trees_from_Otaheite,_1796
Transplanting_of_the_bread-fruit_trees_from_Otaheite,_1796
ohn Ellis, the Bread-fruit-1775
ohn Ellis, the Bread-fruit-1775
Bligh's_survival_voyage_after_the_mutiny-(HerbKane)
Bligh’s_survival_voyage_after_the_mutiny-(HerbKane)
William Bligh’s tombstone-(first_transplanted_breadfruit)
William Bligh’s tombstone-(first_transplanted_breadfruit)
Cook_-_Bligh_Map_of_Hawaii_-_Geographicus_-_Hawaii-cook-1785
Cook_-_Bligh_Map_of_Hawaii_-_Geographicus_-_Hawaii-cook-1785
Nathaniel_Portlock-(WC)
Nathaniel_Portlock-(WC)
Portlock-China_Walls
Portlock-China_Walls
Maunalua_Bay-(bishopmuseum)
Maunalua_Bay-(bishopmuseum)
Koko_Marina-05-26-52
Koko_Marina-05-26-52
King_George-Queen_Charlotte-(Raymond Alistair Massey-maunalua-net)
King_George-Queen_Charlotte-(Raymond Alistair Massey-maunalua-net)
George_Vancouver-(WC)
George_Vancouver-(WC)
George_Vancouver's_Discovery
George_Vancouver’s_Discovery
George_Vancouver_statue-(WC)
George_Vancouver_statue-(WC)

Filed Under: Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: William Bligh, Hawaii, Captain Cook, Nathaniel Portlock, George Vancouver, Bligh, James Cook

November 6, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Portlock

Recent work that I have been involved with in the Portlock area on O‘ahu, reminded me of the namesake for the place, explorer and fur trader Nathaniel Portlock.

Nathaniel Portlock was born in about 1748 in Norfolk, Virginia, where his grandfather had emigrated, probably from the English south-west, around 1685. Nathaniel’s father died in 1752, leaving his wife Rebecca (formerly Ballard, who had previously been a widow with a daughter from a previous marriage).

Nathaniel’s father’s will left his property, and stay and board, to “my Daughter in Law Nancey Ballard a Negro … said children [Paul and Nathaniel] [and] their mother”.

After Portlock’s father’s death, his mother Rebecca quickly remarried a third time to a Richard Scott, who became guardian to her three surviving Portlock children and had others with her.

At about the age of 24, Nathaniel Portlock entered the British Royal Navy and was one of the loyal colonists of America, known as the “American Loyalists;” he later left that country on the close of the War of Independence.

(It is not clear what relationship a certain John Portlock had with Nathaniel; but John was born in 1765 in Shenandoah Co., Virginia and in 1781 volunteered to serve in the Virginia Regiment and fought and was “slightly wounded’ in the American Revolutionary War. It is an interesting situation if they are related.)

On March 30, 1776, he served as master’s mate on Captain James Cook’s third Pacific voyage aboard the Discovery. Portlock was transferred to the Resolution, also on the expedition, in August 1779.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society)

“All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers. Bligh, Portlock, Vancouver, Colnett, Riou, and Hergest all got their commands and served with great distinction. These men then passed on their skills to a second generation of men such as Flinders and Broughton.” (Mackay, Captain Cook Society)

Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon, observed the commercial benefits that the development of the fur trade in the region could bring. In 1785, a group of London merchants formed the “King George’s Sound Co” (also known as Richard Cadman Etches and Company).

They proposed to carrying on the fur trade from the western coast of America to China, bringing home cargoes of tea from Canton for the East India Company. They bought two boats; Portlock and Dixon were selected to sail them (Dixon also previously sailed with Cook to Hawai‘i) and they set off on an expedition to North America to establish a foothold for fur trappers.

Portlock commanded the 1785-1788 expedition from the ship King George, while Dixon captained the Queen Charlotte. The purpose of the expedition was to investigate the potential of the Alaskan fur trade and to resume Cook’s search for a Northwest Passage through the continent.

The pair left England on August 29, 1785, and took nearly a year to reach Alaska, rounding Cape Horn and touching at Hawaiʻi on the way, first arriving off the coast of Kaʻū, May 24, 1786.

These were the first English ships to reach Hawai‘i following Captain Cook’s first arrival there in 1778. During the course of their 3-year expedition, they made three trips to Hawaiʻi.

A favorite anchorage on Oʻahu for Portlock was at Maunalua Bay (which Portlock named King George’s Bay). He named the Waikiki area (Diamond Head to Honolulu) Queen Charlotte’s Bay.

The East point of the Maunalua Bay (Koko Head) Portlock named Point Dick, “in honour of Sir John Dick, the first patron of this voyage,”) and the West point (Diamond Head) that Portlock named “Point Rose, after George Rose Esq. secretary of the treasury, the second worthy patron of our undertaking.” (Portlock)

Portlock also mentioned what is probably Kuapā Pond that he described as, “a little salt water river that has a communication with King George’s Bay.”

Portlock wrote about the early challenges of getting fresh drinking water in the region as they “found that we could not water at this place without an infinite deal of trouble …”

“… besides the danger of losing our casks, getting the boats dashed to pieces against the rocks, and the inconvenience of carrying our casks so far amongst a multitude of Indians, which would make it necessary to have an armed force on shore.”

“Towards evening the surgeon returned on board with the convalescents, and informed me, that the inhabitants had behaved in a very quiet inoffensive manner, though they were rather incommoded by the multitudes which curiosity brought about them.”

“By this time all our water from the ground tier was got to hand, and the cables coiled down. The inhabitants now brought us water in such plenty, that by noon on the 4th all our empty casks were filled”.

He noted, “As good water in any quantity may be procured at this island with the greatest facility for small nails and buttons, it undoubtedly must be the safest and most expeditious method any person can adopt who may chance to touch here, to barter for their water in the manner we did.” (Portlock)

“No chiefs of consequence paid us a visit as yet: the inferior chiefs indeed came on board without any scruple, and some of them slept with us every night. Amongst rest I had a daily visit from an old priest, who always brought by way of present, a small pig, and a branch of the cocoa-nut·tree.” (Portlock)

Maunalua was thought to be well-populated in ancient times. Maunalua was known for its offshore fishing resources, a large fishpond, and sweet potato cultivation. Taro was farmed in wet areas, sweet potato was grown in the drier regions and a series of fishing villages lined the coast. (McElroy) Part of that area now carries the Portlock name.

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Filed Under: Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks, Economy Tagged With: Nathaniel Portlock, Maunalua, Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Oahu, Captain Cook, Leahi, Diamond Head, Maunalua Bay, Portlock

February 20, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Island Names

We still pronounce some of the Hawaiian Island names differently.

After western contact and attempts to write about Hawai‘i, early writers tried to spell words based on the sound of the words they heard. People heard words differently, so it was not uncommon for words to be spelled differently, depending on the writer.

However, it may be helpful to look how early writers wrote the respective Island names and see if there is a consistency in representative letters for names and the sounds they represent.

Remember, the writing of the letters in each word is based on the sound they hear, then written in the context of the sound of based on their own English language (and pronounced in the English language).

The first writers were Captain James Cook and his crew. Here are the ways he spelled the Island names (and the words we use for them now).

Cook (1778-1779:)
Oreehoua, or Keehoua (Lehua)
Tahoora (Kaʻula)
Oneeheow or Neeheehow (Niʻihau)
Atooi, Atowi, or Towi, and sometimes Kowi (Kauai)
Woahoo, or Oahoo (Oʻahu)
Morotoi or Morokoi (Molokai)
Ranai, or Oranai (Lanai)
Mowee (Maui)
Morotinnee, or Morokinnee (Molokini)
Kahowrowee, or Tahoorowa (Kaho‘olawe)
Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi)

First off, let’s look at the preceding O or A in some of the names. ‘O, and sometimes ʻA, beginning a word are markers to note proper name subjects (persons, places or certain special things.) They are vocatives (addressing the person or place you are talking about or to) – i.e. Atooi means ‘this is (or, ‘it is’) Tooi’ – so it is a proper word and the Island name is ‘Tooi.’ (Johnson)

Here are some other early writers’ ways of writing the Island names by the sounds each hears:

Portlock (1785-1788)
Tahoora (Ka‘ula)
Oneehow (Ni‘ihau)
Atoui
Woahoo
Morotoi
Ranai
Mowee
Owhyhee

Vancouver (1792-1794)
Attowai (Kauai)
Woahoo
Morotoi
Ranai
Mowee (Maui)
Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi)

Hiram Bingham (1820-1840)
Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi)
Woahoo (Oʻahu)
Attooi (Kauai)

Let’s start with the double vowel sounds to start to break down the sound … double O, ‘oo’, has a sound that rhymes with ‘Too’ or ‘Two’. Double E, ‘ee’, sounds like the way we say the single letter ‘E’ (rhyming with ‘wee’).

Now let’s look at the ‘i’ in the words – it, too, sounds like the way we say the single letter ‘I’ (rhyming with ‘eye’).

So ‘Atooi’ really is ‘Tooi’ – sounding like ‘two – eye’. As Hiram Bingham was working on the alphabet developed for the written Hawaiian, he actually notes that Atooi (Kauai), in his early writing was written as ‘Kau‘ ai’ (with the ‘okina before the second ‘a’, not after it) and sounds like ‘cow-eye’.

Some, today, say Atooi is pronounced as ‘Ah’ ‘two’ ‘ee’; however, they are putting in the Hawaiian sound for ‘I’ (which sounds like ‘ee’), rather than the English sound for ‘I’, which rhymes with ‘eye’.

Another Island name with varied pronunciations today is Molokai.

It seems there are at least two schools of thought; an explanation on the pronunciation/spelling of the island name (Molokai (Moh-loh-kī) versus Molokaʻi (Moh-loh-kah-ee)) is noted in the early portion of “Tales of Molokai The Voice of Harriet Ne” by Harriet Ahiona Ayau Ne with Gloria L. Cronin.

Harriet Ne’s grandson, Edward Halealoha Ayau, noted:

“The reason that the name Molokai (as used in the book) is left without the glottal stop is because my tūtū wahine (grandmother) says that when she was growing up in Pelekunu it was never pronounced Molokaʻi (Moh-loh-kah-ee), but rather Molokai (Moh-loh-kī).”

“Then in about the 1930s, the name changed to Molokaʻi, in part she believes because musicians began pronouncing the name that way. Mary Kawena Pukuʻi, three weeks before her death, called my tūtū and told her that the correct name is Molokai, which means ‘the gathering of the ocean waters.’”

“On the rugged north coast of the island, the ocean slams hard into the pali. On the south and east shores, the ocean glides gently to shore due to location of reefs at least a quarter of a mile offshore. Hence the name, Molokai, ‘Gathering of the Ocean Waters.’”

In a follow-up exchange with Halealoha, he resolved the matter saying that the “best answer is both pronunciations are correct and the most correct depends on which family you are speaking to. So for our ʻohana, it would be Molokai. For others, Molokaʻi.”

Bingham writes, “Aiming to avoid an ambiguous, erroneous, and inconvenient orthography, to assign to every character one certain sound, and thus represent with ease and exactness the true pronunciation of the Hawaiian language, the following five vowels and seven consonants have been adopted: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, I, m, n, p, w.”

“The power of the vowels may be thus represented: ‘a’, as ‘a’ in the English words art, father; ‘e’, as ‘a’ in pale, or ‘ey’ in they; ‘I’, as ‘ee’ or, in machine; ‘o’, as ‘o’ in no; ‘u’, as ‘oo’ in too. They are called so as to express their power by their names ‘ Ah, A, Ee, O, Oo.” (Bingham)

“The convenience of such an alphabet for the Hawaiian language, undisturbed by foreign words, is very obvious, because we can express with simplicity, ease, and certainty, those names and phrases with the sound of which former voyagers were utterly unable to make us acquainted by English orthography.”

“Though it were possible to spell them with our English alphabet it would still be inconvenient. A few names may illustrate the reasons for our new orthography.” (Bingham)

The Old.           Corrected in English.        The New, or Hawaiian.
Tamaahmaah    Kah-mā‘-hau-mā-hah       Ka me‘ ha-me‘ ha
Terreioboo        Kah-lah‘-nȳ-ō-poo‘-oo     Ka la’ ni o pu‘ u
Tamoree           Kah-oo‘-moo ah lee‘-ee    Ka u‘ rnu a Ii‘ i
Owhyhee          Hah-wȳe‘-ee                     Ha wai‘ i
Woahoo,          O-ah‘-hoo                         O a‘ hu
Attooi               Cow‘-eye‘                          Kau‘ ai‘
Hanaroorah     Hō-nō-loo‘-loo                  Ho no lu‘ lu

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Filed Under: General, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Hawaiian Traditions, Prominent People Tagged With: Captain Cook, Molokai, Maui, Island Names, Kauai, Lanai, Niihau, Nathaniel Portlock, George Vancouver, Lehua, Hawaii, Kaula, Hawaii Island, Captain Vancouver, Oahu, Hiram Bingham

April 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

George Dixon

Captain James Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society)

“All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers. Bligh, Portlock, Vancouver, Colnett, Riou, and Hergest all got their commands and served with great distinction. These men then passed on their skills to a second generation of men such as Flinders and Broughton.” (Mackay, Captain Cook Society)

George Dixon, an armourer in the Royal Navy per a warrant dated April 16, 1776, joined the Discovery and also sailed for the Pacific on Captain James Cook’s third voyage of exploration.

As an armourer Dixon was a skilled mechanic, with the rating of petty officer first-class, whose duty it was to assist the gunner in keeping the ship’s arms in order. The Discovery was at King George’s Sound (Nootka Sound, B.C.) in March and April 1778 and touched at other places along the northwest coast before returning to England in 1780.

“In the early periods of navigation, it does not seem that the extension of commerce was altogether the aim of the enterprizing adventurer; and though generally patronized by the reigning powers, where these designs originated …”

“… yet, a thirst after glory, and a boundless ambition of adding to the strength and extent of territory, on one hand, or a rapacious desire of accumulating wealth, or, perhaps the same of making discoveries, on the other, appear to have been the only object in view.” (Dixon)

Cook’s voyage had initiated the maritime fur trade in sea otter pelts with China. (Gould) “(D)uring the late Captain Cook’s last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, besides every scientific advantage which might be derived from it, a new and inexhaustible mine of wealth was laid open to future navigators, by trading furs of the most valuable kind, on the North West Coast of America.” (Dixon)

“This discovery, though obviously a source from which immense riches might be expected, and communicated, no doubt, to numbers in the year 1780, was not immediately attended to.”

“Who the gentlemen were that first embarked in the fur-trade, is perhaps not generally known, though it is certain they were not hardy enough to send vessels in that employ directly from England; for we find, that the first vessel which engaged in this new trade was fitted out from China: she was a brig of sixty tons, commanded by a Captain Hanna, who left the Typa in April, 1785.” (Dixon)

Then, in the spring of 1785 Dixon and Nathaniel Portlock, a shipmate in the Discovery, became partners in Richard Cadman Etches and Company, commonly called the King George’s Sound Company, one of several commercial associations formed to conduct trade.

Portlock was given command of the King George and of the expedition; Dixon commanded the Queen Charlotte. A licence to trade on the northwest coast was purchased from the South Sea Company, which held the monopoly for the Pacific coast.

William Beresford, the trader assigned to the expedition, wrote that Dixon and Portlock had been chosen for their ability as navigators, their knowledge of the Indians and of the best trading spots, and because they were …

“… men of feeling and humanity, and pay the most strict attention to the health of their ships companies, a circumstance of the utmost consequence in a voyage of such length.”

“These gentlemen were … not only … able navigators, but (having been on this voyage with Captain Cook) they well knew what parts of the continent were likely to afford us the best trade; and also form a tolerable area of the temper and disposition of the natives”. (Beresford to Hamlen; Dixon)

The vessels left London on August 29, 1785 and arrived at Cook Inlet, Alaska the next July. There they traded with the Indians before sailing to winter in the Hawaiian Islands.

In the spring of 1787 they sailed to Prince William Sound, Alaska, where they met another British trader, John Meares, whose ship had been iced in. Dixon and Portlock lent aid but exacted from Meares, who was trading illegally within the bounds of the South Sea Company’s monopoly, a bond not to trade on the coast.

From Prince William Sound, Dixon, having separated as planned from Portlock, sailed south to trade. He came across a large archipelago, which he named the Queen Charlotte Islands (BC.)

Dixon sailed along the western shores of the islands, named Cape St James, and then went up their eastern coasts as far as Skidegate. Along the way he purchased a large number of sea otter pelts.

Since Portlock failed to appear at Nootka, Dixon steered for the Sandwich Islands and China. He sold his furs there and then returned to England in September 1788. (Gould)

It has been suggested that Dixon taught navigation at Gosport and wrote The navigator’s assistant, published in 1791. There are no references to him after that date. A skilled navigator and successful trader, Dixon rose from obscurity to become an important figure in the history of the northwest coast. (Gough)

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Oahu-from Dixon's book A Voyage Round the World
Oahu-from Dixon’s book A Voyage Round the World

Filed Under: Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks, Economy Tagged With: King George’s Sound Company, Queen Charlotte, Richard Cadman Etches and Company, Fur Trade, Hawaii, Captain Cook, Nathaniel Portlock, George Dixon

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