Tonquin (1807)

Construction

The Tonquin was constructed by Adam and Noah Brown at a dry dock within New York City in 1807.

Maiden voyage

The Tonquin purchased by Fanning & Coles to participate in the Old China Trade. It originally had a crew of 24, including its captain, Edmund Fanning. She departed the New York City harbor on the 26 May 1807 for the port of Guangzhou. Outside the port cities of China, the Tonquin survived an attack by a typhoon while crossing the Macclesfield Bank. From there the vessel passed the Wanshan Archipelago on its way to Guangzhou. Prior to returning to the United States, the Tonquin was detained by Commodore Edward Pellew. Apparently Fanning was previously acquainted with both Pellew and his father. After a discussion with Pellew, Fanning subsequently was allowed to start the return voyage, leaving the port on 18 November 1807.

Another vessel owned by Fanning & Coles, the Hope, was encountered the same day. After meeting with its captain, Reuben Brumley, Fanning continued to sail towards the Bocca Tigris. A squadron of British vessels stationed there stopped the vessel and detained it for a day. The following day orders from Commodore Pellew arrived, detailing that the Tonquin was to be freed immediately and sent Fanning "his apology for your detention, and his good wishes, that you may have a pleasant and safe passage." Prior to the departure of the principal British officers, a toast to the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was held. Fanning returned to New York City with a full cargo of valuable trade goods on 6 March 1808.

Second voyage

Organized in 1808, the second voyage of the Tonquin was focused on the active Sandalwood trade throughout the Pacific Ocean. The previous year, an arrangement with a group of iTaukei people on Fiji was made by captain Brumley of the Hope. The Sandalwood tree Santalum yasi was to be cut, collected, and processed by the iTaukei until Brumley returned in 18 months. The then still active Embargo Act of 1807 was a potential roadblock in this overseas project. Coles and Fanning both went to the Washington, D.C. to request Federal approval of allowing the voyage to Fiji. There they held meetings with Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. Gallatin sent the proposal to President Thomas Jefferson, who formally approved it.

The Tonquin was dispatched to Fiji on 15 June 1808. Brumley was appointed captain, with Coles and Fanning both on board. From New York City, the vessel went south through the Atlantic Ocean and sailed past part of the Brazilian coast and later Gough Island. After passing the Cape Horn the American ship continued to sail west, landing at King George Sound, in modern Western Australia, on 8 October 1808. A tent there was made to allow crew members with scurvy to recover. Local Noongar groups frequently visited the Americans at their tent. Through signs the Noongar would initiate potential commercial transactions by establishing their peaceful intentions through dropping their weapons. Only after the Americans would put down their firearms would a spirited trade begin the two groups. American goods such as beads, metal buttons and knives were often exchanged in return for Noongar manufactured stone tools and food supplies. Those of the crew afflicted with illness were eventually restored to health. over the following days. The Tonquin left the sound on 21 October for Tasmania, where local Palawa peoples sold the crew stockpiles of "hogs, bread-fruit, [and] yams" among other products.

On 10 December the Tonquin passed the Yasawa Islands and landed at Viti Levu the following day. Greeting by a group of iTaukei men bearing gifts of fruit, the Americans informed their hosts of the previous agreement made over sandalwood. The dignitaries soon departed to transmit news elsewhere. Shortly after sunrise the next day, iTaukei men gave fresh coconuts, bread-fruit, hogs, and yams from their assembled canoes. The local leader, "Tynahoa", came with his followers and announced that he had the agreed amount of sandalwood harvested and stockpiled. Over the course of a hour the Americans and Tynahoa held a discussion on board the Tonquin. He told the merchants that several British ships from Port Jackson had visited and were still anchored near by during the time of Brumley's absence. However, he was insistent that no sandalwood had been sold to them, as he had declared a tabu on the sale of sandalwood among his subordinates.

The sandalwood was delivered gradually to the Tonquin from subjects of Tynahoa. This process would span several months, although the wait was apparently worth it. Fanning later stated that The entire hull and part of the deck were load with the raw material. The tabu was formally absolved by Tynahoa, allowing the waiting British merchants to finally purchase their own supplies of sandalwood. The Tonquin departed for Guangzhou on 22 March 1809. Sailing roughly northwest from Viti Levu, islands of modern Vanuatu and Solomon Islands were sighted, in addition parts of the Federated States of Micronesia, such as Kapingamarangi, which Fanning called the Equator Isles. After entering the Guangzhou port, the sandalwood cargo was sold in return for various Chinese products. The Tonquin safely returned to New York City.

Pacific Fur Company

It was sold for $37,860 to German-American merchant John Jacob Astor on August 23, 1810. Astor purchased the vessel to spearhead his plans for gaining a foothold in the ongoing Maritime fur trade on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The Tonquin was assigned to Pacific Fur Company (PFC) to accomplish this major commercial goal. The PFC was a subsidiary venture funded largely by the American Fur Company, itself owned by Astor. The merchant was able to gain the services of United States Navy lieutenant Jonathan Thorn and put him in command of the 10-gun merchant vessel.

Atlantic Ocean

On September 8, 1810 the Tonquin departed the New York harbor, bound for the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Cargo on board included fur trade goods, seeds, building material for a trading post, tools, and the frame of a schooner to be used in the coastal trade. The crew consisted of 34 people including the captain, 30 of whom were British subjects. Four partners of the company were on board: Duncan McDougall, David and Robert Stuart, and Alexander McKay. Additionally there were 12 clerks and 13 Canadian voyageurs, plus four tradesmen: Augustus Roussel, a blacksmith; Johann Koaster, a carpenter; Job Aitkem, a boat builder; and George Bell, a cooper.

After leaving the national waters of the United States the Tonquin sailed south east into the Atlantic. On the 5th of October, the ship came within sight of Boa Vista, The enforced policy of Impressment by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland made Thorn wary of passing British vessels. Consequently, he decided against staying at the holdings of the Kingdom of Portugal and avoided the Cape Verde Islands. After sailing down the coast of West Africa, the Tonquin made way for South America. Off the coast of Argentina an extreme storm struck, ruining many of the sails and added two additional leaks in the hull. As the voyage continued on the water supplies dwindled to three gills a day per sailing member.

The vessel landed at the Falkland Islands on 4 December to make repairs and take on water supplies, with a suitable source of fresh water located at Port Egmont. Captain Thorn set sail on the 11th of December without eight of the men, including partner David Stuart, along with Gabriel Franchère and Alexander Ross. Having only a rowboat, the eight men spent over six hours rowing before they caught up with the Tonquin. Robert Stuart quickly threatened Thorn to stop the ship, saying if he refused to then "You are a dead man this instant." This display made Thorn order the Tonquin crew to sail back and pick up the stranded crew mates. Thorn's actions led to increasing tensions between him and the employees of the Pacific Fur Company. Communication between company workers was no longer held in English to keep the captain excluded from discussions. Company partners held talks in their ancestral Scottish Gaelic and hired PFC workers used Canadian French. The atmosphere of "their jokes and chanting their outlandish songs" greatly frustrated Thorn. On December 25 the Tonquin safely traversed around Cape Horn and sailed north into the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Ocean

The Tonquin reached the Kingdom of Hawaii on February 12, 1811, dropping anchor at Kealakekua Bay. The possibility of men deserting the ship in favor of the islands became a major threat. Thorn had no choice but to make amends with the PFC partners to police the crew. Several men abandoned ship but the cooperation of the nearby Native Hawaiians saw their return. One man was flogged, another put in chains. Thorn assembled all of the crew and PFC employees and harassed the men to remain on the ship. Commercial transactions eventually with the Hawaiians; the crew purchased cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts watermelon, breadfruit, hogs, goats, two sheep, and poultry for "glass beads, iron rings, needles, cotton cloth". An courier from government agent John Young ordered the Tonquin visit him for meat supplies and then to have an audience with Kamehameha I who resided on Oʻahu.

Upon entering Honolulu, the crew was greeted by Francisco de Paula Marín and Isaac Davis. Marín acted as an interpreter in negotiations with Kamehameha I and Kalanimoku, a prominent Hawaiian government official. Besides his work in discussion between the Hawaiian Monarch and the PFC officers, Marín also acted as the pilot to guide the ship into port, for which he received Five Spanish dollars. 24 Hawaiian kanakas were recruited for three years service, half in the fur venture and the other half as laborers on the Tonquin. One of the Hawaiians, Naukane, was appointed by King Kamehameha I to oversee the interests of these laborers. Naukane was given the name John Coxe while on the Tonquin and later joined the North West Company. The Tonquin and its crew left the Hawaiian Kingdom on 1 March 1811.

The Columbia River was reached on 22 March 1811, but its dangerous bar posed a major problem. Thorn sent five men in a boat to attempt to locate the channel, but the rough surf capsized the vessel and its crew were lost. Two days later another attempt by an additional small boat was attempted but it also sank. Of the five crew members, which included two Hawaiian Kanakas, only an American and a Hawaiian survived. In total eight men died attempting to find a safe route past the Columbia Bar. Finally on March 24, the Tonquin crossed into the Columbia’s estuary and laid anchor in Baker’s Bay. The personnel then proceeded fifteen miles up the river to present-day Astoria, Oregon, where they spent two months laboring to establish Fort Astoria. Some trade goods and other materials that composed the cargo was transferred to the new trading post. During this work, small transactions with curious Chinookan Clatsop people occurred.

Destruction

On June 5, 1811, the Tonquin left Baker’s Bay with a crew of 24 and sailed north for Vancouver Island to trade with various Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. McKay was aboard the ship as supercargo and James Lewis as clerk. Near Destruction Island a member of the Quinault nation, Joseachal, was recruited by Thorn to act as an interpreter, being recorded as "Joseachal" by McDougall in company records. He had a sister married to a Tla-o-qui-aht man, a factor that has been attributed to his later survival on Vancouver Island.

While at Clayoquot Sound in June 1811, the Tonquin crew engaged in fur trading activities. Members of the neighboring Tla-o-qui-aht nation boarded the ship in large numbers to trade. Commercial dealings were negotiated between an experienced elder, Nookamis, and Thorn. The naval captain offered an exchange rate found to be unsatisfactory by the elder, who wanted five blankets for every fur skin sold. These discussion continued on throughout the day and Thorn increasingly became frustrated at the Indigenous intransigence to accept his terms. The interpreter later informed McDougall that Thorn "got in a passion with Nookamis", taking one of Nookamis' fur skins and hitting him on the face with it. After this outburst, Thorn ordered the ship prepare to depart, with the Tla-o-qui-aht still on board.

The Indigenous consulted among themselves and as the Tonquin was close to leaving the area offered to trade their fur stockpiles again. They proposed that in return for a skin, the PFC officers sell 3 blankets and a knife. McDougall recounted that "A brisk trade was carried on untill all the Indians setting round on the decks of the Ship were supplied with a knife a piece." Violence immediately erupted as the warriors led by Wickaninnish attacked the crew on board, and killed all but one of the men. The only known survivor of the crew was Joseachal, who arrived back at Fort Astoria through assistance of prominent Lower Chinookan noble Comcomly.

Legacy

Two locations, Tonquin Valley and Tonquin Pass, were named after the Tonquin.

A movie was in planning stages in 2008 to portray the events ending with the 1811 blowing up of the Tonquin.