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EA-Biography

(W. Kaye Lamb)

JOHN MEARES

        Captain John Meares (1756?-1809), British naval officer, navigator, and

pioneer fur trader on the northwest coast of North America, was born about 1756.

According to the Dictionary of National Biography , he "entered the navy in 1771

on board the Cruiser, in the rating of 'captain's servant,' and after serving

for nearly seven years, mostly in small ships, passed his examination September

17, 1778, when he was said to be no more than twenty-two (passing certificate);

the next day he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After the peace of 1783

he entered the merchant service and obtained command of a ship for a voyage to

India."

        Cook's last expedition had revealed the wealth of furs awaiting the adventurer

on the northwest coast of North America, and in Calcutta Meares and some associates

organized the Bengal Fur Society to exploit this trade. Two ships were purchased

in January 1786, and renamed Nootka (200 tons) an d Sea Otter (100 tons). The latter

sailed for Malacca late in February with orders to proceed thence to the northwest

coast and there meet her consort in Prince William Sound. Meares himself took

command of the Nootka , which left Calcutta on March 12th, and after calling at

Madras and Malacca sailed from the latter port on May 29th. A slow, dreary voyage

across the Pacific followed. Meares chose a northerly course, where he frequently

encountered fog and unfavorable winds. In August he stumbled upon the Russian

settlement at Unalaska, which he later described in some detail in his Voyages .

        It was late September before he reached the rendezvous in Prince William Sound.

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EA-Biography. Lamb: John Meares

There he found evidence that convinced him - correctly, as we now know - that

the Sea Otter had visited the place recently. Meares assumed that she had sailed

for China; asit proved, she was never heard of again. Meares decided to winter

in the Sound, and all went well until the turn of the year, when scurvy broke

out. There is more than a suspicion that a too-generous ration of inferior but

potent liquor contributed to the physical deterioration of the crew. Meares him–

self noted that when his first officer developed the first symptoms of the disease

he got rid of them "by continually chewing the young pine branches, and swallow–

ing the juice; but, from the unpleasant taste of this medicine, few of the sick

could be prevailed upon to persist in taking it." Before the warm weather final–

ly came in May 1787, 23 of the Nootka's officers and crew, originally 45 in number,

had died, and most of the rest were in dire straits.

        On May 19th, Captain George Dixon, of the British trading vessel Queen Char–

lotte , appeared in a longboat, and he and his trading companion, Captain Nathaniel

Portlock of the King George, gave Meares two seamen and some supplies. This assist–

ance was given on condition that Meares abandon fur trading and leave the coast.

Meares had no alternative but to accept these terms, first, because of his virtual–

ly helpless condition, and, secondly, because he had neglected to secure a trading

license from the South Sea Company. Indeed, the Nootka could probably have been

seized as a poacher by Portlock and Dixon, whose ships were properly licensed.

Meares finally got to sea on June 21st, after having spent no less than nine

months in Prince William Bound. He proceeded almost at once to the Hawaiian

Islands, and after a stay of a month there sailed for China. He reached Typa,

near Macao, on October 20th, 1787.

        In spite of the failure of his expedition, Meares became an influential

shareholder in a new and larger partnership formed to continue the fur trade.

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EA-Biography. Lamb: John Meares

This is referred to both as the "Merchant Proprietors" and as the "Associated

Merchants trading vessels to to the North West Coast of America." The new con–

cern included Messrs. Etches, who had been interested in four of the five trad–

ing vessels known to have visited the coast in 1787, including those commanded

by Dixon and Portlock. In 1788 the new partnership dispatched two ships from

China. The 230-ton Felice Adventurer , with Meares in command, sailed in January;

her consort was the Iphigenia Nubiana , of 200 tons. To avoid the necessity of

securing trading licenses both ships flew Portuguese colors and carried Portuguese

sailors who could pose as their commanders in case of need.

        Upon this occasion Meares headed straight for Nootka Sound, already the

chief rendezvous in the area. He arrived in May, and was joined there by the

Iphigenia in June. A longer-term view was now being taken of the fur trade, and

Meares brough with him Chinese artisans to help construct a station on shore.

At Nootka he either purchased or arranged to secure the use of a plot of ground

from the Indians, and duly constructed a rough storehouse. On the shore nearby

his men assembled the 40-ton schooner North West America , which had been brought

from China in knocked-down form. She was launched on September 20th, and, so far

as is known, was the first vessel constructed by white men in that part of the

world. Meare's own trading activities in the Felice extended from Nootka Sound

south to Tillamook Bay, now in the State of Washington. The Iphigenia visited

Prince William Sound and then worked her way southward, naming Douglas Entrance

(now Dixon Entrance) en route. Late in September Meares sailed for China in the

Felice, leaving the Iphigenia and North West America behind with orders to con–

tinue trading and then winter at the Hawaiian Islands.

        May of 1789 found the two ships once more at Nootka, awaiting the arrival of

the two additional vessels Meares had told them would be coming from China. On May

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EA-Biography. Lamb: John Meares

6th the Spanish frigate Princess arrived, and she was joined a week later by

the corvette San Carlos . At this time Spain still regarded the northwest coast

as a private preserve. Even the presence of ordinary trading vessels was felt

to be an infringement of her rights, but as long as they were merely birds of

passage they caused her no great alarm. The activities of Meares and his assoc–

iates were another matter. They represented a sustained and systematic approach

to the area, and the purchase of land and the erection of a building on shore in

1788 had made it clear that a permanent settlement of some kind was a part of the

general plan. Martinez, the Spanish commander of the Princesa , decided that the

time had come for action in defense of Spain's pretensions, and on May 14th he

seized the Iphigenia and North West America. In July, when the expected ships

from China — the Argonaut , commanded by Captain James Colnett, and the Princess

Royal — finally appeared, they were seized as well. The Iphigenia was later

released under bond, but the other three craft were held. The Argonaut was taken

to Mexico as a prize; the Princess Royal and North West America were renamed

Princess Real and Gertrudis , respectively, and employed by the Spaniards on the

coast.

        As soon as news of the seizures reached Meares he left at once for England.

There, in a memorial dated April 30, 1790, he aired his grievances in ringing

tones and claimed damages against Spain to the tune of $653,433. On May 13th

this memorial was presented to the House of Commons, and, happening as it did to

fit the temper and prejudices of the time, it created much excitement and aroused

great indignation. Immediate satisfaction and reparation were demanded from Spain,

and when these were not at once forthcoming a formidable fleet was assembled —

the famous "Spanish armament of 1790." In September Meares boldly recalculated

his losses and raised his claims to the fantastic total of £469,865. But in

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EA-Biography. Lamb: John Meares

October, when Spain finally gave way, it is noteworthy that he accepted the

relatively modest sum of $210,000 in full settlement of his wrongs.

        Shortly after this Meares published in London the narrative entitled Voyages

Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the north west coast of America .

Its appearance at once gave rise to a lively controversy with Captain George

Dixon, late of the Queen Charlotte , who took exception to many of Meare s 's state–

ments and claims.

        This was Meares's last fling in the spotlight of popular attention, and he

drops from sight thereafter. He was promoted to the rank of commander, R.N.,

on February 26, 1795, but so far as we known saw no further active service in the

Navy. He died in 1809.

        Meares was a braggard, much given to pretence and exaggeration, and the

circumstances that his memorial almost precipitated a war with Spain has made

him loom larger in history than he probably deserves. At the same time he must

have possessed ability, or he could not have held his place amongst the men who

were his partners in the Associated Merchants. Nor can a man who returned to

Alaskan waters after the grim experience he had had there in the winter of 1786-

87 be accused of being lacking in courage.

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        References:

Meares's Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789 appeared in a quarto volume

in London in 1790; a second edition in two volumes followed in 1791. A French

translation in four volumes (vol. 4 consisting of maps and plates) was published

in Paris in 1790. Two editions were later printed in Italian.

Mr. Meares' Memorial, dated 30th April 1790, with fourteen enclosures, to

the Right Honorable William W. Grenville, His Majesty's Secretary of State . (London,

1790), is now extremely rare. An Authentic copy was printed by Debrett in London

the same year. The text has been reprinted with notes and an introduction by

Nellie B. Pipes under the title The Memorial of John Mears (sic) to the House of

Commons Respecting the Capture of Vessels in Nootka Sound (Portland, Oregon:

Metropolitan Press, 1933).

For the literature of the Dixon-Meares controversy, see the article on that

subject.

Many articles relating in one way or another to Meares will be found in the

Oregon Historical Quarterly and the Washington Historical Quarterly . A more de–

tailed and sympathetic account of his voyages than is usually given in general

histories will be found in chapters XI-XIII of The Far West Coast , by V. L. Denton

(Toronto, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1924).

       

W. Kaye Lamb