Financial Flight of the
America
 Of
all the people England sent to the Pacific Northwest to look after
British interests during the "54-40 or fight" crisis
none was more notable or less effective than the Honorable Captain
John Gordon, who came as commander of the fifty gun frigate America.
Later
than any U.S. vessel in the Pacific HMS America was sent
to show the Union Jack off the Columbia and on Puget Sound. Her
1845 visit was pure gunboat diplomacy, calculated to overawe the
Yankees and let British residents in the Oregon Country know the
crown was not abandoning them.
The
Admiralty's choice of Gordon for command raised some eyebrows. He
had joined the Navy in 1805 and attained, thanks to the Napoleonic
wars and the War of 1812, the rank of captain in only eight years.
The pickings were poorer in peace time and he had been without a
deck under his feet for twenty-seven years when given Britain's
largest vessel in the eastern Pacific.
Some
critics thought his assignment was less a mark of ability than of
connections; one of his brothers was a lord commissioner of the
Admiralty, another, the Earl of Aberdeen, was foreign secretary.
The
dispatch of the America did not impress Chief Factor John
McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver. He complained to London that she was
too big to get across the Columbia River bar and would have to be
stationed on the Strait of Juan de Fuca or in Puget Sound where
there were no Americans to be intimidated.
The
Admiralty had noted the at the America's fifteen foot
draft would prevent her from entering the river. Captain Gordon's
instructions were to proceed to Fort Victoria, the new Hudson's
Bay Company post on Vancouver Island.
There
he was to borrow the steamer Beaver, the only steam vessel in the
Northwest, and send a party to Fort Nisqually, then overland to
Fort Vancouver.
Gordon
was to determine whether coal beds reported in the Puget
Sound-Cowlitz River area would provide suitable fuel for
steamships, check out the supply of timber fit for naval use and
load spars 72 feet long 27 inches in diameter to serve as main
yards.
Contrary
winds delayed Gordon's arrival at the Strait of Juan de Fuca two
months beyond schedule. Poor charts, strong tides and late summer
fogs prevented him from finding the entrance to Victoria harbor.
Gordon went instead to Port Discovery.
When
a small boat from the America found Victoria the officers
were told that the SS Beaver was up north trading with the
Tlingits. So the inspection party had to go south up the Sound by
small boat rather than steamer.
This
group was led by Lieutenant William Peel, son of the incumbent
prime minister who carried out his assignment brilliantly and
submitted a solid, detailed report on the Oregon Country and its
potential.
While
Peel was on reconnaissance, Gordon visited Fort Victoria. Chief
Factor Roderick Finlayson, a fellow Scot, took him fishing. The
salmon were running, Indians were netting and spearing them by the
hundreds, but Gordon insisted on fly casting. He was skunked.
"What
a country, " Gordon complained, " where the salmon will
not take the fly." He told Finlayson he would not trade "one
acre of the barren hills of Scotland for all that he saw around
him."
Gordon
was equally dour in talking to James Douglas, another resident
Hudson's Bay Company official who reported to the company governor
that "The old Gentleman was exceedingly kind, but no wise
enthusiastic about Oregon or British interests. He does not think
the country worth five straws."
After
five weeks in the Northwest, Gordon was convinced that Puget Sound
and the Oregon Country was of such scant worth that "...the
single Harbour of San Francisco in California with its surrounding
shores is worth the whole of it."
He
reported to the Admiralty that in his opinion the United States
government was encouraging emigration to the Oregon Country as a
ruse, since newcomers would probably "instantly quite it for
the fertile plains of California, and thus the American
Government plant their native population in their friendly
Neighbor's territory."
Gordon
decided to winter in warmer climes. He left Port Discovery for
Hawaii, then visited Mazatlan. Mexico was in turmoil and British
merchants feared their money might be confiscated. They asked
Gordon if he would transport an estimated two million dollars in
specie back to England.
Under
existing British law a commander received a per centage of money
rescued under such circumstances. Gordon agreed, loaded the gold
and silver and sailed home. Thus while the Admiralty was counting
on the America's presence in the North Pacific in event of
war with the United States, Captain the Honorable Gordon left his
station, in the bitter words of a superior, "without orders,
with money."
Gordon
was court marshaled. The charge of "...leaving his station,
contrary to orders, " was held to be "full proved,"
and Gordon was "severely reprimanded," but not relieved
of his command. He resigned a few months later, taking his cut of
the two million, estimated at ten thousand dollars, into
retirement.
Gordon's
money cruise did not effect the boundary settlement. Britain and
the United States had agreed to the 49th parallel as the dividing
line before it was known that the America was missing from
her station.
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