John DeWolf (sea captain) — BrandWiki

John DeWolf (sea captain)

Overview

John DeWolf

birth place	Bristol, Rhode Island
birth date	October 6, 1779
death place	Dorchester, Massachusetts
death date	March 8, 1872
other names	John D'Wolf
occupation	Maritime fur trader, sea captain, and businessman
resting place	Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Boston
known for	Maritime fur trade, Russian-American Company, uncle of Herman Melville
notable works	A Voyage to the North Pacific and a Journey Through Siberia: More Than Half a Century Ago
spouse	Mary Melville
children	2
awards	Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame

John DeWolf (6 September 1779 - 6 March 1872), also known as John D'Wolf, John D'Wolfe, John DeWolfe, John DeWolf II, Norwest John or Nor'west John, was a sea captain, merchant, and businessman known for his role in the maritime fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, and his influence on the Russian-American Company in Novo-Arkhangelsk (today Sitka, Alaska) in Russian America, and for being an uncle of Herman Melville. Melville was inspired by DeWolf's stories, including an encounter with a large whale that contributed to Melville's Moby-Dick, which Melville describes explicitly in Moby Dick, "Chapter XLV: The Affidavit".[1] "Captain D'Wolf" is also described in the same chapter.[2] John DeWolf was the first American known to have travelled overland across Siberia,[3] and probably the first person to circumnavigate the globe by way of crossing Asia overland.[4][5]

Voyage to the Pacific Northwest and Siberia

John DeWolf acquired partial ownership of Juno and, at age 24 was made captain and supercargo and provided with a crew of 26 men and boys. After preparing the ship for the long voyage, including a large cargo of trade goods including hardware, rum, tobacco, beads, dried beef, firearms, and cottons, intended for both the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Russians of Russian Alaska, DeWolf left Rhode Island on 13 August 1804.[10] He passed Cape Verde on 20 September. On 9 October crossed the equator and soon was near Rio de Janeiro.[11]

On 13 November 1804 Juno fell in with the Mary, another maritime fur trading vessel heading for the Pacific Northwest under Captain Trescott of Boston. Sailing together the two ships passed the Falkland Islands in mid-November, then prepared to round Cape Horn. They experienced rough seas and gale force winds. On 19 November 1804 the Juno and Mary collided during a storm. They suffered damage of various kinds, especially to their rigging, but were able to continue on after getting untangled. The ships lost sight of each other for most of the rest of December.[11]

By 10 December 1804 DeWolf judged that Juno was northwest of Cape Horn and the worst of the danger was over. He decided to stop in Spanish Chile for much needed repairs. Captain Trescott of Mary did not want to stop, so the ships parted company on 29 December 1805. DeWolf approached Concepción, stopped briefly at Valparaíso, then stayed at Coquimbo from 20 to 28 January 1805. With Juno substantially repaired, DeWolf then sailed to the Pacific Northwest Coast.[11]

On 7 April 1805 DeWolf reached the maritime fur trading site Nahwitti, at the north end of Vancouver Island. He found the Mary already there, along with another trading ship named Pearl, under John Ebbets, who helped pilot Juno into the harbor. DeWolf found trading with the indigenous peoples at Nahwitti, mostly Kwakwakaʼwakw, difficult. By 1805 sea otters populations had been greatly reduced and the prices demanded were mostly too high for DeWolf. On 20 April 1805 he set sail for the more northernly trading site of Kaigani. Some trading stops were made along the way. DeWolf arrived at Kaigani in late April 1805 and found two trading ships present. They were the Vancouver, under Thomas Brown, and the Caroline, under William Sturgis. DeWolf had the damaged mizzenmast of Juno replaced. The local Haida peoples offering sea otter furs for sale, but as at Nahwitti DeWolf found the prices too high.[8]

In May 1805 DeWolf left Kaigani and sailed north to the Russian-American Company (RAC) outpost at Novo-Arkhangelsk, today Sitka, Alaska. The outpost had only been taken from the indigenous Kiks.ádi Tlingit less than a year prior, after the Battle of Sitka, the culmination of Russian–Tlingit conflict at Sitka since 1799. Instrumental in the Russian victory over the Tlingit was the timely arrival of the warship Neva, under Yuri Lisyansky, lieutenant commander of the Imperial Russian Navy. After the battle the surviving Tlingit moved northeast in a migration known as the "Survival March". They resettled in the region around where Peril Strait connects with Chatham Strait, especially in the vicinity of Point Craven.[8]

When DeWolf arrived, the RAC Chief Manager Alexander Baranov, having driven away the Kiks.ádi Tlingit, was in Sitka. An American working for the RAC, Abraham Jones, introduced DeWolf and Baranov. The two got along well. DeWolf was impressed with Baranov and his friendly hospitality.[8]

After successfully trading some goods with the Russians at Sitka, DeWolf sailed Juno south, stopping at many places to trade with the indigenous peoples. In late June 1805 DeWolf arrived at Nahwitti once again. He found five trading vessels in the harbor. The Mary and Pearl, and three vessels owned by the Lyman family of Boston—Lydia, under Samuel Hill, Vancouver, under Thomas Brown, and Atahualpa. The Atahualpa had just suffered a violent clash with the Heiltsuk people (Q̓vúqvay̓áitx̌v) in Milbanke Sound,[12] resulting in the death of the captain, first mate, second mate, supercargo, cooper, cook, and many seamen. The various ships were working to transfer crew members and cargos and make repairs so that the Atahualpa could sail to China and then New England. DeWolf assisted in the effort.[8]

In mid-July 1805 DeWolf left Nahwitti to cruise the coast northward again. On 27 July 1805 he reached Chatham Strait and met a large group of Tlingit. The Tlingit invited Juno to anchor for trade, but in a way that made DeWolf suspicious and wary to the point where he instructed his crew to be ready for battle. Light winds kept Juno in the area until 10 August 1805. As he tried to maneuver Juno out into the strait the ship was caught in an ebbing tide and struck a rock. Juno was stranded until high tide. DeWolf readied the ships for a possible attack and the possibility of keeling over. By chance, the keel of Juno was balanced on three rocks which kept it from capsizing. During low tide the crew was able to examine the ship's bottom and do a few repairs. In the morning many Tlingit came in canoes. While some trading was done DeWolf tried to prevent the possibility of attack by taking a Tlingit hostage. It turned out that Juno was not badly damaged and was seaworthy with in the incoming tide. DeWolf released his hostage with "a very liberal present for his detention", and made for Sitka. His examination of the ship's bottom showed the poor state of the copper cladding. DeWolf hoped to make better repairs at Sitka.[8]

Wintering at Sitka 1805-1806

On the way DeWolf encountered the Mary again and the two ships sailed together to Sitka, arriving on 14 August 1805. DeWolf wrote that Baranov welcomed him to Sitka "with that kind of obliging hospitality which made him loved and respected by every visitor". By this time DeWolf had collected about 1,000 sea otter furs. He arranged to have the Mary take them to sell in Guangzhou (Canton), the only port in China open to Western trade at the time. [8]

The Juno was brought ashore and repaired until 6 September 1805. Many floor timbers were repaired and the copper along the hull bottom was replaced. Despite the work, DeWolf wrote of Juno as "crippled", and that he would just have to carry on, "and endeavor to prosecute the remainder of our voyage with more caution".[8]

DeWolf proposed to Baranov a joint venture to hunt sea otters on the coast of Spanish California, despite such activity being considered illegal poaching by the Spanish. The plan involved about 50-60 RAC Aleut and Alutiiq hunters and their kayaks being taken aboard Juno, which would sail to California in October 1805. This kind of joint venture was first done in 1803–1804 by the American trader Joseph O'Cain. Baranov agreed to DeWolf's proposal.[8]

Later life

After his circumnavigation, DeWolf participated in many other voyages as a businessman, making various international business contracts over a long and successful career.[7] Making good on his Russian connections, he managed the DeWolf family's trade with Russia via the Baltic Sea. This DeWolf–Russian trade lasted into the 1820s.[8]

By 1823 DeWolf established one of the four American mercantile houses that were operating in Honolulu at that time.[23] These trading houses were stocked with goods that were in demand by Native Hawaiians and the growing number of Americans and other foreigners who lived in Hawaii. Profits were made by selling goods mostly in exchange for Hawaiian sandalwood (ʻiliahi or ʻiliahialoʻe), which was a booming business in the 1820s. As whaling ships began visiting Hawaii in larger numbers the mercantile community grew and whaling bills of exchange became increasingly common. By 1830 Hawaii had become a major commercial center for the entire North Pacific, with connections to California, China, Russia, and many Pacific Islands. The main ports of call were Honolulu on Oahu and Lahaina on Maui. American goods were largely brought from New England, and buildings commonly used a distinctly New England style similar to the "Yankee" architecture of the whaling centers of New Bedford and Nantucket.[24]

In 1829 DeWolf gave up sea voyages and settled down in Bristol.[3] He lived on Hope Street, in what became known as the "Capt. John DeWolf House". He managed what is now known as "Capt. John DeWolf's Store", at 54 State Street. Both buildings were in what is now the Bristol Waterfront Historic District.[6] The National Register of Historic Places describes "Capt. John DeWolf's Store" as "owned by the famous "Nor'west John" DeWolf, first American to cross Siberia after selling his ship in Alaska to a fur trade official of the Russian-American Company".[6]

In 1814 DeWolf married Mary Melville, aunt of Herman Melville. They had two children: Nancy Melville DeWolf (1814–1901) and John Langsdorff DeWolf (1817–1886).[7] In 1850, he and Mary moved in with their married daughter, Nancy Downer, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.[3]

DeWolf is known for inspiring his nephew Herman Melville, including a dramatic account of an encounter with a huge whale that lifted his ship out of the water—a story which contributed to Melville's conception of Moby Dick. DeWolf is mentioned in Moby Dick.[7] Herman Melville spent the summer of 1828 living with the DeWolfs in Bristol, during which time "Nor'west John" told him many stories about his adventures, which contributed to Herman's later inspiration to write Moby Dick. In Moby Dick Melville included explicit mentions of DeWolf and George Heinrich von Langsdorff, who DeWolf met and befriended in Russian Alaska.[8]

DeWolf died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, at the home of his daughter, on 8 March 1872. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1967.[7] He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Boston.

Overland across Siberia

On 27 June 1807 DeWolf anchored Rostislav at Okhotsk. There he and Langsdorff learned that Rezanov had fallen ill and died on 13 March 1807. DeWolf made preparations for the start of his overland trip across Russia to Saint Petersburg. Langsdorff had other plans, so DeWolf traveled without him. He left for Yakutsk on 3 July 1807, with eleven horses and a Yakuts guide. He took the main route, which proved to be rough and difficult. He arrived at Yakutsk on 26 July 1807.[8]

From Yakutsk DeWolf traveled to Irkutsk by boat on the Lena River. A Cossack traveled with him on the boat, and DeWolf noted how the provincial population treated the Cossack and himself with great deference. He later wrote that as an "American captain" traveling to Saint Petersburg "on government business", the local peoples held him in very high regard. At one point the boat stopped near a village that was experiencing an outbreak of smallpox. DeWolf helped inoculate villagers using a technique he learned in the USA. He ran a thread through the lesions of infected villagers, then cut the thread into small pieces, which were put into small incisions made in the arms of uninfected villagers. This technique usually made people immune to smallpox.[8]

DeWolf arrived at Irkutsk on 28 August 1807. There he met up with an RAC official who provided room and board. He also ran into his friend Langsdorff, who was on his way to Kyakhta, the only place where China allowed Russia to trade, via a crossing of Lake Baikal. So the friends soon parted ways again. The rest of DeWolf's trip across Russia was relatively uneventful. He reached Tomsk on 10 September 1807, then Kazan on 30 September, then Moscow on 8 October. He stayed in Moscow until 17 October before leaving for Saint Petersburg, which he reached on 21 October 1807.[8]

At Saint Petersburg DeWolf went to the RAC headquarters, where he was introduced to the RAC Director, Mikhail Matveevich Buldakov, who, like Rezanov, was a son-in-law of the influential pre-RAC Alaskan fur trader Grigory Shelikhov. Language difficulties were resolved by the appearance of the American Benedict Cramer, a partner in the banking firm Cramer, Smith and Company, and a member of the RAC Board of Directors. Cramer was already familiar with DeWolf's sale of Juno and helped facilitate the payments owed. The bills of exchange DeWolf had been given in Sitka were honored in Spanish dollars. The proceeds were then invested in hemp, iron, and manufactured goods, and sent to the USA.[8]

After payment, DeWolf was free to enjoy himself in Saint Petersburg, where Director Buldakov put him up. During his stay, DeWolf met Levitt Harris, the American Consul General in Russia, as well as Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, the minister of commerce and future minister of foreign affairs. Rumyantsev was also the principal financier of the expedition that had taken Rezanov and Langdorff to Russian America. DeWolf planned to stay in Saint Petersburg until late November, but the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War between Russia and the United Kingdom hastened his departure. He found transport on a small Dutch ship and left Saint Petersburg in early November, arriving at Helsingør (Elsinore), near Copenhagen, Denmark, on 13 November 1807.[8]

In Denmark, DeWolf met Captain David Gray, an American merchant from Portland, Maine. Gray agreed to take DeWolf to America. They quickly reached Liverpool, England, but had to spend the winter of 1807–1808 there while Gray's ship underwent repairs. They left Liverpool on 7 February 1808 and arrived in Portland, Maine, on 25 March.[8] From Portland, DeWolf traveled by stagecoach to Bristol, Rhode Island, arriving home on 1 April 1808.[3] From departure to return, DeWolf's trip had taken almost four years. Overall, the expedition netted the DeWolf family over $100,000, a considerable profit at the time.[8] John DeWolf's epic voyage earned him the nickname Nor'west John.[3]

John DeWolf's expedition had a large impact on his life. He had made valuable contacts in Russia which led to trade relationships. He adventures made him a local celebrity, and he told his stories to many people over the years until he finally wrote a book about it, titled A Voyage to the North Pacific and a Journey Through Siberia: More Than Half a Century Ago, published in 1861.[11]

John DeWolf (sea captain)

Early life

The Juno

Voyage to the Pacific Northwest and Siberia

Wintering at Sitka 1805-1806

Later life

See also

External links

Further reading

References

Wintering at Petropavlovsk 1806-1807

Overland across Siberia