HMS America

Early 1900's sailing ship in a bottle

A Sailing ship in a bottle, from early 1900’s

The story of the British frigate HMS America is an especially interesting story, as it involves the history of both Forts Victoria and Vancouver. There are some very interesting characters in this story, and we can argue about their thoughts and motives for hours on end! The end result of all this was, of course, that when finally settled, the boundary line between American territory in the Columbia district, and British territory to the north, ran along the 49th parallel until it reached the Straits, and then dipped to the south around Vancouver’s Island. 

Here is how the story goes. The HMS America was (in spite of its name) a British ship: a 74-gun ship of the Royal Navy, launched in April 1810. The history of her early years has nothing to do with America, but with the sea battles between France and England. However, in February 1845, the British government sent the ship to Oregon to give naval support for the British subjects who lived on the Columbia River, and who, for the most part, worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Her captain at the time was Captain John Gordon, who had entered the Royal Navy on April 15, 1805, and who attained commander’s rank in June 1815, and the rank of post captain at the end of 1818. He was then placed on the inactive list, where he remained for 26 years — until 1844, in fact. This doesn’t sound good.

Gordon’s brother, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Secretary), and another brother, William, was a lord of the Admiralty and an associate of Sir George Francis Seymour, at this time the newly assigned commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station at Valparaiso, Chile. Family connections might well have bought John Gordon the command of the 50-gun frigate (we have conflicting information here, so I don’t really know how many guns she carried) America on February 22, 1844. As I said above, in February 1845 the British government sent Gordon, in the America, from England to Oregon to give naval support for the British subjects who lived on the Columbia and on the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The America was actually assigned to Puget Sound, as the Modeste had already gone to the Columbia River.

At this time, Oregon Territory was jointly owned by the United States and Britain, and all knew that the location of the new boundary line west of the Rocky Mountains was being negotiated in Washington. That boundary line would lead west, either by the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific south of Fort Vancouver, as most HBC men believed — or by the 49th parallel to the Pacific Ocean north of Puget Sound. If it traveled west by the 49th parallel, it would severely impact the British residents of Oregon Territory, who for the most part lived north of the Columbia River where American residents rarely ventured (according to the HBC’s arguments).

Somewhere on its way north to Oregon, Gordon’s ship, America, was joined by RN Lieutenant William Peel (third son of the then Prime Minster of England), who had been appointed to join the steam sloop Cormorant. Even at the young age of nineteen, Peel had been recognized by some naval professionals as a dedicated soldier, and earmarked for special work such as the project he would now be assinged to be a part of. Peel was given the assignment of working on a secret mission to investigate the state of affairs in the HBC’s Columbia district, to determine whether or not the region could be defended against American aggression, should it happen to rear its ugly head. Force would be used, if necessary, according to instructions from the Admiralty that advised Sir George Francis Seymour to do his utmost to protect British interests in the entire Pacific region, and especially in the Columbia district. 

On his way to join the America, Peel sailed to the Pacific Station in Seymour’s flagship, Collingwood. Seymour’s predecessor at the Pacific Station, Rear Admiral Richard Thomas, had already deployed the sloop of war, Modeste, north to support British interests on the coast. (The Modeste had arrived at Fort Vancouver on July 15, 1844). The British government had already sent America to the Oregon district, and it is likely that she sailed direct to the straits of Juan de Fuca, rather than delay at Valparaiso. Peel had to play catchup. He had sailed into Valparaiso with the flagship, was transferred to the Cormorant, then the frigate Thalia, and eventually to the frigate America. He may well have finally caught up to the America in Monterey, Alta California. Certainly, Thomas Larkin, the United States Consul (representative of Great Britain in California) noticed that the son of the prime minister, and the brother of the secretary of state for foreign affairs, travelled together on the America, and he said that together, they held more power than the united strength of any group of kings or countries. 

The HMS America arrived off Cape Flattery on August 28, 1845. Captain Gordon intended to call in at the HBC post of Fort Victoria, for whom he had dispatches that would tell the HBC men on the coast that the British government intended to protect its national interests in the region. Having no charts of the region, he sailed past the mouth of Camosun harbour, but sent a boat back to find the fort. Roderick Finlayson said that, 

H.M. Frigate America, Captain Henry John Gordon, arrived off the harbour and sent one of his boats for us to go on board, which I did, and asked where he could anchor.”

Finlayson suggested Esquimalt harbor, but said that Captain Gordon, of the America, did not have it on his chart and so would not use it. Taking Finlayson with him aboard the America, Gordon sailed on to Port Discovery — Captain George Vancouver’s old anchorage — and dropped his anchor in what is now Discovery Bay, in Jefferson County, north-west Puget Sound. Finlayson spent three days aboard the America, and then Gordon spent a couple of weeks at Fort Victoria.

At the same time as Gordon visited Fort Victoria, two other officers from the America visited the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver. Lieutenant William Peel and Captain H. W. Parke (of the Royal Marines) passed through Fort Nisqually and reached Fort Vancouver on September 8, 1845. They delivered a letter to Chief Factor John McLoughlin that indicated that the British government was going to protect the interests of the British residents both in the Straits, and on the Columbia. Peel was instructed to learn from McLoughlin the actual state of affairs in the country. He was to investigate the Willamette valley, and to report on the American settlers and communities, especially reporting on their forts, ships, and military forces, if any. 

When Peel and Parke, the two officers from the America, arrived at Fort Vancouver, James Douglas was already guiding Lieutenant Henry James Warre and Lieutenant Mervin Vavasour, two military men who had arrived at Fort Vancouver with Peter Skene Ogden on August 26. Clerk Thomas Lowe took charge of Peel and Parke, and showed them around the Willamette Valley: they seemed pleased with the friendly and warm reception they received from the American settlers. 

On September 16, James Douglas left Fort Vancouver in the company of Peel and Parke (and also Warre and Vavasour), and proceeded toward Fort Nisqually and the America, which was still anchored in Discovery Bay with Captain Gordon now aboard. McLoughlin wrote a letter to Gordon that stated that if nothing was done, the country would pass into American hands, and Douglas delivered it and other reports into Gordon’s hands. Douglas, Warre, and Vavasour remained aboard the America for three days, and unfortunately Gordon told Douglas that he did not think the country worth five straws!

Douglas (accompanied by Warre and Vavasour) then took passage in the America across the straits to Fort Victoria: they would have arrived at the fort in one of the America‘s boats. They spent five days there, and on the three men’s eventual return to Fort Vancouver, they dropped in to visit the Modeste, now anchored at Dungeness on her way to the Columbia River on her second visit.

The America left the Straits of Juan de Fuca on October 1, 1845, and sailed for Hawaii. In order that Peel could get the reports to London quickly, Gordon shipped him off in an American vessel to Mazatlan, where he traveled overland to Vera Cruz. Boarding a Royal mail packet, Peel sailed for Havana and then London. He arrived in England on February 10, 1846, carrying McLoughlin’s report of September 15, 1845 (mentioned above), copies of Gordon’s reports as well as his own. These reports were immediately forwarded to the Foreign office, where the Earl of Aberdeen read his brother Captain John Gordon’s reports. Like Warre and Vavasour, and like Lieutenant Peel, Gordon had thought that Oregon could not be protected from the Americans. 

However, Gordon’s brother thought differently, and although he had no particular fondness for the HBC, he had a strong interest in protecting British interests in the region. All British interests. He wrote a letter that warned Richard Pakenham, the British minister in Washington who was conducting the negotiations with the Americans, that drawing the boundary line along the 49th parallel would interfere with the possessions of British settlers in Oregon Territory, and he was willing and able to defend British interests. William Peel had already written Pakenham on his thoughts (which were, of course, that the British could not save Oregon from the Americans). The Earl’s letter reached Pakenham in June, 1846, I believe, when the negotiations were at their final stage. (If you have more accurate information on the arrival of the Earl’s letter, let me know). 

The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846 — and so the boundary line was decided: it followed the 49th parallel west to the sea, and then dipped south to round Vancouver’s Island.

A final word on Captain John Gordon. At the Pacific Station at Valparaiso, Gordon ordered that gold aboard the HMS Daphne be moved to his ship, America, and he sailed for home. (What you need to know here, is that gold carried from South America to England earned the captain who carried it one 1/2 percent of the value of the gold.) The problem was: Gordon and the America were supposed to be in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. When the America sailed into Portsmouth, the Admiralty charged Gordon with dereliction of duty for removing his ship from the Straits of Juan de Fuca against orders. He was court martialed, severely reprimanded, and more or less forcibly retired. A well deserved punishment, I say!

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved. 

8 thoughts on “HMS America

  1. Gordon MacIvor

    Great story!
    Thanks.
    Yes, the roll of the Royal Navy on our Pacific North West coast is a fascinating story in itself.
    And we could have had all of Washington, Oregon and Idaho all to ourselves. Sad.

  2. David Yale Simpson

    I am reading a similar account in Waldrun’s ‘British Columbia Place Names’ which has several other amusing stories about Gordon. As disreputable as he was they still named Gordon Head in Victoria after him. GRRRR

    1. Nancy Marguerite Anderson Post author

      Hey, nice to hear from you, I lost your email address and needed to get in touch with you a while ago — dont remember why now. Gordon Head was named for THAT Gordon? I wonder why?

  3. Dave Simpson

    Hello, I faithfully read your blog every week. Yes, according to Waldrun’s it was named after this Gordon. He says it was named by Captain Kellet, HM surveying vessel Herald 1846. I just recently pulled out my copy of his book and have been prowling through all the names and I am absolutely amazed by the number of fur trader names that come up and the detail he has. I guess he was in the lucky position that it was all pretty recent history in 1909 and there were still many of the old pioneers around. Its interesting comparing his accounts of people like McLoughlin to yours. He doesn’t have as much detail, of course. He has a lot of anecdotal tales particularly concerning the North Coast forts that are interesting. I’m sure you’ve seen the book. I have sort of finished, well maybe run out of steam in probing into the Yales and Simpsons. My main interest was trying to find out more about Isabella Yale the half-breed daughter of James Murray Yale but of course there are and never were written records before the whites arrived. I even have a picture of a large wedding at Gordon Head for my Grandparents and I know she is in the picture but I can’t identify her. It seems almost like all her life she was invisible. I rant on. I am going to look you up when you come over to Vancouver on your book selling mission this fall

  4. Dave Simpson

    I was re-reading the Pathfinder and I noticed that Anderson is buried at St Stephens in Saanich. My grandfather was the Archdeacon there during and after WW2. I have visited the old graveyard many times and in future I will look for Anderson’s grave when I am there. I also re-read the sorry story of his Customs House experience. My great grandfather George Ferdinand Yale Simpson also worked there but many years later. To coin a phrase ” tis a very small world”.

    1. Nancy Marguerite Anderson Post author

      A.C.’s grave is right in front of the door, actually, but to the right of the door. That tall stone, now getting hard to read. His son Walter and family is also buried there, just a few feet away down the aisle that leads in front of A.C.’s grave, and my aunt Clara, or Claire (my mother’s older sister, born and brought home to die) is buried with Walter’s family, as his oldest daughter who died of cancer what already buried there. There is quite a few of my family there — Robert Harvey and his family (his parents, I think) is off to the right and front of the cemetery. No, I don’t expect you to go searching for all of them. 😉
      It was a small world in Victoria in the early days. Everyone knew everyone.