HMS Modeste and USS Shark

Fort George [Astoria] where James Birnie spent many years in the service of the HBC. Image from Library and Archives Canada, number C-040856, and used with their permission.

The HMS Modeste and the USS Shark both spent time in the Columbia River, anchored off the HBC headquarters of Fort Vancouver. In reading articles about these two historic warships, I learned a little more about the history of Oregon Territory. First thing: it wasn’t Oregon Territory yet; most people called it the Oregon Country. Quotes and dates, etc., in this blogpost are taken from two articles: “HMS Modeste on the Pacific Coast 1843-47: Log and Letters,” published in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Dec. 1960, and “”A Gallant Little Schooner,” the U.S. Schooner Shark and the Oregon Country, 1846,” by Gregory Paynter Shine, in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 109, (Winter 2008). 

In the mid-1840s Chief Factor John McLoughlin worried that, with the arrival of so many Americans by the Oregon Trail, the American settlers might loot the Fort Vancouver warehouses and take for themselves whatever they wanted. He wrote to ask for help and support from the Royal Navy: but it was a surprise when the help arrived. It came from two unexpected sources: the HMS Modeste, and the USS Shark.

The  USS Shark did not sail to the Columbia River to help the British residents there, although in the end she did help them. Also, she would not arrive in the river until 1846 (two years after the Modeste‘s first visit), and she only stayed for a short time. However, the Modeste did sail to the Columbia to protect the HBC and British residents there. She arrived on her first visit in July, 1844, having left London in Autumn, 1843. She crossed the bar into Baker’s Bay on July 7, 1844, and she was the first and only Royal Navy ship to spend some time at the HBC headquarters of Fort Vancouver. (At this time the USS Shark was nowhere near the river, and would not be there for another year or more.)

The Modeste arrived at Fort Vancouver on July 15, 1844. It wasn’t a surprise: Thomas Lowe reported that the Modeste was in the river on July 9. At about this same time, the USS Shark was patrolling the Pacific Ocean between the Sandwich Islands and North and South America.

So, the first visit of the Modeste to Fort Vancouver: Chief Factor James Douglas showed her captain, Thomas Baillie, around the Willamette Valley,. He came away with the feeling that he (Baillie) and his officers aboard the Modeste “had more taste for a lark than a ‘musty’ lecture on politics or the great national interests in question.” The big ship remained only a few weeks in the river: on August 9, 1844, the Modeste left Fort Vancouver for the northwest coast, with plans to visit Fort Victoria, Discovery Bay (where the HMS America lay at anchor), and Fort Simpson.  

On her way out of the Columbia River, however, the Modeste was reported to be “wrecked on the bar,” according to Thomas Lowe. However, the ship did escape back into the river with a damaged rudder and hull. The rudder was temporarily repaired in Baker’s Bay, and the Modeste meekly followed Captain William Henry McNeill and his then-ship, Cowlitz, across the bar and out into the open ocean. The Modeste visited Fort Victoria [and maybe Puget Sound], and had her hull repaired at Fort Simpson. Then she sailed for California, the Sandwich Islands, and the South Pacific, and spent the winter in Hawaii, Tahiti, and on the South American coast. 

In August 1845 the Modeste was still in Tahiti; she sailed for the Sandwich Islands and arrived there in early September 1845. She reportedly received no information or assistance from the HBC men at the Sandwich Islands, although, as Captain Baillie grumbled, “the present state of affairs would appear to render it necessary that those who conduct their business should communicate with Officers of H.M. Navy, whose duty brings them to the Island, & connects them with the defence of the Country in which the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company are principally involved…” 

He was right, of course. There were, however, two problem staff-members at the Sandwich Islands, and one of them was George Traill Allan. I have found Allan to be a bit of a bully at times, and he might well have been reluctant to help Captain Baillie. Three days after the Modeste arrived, Baillie sent for Allan and asked him for information of any sort on what was happening in the Oregon Country. Allan “gave as reasons for holding aloof, that the Council General had not replied to some note, and Mr. [George] Pelly had not been civilly treated by the Captain of the Carysfort in 1843.” (The story that might lie behind this is that Lord George Paulet, captain of HMS Carysfort, had, in February 1843, demanded and secured the surrender of the Sandwich Islands to the British Crown without authorization. When Rear Admiral Thomas heard of this, he sailed to the islands and restored their sovereignty. How this connects to the unwillingness of the Agents at the Sandwich Islands to help a Royal Navy ship, who is not the Carysfort, I do not know. But it seems it did.)

George Traill Allan did give Baillie the papers that the ship Captain demanded, but he also included a note that said he desired Baillie to communicate with him via letter only. Baillie also heard the rumour that Mr. George Pelly, who was also at the Sandwich Islands, was a drunkard that did not associate with the British citizens, but only with Americans. He was even known to have refused to drink a toast to Rear Admiral Thomas, and he also insulted the Rear Admiral and the entire British Navy at a dinner where his friends were celebrating the independence of the United States.  

At any rate, in mid-September 1845, the Modeste sailed away from the Sandwich Islands (where she had exchanged salutes with the Barque Cowlitz), and arrived at “Vancouver’s Island” on October 8, 1845. I have a feeling that he anchored at New Dungeness, which is across the straits from Fort Victoria and Vancouver Island. He apparently sent a letter to James Douglas from “Vancouver’s Island,” (which I think was actually New Dungeness.) James Douglas was at Fort Victoria, however, and perhaps Baillie’s letter reached him there. However it happened, on his return to Fort Nisqually, James Douglas saw Baillie’s ship, Modeste, at anchor off New Dungeness and he came aboard, bringing with him the two British spies, Henry James Warre and Mervin Vavasour. And a most interesting conversation took place aboard the Modeste as she anchored off New Dungeness. 

Warre seems to think that when they met Captain Baillie, the captain “informed us of his intention to remain a part of the ensuing winter in the Columbia River and we have just received the intelligence of his arrival at Fort George.” But according to other sources, that is not exactly what happened. When James Douglas, Warre, and Vavasour, arrived aboard the Modeste while it was anchored at New Dungeness, Captain Baillie inquired of James Douglas whether or not it was “necessary” that the Modeste come to Fort Vancouver on this second visit. Douglas emphatically told Baillie that yes, it was. He did want the Modeste to enter the Columbia River and anchor in front of the fort, and he said that Chief Factor John McLoughlin was of the same opinion as himself.

So, as a result of that interesting conversation, the Modeste returned to the Columbia River in November 1845. At the time, Captain Baillie had orders to only enter the Columbia River if he was convinced that the HBC men required his protection, and he was to remain there no longer than may be necessary for their safety. But clearly he was convinced the HBC men needed him, and he made the choice to enter the river and to visit Fort Vancouver once again. Once in the river they entertained lavishly, the sailors put on plays and they had musical events, and they dined and wined and played cards with the HBC men, and any Americans that would join them.

So, the Shark: In April 1846, Commodore John Drake Sloat, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Squadron, ordered the USS Shark north to visit the Columbia River, and she was to return no later than September 1.  The USS Shark probably arrived at Fort Vancouver in July. No one knew she was in the river; her arrival at the fort was a surprise. James Birnie had retired and his replacement apparently did not inform Fort Vancouver that the Shark was on her way upriver. 

On his arrival at Fort Vancouver, Lieutenant Neil Howison (the captain of the Shark) soon found that “In the excited state of public feeling which existed among the Americans upon my arrival, the settled conviction on the mind of everyone that all Oregon belonged to us, and that the English had long enough been gleaning all its products, I soon discovered that, so far from arousing new zeal and patriotism, it was my duty to use any influence which my official character put me in possession of to allay its exuberance, and advise our country men to await patiently the progress of negotiations at home.” He recognized that the role he had to play was that of a peacemaker, not a warmonger. It paid off: both the crew of the Shark, and that of the Modeste, were reasonably well received by the American settlers, many of whom attended their parties and dances. The HBC men also welcomed the arrival of the Shark: as Howison said, “They have been excessively annoyed by some of our countrymen, who, with but little judgment and less delicacy, are in the habit of infringing upon their lands, and construing the law to bear them out in doing so.”

However, Lieutenant Howison also felt that the presence of the Modeste on the Columbia River “produced anything but a tranquilizing effect upon the American portion of the population, and the presence of the British flag was a constant source of irritation. The English officers used every gentlemanly caution to reconcile our countrymen to their presence, but no really good feeling existed. Indeed,” he said, “there could never be congeniality between persons so entirely dissimilar as an American frontier man and a British naval officer.”

Lieutenant Howison was a gentlemen who more closely resembled the Royal Navy officers and the HBC gentlemen: As one HBC man reported in later years, “Well he said pointing to a group of [American] frontiersmen — they may be Americans but they are as much of a curiosity to us as they are to you.” Howison also admitted that “the conduct of some of our countrymen toward the Hudson’s Bay Company has been highly reprehensible,” and that he talked one early claim-jumper (who I think is Henry Williamson) out of continuing his attempts to claim HBC lands.  

On the Shark‘s departure from the river, the HBC gentlemen addressed a letter to Captain J.A. Duntze, of HMS Fisgard, saying that “the Americans having never shewn any predilection for settling on the north side of the Columbia River until the United States’ schooner Shark, arrived at this port [in July 1846], and the excitement among them having greatly abated since her departure from hence, we cannot help thinking that the people were directly or indirectly encouraged by the officers of that vessel to encroach upon our settlement… We beg to add, in justice to Captain Howison, the commander of the Shark, that he evinced much concern on observing the lengths to which his countrymen were disposed to carry on their encroachments, and made some exertions to put a stop to their proceedings.”

After having spent 47 days anchored in front of Fort Vancouver, the USS Shark departed on August 23, 1846, and reached the mouth of the Columbia River on September 8. Impatiently Howison waited to cross the bar, and on the afternoon of September 10, he attempted the crossing without a pilot. The tide forced him into the dreaded South Breakers, and his ship was totally destroyed, although he and all his men made it ashore alive. By September 13 he had returned to Fort Vancouver, leaving his men behind, shivering, on the Clatsop shore. Both the Modeste, and the HBC, provided the crew of the Shark with food and clothing, and whatever else they needed. They (the crew-members) built a log house that they called “Sharksville,” on Clatsop Beach. And there they lived, in great discomfort, for the next few months. 

In late October the barque, Toulon, returned to the Columbia River from the Sandwich Islands, bearing the news of the settlement of the boundary line and confirming, once again, that it followed the 49th parallel to the coast. (The Toulon does not appear to be an HBC ship, although she is found in the Columbia River on a number of occasions at this time.) By November, Howison had been able to get passage for himself and his men aboard the Cadboro, and again he had to wait in the river until the weather cleared and the ship could cross the bar. He finally left the mouth of the Columbia on January 18, 1847.

And the Modeste: With final confirmation of the location of the boundary line, the captain of the Modeste felt it safe to leave the river. Things had quieted down considerably in the Oregon Country; the Americans were less excitable, and some of the biggest  troublemakers had left the territory for California, it seems. By the time the Modeste left the Columbia River in 1847, she was the only British ship on the northern Pacific coast, to protect “Her Majesty’s subjects from the number of persons arriving by way of the Rocky Mountains.” Also, by the time she left the river, the news of the treaty signed in June, 1846, which settled the American boundary line at 49 degrees, had reached Fort Vancouver. Young James Robert Anderson, son of A.C. Anderson, said of the crew members of the Modeste: ” (Not that he was there at the time, because he wasn’t. But he would have heard that story from the Birnie family members, who were now settled at Cathlamet, on land which they had believed would remain British.)

H.M.S. ‘Modeste’ was the ship sent to the Columbia River pending the negotiations with the United States Government regarding the international Boundary. The Captain’s name was Bailey and the following were some of the Officers: Rodney, Legg, Drake, Dundas, Coode…. It is stated that on the announcement of the Ashburton Treaty in 1846, which placed the Boundary at the 49th parallel, the discontent and indignation of the crew of the ‘Modeste’ was very great at what they considered to be a most unrighteous decision, a feeling we old-timers fully shared.

Although, in November 1846, Captain Baillie had received orders to leave the Columbia River, he argued that “the absence of the particulars of the Oregon Treaty produced so strong a feeling among the natives of the United States, that British subjects must immediately retire beyond the boundaries, that the departure of the Modeste threatened the most serious consequences to their interests & to the peace of the Territory. I have adverted in my Orders to the possibility of her temporary stay being necessary then, & Captain Baillie, in consequence of the representation of the Hudson’s Bay Company Officers, determined to remain the winter for their protection.” (But Captain Baillie also knew that his ship was too large to safely cross the bar in the low waters of wintertime. Staying in the river was his only safe choice.)  

In June 1847, Rear Admiral Sir George Seymour [who replaced Rear Admiral Thomas), of the Royal Navy met Lieutenant Howison, captain of the now-wrecked USS Shark, and learned from him that all was quiet in the Columbia district, or at least quiet in January 1847, when Howison had left the river. He learned that the Modeste was still at Fort Vancouver at the time Howison had left: and Howison also advised the Rear Admiral that “from want of water in the Columbia in the winter…Captain Baillie did not expect to be able to clear the entrance before the end of March.” In fact, the Modeste delayed her departure from Fort Vancouver until May 3, and it seems she reached the river mouth on May 9, where she was delayed by winds until June 12, 1847. When she left the Columbia district she was the only British ship that still sailed the waters of the North Pacific Ocdean.

As the Modeste left Fort Vancouver, her captain received a letter from Peter Skene Ogden and James Douglas, which thanked him for the work he had done at Fort Vancouver. “Before your final departure from this country, wherein your presence has contributed so much towards the maintenance of peace, & the protection of property, permit us to express in the name of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the grateful sense we entertain of the important services you have rendered to us in particular, & to all classes of British Subjects settled in this country.”

But all was now quiet in the Columbia district at any rate, and the HBC men felt that the worse was over. Many of the more troublesome settlers now headed south to California, and most of the new settlers who crossed the country via the Oregon Trail also went to California. It would not remain quiet for long, however — but that is another story.

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

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