Meares in Nootka winters in Alaska.
1786/87

Watercolor 11" x 15"


John Meares was one of the more interesting and nefarious characters to engage in the fur trade on the Northwest Coast. An ex-Royal Navy lieutenant, he was in Calcutta when he heard of the fortunes being made and immediately arranged financing for a venture of his own. With a group of merchants he formed the Bengal Fur Company, intending to ignore the East India and South Sea Companies’ licensing requirements, his first act of defiance and a hint of his future deceitful behavior.

They outfitted two ships, the 200 ton NOOTKA with Meares in command, and the 100 ton SEA OTTER under the command of William Tipping. They sailed separately, and on 5 September 1786 the SEA OTTER was seen in Prince William Sound by James Strange on the CAPTAIN COOK. She was said to have a good cargo of furs on board. Tipping sailed a few days later, but the SEA OTTER was never seen again, and her exact fate is unknown.

That same summer Meares sailed north to the Aleutians, then eastward along the islands. The weather was poor and the Russians had obtained most of the furs, and late in September Meares reached Prince William Sound with little to show for his time on the coast. Here he made the near fatal decision to over-winter in Alaska rather than sail for the warmer comfort of Hawaii. The local natives guided them to a safer anchorage farther up the sound, and there Meares had the NOOTKA rigged down and made secure . For a while the natives stayed around the ship and the crew prepared the NOOTKA for cold weather. Salmon were plentiful in the streams and ducks and geese provided fresh meat. But the anchorage he had chosen was a poor one. Because it was off a fresh water creek, by November the bay was iced over, both the salmon and the natives had left them, and the wild fowl had long since flown south. They were totally un-prepared for the winter cold and darkness that followed. As the temperatures dropped the men began to fall ill from the cold, scurvy, and suffocating smoke from the fires below deck. The cold and snow continued right through April, and by then twenty-three had died, including the surgeon, and another man died later. Warmer weather brought relief in May but by then the NOOTKA was barely seaworthy and the remaining crew were too ill to work the ship. A total disaster was averted with the providential arrival on May 7th. of Captain Nathaniel Portlock in the KING GEORGE, who with Captain Dixon in the QUEEN CHARLOTTE had returned for a second season on the coast. Both ships were English and held licenses to trade. Portlock provided two healthy men, medical assistance, and fresh provisions to Meares on the promise that he would leave the coast and engage in no further trade.

The NOOTKA sailed on June 21st. 1787, but instead of honoring his promise not to trade, Meares headed for a sound south of Baranof Island where he gathered more pelts before finally leaving for Hawaii. The first venture of the Bengal Fur Company had been a disaster. The SEA OTTER and her cargo had been lost with all hands. The first ship to winter over in Alaska lost twenty-four of her crew, the ship was in sad repair, and she had collected very few furs for their troubles.