Sloop UNION among Nuu chah nulth, off Vancouver Island.
1795

Watercolor 21” x 29”


The UNION was remarkably similar to the LADY WASHINGTON in both size and appearance. Both were small, simple New England sloops of around 90 tons, setting a single square topsail for downwind work. Although the WASHINGTON was the first American Sloop on the Northwest Coast she never returned to her home port, so the title of first sloop to circumnavigate fell to the UNION. She sailed from Newport, Rhode Island on August 29, 1794, spent the summer of 1795 trading on the coast, and arrived back at Boston on July 8, 1796, having made a small but satisfactory profit from the voyage.

A remarkable fact of this circumnavigation was that the captain of the little sloop, John Boit, was just nineteen years old at the commencement of the voyage. Even at that tender age he was a seasoned veteran, having been fifth officer on the COLUMBIA REDIVIVA on her epic circumnavigation. At the time of that voyage he was just sixteen!