Lyr Add: Thorny Tale of the Tonquin

Subject: Lyr Add: Thorny Tale of the Tonquin
From: GUEST,Saul T. Dawg
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 03:20 PM

“The Thorny Tale of the Tonquin” is a lengthy telling of a military styled trading ship that plied the NW and Canadian coast in 1811. It was a project, like the Lewis & Clark Expedition, in service of Thomas Jefferson’s sea to shining sea national ambitions and also John Jacob Astor’s fur trade. It is USA history, of course, but Canadian and First Nations’ history as well. The lyrics tell the saga story with several episodes of high drama and are worth a read even if you don’t want to hear my amateur singing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noywiXmEQJI

The Thorny Tale of the Tonquin (LYRICS)

© The Tonquin, a mighty trading ship, for sea otter pelts had come
Sailed around Cape Horn to Clayoquot Sound, then to her fate succumbed

The Plan
1. A plan was hatched in 1810 by two ambitious Eastern men.
Astor sought otter pelts in trade, so with Jefferson a deal was made.
To trade for furs to suit the rich. Settle the Columbia before the Brits.
They signed a crew and bought a ship to leave New York for a long, long trip.

Ship and Cargo
2. A 100-foot barque weighing 300 tons. Pierced for cannon, some 20 guns.
Trade goods and tools held in store. Water, lumber and so much more.
Sheep, goats, poultry for meat, milk and eggs. For Russian trade, gunpowder in kegs.
When bearing furs, to Asia they’d go. Silks, spices, tea, a new cargo.

The Motley Crew
3. Sailors hired who could handle the sails, in weather mild or heavy gales.
Scottish fur traders along with clerks. Canuck voyageurs who sang when they worked.
Men to clear land and then to build, a trading post where land could be tilled.
Thirty-four men drawn from many ranks: French, English, Swedes - and even some Yanks.

The Captain: A Thorn in Every Man’s Side
4. To command they hired young Cap’n Thorn. Military trained - held others in scorn.
Traders and tradesmen got no respect. Native and foreign were both suspect.
All should obey his hard iron rule. Hot headed and brutal. Quick to be cruel.
Songs, jokes and gossip he’d not abide. Soon a Thorn in every man’s side!

An Early Conflict
5. They left New York in the early Fall. It didn’t take long before a brawl.
A quarrel with traders the first night out. Thorn drew a gun to end the falling-out.
Morale was low, tempers were short, ‘til all aboard longed for port.
They didn’t see land for weeks on end. Sailed a long way East, then back again.

Falkland Islands
6. For water and fuel they went ashore on a Falkland Island looking for more.
When to set sail Thorn had a mind, he hoisted anchor leaving eight behind.
He thought to them a lesson he’d show. To catch the ship, for 6 hours they must row (& row & row...)
Cape Horn was rounded on Christmas Day. On fresh trade winds they sailed away.

Hawaiian (Sandwich) Isles
7. Six weeks later reached Hawaii’s Isles, Enjoyed fresh fruit and women with smiles.
To the weary crew this was quite nice. They surely thought it was paradise.
Twenty-four Kanaka came on board, to man the ship, new post and fort.
Added to the crowd was a cargo of swine, for the post and fort evermore to dine!

Columbia River Bar Tragedy
8. To Columbia’s River they set sail, but ran into heavy squalls and gales.
The rigging froze in March ice and snow. Overboard much livestock did go.
At Columbia’s Bar a storm did blast. Thorn impatient to make his way past,
Sent eight men out to find a way in, never to be seen alive again.

Astoria
9. Needing a site for Jefferson’s aim, to start a camp for a land claim.
A bit up-river away from the coast, seemed ideal for a trading post.
Very hard work cleared timberland. Barracks, fort and garden soon at hand.
Traders and Thorn were eager so soon, the Tonquin sailed North early that June.

© The Tonquin, a mighty trading ship, for sea otter pelts had come
Sailed around Cape Horn to Clayoquot Sound, then to her fate succumbed

Nootka Culture & Experience
10. Nootka natives had a savvy chief, with a potlach culture beyond belief.
To Nootka leaders of wise intellect, trust and gifts showed status and respect.
Deposit for a ship they once had made, but no ship arrived - their trust betrayed.
Twelve of their men hired to hunt, left marooned far away – another affront.

Negotiations and Cultural Clash
11. For pelts Thorn offered blankets three. Nootka to this would not agree.
For a deal the Nootka did still strive, and thought a fair price should be five.
Stubborn Thorn said three was enough; turned his back and left in a huff.
Cursing and muttering ethnic slurs. Pacing the deck, snubbing their furs.

12. The Nootka on deck matched his pace, eager and proud to plead their case.
About their pelts they nagged and bragged. Thorn treated their pelts like old dishrags.
Their leader persisted but in vain. Thorn slapped him with a pelt in piqued disdain.
Then with contempt shoved him aside - rudeness no leader could ignore or abide.

© The Tonquin, a mighty trading ship, for sea otter pelts had come
Sailed around Cape Horn to Clayoquot Sound, then to her fate succumbed

13. Insulted and shamed, that leader did smart. He and his party to their village depart.
Traders and crew begged Thorn to leave, but no retreat could Thorn conceive.
After a spell, canoes came to trade. If metal ware added, a deal could be made.
For blankets three, the Nootka now concur. Soon men came aboard, arms loaded with fur.

Battle of Woody Point (June 15. 1811)
14. Their numbers on board grew & grew, ‘til fear and alarm spread among the crew.
Thorn at last gave his command, sent men to the rigging and the capstan.
Nootka from their furs pulled knives and clubs. The deck came awash with bodies & bloods.
The crew on deck were soon dispatched, but a few from the rigging reached the hold hatch.

15. They found the ship’s store and arms did acquire to defend themselves with musket fire.
Nootka left the scene, with victory well pleased. The Tonquin now theirs, sails flappin’ in the breeze.
Survivors that night in a small boat fled. too few to sail and deep in dread.
But one stayed behind, too wounded to escape, able none-the-less this event to reshape.

© The Tonquin, a mighty trading ship, for sea otter pelts had come
Sailed around Cape Horn to Clayoquot Sound, then to her fate succumbed

The Demise (June 16, 1811)
16. Early next day midst seagulls’ cries, Nootka arrive to inspect their prize.
The lone sailor bade them to climb up the net. Wounded, unarmed, he seemed no threat.
Only he knew for trade and guns, black powder in the hold - nearly four tons!
Lighting a fuse down in that room, sent scores to their doom with a deafening BOOM!

Slowing and Sinking.
17. Those still on the water felt their share of pain. Splinters and body parts on them did rain.
Carcasses ‘n wreckage o’er the sea were strewn. A gruesome sight that morning in June.
The blast blew the stern and loosened seams. Water leaked aboard in flows and streams.
The Tonquin went down in the salty drink.All hopes and dreams gone in a blink.
        
© The Tonquin, a mighty trading ship, for sea otters did succumb
Sailed around Cape Horn to Clayoquot Sound, then blown to kingdom come. (slowing) She was blown to kingdom come.

ENDNOTES:
This song’s narrative has many victims, a suicide bomber but no real heroes. It focuses on the fatally dysfunctional personality and “leadership” of Captain Thorn and the commercial and cultural clash, rife with deserved distrust, between the fur traders and the Nootka. Despite the ballad’s length, it omits some significant events and characters, like the names of the Pacific Fur Company’s (PFC) Scottish trading partner Alexander McKay, his clerk James Lewis, native leaders Wickaninnish and Nookamis (Nook-a-me), and the native guide and translator, Joseachal, among others. The latter spoke some English and the local trading language, Chinook (cf. pidgin English). His sister was married into the Clayoquot tribe. For more detailed info start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonquin_(1807_ship) or https://thenorthwestexperience.com/astors-ship-tonquin-the-final-voyage/.

John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who made a fortune in early America, trading in furs. Jefferson was, of course, Thomas Jefferson, a major political leader with international perspective in early USA history. As President, he had negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from France (1803) and initiated the Lewis and Clark overland Corps of Discovery expedition (1804-1806), both efforts to build the USA from sea to sea.

Relations between the USA and Britain were still very strained in 1810, and soon thereafter the War of 1812 would erupt, initiated by the Americans. Jefferson felt some urgency in laying claim and settling the West Coast before the British did so, via either their navy or their fur traders who were ever expanding their transcontinental reach overland. Leaving New York harbor in 1810 was abetted by US Naval assistance to escape a modest British blockade. Britain was heavily engaged in the Napoleonic Wars and the Royal Navy was more preoccupied with blockading most of the coast of Europe.

The “lumber” was pre-fabricated elements for the quick building of a small ship for use at the new trading post.

The first falling out was over Thorn’s adamant early “lights out” rule enforcement, treating the veteran PFC Traders like children.

Sailing from New York to and around Cape Horn followed trade winds which went Eastward toward Africa until crossing the equator where trade winds could be found allowing a Westward tack back towards Latin America. This is why it took so long to get to the Falklands and then to the treacherous Cape Horn. In addition to needing fresh supplies, the Tonquin also had some storm damage needing repair.

The Hawaiian Islands were in 1810 known as the Sandwich Isles. The balmy and verdant paradise attracted sailors, leading Cap’n Thorn to capture, with the aid of the Hawaiians, and then brutally punish some who wanted to stay on the islands, lest he face a mutinous situation.

Kanakas were workers from Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Queensland (Australia) in the 19th Century and the term appears in several traditional sea shanties, but has generally fallen into disuse. It is offensively pejorative in Australia.

Getting the food stock of swine required cash payment (purchase, not trade) to King Kamehameha as the king needed the cash to pay for a warship he was having built in England. Some accounts state that the Tonquin crew also traded to get cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts, watermelon, breadfruit, goats, two sheep and poultry for glass beads, iron rings, needles, and cotton cloth.

The Columbia River Bar, where the big river meets the Pacific Ocean is known as the Graveyard of the Pacific, as its unpredictable turbulence and currents and ever-changing shallows make navigation highly hazardous in the best of times. Two thousand ships have been wrecked on the bar since the first European ship dared to try to cross it in the late eighteenth century. Thorn sending men out into these waters in small boats in stormy conditions was a murderous action for a trained seaman who should have know better.

Dating from Captain Cook’s initial 1778 contact, Nootka was a generic term applied by traders to multiple indigenous tribes along the West Coast of BC, which has since passed into disuse. At present, the preferred collective name for these related tribes is Nuu-chah-nulth.

Potlatch is a traditional ceremony of Indigenous Peoples of the Northwest Coast of British Columbia and the interior western subarctic. While approaches to Potlatches can differ, generally they include feasting, ceremonial dancing, singing and theatre. Potlatches accomplished many things, including redistribution of wealth, a practice that was incomprehensible and alien to colonial eyes and it was outlawed by them well into the 20th Century. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch-ban

Wickaninnish, the Tla-o-qui-aht tribal chief, coveted the heavily armed big ships. A good faith deposit of furs for a “Boston” ship was taken but never honored. The year before, the captain of the Mercury negotiated a contract with Wickaninnish to take a dozen or so Tla-o-qui-aht hunters to join him on an extended seal and sea otter hunt off the coast of California. They were to be returned to Clayoquot Sound, but the Mercury’s captain marooned the Tla-o-qui-aht on California’s Farallon Islands. Wickaninnish had a growing reputation among “Boston traders” as savage and unpredictable, but he had very good reason to reciprocate this suspicious attitude. He was not on board the Tonquin doing the fur trade negotiating, as that was delegated to another elder leader, Nookamis.

It is unclear how and why Thorn usurped the negotiating role from the PFC veteran fur traders, but it is consistent with his imperious nature. The senior trader, Alexander McKay, was often ashore meeting with Wickaninnish and this socializing element in the trading process is not related in this song. It may also be that the surviving accounts downplay the role of PFC traders as the 1837 Washington Irving account in “Astoria” was a work commissioned by Astor. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1371/1371-h/1371-h.htm

Thorn had been advised repeatedly by experienced traders, even before leaving New York, to never let his crew get out-numbered, but he had the contemptuous attitude that the “primitive savages” were no match for his cannon.

Some accounts hold that the knives used were obtained in the trade for furs just before the brief battle began. Ah, the irony and the cost of Thorn's hubris.

Also known as the Battle of Woody Point (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Woody_Point). Joseachal, the guide and translator, jumped overboard to escape the bloodbath. He was allowed to board a canoe of waiting women and his life was spared when he volunteered to be a slave. Joseachal escaped two years later and got back to Astoria to tell the tale, corroborated by another “slave” escapee, and these were sources for Washington Irving in his 1837 book “Astoria.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1371/1371-h/1371-h.htm

Four in the rigging who escaped the immediate bloodbath and fled that night by small boat were soon captured, tortured and killed.

The left-behind wounded man’s identity is unknown for certain, but the most likely were PFC clerk James Lewis or the ship’s armourer, Stephen Weeks.

The Nootka oral history and most accounts hold that more than 100 died in the immediate blast, with many more injured and maimed.

The Tonquin did not sink instantly and the surviving Nootka, despite this catastrophe, tried to save the big, heavy and badly damaged, but still prized, Tonquin by towing it to a harbor for repair. Their efforts were to no avail. The Tonquin sank irretrievably in shallow waters, the masts remaining a visible reminder of this event for some time.