Gray, Captain Robert
b. 1755-05-10
d. 1806-07
Captain Robert Gray, an American trader, commanded the Lady Washington on John Kendrick’s 1787 trade expedition to the Pacific Northwest. On this voyage, Gray sailed up the coast from Juan de Fuca Strait to Bucarelli Bay, Alaska, and proved that the Queen Charlotte Islands were insular.1
Though the voyage was not a financial success, Gray’s sloop, the Lady Washington, became the first flagged American ship to circumnavigate the globe, on August 9, 1789, when Gray arrived back in Boston, after delivering his cargo of furs in China.2
  • 1. W. Kaye Lamb, Gray, Robert, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
  • 2. Ibid.
Mentions of this person in the documents
Vessels in this document

unavailableLady Washington

Places in this document

Boston

Haida Gwaii

Juan de Fuca Strait

The Colonial Despatches Team. Gray, Captain Robert. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. The Colonial Despatches Team. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/gray_robert.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)