Fort Defiance (British Columbia)

Fort Defiance was a small outpost that the crew of the Columbia Rediviva built as winter quarters during 1791–1792 on Meares Island in present-day British Columbia, Canada. American merchant and maritime fur trader Captain Robert Gray was in command.

Prelude

In early August 1791, John Kendrick arrived in Clayoquot Sound and acquired land from Wickaninnish, chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht, in exchange for firearms. An Opitsaht village was nearby. Kendrick fortified a small island, and like his Nootka Sound base, called it Fort Washington. In late August, Robert Gray, of the same trading company, arrived on the Columbia Redivia. Following a short overlap, Kendrick sailed away on the Lady Washington for China.

Fort Defiance

On September 19, Gray located a narrow cove suitable for wintering the Columbia, and building a sloop.Template:Sfn Two days later, construction of their winter quarters began. Completed by September 30, the main building measured long by wide and was two storeys tall.Template:Sfn Using 5,470 bricks from Boston, they built a large brick fireplaceTemplate:Sfn and a forge.Template:Sfn The main building had two cannons mounted and musket loop holes for defending against possible attack.Template:Sfn Other structures included a blacksmith shop, two sawpits for cutting logs, cabins, and a boatbuilding shed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On completion, four cannons, 40 muskets, and various other weapons on the Columbia were transferred ashore. Robert Haswell assumed charge of the base and ten men.Template:Sfn

Shipbuilding

File:Columbia Winter Quarters.png

Launch of Adventure with Fort Defiance and Columbia in background. Painting by George Davidson, who served as an artist on Columbia

The next task was constructing the sloop , incorporating framing supplies carried in the Columbia's hold.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On October 3, the keel was laid.Template:Sfn While the 45-ton sloop was built on the beach, the whaleboat was built within the fort. The crew felled tall trees, floated them to the site, and shaped them into a mast and planks. On March 23, 1792, the ship was launched,Template:Sfn making it the first American-built vessel in the Pacific Northwest.Template:Sfn Before setting sail with both ships in March, the Americans abandoned the fort,Template:Sfn stripping it of anything useful.Template:Sfn

First Nations interaction

For most of the winter relations with Wickaninnish and his people were good. On Christmas Day, Wickaninnish and a number of other chiefs dined aboard the Columbia, and on New Year's Day, the Americans were entertained onshore by Wickaninnish.Template:Sfn

During the winter, Gray's crew had foiled an attack planned by a Sandwich Island crew member and the Tla-o-qui-aht people. In final retaliation, on leaving the area, Gray ordered the destruction of 200 homes in the local Opitsaht village. The ship's log noted that Gray had let his passions go too far.Template:Sfn

Archaeological site

The winter quarters in Disappointment Inlet (now called Lemmens Inlet) were on the eastern side of the main body of Meares Island, where the geography provided a natural defence against attacks.Template:Sfn In Clayoquot Sound, just north of Tofino,Template:Sfn Gray named the place Adventure Cove.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Researchers identified the site in 1966,Template:Sfn and BC officially adopted the name in 1975. At that time, the little island in the cove was named Columbia Islet. Fort Defiance is a protected archaeological site.

See also

• Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition
• John Kendrick's expeditions
• History of the West Coast of North America