Particulars of the loss of the 

 Peacock. 



LOSS OF THE PEACOCK. 



Bar of the Columbia. 



289 



learned the particulars of the loss of the Pea- 

 cock. 



It will be necessary in the first place to state, 

 that at Oahu, Sandwich Islands, previous to the 

 departure of the squadron on their several cruises, 

 I had furnished the Peacock, Porpoise, and tender, 

 with directions for their passing the bar of the 

 Columbia river, which I obtained from Captain 

 Spalding, of the ship Lausanne, a vessel of five or 

 six hundred tons' burden, which had just returned 

 from the Columbia, whither she had taken a num- 

 ber of missionaries and their stores. These ap- 

 peared to be carefully drawn up, and Captain 

 Spalding informed me that they could be depended 

 upon. The fact that so large a ship had been 

 navigated by them, and the report of the master, 

 that he believed them correct, left me no reason to 

 doubt their probable accuracy; although at the 

 time I had some misgivings about them, as they 

 were entirely dependent on compass bearings, and 

 those of objects at great distances. They were, 

 ! however, the only directions for passing this dan- 

 gerous bar which were to be had, and were then 

 believed to be the only correct ones in existence. 

 It was supposed, indeed, that they had been com- 

 municated to the Hudson Bay Company by the 

 officers of H.B.M. surveying vessels Sulphur and 

 Starling; but of this I had no positive evidence; 

 for, although I met those vessels at the Feejee 

 Islands, I received no communication from them 

 on this subject. 



The Peacock made Cape Disappointment on the 

 afternoon of the 17th of July, and throughout the 

 night experienced light airs and calms, accompa- 

 nied by a dense fog. 



On the morning of the 18th, between seven and 

 eight o'clock, the fog cleared off, with the wind 

 from the southward and eastward. Cape Disap- 

 pointment was then about nine miles distant. At 

 nine they sounded in forty fathoms water; at ten, 

 fifteen : they had but fourteen fathoms when they 

 tacked off shore. It being Sunday, Captain Hud- 

 son, as usual, performed divine service, which being 

 finished at ll h 50 m , they again tacked to stand in. 

 The tender at this time was several miles to lee- 

 ward. 



At meridian, the wind came out from the south- 

 ward and westward, with the weather a little 

 cloudy; soon after which time the ship was off the 

 entrance, and all hands were called to work her 

 into port. Lieutenant Emmons was now sent aloft, 

 on the foretopsail-yard, while Captain Hudson at- 

 tended personally to the piloting of the ship, agree- 

 ably to the directions before spoken of, which he 

 held in his hand. The ship was, according to Cap- 

 tain Hudson's report, running a north-east- quarter- 

 east course, heading for Cape Disappointment, until 

 the proper bearing of Chinook Point east-north- 

 east was reached, when they discovered the sea 

 breaking ahead of them. He now believed himself 

 j too far to the southward, wore ship, and ran off a 

 short distance, until clear of the breakers, after 

 which they again stood in, where the passage ap- 

 peared clear and smooth, both from below and 

 aloft. In less than five minutes, the ship touched. 

 Lieutenant Emmons, who was on the look-out 

 aloft, together with Lieutenant Perry, who also 

 was similarly engaged, both state that they were of 

 opinion that the only place where the channel 

 existed was where the water did not break, and 



agreeing as it did so nearly with the sailing direc- 

 tions, Captain Hudson did not hesitate to attempt 

 to proceed through the smoother part. 



I am well aware that many opinions have been, 

 and probably still are entertained, relative to the 

 prudence of venturing with the ship before the 

 channel had been explored and examined by the 

 tender and boats. This is but natural to one un- 

 acquainted with the bar of the Columbia river and 

 its dangers. After having paid much attention to 

 this subject, and having been engaged there with 

 the tender and boats in the survey, I feel my- 

 self entitled to give an opinion as to the course 

 pursued by Captain Hudson, and think it altogether 

 correct, on every ground of expediency, as well as 

 the only proper one for him to have followed under 

 these circumstances. It will be recollected that 

 he had been detained nearly three months beyond 

 his appointed time, and that he was well aware 

 that this would occasion much inconvenience to the 

 progress of our duties; his anxiety to prevent any 

 further delay, even of a few hours, can readily be 

 imagined. The time was, to all appearance, pro- 

 pitious, and hesitation then might have rendered 

 it impossible to have entered for a week. The 

 tender going in ahead would have been little or no 

 security, for she would, undoubtedly, have pur- 

 sued the same course, and have been, in all proba- 

 bility, lost; and thus the Peacock would have been 

 obliged at last to trust to the knowledge of those on 

 board of her. As respects the examination of the 

 bar in boats, this is a thing next to impossible; for 

 the tides are so strong as to be beyond the power 

 of oars to contend with. To wait until a thorough 

 knowledge could be had of the bar from survey, would 

 have been equally impossible at that time: all were 

 uninformed, or incapable of judging of the accuracy 

 of the directions; but, so far as appearances went, 

 they seemed to be true, and they are such as I 

 should even now give, so far as compass bearings 

 are concerned. But there is one difficulty that will 

 ever exist in passing over the bar, and this, no- 

 thing but an intimate acquaintance with the locality 

 will remove. I allude to the cross-tides, which are 

 changing every half-hour. These tides are at 

 times so rapid, that it is impossible to steer a ship 

 by her compass, or maintain her position ; and no 

 sailing directions can possibly embrace the various 

 effects produced by them upon a vessel. A singu- 

 lar fact in illustration of this remark is, that the 

 safest time to cross the bar is when both the tide 

 and wind are adverse; and this is the only port, 

 within my knowledge, where this is the case. Cap- 

 tain Hudson, in venturing the attempt to enter the 

 Columbia, manifested the strongest desire to ac- 

 complish his orders and forward the objects of the 

 expedition. Disregarding the well-known perils 

 of the navigation, he did not hesitate, when in his 

 judgment the time was propitious, to incur the dan- 

 gers of the bar, rather than subject the service to a 

 further delay, which might have proved as disas- 

 trous to the expedition as the loss of the vessel. 



There are no pilots for the entrance of the 

 Columbia river, or rather, none that could be 

 relied upon. Neither old Ramsey nor George de- 

 serve the name, nor were there any other persons 

 known, who had any pretensions to be considered 

 as pilots. 



Having set this matter at rest, I shall proceed 

 to give the details of the loss of the Peacock. 



