Fair American

Fair American was a small American sailing vessel described variously as a schooner or sloop or brig. Purchased for use in the maritime fur trade on the Pacific Northwest coast, Fair American sailed from Macau to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in 1789. At Nootka Sound she was captured by the Spanish Navy during the Nootka Crisis. Taken to San Blas, Mexico, the vessel, its teenage skipper, Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, and crew of four were soon released. Hoping to rendezvous with his father, Simon Metcalfe, Thomas Metcalfe sailed to Hawaii. Attacked by Native Hawaiians, Fair American was captured and all were killed except for crewman Isaac Davis. The vessel then came under the control of Kamehameha I, as did Isaac Davis and John Young, a crewman from Simon Metcalfe's ship Eleanora, and Isaac Ridler, a crewmember of John Kendrick's Columbia Rediviva, who had been left on Hawaii. The Fair American, crewed by Native Hawaiians under the advisement of Davis and Young, played an important role in Kamehameha's conquest of Maui and Oahu, and the creation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Descriptions of the Fair American vary in details but agree in general that she was a schooner or sloop or brig of 26 tons, 33 feet (10 m) long, and 8 feet (2.4 m) wide. In 1793 George Vancouver described the Fair American thus: "The vessel in question had been a pleasure boat and was lengthened at China. Her gunwale was not a foot higher than that of the double canoes of this country [Hawaii], and being navigated and protected by five persons only under the command of an inexperienced young man, she became not less a desirable acquisition to Tamaahmootoo than a prize of easy attainment". One of Vancouver's officers, after seeing the Fair American, wrote that he was "Stuck with Surprize, at so small a Vessel having been employ'd on such a Commercial pursuit as she had been, and to have travers'd Such an immense tract of Boisterous Ocean as she had done."

There is little information about Fair American before 1789. According to historian Mary Malloy, Fair American was built in New Jersey in 1784.

In 1789 the American trader Simon Metcalfe was in Macau, China, with his ship Eleanora. He was intending to take a cargo of tea to New York City. But while in Guangzhou (Canton) or Macau, he heard about the possibility of making large profits trading sea otter furs in China. Metcalfe decided to sail to the Pacific Northwest Coast to acquire sea otter furs before returning to China to buy tea. An English captain recommended taking a second, smaller ship to serve as tender and to more easily navigate narrow fjords. To this end he purchased the Fair American in Macau. Command was given to Simon's son, Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe. The small vessel had a crew of four, plus Thomas Metcalfe, who was 18 years old.

The Eleanora, under Simon Metcalfe, and the Fair American, under Thomas Metcalfe, left Macau in May 1789, intending to sail together, but they were separated during a storm in the South China Sea. Thomas Metcalfe was left to find his own way across the ocean in the Fair American. His only navigational instrument was a compass, which broke en route. His only guide was a copy of a map made by James Cook. Cook's map provided a general impression of the North Pacific coast but lacked detail.

Thomas sailed the Fair American north along the Japanese archipelago, the Kuriles, and the Aleutian Islands. After 42 days at sea he stopped at a Russian fur-trade post on Unalaska Island, where the Russian commander Potak Zaikov provided flour and dried fish. Thomas continued down the Pacific Northwest Coast, acquiring some furs through trade with some Tlingit and Haida villages, before arriving at Nootka Sound. In the vicinity of Dixon Entrance he encountered and briefly met with John Kendrick, who was sailing Lady Washington to Haida Gwaii. According to Esteban José Martínez, the Spanish commander at Nootka Sound, Thomas Metcalfe's Fair American arrived with "her mast sprung and her sails split", and that the schooner had no provisions left but only "some casks of water and some 65 otter skins". In addition, Martínez noted that Thomas Metcalfe had "no written passport or instructions and no papers except his diary", and that his sole compass was broken.

Martínez, an experienced sailor who had been to Alaska the year before, was impressed. About Thomas he wrote: "He is but a boy, who under his father's orders undertook such an extended voyage. He and his men were exposed to the greatest dangers from rough weather and lack of provisions. They sailed over the open sea for more than three thousand leagues [over 7,700 miles (12,400 km)]. They were exposed to a thousand insults from the heathen and driven by necessity had to seek a meeting with the Spaniards, from which they expected relief."

In 1789 both Simon Metcalfe and his son Thomas were caught up in the Nootka Crisis at Nootka Sound. As increasing numbers of trading ships visited Nootka Sound, Spain decided to assert its claim to the Pacific Northwest Coast. In early 1789 a Spanish force under Martínez arrived and established Santa Cruz de Nuca and Fort San Miguel.