John Kendrick (American sea captain)

In 1762, near the end of the French and Indian War, John Kendrick served under his cousin Jabez Snow, on a militia mission in the frontier of western New York.

During the American Revolutionary War he commanded the privateer Fanny (also known as the Boston), an eighteen-gun sloop of the Continental Navy with a crew of 104, which Kendrick converted into a brigantine.

[2][8][9] In August, 1777, the Fanny and another privateer, General Mercer, captured two West Indiaman ships full of valuable cargo, the Hanover Planter and the Clarendon, after a battle with two 28-gun frigates.

With the prize money he had received from Louis XVI of France Kendrick bought a house, wharf, and store in Wareham, Massachusetts, and built the first public school there.

William Lytle Schurz asserts that John Kendrick served the Spanish on the Manila galleon which sailed between the Philippines and Acapulco (New Spain) by way of California.

The hold of Columbia contained most of the expedition's provisions for the next two years, as well as a large assortment of trade goods hoped to be useful for acquiring sea otter pelts on the Pacific Northwest coast.

These trade goods included such things as tin mirrors, beads, calico, mouth harps, hunting knives, files, and bar metal that could be worked into chisels or other tools.

With Columbia badly in need of repairs and running out of water and wood, and Kendrick's eagerness for any news of Washington, he decided to risk visiting Más a Tierra, today known as Robinson Crusoe Island, where there was a small Spanish settlement.

After a few days the San Pablo put into Lima with the news, prompting the Viceroy of Peru, Teodoro de Croix, to send another ship in pursuit of Columbia.

They attracted the attention of many natives who began visiting the sloop for trade, offering, among other things, sea otter skins and fresh food, including baskets of berries, which helped relieve the symptoms of scurvy.

[26] Shortly after this the Spanish war frigate Princesa, under José Esteban Martínez, and the packet San Carlos, under Gonzalo López de Haro, both sailing south from Alaska, passed but failed to spot Washington.

Whatever the case, Kendrick had a motive for encouraging Spanish–British conflict, whether tacitly or directly, since it would reduce British competition in the fur trade and give him more time to establish an American outpost.

[45] Robert Gray returned to Nootka Sound on June 17, finding the Spanish in control, Fort San Miguel built, North West America captured and Princess Royal detained.

Kendrick's three men, along with Isaac Davis and a man left by Simon Metcalfe, John Young, all found their lives at risk and survived by serving under Kamehameha, teaching Hawaiians not only how to use muskets but also how to sail the Fair American and use its cannons.

Gray described his difficulties with the Canton System and suggested Kendrick go to a smuggling area called Dirty Butter Bay on the west side of Montanha Island (today part of Hengqin).

He asserted his command of the joint venture by asking for a full account of the cargo sold and remaining on Columbia, the amount and quality of Chinese goods acquired, and other details.

Part of Meares's claims, made to Parliament and Prime Minister William Pitt, was that Kendrick was the true architect behind the Spanish seizure of British ships at Nootka Sound.

[64] Solomon Kendrick, who had returned with Gray, quickly joined another venture and left Boston for the Pacific Northwest on Jefferson, under captain Josiah Roberts.

Seeking shelter from an approaching typhoon Kendrick and Douglas sailed into the channel between the mainland and the island of Kii Ōshima, near the fishing villages of Kushimoto and Koza.

[80] The day after arriving some of the officers of Columbia visited Kendrick's Fort Washington, which Hoskins described as a rough log outpost with living quarters and a warehouse, with an American flag flying.

John Boit wrote of his sadness to see the town destroyed, noting that every door had been elegantly carved, often in the form of a totemic animal whose mouth functioned as the entry.

Howell, who was fluent in Spanish, had served as interpreter for Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra at Nootka Sound during the diplomatic negotiations with George Vancouver in 1792.

He described the commercial advantages that could come from American possession of lands on the Northwest coast, and suggested that a settlement there might be "worth the attention of some associated company, under the protection of the Government.

Boit reported: "On the 3rd of December Capt John Kendrick in the snow Lady Washington of Boston arrived at Fairhaven and was met with a very friendly reception by Captain Brown.

And on the 6th of the same month in consequence of a long quarrel between the Chiefs of Oahu and Kauai a battle was fought and victory was gained by the King of Oahu by the assistance of Kendrick who immediately informed Captain Brown that on the morrow he should cause the flag of the United States to be hoisted and fire a federal salute, which he begged might be answered by the two Englishmen, and it was accordingly agreed to, and Captain Brown ordered three guns to be unshotted for that purpose.

"[96] James Rowan, the mate of Lady Washington at the time, would later say that "he had sworn since Captain Kendrick's death he would salute no vessel in a hurry, except at a safe distance.

"[97] Most narratives of Kendrick's death also refer to the account published by Sheldon Dibble, a missionary who worked in Hawaii from 1836 to 1845, because his sources included local oral traditions of the battle.

"[98] It is believed that Kendrick's body was buried in the same location as those of Captain Derby in 1802 and Isaac Davis in 1810, in what would become the cemetery for foreigners[99] near the corner of King St. and Pi'ikoi St. in Honolulu.

Grave stones for Derby and Davis stood at this site until 1900, and it has been speculated that if the chiefs had designated a burial location for Kendrick and the other Lady Washington casualties it would have been used to bury other foreigners in the years to come.

John Howell, the clerk onboard Lady Washington whom George Vancouver described as having "once been a clergyman of the Church of England" is presumed to have presided over Kendrick's burial service.