Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/268



236 T. C. Eluott

grounded near what is now Harrington Point, which is the easterly point of entrance to Gra/s Bay.

On the 20th he sailed out of the river, having meantime dropped down to an anchorage near Chinook Point (Fort Columbia), and his log gives more details: "Gentle breezes and pleasant weather. Alt 1 P. M. (being full sea) took up the anchor and made sail, standing down river. At two the wind left us, we being on the bar, with a very strong tide which set on the breakers ; it was now not possible to get out without a breeze to shoot her across the tide; so we were obliged to bring up in three and a half fathoms, the tide run- ning five knots. At three-quarters past two a fresh wind came in from seaward ; we immediately came to sail and beat over the bar, having from five to seven fathoms of water in the channel. At five P. M. we were out, clear of all the bars, and in twenty fathoms water. A breeze came from the south- ward ; we bore away to the northward ; set all sail to the best advantage. At eight Cape Hancock bore south-east distant three leagues."

The Collector of the District of Boston certified the Colum- bia to ht 2. ship of burden two hundred and twelve tons or thereabouts, navigated with thirty men, mounted with ten guns,'' and an accepted print shows her to have carried three masts, square rigged but the gunter mast carrying a spanker. Capt. Gray had knowledge of the previous attempts of Heceta and Meares and he certainly possessed both courage and skill to safely take this ship in between Peacock Spit on the north and Qatsop Spit on the south, which are shown on the chart reproduced with this narrative. Pilots at Astoria have assured the writer that freshet conditions in the river have little or no effect upon the depth of water on the bar, although the water is often colored for a distance out at sea. Capt. Gra/s account is silent as to any use of small boats to sound the clumnel ahead of his ship, and the time consumed would suggest that he did not.

That same year Capt. George Vancouver, of the British