A Tolerably Snug Berth, The JENNY at Anchor in Baker’s Bay, October 20, 1792

watercolor, 16” x 11”

$3,800

While Captain George Vancouver was striving to work his ship DISCOVERY into the Columbia River through the afternoon of October 20, 1792, he was startled to hear a cannon boom out from some unseen source within the Cape. He knew of only one vessel which had been here before him – Robert Grey’s COLUMBIA. Could there now be yet another?

His Majesty’s armed tender CHATHAM was a distance ahead, leading the deeper-draught DISCOVERY in through the angry waters. On board there was surprise but no mystery about the origin of the shot. As her Clerk, Edward Bell related: “when we cleared the inner part of Cape Disappointment, we observed the JENNY Schooner lying at anchor in a bay under The Cape, and Mr. Baker, the Master came off to us.” Vancouver never did manage to get the DISCOVERY inside the river. But before standing off, he had the satisfaction of seeing the CHATHAM brought up near the JENNY, “anchored apparently in a tolerably snug berth.”