The Curious Case of The Cologne Bottle
Stella Webstob | Guest writer
April of 1841 saw the quiet waters of Puget Sound inundated by the American Navy. A few settlers, missionaries, and the Hudson’s Bay Company, not to mention the thousands of resident Native American peoples, played host to the crew of the 780-ton sloop of war USS Vincennes and the 230-ton brig USS Porpoise.
Loud and proud, it was the US Navy’s first scientific maritime exploratory expedition and the first official visit to the North Pacific Coast – or the Oregon Territory as it was known then. The Oregon Territory was in a contentious position as Britain and the US both vied for the rich area. The visit marked an important moment for American statesmanship, advancement of sovereignty, and science.
The expedition had been at sea already four years since leaving New York in August of 1838 with a fleet of seven ships and over 350 crew – including nine scientific corps. By 1839, the scientific corps had collected so many anthropologic, botanic, geologic, and zoologic specimens a literal boat load was returned to New York aboard the USS Relief. This placed the United States government in a quandary, as no national museums existed to house these specimens. The Smithsonian Institute, the National Library, and the United States Botanic Garden were established as a direct result of the expedition.
The expedition travelled to South America, reported the discovery of Antarctica, visited and charted islands in the South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Hawaii and finally made it to the Oregon Territory in the spring of 1841.
Arriving nearly 50 years after the last great exploratory mission of Captain Vancouver in the HMS Discovery, the expedition leader Charles Wilkes commented on surveying Discovery Bay.
“The description of Vancouver is so exactly applicable to the present state of this port, that it was difficult to believe that almost half a century had elapsed since it was written.” (Wilkes 1844: 10)
Charles Wilkes, although an accomplished scientist and surveyor, was a controversial pick for commander as he only held the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy. This was exacerbated by the fact that he dressed as a Captain - much to the disgust of his crew.
Additionally, he was cruel to his subordinates and overly fond of corporal punishment. Upon his return to New York, he was court-marshalled, but was acquitted for all charges except the illegal punishment of his crew.
Other disasters dogged the expedition. The ship, USS Sea Gull, was lost at sea with all hands and the USS Peacock foundered while trying to cross the Columbia River Bar. Additionally, the expedition experienced loses of men due to heated disputes with natives. They were responsible for the retaliatory deaths of over eighty Fijians and twelve Hawaiians and bombarded villages in Fiji, Hawaii, and Samoa over such disputes. Such retaliation was not meted out in the Pacific Northwest, though drastic measures came close with the curious case of the cologne bottle in Hood Canal.
In mid-May, Lieutenant Augustus Case (of Case Inlet fame), Acting Master George Totten (of Totten Inlet fame), Passed Midshipmen William May and George Colvocoressis (of Colvos Pass fame) were commanded with several unnamed crew to survey Hood Canal taking up the work Captain Vancouver left half-finished fifty years previous.
“You [Lieutenant Case] will proceed with the launch, first cutter, Ariel, and Pilot, accompanied by Acting Master Totten, Passed Midshipmen May and Colvocoressis… at the mouth of Hood’s Canal, which you will proceed to survey, and endeavour to find a passage through the head of it, into Puget Sound, by some outlet or channel that may possibly exist: if one should be found, you will continue your survey through it, and into the waters of Puget Sound; if not, after completing the survey of Hood’s Canal, you will return by its entrance to Admiralty Inlet, and thence toward the ship.”
(May 16, 1841, Excerpt of Instructions of Charles Wilkes, Commanding Exploring Expedition, Nisqually Harbor)
Pacific dogwoods and wild rhododendrons were in bloom, while the surveying party made its slow way down the canal. A journey which now takes approximately two hours overland by car, took a month to survey by boat for Lt. Case and his crew.
They stopped to sound marine depths, mark trees for triangulation, and dredge for marine animals to fill specimen jars. Every few days they were given a day to complete their notes and charts before moving on. They also recorded interesting phenomena such as a meteor shower while camping at Zelatched Point at the mouth of Dabob Bay on May 31st.
“At 8.20 PM a very large & brilliant meteor was seen bearing from us N by W ½ W shooting in a diagonal direction nearly to the earth when it burst like a rocket. A long zig zag was left by it, which continued of a brightness nearly equal to the moon until 8.50 when it gradually disappeared.”
Captain Vancouver’s work on Hood Canal had been halted by a lack of provisions. Not surprisingly, Lt. Case’s journal records such difficulties also during their expedition, as the crew’s daily sea-biscuit ration was cut nearly in half before they reached the end of the Canal. However, Lt. Case and his colleagues were often visited by S’Klallam, Twana and Skokomish peoples who brought fish and venison for sale.
Passed Midshipman George Colvocoressis observed:
“We fell in with Indians almost every day, and had considerable intercourse with them in the way of trade – they supplying us with venison and fish, and we giving them in exchange powder, fish-hooks, red paint, and cotton handkerchiefs. The venison, in particular, was sold very cheap – five of the ordinary musket charges of powder being the price of a whole carcass.”
Unlike Captain Vancouver, this expedition successfully proved Hood Canal was indeed a canal and that the Kitsap Peninsula was not an island. As Lt. Case records from what is now known as Potlatch:
“This place was the end of the Canal according to Vancouvers [sic] survey, who had sketched it as a bay. Instead of terminating however, it took a sharp turn & continued to the N *& E. On the south side of the bay empties a large creek [Lynch Creek] by which the Indians communicate with the Columbia. The creek is broad but shoal & has formed a large mud flat in that part of the bay.
The district is inhabited by the Scocomish [Skokomish]– a Tribe by the arm & the Tuandos [Twana] account mustering 150 fighting men. They resemble the Tuandos [Twana] in appearance & appeared to be in close alliance with them.”
When Lt. Case reached the end of Hood Canal at Lynch Cove, he took the native portage trail overland to Case Inlet and sent crew members onward to Nisqually to return with a restock of bread.
Mostly this journey was productive and uneventful, but there was one interaction with the Skokomish that could have compounded into conflict.
On June 10th, Lt. Case records losing the eyepiece from a theodolite – a surveying tool with a rotating telescope that measures horizontal and vertical angles, like a “transit” or “total station” used today by surveyors.
“At 3 PM landed at Neelim point (near Potlatch) on the west shore near a Scocomish [Skokomish] Village. On opening the theodolite at this place missed the vertical eye piece. Made a regular search for it without success & as I had [] been particular in seeing it in the box, was convinced one of the Indians must have picked it up. I strongly suspected a woman who sat near the box of having it but she looked so innocent & joined so readily in the search, that I did not have her blanket examined, offered two blankets for its return & dispatched the men to my last station to search for it there. At dark they returned without it.
I had been fearful for some time that it would be lost as the box was scarcely opened without it falling out. I had once stored it in my calabash but afterwards replaced it on account of using it at night occasionally, trusting that as it had escaped loss nearly three years it would continue so to do.”
Passed Midshipman Colvocoressis observed that the theodolite was an item of special interest amongst the native people they encountered and was the only example of theft that he met with.
“On leaving the ship we were warned to be on the watch for them [the natives], as they were arrant thieves, but I am not aware that they ever attempted to take anything from us except one of the eye-pieces belonging to the Theodolite. This seemed to excite their attention more than anything else connected with the expedition, and they frequently asked us if it could speak, and whether it had not something to do with the “Great Spirit.”
Throughout the return voyage Lt. Case constantly searched for the missing eyepiece but failed to find it.
When he joined the main surveying party in Puget Sound, Captain Wilkes commanded him to retrace his steps along the Hood Canal to retrieve the missing eyepiece. Although it is not recorded anywhere, it is almost as if Captain Wilkes sent Lt. Case off on purpose for a fruitless and potentially dangerous mission to punish him for losing equipment – but that is just this author’s conjecture.
Over the next ten days, Lt. Case scoured Hood Canal for the missing eyepiece. He was about to give up and return when he met with a passing group of three Twana hunters, three miles south of Quatsap Point who reported, according to Lt. Case:
“…[the eyepiece] was among the Scocomish [Skokomish] & gave a full account of its having been picked up at Neelim station [Potlatch]. When the Theodolite was opened by a woman who was setting near.”
One of the Twana men agreed to accompany Lt. Case to the village where he had seen it. They returned to Potlatch and met with the Skokomish Chief. Lt. Case took the Skokomish Chief’s gun as ransom until the eyepiece was returned.
“…I took his gun & told him I should keep this until the eye-piece was brought [to] me. After getting something to eat he started for a village a short distance inland saying it was there.”
While the Skokomish Chief was absent Lt. Case seized another gun from a Twana hunter likely adding to an already tense situation.
“While he [the Chief] was away a couple of Tuandos [Twana] hunters landed in a canoe & I seized the gun of one & attempted to get the other but its owner was to [sic] strong for me.”
At this time, the Skokomish Chief returned with information that the eyepiece was down the Canal with the woman. A group of Twana went to go find the woman, only to return with the news that she had gone up the river:
“The chief now returned saying the woman who has the eye-piece was down the Canal. The Tuandos [Twana] went to see her & about 9 PM returned saying [she] had gone up the river.”
As it was late, Lt. Case returned to the boat and anchored a couple of miles offshore for the night. At daylight the Skokomish Chief was seen setting down the Hood Canal by canoe.
Later, while Lt. Case was having breakfast, a large number of canoes came down the Skokomish River and headed toward his boat.
“While getting breakfast I saw eight canoes filled with men come out of the river & pull towards us. This I did not like & directed the men – as soon as they got through pulled out into the bay when the canoes were headed for me.”
The Twana man who had accompanied Lt. Case from Quatsap Point requested to leave the ship, and when Lt. Case denied him this, the Twana man said that his crew should get ready to fight.
“At this time the Tuando [Twana] I had in the boat wished to be landed & on my refusing to him on shore, gave me to understand I had better prepare my arms.”
With the warning and the sight of more canoes approaching, Lt. Case decided to hoist sail and get underway.
"I now observed several more canoes coming out of the river & I determined not to wait for this as it was evident they intended no good & my party was to [sic] small & to [sic] far from the ship to contend with them. So made sail down the canal.”
The Skokomish canoeists followed them for a while, but eventually let them go. The Twana hunters however, continued to follow and Lt. Case returned their comrade at Quatsap Point. Lt. Case also met with the Skokomish Chief who was on his return from the village where the girl with the eyepiece was supposed to be. The Skokomish Chief had discovered the girl only had a glass cologne bottle and not the missing eyepiece.
“…about 25 miles down the Canal met the Chief returning. He said he had been to the Ylopish [Duckabush?] village learning a girl had something like an eye-piece (which proved to be a cologne bottle).”
Lt. Case returned the Skokomish Chief his ransomed gun and was just leaving when he discovered that the Chief had also gathered up military strength from the village, as a canoe full of fully armed warriors boarded Lt. Case’s boat.
“I gave him his gun & was about leaving when I learned a part of his errand he had said nothing of, [this] to collect warriors. A canoe had been pulling up the centre of the Canal which now boarded us. It contained 5 of the largest & most muscular men I have seen all armed with guns & knives.”
After the Skokomish Chief spoke with the warriors, they left the boat and returned to their village, but this decided Lt. Case against pursuing the subject of the missing eyepiece anymore. He resolved instead to return to report to Captain Wilkes, since:
“…my party was to [sic] small to attempt anything like force.”
Lt. Case returned on July 2nd and made his report to Captain Wilkes:
“I offered to go with the launch & cutter three canoes & get the eye-piece.”
Captain Wilkes however, preferred to send the Skokomish a “war message” with an ultimatum:
“if the eye piece was not returned he [Wilkes] would come round in the ship & destroy the towns & c.”
The message was delivered by Alexander Anderson, the principal agent of the Hudson Bay Company’s post at Nisqually, who finally retrieved the eyepiece by threatening the destruction of the Skokomish villages and canoes if they did not return the missing item.
The dispute was settled without needlessly spilling blood (unlike the unfortunate proceedings in the South Pacific). Perhaps this was due to the moderating influence of the HBC, or perhaps it was because the expedition was overpowered by the Skokomish, or maybe an eyepiece of a Theodolite was not worth that price. Regardless, the encounter marks another first for the United States Government – through the actions of the US Exploring Expedition. This was the first military run-in the Skokomish people had with the US government –the first threat of violence from the US Government – it has not been the last.
Three days after Lt. Case and Captain Wilkes discussed punitive action against the Skokomish, Captain Wilkes gave his men the day to celebrate Independence Day (as July 4th landed on a Sunday that year). Complete with a parade, naval marching band, barbequed ox, cannon fire, and horse racing – the Wilkes Expedition held the first recorded Independence Day celebration in the Pacific Northwest.
Further readings:
“Atlas of the Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition : during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842.” Philadelphia : C. Sherman, 1844. Library of Congress Digital Collection: https://www.loc.gov/item/2010589747/
Harley Harris Bartlett, “The Reports of the Wilkes Expedition, and the Work of the Specialists in Science.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 82, no. 5 (1940): 601–705. http://www.jstor.org/stable/984888.
Richard W. Blumenthal, “Charles Wilkes and the Exploration of Inland Washington Waters: Journals from the Expedition of 1841.” McFarland Publishing. 2009.
David M. Buerge, The Wilkes Exploring Expedition in the Pacific Northwest
Columbia Magazine, Spring 1987: Vol. 1, No. 1
Edgar Allan Poe, Review A Brief Account of the Discoveries and Results of the United States’ Exploring Expedition, from Graham's Magazine, September 1843, pp. 164-165
Charles Wilkes, “Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, Volume 4.” Philadelphia: C. Sherman. 1844.
Smithsonian Institute Digital Collections: https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/index.htm