The California Sea Otter Trade 1784-1848

By Ogden Adele

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1941.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9780520316683

Ogden Adele

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THE CALIFORNIA SEA OTTER TRADE

1784—1848

THE CALIFORNIA SEA

OTTER TRADE • 1784-1848

By

ADELE OGDEN

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

BERKELEY, LOS ANGELES, LONDON

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD.

LONDON, ENGLAND

COPYRIGHT, 1941, BY

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

CALIFORNIA LIBRARY REPRINT SERIES EDITION, 1975

ISBN: 0-520-02806-6

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

THE SEARCH for furs along the coast of Upper and Lower California was a part of the great rush for the fur wealth of the North Pacific. At the opening of the nineteenth century enterprising Yankee merchants and Russian American Company hunters pushed southward from the Northwest Coast, where the rush began, into California waters. In the face of a strong local enforcement of Spain’s mercantile order, the intruders smuggled and poached until the end of the Spanish period, but not without frequent losses of furs, ships, and lives. When the barrier of mercantilism was finally removed by independent Mexico, Yankee captains quickly sailed to the opened area, and, although somewhat limited by national protective policies, they developed an extensive trade in California, soon integrating it with their new intraPacific business. These phases of California’s maritime history of the early nineteenth century were one with contemporary movements in the Pacific—the maintenance of closed areas, the intrusion of smugglers and poachers, the opening of closed regions as a result of new governmental policies, and the establishment of wider business connections in a period of comparative free trade. The present study, therefore, is a contribution to the history of the commercial opening of the Pacific world.

The sea otter fur trade of California likewise had great local significance. Of the many commercial enterprises which attracted United States merchants to the Pacific Coast, it was the first in time and one of the most profitable. American products and American citizens entering through the ocean portals of Upper California during the Spanish and Mexican periods spread over the land influences and interests which determined to a great extent the ultimate political destiny of that segment of the Pacific littoral. The sailing vessel, like the covered wagon which it preceded to California by four decades, served during the westward movement as a conveyor of United States interests to the Pacific Coast.

The present geographical distribution of the materials for California’s maritime history corresponds to the extent of its significance. Bancroft Library’s rich treasury of manuscripts is a start, and other public repositories in the state offer additional help. But, since actors on the sea stage usually represent private rather than public agencies, their documentary materials are not always found in centralized files. All along the California coast, in homes both humble and luxurious, are housed rare and yellowed documents, precious for a maritime study. The owners may or may not be residing in places where one would expect to find such materials, but, whether in Salinas or San Francisco, Carpinteria or San Pedro, all are proud relatives of some sea captain or businessman active in early Pacific trade.

Only half—if it is half—of the materials for California’s sea story is located within the state. The archives at Mexico City yield an apparently inexhaustible supply of information, especially for the official Spanish and Mexican activities in the commercial field. The official attitude of the United States is presented in consular letters found at the Congressional Library, Washington. Richest of all documentary centers outside of California is the New England homeland of the American merchants who did business in Spanish and Mexican California. Documents formerly in private hands—journals, logbooks, letters, account books—have found their way to public depositories. Trunks and files of letters in the Harvard Library, the Harvard School of Business Administration, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Peabody Museum Library, and other museums furnish materials which complete the picture half painted by Spanish and American documents in California.

Some of the most delightful experiences associated with my research have come in the course of meeting the owners of private collections of documents. The hospitality accorded by Mrs. John M. Williamson of Carpinteria, owner of a large collection of Alpheus Basil Thompson papers, and by Miss Frances Molera of San Francisco, who owns the logbook of the Rover and other John Cooper documents, will never be forgotten. Mr. James Hunnewell of Boston, Mr. A. Porter Robinson of San Francisco, and Mr. Henry Wagner of San Marino were all most generous in giving me access to the collections in their possession. Others have likewise permitted me to peruse collections which, although more directly concerned with other phases of California’s maritime history, form rich background for the sea otter trade.

The materials for any phase of Pacific maritime history are not only scattered but fragmentary. Only by piecing together senvii

PREFACE

tences from dozens of manuscript letters, each located in a different collection or in a different part of the country, is the story of a single vessel unfolded. Consequently, the shipping data which may be found compiled in the Appendix of this work, under the title of Identified Vessels Engaged in the California Sea Otter Trade, 1786-1848, should prove a material aid to research in the Pacific field. A

ADELE OGDEN

Berkeley, California

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I THE PACIFIC FRONTIER

CHAPTER II THE SPANISH SEA OTTER TRADE IN THE PACIFIC

CHAPTER III THE FIRST YANKEE TRADERS IN SPANISH CALIFORNIA, 1796-1805

CHAPTER IV RUSSIAN OTTER HUNTING IN SPANISH CALIFORNIA

CHAPTER V LATER YANKEE ENTERPRISE IN THE OTTER TRADE

CHAPTER VI OTTER HUNTING UNDER THE MEXICAN REGIME

CHAPTER VII CONTRABANDIST AND CAPITALIST IN SEA OTTER FIELDS

CHAPTER VIII A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SEA OTTER TRADE

APPENDIX IDENTIFIED VESSELS ENGAGED IN THE CALIFORNIA SEA OTTER TRADE 1786-1848

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

CHAPTER I

THE PACIFIC FRONTIER

THE OPENING OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN

ASAILLESS EXPANSE, rimmed by secluded cultural areas and by the homelands of unexploited native peoples living beyond the pale of civilization—such was the Pacific Ocean at the beginning of the eighteenth century. From Cape Horn to the Rim of Christendom on the Sonora-Arizona frontier, Spain was building her missions, ranches, and pueblos, all protected from any chance foreign intruder by a strong wall of mercantilism. Across the vast water spaces, the peoples of the Celestial Empire and the Flowery Kingdom safeguarded their exquisite ceramics, colorful silks and fragrant teas from the grasping fingers of western barbarians by a rigorous policy of exclusion. To the north, around the icy Sea of Okhotsk, a few lonely fur posts marked Russia’s portion of the Pacific rim. On the islands within the Great Ocean and on the northern borders, dwelt numerous aborigines unmolested as yet by intrusive profit seekers. Once a year, only, the Manila galleon cut a path from East to West.

Several decades beyond the turn of the century, a slight stir of new economic activity appeared on the northern rim of the closed Pacific. Russians, after the expeditions of the intrepid Bering, were pushing eastward from their Siberian bases in search of an animal—the sea otter. From island to island along the Aleutian chain moved the promishlennik, or fur trader, constraining the native hunter to pursue ruthlessly a creature whose fur proved to be more valuable in the China market than the finest fox, sable, or marten skins of Siberia. Thousands of otter pelts began to move annually toward Kiakhta, sole trade door legally open to Russians on the Siberian-Chinese border.

Economic stirrings in the north by subjects of the Tsar were countered by action on the Pacific frontier of the Spanish empire. California was occupied by Spain, not for the purpose of racing Russia to the sea otter fields, the value of which Spain did not yet realize, but to protect and expand her northern frontier at a time when the Russians were believed by Spanish administrators to be a greater menace than they actually were.

Spain did more than extend her frontier northward. Trusted mariners ventured forth to the unknown North Pacific to explore and find out more concerning the Russians. Incidental to these voyages were small trade negotiations between the sailors and natives. Thus began the sea otter trade on the actual mainland of North America, the Russians having confined their hunting as yet to the Aleutian Islands. Spanish sailors aboard the Santiago in 1774 displayed some of the beautiful abalone shells which they had idly picked up on the California coast at Monterey and Carmel. They found that the natives offered their finest furs in exchange for the iridescent cunchi. On the next two Spanish voyages to the North Pacific, in 1775 and 1779, crew members bartered for otter skins with beads, pieces of iron, knives, and old clothes.1

Spaniards in Upper and Lower California began to collect skins purposely from the natives. They had known for some time of the presence of sea otters in California. As early as 1733 Father Sigismundo T araval had observed them on his trip to Cerros Island, on the west coast of Lower California. They found such numbers of them together that the seamen killed about twenty of them by following them only with sticks. Some of the skins of these creatures the father sent to Mexico.² About 1780 missionaries and soldiers began to purchase skins from California Indians for as low a price as three or four reales each. Otter furs were finding their way to the Orient on the Manila galleons. In 1783, the Princesa left Acapulco with from seven hundred to eight hundred pelts.⁸ However, the number to be obtained was not great. California Indians, unlike those in the North Pacific, had not developed a technique of hunting otters, probably because the heavy skins were not needed in the warmer climate. Some few natives caught enough to make otter doublets, but their hunting methods were crude.⁴

The year of the Liberty Bell, 1776, marked the beginning of an expedition which was to accelerate the new activity in the Pacific. Captain James Cook embarked upon a voyage of exploration for England. Greater than any of his contributions was his world advertising of the otter’s economic value, discovered accidentally by some sailors on the expedition. The excited crew upon arriving home told of the skin which, obtained on the Northwest Coast for almost nothing, sold for fabulous prices in the Orient. Through English deserters, when England was attacking the Philippines in 1779, Spanish officials heard the news.⁸ John Ledyard, an American on the Cook expedition, urged capitalists in the United States to embark upon the new business. Finally, in 1784, the published account of the English voyage verified previous rumors and directly recommended the sea otter trade as a lucrative enterprise.

The commercial opening of the Pacific Ocean was begun because of man’s desire for the fur of an animal. Ships from the United States, from England, and, to a lesser extent, French and Portuguese craft, drove into the Pacific after 1784. The Russians were stimulated to new activity and founded in 1783 their first permanent base in North America on Kodiak Island south of the Alaskan Peninsula. And, in the very year that Cook’s book was published, before outside merchants had yet arrived in the Pacific fur fields, the Spanish government was preparing to enter the sea otter trade on an extensive and organized basis.

THE SEA OTTER AND EARLY HUNTING METHODS

Sea otters are unique among marine mammals. Floating upon their backs, with forepaws placed peacefully upon their breasts, and riding up and down with the ocean swells on billowy, buoyant kelp beds, they present a picture of complete tranquillity and contentment. Not a sign is there of fighting or quarreling among them as, side by side, they lie upon the deep in groups of about one hundred. Now one rolls over and over in the water, or partially raises his glistening body to look about. Now one dives for nourishment. Shortly he reappears, turns on his back, and with his forepaws calmly disposes of the contents of his shell find. Man’s noisy presence immediately transforms this otter Elysium. Shy and sensitive, the animals abandon their natural serenity for nervous vigilance, and, if pursued, resort to swift motion and clever maneuvers to escape the enemy. If sufficiently disturbed, the group disperses, as if knowing that protection for the whole lies in separation.

In general appearance the sea otter resembles the seal, but it is an entirely different animal.® The adult male measures from four to five feet from nose to tip of tail, and weighs up to eighty pounds. Its round or blunt head, short, thick neck, its small, flat, and pointed ears, its short, white whiskers—similar to, but coarser and 4 THE CALIFORNIA SEA OTTER TRADE stiffer, than those of a cat—and its black eyes, which may be either calm or gleaming wildly and vindictively, are all peculiar to the sea otter.

The fore and hind limbs differ greatly. The former are very short and thick, with naked, black, and granulated palms, and with toes closely connected and terminating in short, arched claws. The hind legs, on the contrary, are much longer and flipperlike in form, and the toes of the foot are webbed by hair-covered membranes. The otter uses its forepaws freely in obtaining and holding food and in handling and playing with its young. The hind legs serve as paddles in the water, where the broad flippers can be extended backward until they are nearly even with the tail; on land, they are of little use since the toes lack muscular power and the feet cannot be placed flat upon the ground. In moving on beach or rock, the otter normally walks slowly and awkwardly. Doubling its hind legs simultaneously, it proceeds rapidly over the ground by a series of quick jumps, usually with the result of damaging its flippers. The tail of the sea otter is flattish, less than one inch thick, about two and one-half inches wide, and a foot or less in length. Stiff and incapable of being bent to any extent, it serves as a rudder.

The fur of the otter is more beautiful than that of any other marine animal. According to a veteran hunter, William Sturgis, there were only two objects in the world which could rival the sea otter in appearance—a beautiful lady and a lovely infant.’ Its coat consists of an unusually fine, soft, and dense underfur of about three-fourths of an inch in length, and a few longer and slightly coarser overhairs. At the base or roots the fur is a lustrous white or silver color, darkening toward the ends to black in the finest skins and to various shades of brown in the more common pelts. The predominant shade is lustrous brown, brightened with silvery overhairs. The most valuable pelts are a brownish black, known in the trade as black. The hair on the head is lighter in color. The choicest sea otters have dense, brownish black fur of silky, shimmering gloss and extreme fineness, exhibiting a silver color when blown open and with a reasonable number of white hairs regularly distributed, too many white hairs depreciating the value of the pelt.⁸ The skin of an otter is remarkably loose, like that on the neck of a young dog, and it therefore always stretches to several feet more than the length of the animal. The largest pelts measure as much as ninety inches long and thirty-six inches wide, the more common dimensions being about six feet by thirty inches.

The color and condition of the fur, and the size of the pelt vary according to the age of the animal and the locality. A skin is at its prime in the third or fourth year. The fur of the northern race of the sea otter species, called Enhydra lutris lutris, is different from that of the southern group, Enhydra lutris nereis. California skins were brown and generally inferior to those taken in the north, but Otto von Kotzebue, who was along the coast in 1816, stated that the difference is not very great.⁰ Apparently the quality of the pelage remains about the same throughout the year, although some hunters claimed that the winter catches were better in color. Hunting was done in California at all seasons.

The best description of the California sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) is that given in the recent excellent book, Fur-Bearing Mammals of California, by Joseph Grinnell, Joseph Dixon, and Jean Linsdale. The passage describing a young adult female taken on the coast of Monterey County in 1908 is quoted in full.

Body from shoulders back, mummy brown, with a frosted appearance caused by the lighter-colored tips of the scattered, long, coarse hairs which project through the fine dense cover of fur. These light tips are of various shades of olive buff, most of them falling between deep olive buff and dark olive buff. From the shoulders forward these buff tips are most numerous and give the neck a decidedly grayish brown cast. The buff color is most nearly pure on the top and lower sides of the head.

The entire coat contrasts with that of the river otter in being much softer and more dense, with longer hairs. The coloration is in general much darker. Most of the pelt is made up of the dense fine underfur, the slightly longer overhairs being scattered and scarcely visible to gross inspection. Fur on the middle of the back averages 25 mm. in depth.

The front feet of the sea otter are remarkably small, and the limbs are small and weakly developed. The digits are all small and so closely connected as to be scarcely indicated externally except by the small, short, strongly arched claw on each. The naked palm is nearly circular in outline, with a small projection behind the bare area on the outer side. The hind feet are greatly flattened and expanded, forming paddles, and are haired on both the upper and the lower surfaces except for small naked pads, one at the base of each claw. The short, strongly arched claws are spaced evenly across the terminal margin of the foot.¹⁰

Of great warmth and exceeding beauty, the sea otter fur was sought by Orientals for both practical and ornamental purposes. It became the royal fur of China. Otter-skin robes were the style of the day for Chinese mandarins. Ladies in high social standing wore otter capes, and some made belts or sashes of the fur, over which pearls were arranged. Tails were much esteemed for caps, mittens, and small trimmings. As the price ascended, the fur was used more commonly to weigh down and border rich silk gowns. By 1790 a sea otter skin commanded in the Chinese market a price of from eighty to one hundred and twenty dollars.¹¹

Along an are formed by the shores and islands of the North Pacific Ocean the sea otter ranged. From Yezo in north Japan the grounds proceeded northeastward past the Kuril group and Kamchatka to the Aleutian chain. Following the curve of the Northwest Coast of America, the otter fields extended southward to about the middle of the Lower California littoral.

Apparently there was a partial break in the are delineating the sea otter habitat between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the northern California coast at about Trinidad. The marked geographical differences of that part of the coast could well explain the fewer numbers of otters. A straight shore of sand dunes and cliffs replaces the irregular, rocky stretches, such as are most frequented by sea otters; the rocky coasts are characteristic of the littoral north and south. This gap no doubt forms the geographical division between the two races of the otter species.

Such a geographical division in the otter habitat is indicated in the trade records. Although some sea otters were obtained along the Oregon and northern California coasts, even in the earliest hunting days they were found only in very few numbers.¹³ The vessels which entered the Columbia River traded mostly for land otter and beaver skins. Factors to be considered are that the Indians along the more northern coasts were extremely hostile, thus making barter difficult. Also, some of the early merchants did not trade there because of the lack of good harbors. However, neither of these conditions explains why later the Russians and the Yankees, both of whom had expert Aleutian hunters aboard, came directly to California without hunting on the way. Trust the Aleut to go after otters if there were any to be had. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Henry Wood Elliott, reporting in 1875 on numbers of marine animals in the North Pacific, stated:

It is also noteworthy that all the sea otters taken below the Straits of Fuca are shot by the Indians and white hunters off the beach in the surf at Gray’s Harbor, a stretch of less than twenty miles; here from fifty to a hundred are taken every year, while not half that number can be obtained from all the rest of the Oregon and Washington coast-line."

In the Californias the sea otter’s habitat included the coastal stretch as far south as Morro Hermoso Point, located twenty miles south of Lower California’s westernmost headland, which forms the southern shore of Sebastian Vizcaino Bay. North of Point Reyes, one of the favorite retreats of the animal was in rocky Trinidad Harbor. San Francisco Bay abounded in otters. Apparently they not only swam around in the bay but frequented the numerous estuaries and even hauled up on the shore. The animals were found on Point San Quentin, around the mouths of Petaluma and Sonoma creeks, and in the estuaries of San Jose, San Mateo, and San Bruno.

On the coast between San Francisco and Monterey, Pillar Point, forming the northwest extremity of Half Moon Bay, and Point Año Nuevo eighteen miles north of Santa Cruz, as well as Santa Cruz Point and Bay, are mentioned frequently in the records. South of Monterey great numbers of otters stayed in the kelp off Point Sur and along the coast around Cooper’s Point, where the mountains come down to meet surging, heavy seas. San Simeon, the coast opposite San Luis Obispo, and Point Conception also appear often in the records as otter habitats.

The southern coast of Upper California apparently was not much frequented by the sea otter. There were a few around Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Juan Capistrano. The great otter rendezvous in the south was around the kelp-bound islands of the Santa Barbara Channel and also to a lesser extent on Santa Catalina and San Clemente.

In the Lower California area sea otters abounded. Extant hunting records would indicate that they were even more numerous there than along the Upper California coast. Seven bays, and the headlands and islands around them, were main centers. Proceeding from north to south they were, Todos Santos Bay, upon which present-day Ensenada is located, and Todos Santos Island on the west, the anchorage of Santo Tomas, Colnett Bay, San Quintin Bay, Rosario Bay with San Geronimo Island on its south, Santa Rosalia Bay, and the great Sebastian Vizcaino Bay, with the islands Natividad, Cerros, and San Benito continuing the curving sweep of the bay’s shore line to the west and north into the Pacific. Sea otter hunting was likewise carried on around Guadalupe Island, lying far off to the west. The southernmost hunting place mentioned in the records was Morro Hermoso, where the rocky bluffs and outlying rocks surrounded with kelp, generally characteristic of the northern coast of Lower California, merge into sand cliffs and beach.

The habits of the sea otter are interesting; they have, however, been the subject of many erroneous and purely imaginative accounts. Its food seems to consist principally of shellfish, especially crabs and other crustaceans. A favorite food along parts of the California coast is the abalone, which at high water loosens its shell from the rock and is easily taken. Diving down, the otter takes its catch between its forepaws and comes to the surface to devour it. An old hunter is recorded as saying, Why, I really believe that them otters has human sense. I’ve seen ’em dive down, catch a crab, come up to the surface and fasten themselves to a piece of kelp, then take the crab in their paws and leisurely eat it, giving the best part to the pup.¹⁴ All foraging seems to be done at sea and not on land.

Waters about rocky shores, reefs, islets, and thick kelp beds form its favorite habitat. There, in from ten to twenty-five fathoms of water, is the source of its food. In stormy weather, or when the animals are resting, kelp patches afford an ideal shelter. The otter rarely leaves the water; when it does so, it comes on shore only in secluded, isolated spots, most usually during stormy weather at sea. Preferably it hauls up on rocks and islets some distance from the mainland. The records indicate that in all localities the animals came ashore much more frequently in former days before extensive hunting was pursued. If awake, the otter stretches out at full length on the rocks; when sleeping, especially in cold weather, it curls up, placing its forepaws over its nose.

At sea, where the otter spends most of its time, it progresses by swimming on its back. If not disturbed by too frequent hunting, otters congregate in schools of one hundred or less. All hunters describe the playfulness of the animal. Some observers have seen it lying on its back and tossing a piece of sea-weed up in the air from paw to paw, apparently taking great delight in catching it before it could fall into the water.¹⁵ The adults play with their young for hours. Apparently they do not leap about in the water, however, as asserted by some. Only when pursued do they breach.

The otter is noted for its cunning when being hunted. A favorite trick is that of diving in the opposite direction to that from which it is being chased, thus passing under the hunters’ boat and coming up behind. Apparently realizing that boats travel more slowly against the wind, the otter often swims to the windward. Sometimes it will try to find a tide rip or, if near the shore, the animal has been known to make straight for the breakers among jagged rocks. It also hides behind rocks. A very common trick is to make a series of short dives followed by a very long one, when the boats are quite close, which takes the animal completely out of range. Early accounts mention that otters often tore out the arrows from their bodies with their teeth.

No other marine creature is more alert to danger. The least sound or scent of man causes the animal to disappear and even to leave a locality. According to Elliott, They will take alarm and leave from the effects of a small fire, four or five miles to the windward of them; and the footstep of man must be washed by many tides before its trace ceases to alarm the animal and drive it from landing there, should it approach for that purpose.¹⁰ Apparently in early days, before the animal was pursued so relentlessly, its shyness was less pronounced. For example, John Jewitt wrote concerning those at Nootka Sound in 1803: They are in general very tame, and will permit a canoe or boat to approach very near before they dive. I was told, however, that they are becoming much more shy since they have been accustomed to shoot them with muskets, than when they used only arrows.¹⁷

The species reproduces slowly. As a rule only one pup is born at a time. As true children of the deep, they are born at sea on a bed of kelp. According to Frank Stephens, who is corroborated by others, The single young are brought forth at any season, the intervals apparently being more than a year. The young are said to suckle more than a year.¹⁸ Full growth is not attained until about the fourth year. The mother otter is noted for her affection for her young. Swimming on her back, she carries her pup clasped in her forepaws. If chased, she seizes the young one in her teeth by the skin of the neck and dives. Rarely will she desert it. The cry of the animal, according to some, resembles that of a cat, and

ALEUTIAN SEA OTTER CANOE, OR BAIDARKA, AND HUNTERS

From Charles Melville Scammon, The Marine Mammalia of the Northwestern Coast of North America, New York, 1874

according to Chase Littlejohn, an old-time hunter, the cries of the young sound exactly like those of a human infant.¹⁹ The young otter when alarmed invariably betrays its location.

The recent discovery, in the spring of 1938, of a herd of sea otters off the mouth of Bixby Creek, about fifteen miles south of Monterey, makes it possible to extend our present knowledge of the animal. It is to be hoped that government authorities and the public