"
[Illustration: Building the first American Ship on the Pacific Coast.
Photographed by courtesy of Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly, a descendant
of Gray.]
By September, after frequent stops to trade with the Indians, they were
well abreast of Nootka, where Cook had been ten years before. A
terrible ground-swell of surf and back-wash raged over projecting
reefs. The Indians, here, knew English words enough to tell Gray that
Nootka lay farther east, and that a Captain Meares was there with two
vessels. A strange sail appeared inside the harbor. Gray thought it
was the belated _Columbia_ under Kendrick; but a rowboat came out
bearing Captain Meares himself, who breakfasted with the Americans on
September 17, and had his long-boats tow the _Lady Washington_ inside
Nootka, where Gray was surprised to see two English snows under
Portuguese colors, with a cannon-mounted garrison on shore, and a
schooner of thirty tons, the _Northwest-America_, all ready to be
launched. This was the first ship built on the northwest coast. Gray
himself later built the second.
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