''Loriot'' was an American sailing ship involved in

exploration Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. This

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

took a member of a United States presidential expedition to survey land and the inhabitants of the area in the 1830s. The ship then transported members of the

Willamette Cattle Company The Willamette Cattle Company was formed in 1837 by pioneers in the Willamette Valley of present-day Oregon, United States. The company was formed with the express purpose of purchasing cattle in Mexican California. Nearly 750 head of cattle and ...

from

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in an effort to increase livestock in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

settlements.

Early years

In the early 1830s the vessel traded between the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands and California under the ownership of Alpheus Basil Thompson.Ogden, Adele
Captain Henry Fitch, San Diego Merchant, 1825-1849.
The Journal of San Diego History, Fall 1981, Vol. 27, No. 4. Retrieved on February 20, 2008. The ship had arrived on the islands as early as 1833 under a Captain Nye from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

."California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900.
Library of Congress. Retrieved on February 20, 2008.

Northwest Expedition

On November 24, 1836, the ''Loriot'' set sail from the

Sandwich Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

for the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

with Lieutenant William A. Slacum of the U.S. Navy. Earlier in 1836 President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

sent Lieutenant William A. Slacum to the west coast of North America to examine

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

, and the Columbia River estuary to assess these anchorages for their strategic value. Additionally, Slacum and his expedition were to examine the economy of the region. The ship, under the command of Captain Bancroft, arrived at the river on December 22, 1836. In the Oregon Country, Slacum offered to take some settlers to California on the ''Loriot'' to purchase cattle for the settlers to then drive north to Oregon. On February 10, 1837, the ship sailed out of the Columbia and towards California with

Ewing Young Ewing Young (1799-February 9, 1841) was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country. ...

and other members of the

. Ship and passengers arrived at the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n settlement of Bodega on February 20, 1837, where the pioneers disembarked with Slacum then continuing on his mission.Corning, Howard M. (1989) ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 152. During the journey in 1836 the ''Loriot'' was involved in an event that created a minor diplomatic incident with Russia involving Russian-America lands. In that year the vessel attempted to make land in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

at Tuckessan harbor, but was denied by Russian authorities. :"''When the captain of the Loriot asked permission to enter the harbor of Tateskey, he was ordered to "leave the waters of His Imperial Majesty."''"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loriot (Ship) Oregon Country Age of Sail merchant ships of the United States Pre-statehood history of Oregon