USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 34
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SHIP-BUILDING.
barrassing position, for he had not yet completed the transfer of the principal settlement from Three Saints to Pavlovsk harbor and there was urgent necessity to erect at once a number of buildings at the latter place, to shelter both men and stores during the winter. He was, however, determined to obey, and while pushing the work at Pavlovsk as much as possible, he lost no time in selecting a suitable place for ship-building. On Kadiak and Afognak islands the trees were neither abundant nor large enough, and it was found neces- sary to look to some more distant region. During his recent stay in Prince William Sound he had observed to the west of it a well protected bay, which seemed in every way suitable for his undertaking. The place was called Voskressenski, or Sunday harbor, also known as Blying Sound, and not only furnished ex- cellent timber, but a considerable rise and fall of the tide afforded exceptional facilities for building, launch- ing, and repairing vessels. Shelikof's orders had been to send Shields back to Okhotsk after consulting him concerning the work on hand, but Baranof found it necessary to detain him in order to obtain serviceable plans for his vessel. He wrote to Shelikof that his complement of men capable of doing any work on the vessel was so exceedingly small that he could not afford to send away his most valuable assistant, but would retain him during that and the following season, hoping in the mean time to receive further shipments of stores and material. 28
The necessary buildings, quarters for the men, and storehouses were at once erected at Voskressenski harbor, and all that winter the mountains of Kenaï peninsula echoed the vigorous blows of axemen and the crash of falling trees. Nearly all the planks were hewn out of the whole log, a waste of time and ma-
28 'We have,' wrote Baranof, 'only half a keg of tar, three kegs of pitch, not a pound of oakum, not a single nail, and very little iron for so large a vessel. What little canvas you sent us we have been compelled to use for bidarka sails and tents, for those we had were entirely worn out by long usage.' Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii., app. 39.
330
ORGANIZATION OF MONOPOLY.
terial made necessary by the absence of large saws. The iron needed in the construction had been collected from pieces of wreck in all parts of the colonies, and though rust-eaten and of poor quality, it was made to serve. Steel for axes had to be prepared from the same material. In his anxiety to push the work Bar- anof even attempted to extract iron from some ore his men had picked up. He had seen iron-furnaces during his life in Siberia, but found himself unable to obtain the coveted metal by any such rude processes as he could devise.29 For tar he devised a poor mix- ture of spruce gum and oil. The English ship-builder regarded with wonder and contempt the primitive dock-yard, and without a purveyor possessed of the indomitable determination and activity of Baranof, he could never have earned the reputation of construct- ing the first ship on the north-westernmost coast of America.
To obtain provisions was difficult. The men could not be allowed to hunt or fish, and no other station was prepared to furnish supplies. Heavy requisitions were made upon the yukola, or dried fish, of the na- tives, entailing want and hardships upon them, while the ship-builders were reduced to the scantiest allow- ance to sustain them in their arduous task.
The lack of canvas was another serious incon- venience. Without a proper suit of sails the first American ship could never reach the coast of Siberia or Kamchatka and impress the authorities with the reality of all the Shelikof Company claimed to have done in the way of improvements and industrial en- terprise in the colonies. It is astonishing to what expense and infinite trouble the company was willing to go for the sole purpose of effect. A far better ship could have been built without any serious diffi- culty and at much less cost either in Kamchatka or at Okhotsk. The problem of supplying the necessary
29 Madame Shelikof indicates that the smelting of iron ore promised well enough to warrant the engagement of an experienced man. Letter, in Id.
331
LAUNCHING OF THE 'PHOENIX.'
canvas was made more difficult by the circumstance that the native hunters, who had until then been paid for their season's work with a few beads and glass corals, refused to accept that currency any longer, and almost unanimously demanded to be paid in garments made of canvas.
April 1793 saw the new craft far enough advanced to make Shields' constant superintendence unneces- sary. Baranof, who had no great liking for the for- eigner, seized the opportunity of giving him additional work by ordering him upon a voyage of discovery in the Orel. Rumors of the existence of unknown isl- ands, rich in seals and sea-otters, in various parts of the new possessions had been afloat for some time. Baranof never expressed any belief in these reports, but in order to get Shields and his four English sailors out of the way for the summer, he promised the former two shares of the furs obtained from any island discovered by him, for two years, and to the sailors twenty sea- otters each. With grim satisfaction the crafty old manager noted the fact that the premiums offered were never earned, and that the Orel was tossed about by storms and finally reached Voskressenski harbor in a much damaged condition. In the mean time the Sv Simeon had arrived with more laborers, provisions, and tools, and work was resumed with renewed vigor.
At last in August 1794 the great work was achieved as the first vessel built in north-western America glided from the stocks into the waters of the Pacific, under the name of Phoenix.30 While not so important or dif- ficult a performance as those of Vasco Nuñez and Cortés, it was one of which Baranof might justly feel proud. He had made the first practical use of the timber of what was then termed "the vast deserts of
30 No explanation is given by my authorities why Baranof selected this name, but we may conclude that it was suggested to him by the English vessel which visited those waters in 1792.
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ORGANIZATION OF MONOPOLY.
America," and had used it for a purpose that might be expected to benefit not only his employers, but his country.
Most of the men who assisted Shields had seen only the nondescript vessels of Siberian traders, many of them half decked, and built usually without an iron bolt or brace, the planks being lashed together with raw-hide thongs. The present result was therefore all the more gratifying, crude as it was. The vessel was built of spruce timber, and measured 73 feet in length, the upper deck being 79 feet, with a beam of 23 feet and a depth of 13} feet. Notwithstanding the size, the capacity being only about one hundred tons, it was provided with two decks and three masts, in order to present an imposing appearance and do credit to its projectors.31 The calking above the water-line was done with moss; and for paint, tar and whale-oil were used.32 The sails consisted of pieces and scraps of canvas for which the warehouses and magazines of the company in Kamchatka and in the colonies had been ransacked. The result was a number of sheets of different qualities and color, presenting the most grotesque appearance.33
By the 4th of September the Phoenix was despatched upon her first voyage to Kadiak, where Baranof hoped to improve upon the outfit. On the way the flimsy rigging snapped before the first breeze, and the vessel entered Pavlovsk not with swelling sails, but towed by boats. She was also badly ballasted, and presented on the whole an appearance far from imposing. Nev-
81 Tikhmenef calls it 180 tons. Istor. Obos., i. 57-8.
32 Boiled at various times in small quantities the paint was unequal in color, giving the hull a strange, spotted appearance. This, however, ex- tended only a little above the water-line, as they did not have enough even of such paint to color the whole.
33 These sails, some spars, and a quantity of iron work for the new vessel prepared by mechanics in Kadiak were transported to the ship-yard early in April, before the sea-going vessels had completed their necessary repairs, so that the conveyance had to be made in large skin boats or bidars, which crept cautiously to Cook Inlet. From here the material was carried over dangerous glaciers and mountains to Voskressenski harbor. Baranof, Shizn., 152.
333
OTHER SHIPS BUILT.
ertheless joy reigned in the settlement, and the event was celebrated by solemn mass and merry feasting.34
A few weeks were spent in refitting and rigging the Phoenix, and on the 20th day of April this first- born of the Alaskan forests set out upon the voyage to the shores of Asia, commanded by Shields, the builder. The voyage was made in about a month, a speed unprecedented in the annals of Russian navi- gation in the north Pacific. At Okhotsk the Phenix was received with volleys of artillery, the ringing of bells, and the celebration of mass. The ghost of the great Peter is gratified; for in the flesh the monarch never dreamed of so early and so significant an achievement resulting from the royal pupilage.
All the servants of the Shelikof Company then awaiting transportation from this port, and the soldiers stationed at the ostrog were at once called into requi- sition to assist in finishing Baranof's wonderful three- master. She had made her first voyage without cabin or deck houses, and these were now added, together with the necessary polishing and painting, and new sails and rigging. From this time forth until her loss during a dark stormy November night, in the gulf of Alaska, the Phoenix made regular trips between Okhotsk and the colonies. Shelikof and his partners did not fail to dwell forcibly and pointedly in their petitions and reports upon the fact that their com- pany maintained communication between the colonies and the mother country by means of a "frigate" of their own construction, built with American timber and launched in American waters.
This success Baranof followed up by laying the keels of two other vessels, of smaller size, forty and thirty-five feet in length respectively, which were launched in 1795, and named Delphin and Olga.35
34 The leaders tried their teeth on the only ram left of the sheep consign- ment, and then sought relief from the struggle in copious draughts of cheering liquor. Baranof, Shizn., 155-6. Baranof attended the launching, but came back in a bidarka, as if distrusting Shields and his work.
35 l'ikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 40.
CHAPTER XV.
STRIFE BETWEEN RIVAL COMPANIES.
1791-1794.
THE LEBEDEF COMPANY OCCUPIES COOK INLET-QUARRELS BETWEEN THE LEBEDEF AND SHELIKOF COMPANIES-HOSTILITIES IN COOK INLET- COMPLAINTS OF KOLOMIN AGAINST KONOVALOF-WAR UPON RUSSIANS AND INDIANS ALIKE-LIFE OF THE MARAUDERS-PACIFIC ATTITUDE OF BARANOF-HIS PATIENCE EXHAUSTED-PLAYING THE AUTOCRAT-AR- REST OF THE RINGLEADERS-EFFECT ON THE NATIVES-BARANOF'S SPEECH TO HIS HUNTERS-EXPEDITION TO YAKUTAT-MEETING WITH VANCOUVER-THE LEBEDEF COMPANY CIRCUMVENTED-TROUBLES WITH KALJUSHES-PURTOF'S RESOLUTE CONDUCT-ZAÏKOF'S EXPEDITION.
LIKE the Spaniards in Central America and Mex- ico, no sooner had the Russians possession of their part of America than they fell to fighting among themselves. In 1786 the Sv Pavl, of the Lebedef- Lastochkin Company, had come to Kadiak with thirty-eight men, commanded by Peredovchik Kolo- min. Jealous of intrusion on their recently acquired hunting-ground, the Shelikof party gave the new- comers a hint to move on, and incautiously pointed to Cook Inlet or the gulf of Kenaï as a profitable region. The result was a permanent establishment in Alaska, on Kassilof River in that inlet. It consisted of two log buildings protected by a stockade, and bore the name of St George.1
The Shelikof Company already possessed, near the entrance of the inlet, a fort named Alexandrovsk, which had a more pretentious appearance. It formed
1 It was situated on a bluff, and presented to the wondering savages quite a formidable aspect. Juvenal, Jour., MS., 36.
(334 )
335
KONOVALOF'S EXPEDITION.
a square with poorly built bastions at two corners, and displayed the imperial arms over the entrance, which was protected by two guns. Within were dwelling and store houses, one of them provided with a sentry-box on the roof.2 The situation of the other fort higher up the inlet, near the richer fur region, gave it the advantage in hunting; yet, for a time, friendly relations continued to exist between the rivals as well as with the natives.
In August 1791 the ship St George, also belong- ing to the Lebedef-Lastochkin Company, arrived in the inlet. The commander of this second expedition was one Grigor Konovalof, and his advent seems to have been the signal for strife and disorder. His pro- ceedings were strange from the beginning; he did not land at the mouth of the Kassilof River, where Kolo- min was already established, but went about twenty miles farther, to the Kaknu, landed his crew of sixty- two Russians, discharged his cargo, beached his ves- sel, and began to erect winter quarters and fortifications surrounded with a stockade and defended by guns. This fort was named St Nicholas.3 All this time he neglected to communicate in any manner with the other party of the same company. Kolomin at last
2 Smithy, room for boiling oil, and other conveniences existed. Fidalgo, in Viajes al Norte, MS., 358-9. See also Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 348.
3 Tikhmenef, in speaking of this episode, commits some errors from insuffi- cient acquaintance with the various localities. He writes of Kassilof and St Nicholas as thesame place, while in reality the latter is thirty miles to the north - ward of the former. In claiming that Konovalof, by erecting fortifications at Kassilof, or St Nicholas, seized npon settlements founded by Shelikof in 1785, Tikhmenef makes another mistake. The only lodgment made by Shelikof on Cook Inlet was near its mouth, and was subsequently named Alexandrovsk. Furthermore, Shelikof was a partner in Lebedef-Lastochkin's enterprise, as as well as in the company formed under special protection of the government. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 30; Juvenal, Jour., MS., 6 et seq. When Vancouver anchored off the mouth of the Kenaï or Kaknu river in 1794 he was saluted by two guns from a building on the high bank, from which also floated the Russian flag. A miserable path led up the steep ascent through masses of filth and offal. The establishment occupied a space of about 120 yards square, en- closed with a stout paling of pine logs, 12 feet high. The largest building, 35 yards long, served as barracks, consisting of one large room with sleeping- benches on the sides, divided into stalls. The commander, at that time Stepan Zaïkof, lived in a smaller house by himself. There were over twenty other small buildings. The 70-ton sloop belonging to the station, armed with two guns, was in a dilapidated condition. Vancouver's Voy., iii. 140-1.
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STRIFE BETWEEN RIVAL COMPANIES.
ventured to inquire to what company they belonged. The answer was brief and insolent, Konovalof claim- ing that he had been invested with supreme command, and instructed to seize everything in the hands of Kolomin, who must henceforth report to him. While ready to believe that such authority had been con- ferred,4 the latter did not choose to surrender either his men or his furs; but as his term was about ended, he prepared to close his affairs and transfer the com- pany's business to his successor after the winter, in the expectation of sailing for Okhotsk in the spring. While thus engaged, Kolomin's party was surprised by the arrival of a large bidar sent by Konovalof, and commanded by Amos Balushin. Without making any excuse or explanation, Balushin proceeded a short distance up the Kassilof River, to where Kolomin's winter supply of dried fish was stored, and carried all away.5
Shortly afterward a party of natives, en route to St George, were intercepted on the Kaknu by Ko- novalof's men and robbed of all their effects. This outrage was repeated on a party from Toyunok, a village on the upper part of the inlet, no compensa- tion whatever being tendered for the furs taken. Being anxious to come to some understanding, Kolo- min went out to meet his rival, but the interview was brought to an end by Konovalof firing off his pistol, without injury, however, to any one. After this Kolomin considered the country in a state of war, kept constant watch, and posted sentries. More- over, there was fear that the savages, who could not fail to notice the quarrels between the Russians, might attack the weaker with a view to capturing the furs gathered by Kolomin during his residence of
+ ' I had only twenty-seven men left of my crew, and as we were waiting to be called back we thought that Konovalof spoke the truth, and congratulated ourselves on having a new commander.' Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part ii. 51. The Sv Pavl had been sent home in 1789 with a cargo of his furs, and since then nearly 2,000 more skins had been collected.
" A demand for explanation elicited only threats. Id.
337
OUTRAGES AT COOK INLET.
four years among them. Konovalof aggravated the situation by sending men to press some of Kolomin's kayurs, or native servants, into his own service, and the former on meeting with objections threatened to fire on the other party.6 The ease with which this out- rage was perpetrated encouraged another attack with a larger force, during which the remaining servants and the hostages were carried off, so that Kolomin had to send both for fresh recruits and for provisions. Even in this effort he met with trouble, for Lossef, the faithful lieutenant of Konovalof, dogged his foot- steps, intercepted most of the levy, and maltreated the messengers.7
Kolomin had already complained to the Shelikof Company of this persecution, and as soon as the ice broke up on the inlet he proceeded to Kadiak, to con- firm his previous report and urge Baranof to occupy the whole gulf. He advanced the opinion that, unless some responsible power interfered at once, all which he and his men had accomplished toward pacifying the natives and building up a profitable trade would be lost. Baranof by no means felt inclined to interfere between rival agents, particularly since the aggressive party would evidently not hesitate at shedding the blood even of their own countrymen; not that he lacked the courage, but he feared to risk his company's interests and men in fratricidal war, which might also arouse the natives. Moreover, his patron Shelikof possessed shares in the other company, and he pre- ferred to report to him so that the matter might be settled by the principals. At the same time, how- ever, he sent a warning to the St Nicholas people that
6 The men were actually ordered to fire, but hesitated. Lossef, their leader, upbraided them, saying: 'It is not your business; we have already killed four Russians.' 'Wait until spring,' he exclaimed to Kolomin's party, 'and we will come to your station with fifty men and take away all the host- ages you have.' Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. app. part ii. 52-3. A converted native of Kadiak was robbed of his young wife and unmercifully beaten.
7 Three men were deprived of their weapons and placed in the stocks for two days. Drushinin, an elder among the hunters, who came to expostulate, was put in irons.
HIST. ALASKA. 22
338
STRIFE BETWEEN RIVAL COMPANIES.
he, as representative of one of the partners in the Le- bedef Company, could not allow any aggressive meas- ures that might be prejudicial to trade. This had the effect of greatly tempering the feeling of the St Nich- olas party against Kolomin's men as of their own com- pany, but directed their hostility against the rival company. They declared that the whole territory bordering upon the gulf of Kenaï belonged exclusively to the Lebedef Company, ignoring all previous arrange- ments between their acknowledged head and Shelikof. They certainly controlled nearly all the trade, and to this end they had erected another station higher up the inlet, on the western shore, and placed there a score of Russians.8
Robbery and brutal outrages continued to be the order of the day, though now committed chiefly for the purpose of obtaining sole control of the inlet, to the neglect of legitimate pursuits. Meanwhile Kolo- min's men managed to hold their own, and, as the per- secution of the Konovalof party gradually relaxed, their sympathies actually turned toward the latter in their effort to oust the Shelikof men from the field.
Thus the history of Cook Inlet during the last dec- ade of the eighteenth century is replete with romantic incidents-midnight raids, ambuscades, and open war- fare-resembling the doings of medieval raubritters, rather than the exploits of peaceable traders. The leaders lived in rude comfort at the fortified stations, surrounded by a dusky harem containing contributions from the various native villages within the peredovt- chik's jurisdiction. Offences against the dignity of the latter were punished quickly and effectually with the lash or confinement in irons or the stocks, if the offender had not too many friends among the Russian promyshleniki, and with extreme severity, verging upon cruelty, in cases where the culprit belonged to the
8 It consisted of one large house about 50 feet long and 24 feet wide. Van- couver's Voy., iii. 122.
339
LEBEDEF AND SHELIKOF.
unfortunate class of kayurs. The Russians did little work beyond the regular guard duty, and even that was sometimes left to trusted individuals among the native workmen and hangers-on of the station.
All manual labor was performed by natives, espe- cially by the female 'hostages,' and children of chiefs from distant villages left at the stations by their parents to be instructed in Russian life and manners. The training which they were forced to undergo, far from exercising any civilizing influence, resulted only in making them deceitful, cunning, and more vicious than they had been before. Every Russian there was a monarch, who if he wanted ease took it, or if spoils, the word was given to prepare for an expedition. Then food was prepared by the servants, and the boats made ready, while the masters attended to their arms and equipments. The women and children were intrusted to the care of a few superannuated hunters left to guard the station, and the brave little band would set out upon its depredations, caring little whether they were Indians or Russians who should become their victims. The strangest part of it all was, that the booty secured was duly accounted for among the earnings of the company.9
Affairs were assuming a serious aspect. Not only were the Shelikof men excluded from the greater part of the inlet, but they were opposed in their advance round Prince William Sound, which was also claimed by the Lebedef faction, though the Orekhof and other companies were hunting there. The station which the Lebedef men made their base of operations was situated on Nuchek Island, at Port Etches, and con- sisted of the usual stockade, enclosing dwelling and store houses.1º In support of his claims, Konovalof
9 Shelikof, who held shares in both his own and the Lebedef Company, had the advantage of not only recovering what he lost by these plundering enterprises, but receiving his proportionate share of the losses in the Shelikof Company.
10 Vancouver, Voy., iii. 172, found one side of it formed by an armed vessel of 70 tons, hauled on shore.
340
STRIFE BETWEEN RIVAL COMPANIES.
declared that he possessed government credentials granting to his company exclusive right to all the mainland region. Yet he refused to exhibit even copies of such documents. Finding the Shelikof men disposed to yield, the others began to en- croach also on the limited district round the Shelikof settlement, near the entrance to Cook Inlet, by erect- ing a post on Kuchekmak Bay, and the natives were forbidden, under pain of death, from trading with their rivals. From this post they watched the move- ments of the Shelikof men with a view to circumvent them. Forty bidarkas under Kotelnikof were inter- cepted, and although a number escaped, a portion of the crew, including the leader, was captured. An- other party under Galaktianof, on the way from Prince William Sound, was chased by a large force, and efforts were made to attack Baranof himself. It was not proposed to keep the Russians prisoners, but merely to seize the furs and enslave all natives employed by Shelikof in the interdicted region. Fortunately Bar- anof had left the sound before the raiders arrived, and they passed on to the eastern shore, there to en- croach on the trade established with the Yakutat Kaljushes by the Shelikof men, who held hostages from three of the villages. Not long after came Ba- lushin with a stronger force; and one day, when the chief of one of the villages had set out upon a hunt with nearly all the grown males, the Russians entered it and carried off the women and children to a neigh- boring island.11 They also made inroads on the north- ern part of the Alaskan peninsula which had been brought into friendly relations through Bocharof. Out of four friendly villages in Ilyamna and Nusha- gak, they plundered two and carried the people into captivity.
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