John Kendrick
Kendrick was a man who was either admired or despised. Born in 1740, he came from a long tradition of seamen. His father, Solomon Kendrick, was at sea most of the time and young John thought of little else. Growing up in Harwich, Massachusetts, Kendrick had only the most basic education before running off to sea at age 20 to crew on a whaler. His navigation skills were rudimentary, reading held no interest for him and his writing was barely understandable. "Treet the Natives with Respect whare Ever you go Cultivate frind Ship" (Howay 115) is a typical example. He was a sailor's captain who continually showed concern for those before the mast, sometimes to the vexation of the officers.
He was a man of adventure, but did love Huldah Pease, whom he married when he was twenty-seven. They had many children, most of whom became sailors. Kendrick was an enthusiastic patriot, and leaped at the chance to become a privateer when war was declaired between Britain and the colonies. In 1777 he was captain of Fanny, "a vessel carrying eighteen guns and a crew of one hundred" (Scofield 49). Unfortunately, he grew overconfident, and in a faceoff with to British warships he was captured. A year later he managed to gain freedom, and he was back as a privateer until the war ended.
For the next seven years Kendrick went into whaling, then to trading along the coast. He was a good friend of one of Joseph Barrell's clerks, who became supercargo on Columbia, and it might have been through that association that Kendrick was recommended as head of the expedition. By then he was in his forties -- quite old for that time, but no less eager for high adventure. Despite censure, in the end, "with all his fooleries...he was a wonderful man, and worthy to be remembered beyond...the present" (Scofield 310).
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