John Boit Jr. (15 October 1774 – 8 March 1829) was one of the first Americans involved in the maritime fur trade. He sailed as fifth mate under Captain Robert Gray on the second voyage of the Columbia Rediviva, 1790–1793. During the voyage he wrote a short but important journal in which he described the first time the Columbia River was located by Europeans or European Americans. From 1794 to 1796 he captained the Union on another maritime fur trading circumnavigation voyage from New England to the Pacific Northwest and China. Later he captained other vessels including the George and the slave ship Mac.
Early life and family John Boit Jr. was born on 15 October 1774 to John Boit Sr. and Sarah Brown Boit, both of Boston.
John Boit Sr. was a "West India merchant" who came to Boston from England. The West Indies were at the time an integral part of the transatlantic slave trade and the French, British, Spanish, Danish, and Dutch all operated plantations in the region to produce goods, such as sugar, for export. Boit Sr. is documented as having been at a March 23, 1772 Boston Caucus meeting along with John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere. He is also on record at a November 3, 1773 Boston Caucus meeting discussing how to respond to the imposition of tea taxes by the British that preceded the Boston Tea Party. Boit Sr. is mentioned in a May 2, 1775 letter to Paul Revere from his wife Rachel, when he was prevented from returning home from his "midnight ride" due to the siege of Boston in the aftermath of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He is accused of not paying his fair share of taxes by a group of Boston residents in an August 18, 1777 meeting of the Boston Board of Selectmen, saying:
It is our Opinion that the following Persons, Inhabitants of other Towns in this or the Neighboring States out to be taxed here, for the Real Estate, they occupy and the Business they do here, it being agreeable to Law--Vizt: Mr Archibald Mercer, William Eskine, Henry Mitchell, ------ Blair, Mess. Henry Livingston, John Boit. Robert A. Boit, Boit's grandson, concludes that Boit's grandfather was Jacque Boit, a Huguenot of Normandy who fled to England as part of a wave of Huguenot emigration from France following the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Robert Boit also states that Boit likely would have gone to Boston Latin School when it was located adjacent to King's Chapel.
Second voyage of the Columbia Rediviva, 1790-1793 Boit was brother-in-law to Crowell Hatch, one of the primary investors in the Columbia expeditions. On September 28, 1790, at the age of 15, Boit set sail on Columbia as its fifth mate under Captain Robert Gray on what would be his first circumnavigation of the globe. They traded tools, trinkets, and various other items for sea otter pelts obtained from indigenous peoples of the northwest coast of North America, which in turn were traded for goods at Canton, China. These were then sold in the United States. His log of the expedition is the only complete account of the second voyage of Columbia, and only one of two written accounts of the first European Americans to locate what they would call the Columbia River on May 12, 1792, the other being the official log of Robert Gray. These accounts are the first written descriptions of Chinookan peoples and their first documented contact with Europeans or European Americans.
Destruction of Opitsaht Boit's Columbia logbook describes the events leading to the destruction of the Tla-o-qui-aht village of Opitsaht in Clayoquot Sound, on what is today known as Meares Island along the western coast of Vancouver Island. In September 1791, Columbia established its winter quarters at a location they called Adventure Cove, near present-day Columbia Islet. Here, they assembled the sloop Adventure using materials they brought from Boston and timbers harvested from the island, making it the first American ship ever built in the Pacific. During this period, they interacted with the Tla-o-qui-aht and Wickaninnish, who resided at Opitsaht. Many of their interactions were friendly, although Boit's logbook conveys a general attitude of distrust and a belief that they would all be murdered by the Tla-o-qui-aht if the tribe got the chance. On March 25, 1792, Boit relates finding the village of Opitsaht deserted, with the tribe having gone to what is now called Wickaninnish Island. On the 27th, he writes:
I am sorry to be under the necessity of remarking that this day I was sent with three boats, all well man'd and arm'd, to destroy the Village of Opitsatah. it was a Command I was in no ways tenacious off, and am greived to think Capt. Gray shou'd let his passions go so far. This Village was about a half a mile in Diameter, and Contained upwards off 200 Houses, generally well built for Indians. ev'ry door that you enter'd was in resemblance to an human and Beasts head, the passage being through the mouth, besides which there was much more rude carved work about the dwellings some of which was by no means innelegant. This fine Village, the Work of Ages, was in short time totally destroy'd. This is the only account of this incident, and no instigating factors immediately preceding the destruction of the village are mentioned by Boit. He was 17 years old at the time. In 2005, William Twombly, a descendant of Robert Gray, apologized to the Tla-o-qui-aht people in a reconciliation ceremony.
Voyage of the Union, 1794–1796 Shortly after the Columbia returned to Boston John Boit was given command of the sloop Union for another maritime fur trading voyage to the Pacific Northwest and China. The sloop was owned by three investors including Boit's brother-in-law Crowell Hatch, who had also been an investor in the two voyages of Columbia Rediviva, under Robert Gray and John Kendrick.
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