Neptune's Needle

It is probable that Joseph Ingraham was in the naval service during the Revolutionary War and subsequently voyaged to Asiatic waters. On October 1787, he sailed under Capt. John Kendrick as second mate of the Columbia, the pioneer of the Boston trade to the Northwest Coast; at the Cape Verde Islands he was promoted to chief officer, a position he held during the remainder of the voyage. He wrote an account of the expedition, but it has since disappeared. Soon after the return of the Columbia, Aug. 9, 1790, now under the command of Capt. Robert Gray, Thomas Handasyd Perkins of Boston was determined to enter the Northwest trade. He outfitted the Hope, a brigantine of seventy tons, and placed the Ingraham in command. On the outward voyage Ingraham called at the Marquesas Islands, and sailing thence soon discovered six islands which he called Washington Islands. They are now regarded as part of the Marquesas group. Reaching the Northwest Coast in June 1791, he found the natives well supplied with clothing and implements, but by his resourceful invention of iron collars he introduced a fashion that brought him 1,400 skins in forty-nine days. The embargo placed by the Chinese upon the importation of furs caused him much trouble in disposing of his cargo. He returned to the coast in July 1792, but, owning to excessive competition and the fickleness of the natives, that year’s trade was not a success. The net result was a loss of about $40,000.

The Hope reached Boston in 1793. Ingraham then disappears from view for five years. He next appears in the United States navy, in which on June 14, 1799, he was commissioned a lieutenant. He was a lieutenant on the ill-fated United States brig Pickering which sailed from Newcastle, Del. on Aug. 20, 1800 and was never heard of again.

Sources

Compiler

Peter Richards