John_Kendrick_(American_sea_captain)

John Kendrick (born Kenrick, 1740–1794) was an American sea captain, both during the American Revolutionary War and the exploration and maritime fur trading of the Pacific Northwest alongside his subordinate Robert Gray. He is best known for his role in the 1789 Nootka Crisis, having been present at Nootka Sound when the Spanish naval officer José Esteban Martínez seized several British ships belonging to a commercial enterprise owned a partnership of companies under John Meares and Richard Cadman Etches. This incident nearly led to war between Britain and Spain and became the subject of lengthy investigations and diplomatic inquiries.

John Kendrick's reputation was tarnished by Meares and Etches, who claimed that Kendrick had persuaded and assisted Martínez to seize the British ships, in order to gain control of the maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast for himself and the United States.[1] In addition, Robert Gray and his officer Robert Haswell, who had both been under Kendrick's command and resented him, publicly slandered and vilified him in various ways once they had returned to New England. Kendrick, who was killed in 1794 in Hawaii, was never able to return to New England and so was never able to defend his actions and reputation.[2]

Due to the slander of his detractors and his untimely death in Hawaii, Kendrick's legacy became obscured and his achievements overshadowed and forgotten. Nonetheless, he was instrumental in pioneering trade in the Pacific Northwest, the Hawaiian Islands, and China, as well as helping the young United States establish itself as global trade power.[3]