Columbia's river: The voyages of Robert Gray, 1787-1793

The two voyages of the American Robert Gray, one began in 1787 and the other in 1790. In 1787, he was captain of the sloop Lady Washington, and entailed trade and discovery in the Pacific Northwest. He switched to captaining the Columbia which he took back to Boston by crossing the Pacific to China, thus becoming the first American to circumnavigating the globe. In 1790 he sailed the Columbia from Boston, around Cape Horn and up the west coast of South and North Americas to the Pacific Northwest.