China from the United States was the sloop Enterprise, of 80 tons, built at Albany, N. Y., and commanded by Captain Stewart Dean. She sailed from New York, December 15, 1785, having a crew of seven men and two boys. She returned to New York during the following year, and, notwithstanding the then recent war and natural interests of trade, it is pleasant to record that the officials of the English East India Company at Canton, impressed by the novelty and boldness of the expedition, received Dean and his companions with every kindness and hospitality.
In 1786 Captain Josiah Shackford of Portsmouth, N. H., was engaged to take a vessel from Surinam to Bordeaux; and upon his arrival the owners were so pleased with his management of their interests, that they presented him with a sloop of 15 tons in which to return to Surinam.
Shackford, it appears, shipped a crew of two men, and, accompanied by his dog, sailed from Bordeaux; but when outside the harbor, his crew became alarmed, and were put on board of a pilot boat. Happily rid of these useless Abraham men, Shackford and his dog continued their voyage in peace, arriving at Surinam—a distance of about 3600 miles—in thirty-five days.
September 30, 1787, the ship Columbia, 212 tons, commanded by Captain John Kendrick, and the sloop Washington, or Lady Washington, as she was later named, of 90 tons, commanded by Captain Robert Gray, sailed from Boston, bound round Cape Horn to the northwest coast of America. A
