biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1755–1806)
|
| biography:
| Navigator and explorer, born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, USA. A naval veteran of the American Revolution and then a merchant seaman, he became a fur trader in Boston. He commanded the Columbia for most of its 42 000-mile voyage (1787–90), the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. After a refitting in Boston, he took the Columbia around to the Northwest coast near Vancouver I, and in the course of his explorations, he discovered a large river (1792) that he named the Columbia R. Later, his discoveries in the region became the basis of the US claim to the Oregon territories. He died at sea on a voyage to Charleston, NC. |
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