13. Whitmans & Spauldings
McLoughlin welcomes missionaries
| Sponsored by: |
Ed & Dollie Lynch |
| The Chief Factor is welcoming the Whitmans and Spaldings, missionaries visiting the fort. Notice the Japanese greeting above. In 1832, a Japanese merchant ship sailing in the Sea of Japan was blown off course and drifted across the Pacific for fourteen months before landing at Cape Flattery on the Olympic Peninsula. Local natives enslaved the three surviving Japanese sailors and then sold them to Dr. McLoughlin, who nursed them back to health and later attempted to repatriate them. They lived for many years in Macao and London before one of the survivors, Otokichi, finally returned to Japan in 1849. Vancouver, Washington’s Sister-City, Joyo, Japan, built a playground that is a miniature Fort Vancouver in honor of Dr. McLaughlin. |