H.M. Sloop of War, Racoon, Nov. 30, 1813, at Baker’s Bay. Courtesy Hewitt Jackson, Oregon Historical Society, Ori-99184
Captured for King and Country
The Coat of Arms of the North West Company, 1783-1821. Library and Archives Canada C-008711.
Meanwhile, British authorities in England, knowing that the Americans had established a Pacific presence, charged Captain William Black of the HMS Racoon with the task of seizing Fort Astoria for King and country.
Sailing into the Columbia estuary on November 29, 1813, Black saw the Union Jack flying above the fort. However, being a military man with a mission, he was unable to resist the temptation of a “prize of war.” Captain Black landed and entered the fort in great ceremonial fashion, claiming it a British possession and renaming it Fort George, after King George III.
Captain Black wrote in his diary:
[November 30] I soon learnt...that the American settlement had been given up to a party of the British North-West Company who had come overland from Canada. How far Private Individuals may be authorized to treat with Enemies time must determine, but at present so ends our hopes of Prize Money at Columbia. The Americans gave up a considerable property to the N.W. Company....
[December 12] I went up to the Fort....Formally took possession of the Fort & Country in the name & for His Britannic Majesty....On my hoisting the English Jack a Royal Salute was fired from the Fort, which I named Fort George, I was answered from the Racoon....
“British Flag Replaces U.S. Flag, Astoria, 1813.” An artist’s conception of the lowering of the Stars and Stripes with the takeover of Fort Astoria by Captain Black and officers of the HMS Racoon, anchored in the distance. Pen and ink drawing by William Macy and James Mulcahy, Fur Trade Illustration Project 1945-1948. Courtesy National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
