Gray, Robert

Robert Gray, (born May 10, 1755, Tiverton, R.I.—died summer 1806, at sea near eastern U.S. coast), captain of the first U.S. ship to circumnavigate the globe and explorer of the Columbia River.

Gray went to sea at an early age, and after serving in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War, he entered the service of a Massachusetts trading company. In command first of the “Lady Washington” and later of the “Columbia,” Gray sailed from Boston to the Pacific Northwest on a trading expedition in 1787 and travelled home around the world, reaching Boston again in August 1790. In May 1792, while on a second voyage in the “Columbia,” he explored Gray’s Harbor (in the present state of Washington) and the Columbia River (which is named for his ship), giving the U.S. a claim to the Oregon Territory. Once again he circumnavigated the globe, and after his return in July 1793, he spent the remainder of his career commanding merchant vessels along the Atlantic coast.