Pearl (19th century)

Pearl fl. 1808-1809

The American Captain John Suter on the ship Pearl in 1808 and 1809 collected 6,000 skins on the Northwest Coast and sailed for Macao. With his profits he purchased a desirable cargo for resale in Boston: porcelain, tea, Chinese cottons and silks. This netted him $206,000 after all expenses and customs duties were paid. The initial value of his ship, fittings, supplies and outgoing cargo had been less than $40,000.

» Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783-1860 (Cambridge: The Riverside Press,1921 ), 70, 71.

» Howay, F. W. A List of Trading Vessels in the Maritime Fur Trade, 1785-1825, ed. Richard A. Pierce (Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press, 1973), 82. Howay indicated Captain Suter's cargo to Macao as 6,000 sea otter skins, the largest catch on record for a single voyage.