Captain Robert Gray was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, 10 May 1755. Little is known of his youth. During the American Revolution and our war with the French (1798-1801) Captain Gray commanded Letter of Marque vessels. She was Alert, another was Lucy; a privateer during the early period he lost an eye. He was the first American to land on the Pacific Coast of the Western Hemisphere; about one mile from here, and the first American to take his vessel to Hawaii. Captain Gray was the first American to circumnavigate the globe; not once but twice. He was the first to build an American vessel, Adventure on the northwest coast.
On 7 May 1792 he discovered Gray's Harbor, Washington. On 17 May 1792 Captain Gray discovers the "Great River of the West" which he named Columbia's River. This feat alone resulted in the United States finally acquiring the Oregon Territory out of which were carved the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming for the United States of America.
America's first space shuttle was name Columbia after Captain Gary's ship, the first to carry the American flag around the globe. — Calk Parkis, Jr.
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