FIRST AMERICAN SHIP ON GUAM?

AMERICAN FLAG IN 1792

When the Hope set sail

In March of 1792, the American ship Hope, under the command of Captain Benjamin Page, left Providence, Rhode Island and made its way over many months to the Pacific Ocean.

In February of 1793, the Hope touched at Tinian - but there was nobody there! The Americans found Tinian full of cattle, pigs and abundant fruit, but all untended. The temporary Chamorro workers from Guam (and some perhaps from Luta) had not been there for a while. They got water from the well near the House of Taga.

In 1798, another American ship, the Betsey, commanded by Captain Edmund Fanning, reached Tinian on July 14. But the only people living on Tinian at the time were a shipwrecked crew, including two women and a baby, who were rescued and taken away. Many of the crew were Malays and Indians, and these were left behind on Tinian by the Betsey, only to be apprehended later by the Spaniards from Guam who must have heard of a group of foreigners living on Tinian.

One of the crew, an Indian, ran into the woods of Tinian and escaped capture by the Spaniards. Luckily for him, Captain Benjamin Page returned to Tinian in November of 1798, this time on the commercial American ship, the Ann and Hope. The Indian was rescued, but no Spaniards or Chamorros were found on Tinian.

The first American ship to visit Guam was the Resource, in the year 1799. 

The Resource did not make much of a splash while it was here on Guam. All that is said is that the ship took on supplies and allowed the crew some shore time for relaxation. Much more valuable for history's sake was the visit of the next American ship, the Lydia, in 1802. A member of that crew wrote many pages of what he observed on Guam when he was here and we still have that account.

I have found, so far, only one American ship called the Resource during the same period it supposedly came to Guam. It was not described as a whaling ship but it was a commercial ship, transporting goods. It is also on record for having made foreign journeys on business. So, conceivably, this is the same Resource that visited Guam. It was owned by a J. Sanford Barker in Charleston, South Carolina. But, for all we know, this could have been another ship by the same name, though that is rare.