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On August 9th 1790, after a three year voyage, the ship Columbia
returned to Boston after circumnavigating the globe. Captain Robert Gray and his crew made history, being the first Americans to
make such a voyage. The goal was to sail to the American Northwest for
trading purposes, which then led to further passage west to Canton, China. Trade routes to both destinations thrived quickly after this journey.
Captain Robert Gray also discovered the Columbia River in 1792. Quoting Columbia's fifth-mate John Boit, Jr., in Samuel Eliot Morison's 1921
Maritime History of Massachusetts, "[We] saw an appearance of a
spacious harbor...The river extended to the N.E. as far as the eye could
reach, and water fit to drink as far down as the bars at the entrance.
We directed our course up this noble river in search of a village. The
beach was lined with Natives, who ran along shore following the ship.
Soon after, about 20 canoes came off, and brought a good lot of furs and
salmon, which they sold two for a board nail...Captain Gray named this
river Columbia's and the North entrance Cape Hancock, and the South
Point, Adams."
At that time, the term Columbia was considered the female personification of
Liberty, as represented by the new United States, and had derived from
the name of the earlier great explorer Christopher Columbus. The song
Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean,
was an unofficial national anthem of the United States for many years.
The Space Shuttle Columbia was given her name from Robert Gray's ship.
Columbia was the first space shuttle to fly into earth orbit, having launched on
April 12th 1981. The orbiter Columbia flew 28 missions of discovery,
and was a pioneer in the application of re-usable spacecraft and in
scientific experimentation in space.
NASA's
Reflections website describes the tragic loss of Columbia: "The
Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off on January 16, 2003, for a 17-day
science mission featuring numerous microgravity experiments. Upon reentering
the atmosphere on February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter suffered a
catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when
falling foam from the External Tank struck the Reinforced Carbon panels on
the underside of the left wing. The orbiter and its seven crewmembers (Rick
D. Husband, William C. McCool, David Brown, Laurel Blair Salton Clark,
Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla) were lost approximately
15 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space
Center."
Columbia, Gem of the Cosmos
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