DOMINIS-GOSPODNETICH,
JOHN
Sea Captain-Salmon
Trade-First Peaches
One
of the most interesting Croatian sailors in America was John Dominis, who became master of an American ship plying between
Boston and the Pacific and who brought to Massachusetts the first cargo of salmon from the Columbia
River. Very little is known of his early life or first connections. According
to Professor Samuel Eliot Morison, Dominis worked his way up from the
forecastle of Josiah Marshall's ships to a master's commission.
Captain
Dominis' adventurous life had really begun after his settlement in Boston,
Massachusetts. It is there that he started his maritime career on the brig "Owyhyee" (this is the
old spelling of the word Hawaii), owned by the firm of Josiah Marshall.
He
married Mary Jones, a "'pretty girl" from Boston, on October 9, 1824,
with the blessing of Josiah Marshall.
According to the information supplied by an article published in
Schenectady Gazette On August 27, 1832, the couple first moved to Schenectady,
New York, Where John Owen Dominis was born on March 10, 1831 at 26 Front
Street. His middle name Owen was for his maternal granddfather, Owen Jones, a
distinguished Boston citizen. The fact that the bark on which the captain and
his family arrived in Honolulu on April 23, 1837 was named "Jones"
could further indicate his close ties with his father-in-law, who probably
financed the long, costly journey to Hawaii from the Eastern United States.
John
Dominis decided to move his trade operations to Honolulu, already well-known to
him from numerous previous visits. As a definite sign of his intentions to stay
in the dynamic mid-Pacific kingdom, he came with his wife, Mary Jones, and
their six-year old son, John Owen - the future husband of the tragic and
colorful Queen Liliuokalani. During the period of 1842 to 1846 the captain
built in the heart of Honolulu a beautiful, stately-looking mansion, later
called Washington Place in honor of George Washington, which subsequently
became the residence of Hawaii's governors.
His
wife resided in Honolulu with his son, John 0. Dominis, who later became
governor of one of the islands and married Princess Lydia, who in 1891 became Queen Liliuokalani. One of the early
records we have of Dominis is that he was second mate and sail mate on the
"Paragon" which sailed from Boston to Honolulu in 1823. On January 21, 1827, Dominis was
again at Honolulu, as captain of the brig "Owhyhee" and ready to sail
for the Northwest Coast by way of Alaska where he was to collect all the skins
he could find. Those skins Dominis later sold in China where he bought goods
for the Boston market. On February 10, 1827, Dominis was at Hanegas Harbor, not
very far from the present Juneau, and on June 4, 1827, he entered the mouth of the Columbia River. Sixteen days
later he was at San Francisco and in
November at the port of Canton, China. On May 12, 1828, he was back at Martha's
Vineyard in Massachusetts. In July, 1828, Dominis was off again for the
Northwest Coast where he arrived seven months later and where he spent about a
year, with the exception of a brief visit to the Straits of Juan de Fuca for
the purpose of obtaining 300 beavers. It was in the spring of 1830 that Dominis
hit upon an idea which was to bring fortunes to Massachusetts merchants. Why
not cure fresh Columbia salmon,
after the Boston style, and sell it in the New England market? Dominis asked
himself. The fish cost practically nothing, transportation was no additional
expense, and the experiment was worth trying. And try he did. After a side trip
to Honolulu to visit his wife and chiland after trading in other Pacific
islands, Captain Dominis returned to Boston with a cargo of sixty-three barrels
of Columbia River salmon on April 15,1831.
The experiment at first did not seem successful, for the United States
Government taxed it as a foreign importation, the fish was not of the best
quality and the sale at retail was not easy to work out. Yet, as Prof. Morison
points out, "that very autumn the brig Sultana left Boston for the
Columbia with 1000 empty salmon barrels and in 1834 Nathaniel J. Wyeth made
salmon fishing one of the principal objects of his Oregon expedition. "We
may then conclude," adds Prof. Morison, "that the Owhyhee's cargo was
not an isolated and insignificant venture, but the beginning of a trade in salted salmon between the Columbia River
and the Eastern United States; and we may safely name Captain John Dominis the
pioneer in a business that under changing methods and means of transportation
has grown steady in volume and in value." Dominis we learn from Bancroft,
was the first man to plant peach trees
in Oregon which he brought from the Island of Juan Fernandez. From
California he brought to the Northwest a fine lot of sheep for breeding purposes. Dominis in later years was master of
other ships, like the "Joseph Peabody" which traded in Alaska in 1836
and the "Bolivar Liberator" which in 1834 was engaged in hunting
sea-otters along the coast of southern Oregon and Northern California. In 1835,
Bancroft tells us, Dominis "placing at defiance both English and Russians
opened up the trade along the coast, exchanging rum for furs." Captain
Dominis thus was one of the pioneers who by drawing other American traders and
settlers to the Northwest coast helped to create the "Oregon Question."
Captain
Dominis had left Honolulu on August 15, 1846, aboard the brig "William
Neilson" for China to assist the new United States Commissioner in
Honolulu, George Brown, to establish closer relations between the United States
and China; both men perished in the sea withour any trace. Captain Dominis
unexpected death provoked some speculation about his allegedly violent death;
and Queen Liliuokalani, many decades after his death, maintained that he had
been strangled in his bed and thrown overboard."
NOTES
The
Dominis-Gospodnetich Clan moved to Venice from Pucisce, island of Brac, Croatia
at the fall of Venice in 1797. Dominis is the clan name of Gospodnetich. Church
birth records on Brac of Dominis confirm this. The family was Nobility. They
are Croatians.
Anon. “John Dominis.” Journal Adriatico, Venice, September 26,
1891. States Dominis came from Castel Puciochie, Isle Brazza. This is Pucisce,
Island of Brac, Dalmatia, Croatia.
Anon. “John Dominis.” II Secolo of Milan, February 12, 1893.
States Dominis came from Castel Puciochie, Isle Brazza. This is Pucisce, Island
of Brac, Dalmatia, Croatia.
Badovinac, John. “Hawaiian Islands Once
Ruled Over by Prince Consort of Croatian Descent.” Zajednicar, Sept 8, 1971.
Bancroft, H.H. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 1886. Dominis in Oregon.
Eterovich, Adam S. Dominis-Gospodnetich, Prince consort of Last Hawaiian Queen-Liliuokalani., Scrap Book. San Carlos, Calif.: Ragusan
Press, 1981.
Gasinski, Thaddeus Z. “Captain John
Dominis and His Son Governor John Owen Dominis-Hawaii's Croatian Connection.” Croatian Studies (1976): 32pp.
Howay, F.W. “Brig Owhyhee in the
Columbia 1830.” Oregon Historical
Quarterly (1923). Captain John Dominis a Croatian.
Kusanovic, Tonci Don. “Birth
Certificate and Genealogy of Ivan Dominis from Pucisce, Island of Brac ,
Croatia.” In Library of Adam S. Eterovich,
1985. Adam S. Eterovich requested a search of church records on the island of
Brac, Croatia. Captain Dominis of Hawaii is a Croatian from the Island of Brac.
Mercantile Trust Co. “Beginnings and
Developement of Trade on the Pacific Coast of North America.” Monthly Review, March-April 1923. About
John Dominis.
Morrison, Samuel E. “New England and
the Opening of the Columbia River Salmon Trade, 1830.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, June 1927. Dominis shipped the first
salmon to the Atlantic Coast
Schiavo, Giovanni. The Italians in America Before the Civil War. New York: Arno Press,
1975. Captain John Dominis planted first peach trees in Oregon.