Colorful rerun: “… Capt. John Couch (left) was the first ship’s master to sail past the (Columbia River) Bar and up to the Willamette River … almost to Oregon City, site of the main Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post,” the captain’s great-great-grandson, Graham Lewis, wrote. 

“In the early 1840s, on his first trip, Couch guided his first ship, the brig Maryland, from Newburyport, Massachusetts, around the Horn and up to the mouth of the Columbia, in hopes of establishing trade with the Hudson’s Bay Co. 

“A member of Couch’s crew made a color drawing of the Maryland in 1841, before they left Massachusetts, and it has been in my family for many years. Now, in my 70s, I’ve been looking for a new home for the drawing, where it will be valued and, at least part-time, displayed.”

Since the captain only made it to the mouth of the Columbia on this maiden voyage, “that’s why it’s appropriate that this drawing remain, in perpetuity, in Astoria. The Columbia River Maritime Museum is the perfect place for it.” 

“Your town has a rich and colorful history,” he added. “We are happy to be a part of it.” (In One Ear, 3/29/2019) (Photo and painting: Graham Lewis, right.)