Samuel Hill

Samuel Hill (20 February 1777 – 1 September 1825) was an American merchant sea captain and adventurer. He commanded various ships on many long voyages, often to remote parts of the world. As one of the early maritime fur traders he rescued John R. Jewitt, who had been enslaved by the Nuu-chah-nulth chief Maquinna. Hill was the first American to live in Japan, almost met Lewis and Clark near Fort Clatsop and received a letter from them, entertained King Kamehameha of the Hawaiian Kingdom on his ship, was involved in the Chilean War of Independence, was imprisoned by the British during the War of 1812, rescued victims of Malayan pirates, and much else. He was also a rapist and murderer. Accounts of Hill by officers serving under him and by other captains consistently describe him as a vicious and unstable tyrant. Early life and career Samuel Hill was born on February 20, 1777, in the small port town of Machias, Maine, during the American Revolutionary War. At the time Machias was a target of the Royal Navy and repeatedly subject to incursions, largely in response to the 1775 Battle of Machias, when the people of Machias won a victory against the Royal Navy. Shortly after Hill's birth the British attacked Machias again but were again driven off in the 1777 Battle of Machias. The ships and voyages he captained include the Lydia (1804–1807), to the Pacific Northwest and China; the Otter (1809–1812), to Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and China; the Ulysses (1813–1814), as a privateer during the War of 1812; Ophelia (1815–1817), to Chile, Hawaii, Maritime Southeast Asia, and China; and the Packet (1817–1822), to Chile, Hawaii, and China; and several others. Some of these voyages were circumnavigations. He served under other captains on many other ships, such as the Franklin, which went to Japan, 1798–1800.