Phoenix (1794) facts for kids

The Phoenix (also spelled Feniks) was a very important ship built a long time ago in a place called Russian America. This area is now known as Alaska. The ship was made for a company that later became the Russian-American Company, which was a big trading group.

An expert British sailor named James George Shields was in charge of building the Phoenix. He used mostly materials found right there in the area. The ship was launched in the summer of 1794 at a place called Voskresenskaia, on Resurrection Bay.

What Was the Phoenix Like?

The Phoenix was a large ship with three masts, which are tall poles that hold the sails. It was about 90 feet long. It could carry a lot of cargo, weighing between 180 and 240 tons. The ship also had 22 to 24 light cannons for protection.

At the time, the Phoenix was the biggest and most important ship used by any Russian fur trading company in America. It was a very impressive vessel for its time and place.

Why Was It Called Phoenix?

The ship got its name from another British trading ship, also called Phoenix. That first Phoenix ship was involved in trading furs by sea. In fact, a bay on Afognak Island was named Phoenix Bay because of that earlier ship.

The Sad End of the Phoenix

Sadly, the Phoenix was lost at sea in late 1799. It was last seen on August 24, 1799, leaving a place called Okhotsk and heading towards Kodiak Island. After it disappeared, parts of the ship were found washed up on shores from Unalaska Island all the way to the Alexander Archipelago.

This was the biggest disaster at sea in the history of Russian America. Not only was the ship lost, but 103 people died. This included 92 promyshlenniki, who were Russian fur traders and hunters. The ship's captain, James Shields, also died. Bishop Joasaph Bolotov, who was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska, was also among those lost. The cargo on the ship was worth a huge amount of money, over half a million rubles. The total financial loss was even greater, more than double the money held by the main trading departments in Kodiak and Unalaska.

Big Impact of the Loss

The loss of the Phoenix and all the people on board had a major effect on the Russian efforts to settle in the Americas. Many of the people on the ship were colonists who were going to help build new settlements.

The ship's loss effectively stopped the plan of the Russian-American Company's governor, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, to start a new colony south of Sitka, Alaska. He had hoped to build it on Prince of Wales Island or in Haida Gwaii. The promyshlenniki passengers were very important for this plan.

Losing Bishop Joasaph and his group was also a big setback for the Orthodox Church in America. It took 40 years before the Church could send a new bishop to the American region. Captain Shields' death was also a huge loss because he was one of the most skilled captains and shipbuilders working in Russian America.