 Statue of Seaman at Fort Mandan, North Dakota | |
| Species | Domestic dog |
|---|---|
| Breed | Newfoundland |
| Sex | Male |
| Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (purchased) |
| Years active | 1803–1806 |
| Known for | Participation in Lewis and Clark Expedition. |
| Owner | Meriwether Lewis |
| Offspring | None known |
| Weight | 150 lb (68 kg) (estimated) |
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Seaman, a Newfoundland dog, was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the first trip from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast and back. He was the only animal to complete the entire three-year trip.[1]
Seaman was purchased in 1803 specifically for the expedition by Captain Meriwether Lewis, while he was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, awaiting completion of the boats for the voyage. He chose a Newfoundland, whose estimated weight is 150 pounds (68 kg) and for which he paid the high price of $20 (equivalent to $391 in 2022): half a month's pay for an Army captain. Working dogs, strong and easy to handle—Lewis describes Seaman as "docile"[2]—, he chose a Newfoundland because they do well on boats, are good swimmers, and can assist in water rescues.[3] His name reflects this.
There is no explicit description of Seaman's color or appearance. He is nowadays universally depicted as black or dark brown, the colors of most modern Newfoundlands,[4] but a survey by an art historian of the breed as it was depicted in paintings of the early nineteenth century found "not a single all-black [that] was called a Newfoundland". "In fact, all the early 19th century illustrations which I have found, and whose color I could authenticate[,] were white with black or dark areas and frecklings."[5]
Seaman did many things to help the explorers, and they became fond of him. He was "our dog".[6]
I made my dog take as many [squirrels] each day as I had occasion for, they wer fat and I thought them when fryed a pleasant food. ...my dog...would take the squirrel in the water and kill them and swimming bring them in his mouth to the boat.[7]: 274
He also retrieved geese and deer, and once killed and retrieved an antelope swimming across a river.[7]: 274
According to Lewis and Clark's report, some Native Americans were impressed by the dog's "sagacity" (wisdom, obedience);[8]: I, 384 they had never seen such a big dog.[9] The dog "patrolled all night" to warn of bears,[8]: I, 233 and once had to drive off a buffalo in their camp while the men slept.[7]: 274–275
A modern commentator on the Expedition remarked that "Lewis seems to have been happiest when he was alone on shore with his gun, his notebook, and his dog Seaman."[7]: 65
During the expedition, around May 14, 1805, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark performed surgery on one of Seaman's arteries in his hind leg that had been severed by a beaver bite.[1] In early 1806, as the expedition was beginning the return journey, Seaman was stolen by Indians and Lewis sent three men to retrieve the dog. Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery ate over 200 dogs, bought from the Indians, while traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail, in addition to their horses, but Seaman was spared.[6]
The final reference to Seaman in the expedition journals, recorded by Lewis on July 15, 1806, states that "[T]he musquetoes continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist... My dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them."[10][11]
Seaman survived the expedition, and Lewis took the dog home with him to St. Louis. He is reported to have refused food and died of grief after Lewis's premature death. According to a contemporary historian:
After the melancholy exit of Gov. Lewis, his dog would not depart for a moment from his lifeless remains; and when they were deposited in the earth no gentle means could draw him from the spot of interment. He refused to take every kind of food which was offered him, and actually pined away and died with grief upon his master's grave![12]
According to the same historian, in 1814 Seaman's collar was in an Alexandria, D.C., museum and bore the inscription:
Due to a transcription error in Lewis' journals, the dog was once thought to have been named Scannon. However, during Donald Jackson's 1984 study of Lewis and Clark place-names in Montana—every expedition member got something named after him—he found that Lewis had named a tributary of the Blackfoot River Seaman's Creek (now Monture Creek) and concluded that the true name of the dog was "Seaman".[13][11][14]
In 2008, Seaman became the official mascot of Lewis & Clark College's Pioneers.[15] He was proposed unsuccessfully for State Historical Dog of Missouri.[16]
Monuments to or including Seaman: