Early life At the age of 11, Charles Barkley went to sea with his father, who was the commander of the
East India Company ship
Pacific. His father drowned in the Hooghly River, Calcutta, India while Charles was still a boy. Charles went on to sail to the West Indies in the merchantman
Bestsy. He made seven voyages to the Far East for the East India Company and rose rapidly in the company's service. Beale had been the purser of, successively, the HC ships
Walpole and
General Coote on voyages between London and Canton in 1783–1786: in 1783 he joined the Canton partnership of
John Henry Cox and John Reid in their mercantile ventures. Beale's brother or cousin, John Beale, sailed in the
Imperial Eagle as purser, but was killed in an affray with the natives on the North West Coast. Barkley was among the backers, subscribing £3,000 to the venture.
Merchant career , a Native of Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands'', engraving by
John Meares depicting the Hawaiian maidservant of the Barkley's. Barkley and his wife,
Frances Barkley, left for the Pacific via
Cape Horn on 24 November 1786. They stopped in the
Hawaiian Islands where a maidservant named
Wynee (Winée) was taken aboard. Wynee became the first
Native Hawaiian, or "Kanaka", to reach British Columbia. At first Mackay was welcomed and befriended by Maquinna, but after unknowingly breaking a taboo he was exiled from Maquinna's house and forced to survive on his own. Barkley took Mackay on board
Imperial Eagle. Mackay's experience helped Barkley gain an edge in the fur trade. Barkley stayed at Nootka Sound for about a month, acquired 700 prime
sea otter skins, and many more of inferior quality. From Nootka he sailed south, trading, exploring, and naming various parts of the coast between Nootka Sound and the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, including
Barkley Sound, Loudoun Channel, Cape Beale, and Imperial Eagle Channel. In honour of the indigenous chief
Wickaninnish, Barkley gave the name Wickinninish Sound to what is now called
Clayoquot Sound. He rediscovered the strait allegedly described by
Juan de Fuca and named the strait as such on his chart. Barkley's
Imperial Eagle was the first non-indigenous vessel to enter
Neah Bay, in July 1787.
John Meares, in the
Feliz Aventureira, stopped at Neah Bay in June 1788, and
Charles Duncan in did so in August 1788.
Robert Gray, in the
Lady Washington, entered Neah Bay in April 1789, and in July 1789
José María Narváez did so in the
Santa Gertrudis la Magna. Within the next few years a number of others visited Neah Bay and it became an important fur trading stop during the maritime fur trading era. After six members of his crew were killed by indigenous people, on 24 July 1787, near the mouth of the
Hoh River, Barkley decided to set sail for
Guangzhou (Canton),
China, to sell his sea otter pelts. He arrived in
Macau in December 1787. His trading venture resulted in a profit of £10,000. He then left China and sailed with a cargo to
Mauritius. While in Mauritius, Barkley learned that the East India Company was taking legal action against the owners of the
Imperial Eagle for trading without a license. The owners, including
John Meares, decided to avoid the legal problems by selling the
Imperial Eagle and breaking their contract with Barkley. Little is known of his latter years. They were probably not prosperous. Upon his death at the age of 73 he left two sons and two daughters, and was survived by his wife Frances. ==Legacy==