The success in profits realized by this voyage had the most immediate effect of Gray's setting out for the north Pacific coast again, only six weeks after returning thence. The further effect was that other New England sea merchants began to send vessels of their own to take part in this new trade opportunity, including the dispatch of the brigantine Hope in September 1790, under the command of Joseph Ingraham, Gray's first mate on his first voyage. Within a few years, many Yankee merchants were involved in the continuous trade of pelts to China, and by 1801, 16 American vessels were engaged in this triangular route. These mercantile activities encroached upon territorial claims by other nations to this disputed region, notably those of Spain and Russia, and in the coming years, they would be used in support of American claims to the Oregon Country, and would contribute to the limiting to California and to Alaska, respectively, of the Spanish and Russian claims.