Lewis's original estimate of kettle requirements, based on the assumption the expeditionary force would number just fifteen men, included "6 Copper kettles (1 of 5 Gallons, 1 of 3, 2 of 2, & 2 of 1)." On May 19, 1803, he actually purchased fourteen brass kettles from Benjamin Harberson & Sons, coppersmiths, at 75 High Street in Philadelphia. He also ordered eight brass kettles as presents for Indians, and evidently bought an additional six as part of the camp equipage for a larger company of men.1
Five kettles were sent to the salt makers' camp during the winter at Fort Clatsop.
1. Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents (2nd ed., 2 vols., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:70, 85, 94, 95, 98.