- USS Active
According to
this despatch, USS
Active was an US paddle steamer. In 1856, a group of Indigenous people associated with the British colony were mistaken as hostile by the commander of USS
Active and taken into custody.
Douglas intervened, the group was released, and their weapons returned.
This 1857 despatch reports that the USS
Active arrived in
Victoria, carrying the American Boundary Commissioner
Archibald Campbell, who was to discuss boundary issues with the British Commissioner
Captain Prevost.
- RMS Africa, 1850-1868
According to
this correspondence, RMS
Africa was a Royal Mail Steamship.
James Cooper and family returned to
Victoria on RMS
Africa in 1858.
According to The Ships List, RMS Africa was launched from Glasgow in July 1850, with a maiden voyage of Liverpool to New York in October of the same year.1 She was 2,226 gross tonnes, and 266 feet long, and driven by both paddle and sail, with room for roughly 160 passengers, depending on their choice of class.2
- HMS Alarm, 1845-1904
HMS Alarm was a sixth-rate ship of the Royal Navy; she was commanded by Captain Douglas Curry during her time in the Pacific, from 1855-59.1
According to the Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels, along with HMS Vixen, HMS Alarm was involved in the rescue of two British citizens who had been kidnapped by Colonel Salas of the Nicaraguan army in 1848.2
- 1. Peter Davis, Alarm, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Alarm, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
- Albion
The Albion, a 472-tonne, 37m long barque, was owned by Burlinson Sedman.1 Sedman leased the Albion to John Lidgette, who used the vessel to ship spars from Vancouver Island to England, under the condition that Lidgette pay the HBC a duty of 10 percent of the price of the total shipment.2
The Albion entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca on December 21st, 1849, with Richard O. Hinderwell as master, and Captain William Brotchie as its supercargo.3 Despite Captain Brotchie’s extensive experience of the area, as master of several HBC vessels from 1831 to 1844, the Albion struck a reef south of Victoria Harbour; the reef is now known as Brotchie Ledge.4
Although the licence to cut spars was for Vancouver Island specifically, Brotchie decided to cut spars on the American side, at New Dungeness, in the winter of 1850.5 United States customs officials ordered that Brotchie leave US territory and eventually “seized, libeled, condemned, and sold the Albion.”6 Later, a commission ruled that the United States was responsible for damages done to the Albion and was obliged to pay Lidgette $20,000.7
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Britain, Canada and the North Pacific (Hampshire, Great Britain: Ashgate Variorum, 2009), XI, 6.
- 2. Ibid, 7.
- 3. Ibid, 8.
- 4. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 89.
- 5. Gough, Britain, Canada and the North Pacific, XI, 8.
- 6. Ibid, 9.
- 7. Ibid.
- HMS Alert, 1856-1896
HMS
Alert was a Royal Navy sloop propelled by both screw and sail.
1 It is unclear as to who commanded
Alert during her time in in the Pacific.
This private correspondence mentions a commander
Priser, but Davis refers to a
Commander William Alfred Rumbulow Pearse.
2 Alert was converted into a survey ship for the British arctic exploration of 1875-76, and it was later used by both the United States and Canada in her capacity as an arctic vessel.3
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Alert, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- Alexandra
Lewis and Dryden mention a collision, in June of 1865, between “the big sternwheeler Alexandria,” note the alternative spelling, and “the steamer Fidelater,” which “sank the latter vessel off Clover Point, bringing on a damage suit.”1
On July 3, 1865, The British Colonist reports that the “steamer Alexandra is now finally laid up by her owners till the termination of her pending lawsuit.”2 The paper goes on to print transcriptions of the Vice Admiralty Court case in subsequent papers.
On Monday, July 1, 1865, the Colonist reports the arrival on the Alexandra at New Westminster, from Victoria.3 The article notes that upon its arrival to port, the “Alexandra was carried by the high wind against the schooner Maria Scott, the latter sustaining slight damage.”4
When it was not busy colliding with other ships, the
Alexandra could be found trading across the border, in
Puget Sound, where, according to
this despatch from 1864, it was embroiled in a minor legal tussle, when the “the owner and master of the ‘
Alexandra’” had been “‘obstructed in the prosecution of Lawful Voyages, between this Port [
Victoria, presumably] and Ports on
Puget Sound.’”
Lewis and Dryden make no mention of the Alexandra’s construction details or fate, but they do deem her an “ill-starred” ship.5
- 1. E.W. Wright, Ed., Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: The Lewis and Dryden Printing Company, 1895), 140.
- 2. The Cowichan Expedition, The British Colonist, July 3, 1865.
- 3. The Cowichan Expedition, The British Colonist, July 1, 1865.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. E.W. Wright, Ed., Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 140.
- Alice
James Cooper constructed the Alice, a 40-tonne iron schooner, from pieces he had brought from England to Vancouver Island.1 Cooper, who commanded HBC ships in the Pacific from 1844 to 1849, used the Alice to trade between the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and San Francisco.2
HBC officials viewed Cooper’s activities as a threat to their monopoly and worked to impede his activities; as a result, Cooper became an extremely vocal opponent of the HBC.3
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 132.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- HMS America, 1810-1867
HMS America was a third-rate Royal Navy ship, and from 1844-46 she was commanded by Captain John Gordon in the Pacific Station.1 From 1811-14, during the final years of the Napoleonic Wars, HMS America was part of a convoy involved in actions against French ships in the Mediterranean.2
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Havannah, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Patrick Marioné, Havannah, Age of Nelson.
- HMS Amethyst, 1844-1869
HMS Amethyst was a sixth-rate Royal Navy ship, commanded by Captain Sidney Grenfell during her time in the Pacific.1 She was involved in the second Anglo-Chinese War, or Opium War.2
In this 1858 despatch, Douglas acknowledges with satisfaction that the Amethyst is on route, with the Tribune and Pylades, from the "East Indies" to Vancouver Island, with a compliment of "Supernumerary Marines" aboard.
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Amethyst, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- Amphitrite, 1816-1875
According to
this private correspondence, HMS
Amphitrite expelled a group of prospectors, of which
Easterby was a member, attempting to unlawfully mine a vein of gold the group had discovered on
Haida Gwaii in 1852.
- Arabia
Likely, this ship is the second iteration of Arabia (1853), the first being renamed La Plata (1852) during construction.1
- Archer
According to
this despatch, the
Archer was a British government steamer upon which
Cadell had requested, from
Lytton, free transport from England to
Vancouver Island. In the same despatch and included documents,
Merivale expresses that
Cadell was a “restless” man, and that free passage on the
Archer was out of the question.
- Assistance
The Assistance, a 413-tonne discovery-class ship, was purchased in March of 1850.1 George Henry Richards served as deputy commander of the Assistance during an 1852-1854 expedition to the Arctic, to search for Sir John Franklin, who was lost on an earlier expedition.2 Richards and his crew abandoned the Assistance in 1854 when the vessel became trapped in the Arctic pack-ice.3
- 1. HMS Assistance, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 500.
- 3. HMS Assistance, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
- SS Austria, 1857-1858
The Ships List notes that Austria was destroyed by fire, while at sea, with a loss of 470 lives.1
- Beaver, 1835
Arguably, the most famous coastal ship of its era, the Beaver was a 187 tonne paddlewheel steamer built in England in 1835 for the Hudson's Bay Company's trade business Pacific Northwest.1 She was made of sturdy oak and elm, and ran twin side-paddles and two 35-horsepower engines to drive her along—she was reasonably light and nimble, at 98 tonnes and 31 metres, and could achieve a top speed at 10 knots.2 As for sails, she could be rigged as both a schooner and a brigantine.3
Beaver arrived at Fort Vancouver on April 10th, 1836.4 She spent much of her life carrying freight and passengers between outposts in and around Vancouver Island, and particularly, between Victoria and the Fraser River during the gold rush of 1858.5
She was sold in 1874 to a company in Victoria, who used her for mainly barge and cargo work until she wrecked off of Prospect Point in Vancouver Harbour.6 The scope of her influence can be seen in the volume of place names that bear her memory.7
This despatch reports that the
Beaver was detained by "American customs officers," and notes this event's effects on "trade, colony morale, and US relations."
This despatch, in the following year, reports that the ship was employed as part of "A difficulty which nearly led to a fatal affray with the Songies Tribe."
This despatch by
Douglas reports that he proceeded to
Fort Langley on the
Beaver, having transfered from the
Satellite and
Otter, respectively, "to proclaim the Act of Parliament providing for the Government of
British Columbia."
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 64.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Helen M. Buss, Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003), 408.
- 6. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 64.
- 7. Ibid.
- Briseis
According to
this despatch,
Briseis was a freight ship chartered by the British government in 1858 to carry supplies to
Vancouver Island and the mainland for the Royal Engineers.
- HMS Brisk, 1851-1870
HMS Brisk was a Royal Navy sloop with screw propulsion.1 She was under the command of Alfred John Curtis during her time in the Pacific from 1854-57.2
Brisk was part of a squadron fighting in the White Sea during the Crimean War.3
This despatch notes that the
Brisk, and two other vessels, "was under orders to repair to
Vancouver's Island."
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Brisk, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- Brother Jonathan, 1851-1865
Brother Jonathan achieved fame in its era for both celebratory and tragic reasons. As to the former, this ship carried the official announcement to Portland that Oregon Territory had become Oregon State.1 As to the latter, on July 30th, 1865, it hit an uncharted rock off the coast near Crescent City and sunk—of the 244 passengers on board, only 19 survived.2 Brother Jonathan then had the regrettable label as the deadliest shipwreck in West Coast history to date.3
Ironically, she had avoided earlier a greater disaster as the Commodore, which nearly sunk with 350 passengers on board, further up the coast.4 For her final disaster, however, she had been repaired and renamed Brother Jonathan, which is a reference to a fictional character created to personify the state of the United States, prior to the invention of the better-known Uncle Sam.5
In
this despatch,
Douglas refers to the
Commodore as an "American Steamer," whose purpose at the time, in 1858, was to disembark some "450 passengers on board, the chief part of whom [were] gold miners for the 'Couteau' country."
In the same year, this ship carried a contingent of Black travelers from San Francisco to Vancouver Island, whose purpose was to determine the island's suitability for settlement, and, apparently, the reports, upon their return home, were favourable.6
- Cadboro, 1824-1860
The Cadboro, also spelled Cadborough, was a seventy-one tonne schooner built in 1826 and purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company, and arrived on the Pacific Coast April 24th, 1827.1
From 1846-47 she carried the crew of the wrecked Shark to California. Cadboro was wrecked in 1860 on her way out of Puget Sound.2
- HMS Calcutta, 1831-1908
HMS Calcutta was a Royal Navy ship of the 2nd class. Calcutta was involved in the 2nd Anglo-Chinese or Opium War as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour.1
- HMS Calypso, 1845-1866
HMS Calypso was a sixth-rate Royal Navy ship commanded by Captain Frederick Byng Montresor in the Pacific Station.1
This 1858 despatch requests that the
Calypso be employed in the military response to the "murder of 42 miners," at the hands of, apparently, Indigenous men, at
Fraser River. And, in
another correspondence in the same year, the
Calypso is ordered to
Vancouver Island to re-provision the
Satellite and
Plumper.
- HMS Cameleon
The HMS Cameleon, occasionally spelled “Camelion,”1 and “Chameleon,”2 was a 17-gun 57m corvette that was stationed at Esquimalt periodically between 1861 and 1874.3
The Cameleon, along with the Grappler, investigated the alleged seizure of the schooner Trader by a group of Nootka First Nations, and was also under orders to assess the group's "threatening attitude."4
The Cameleon, captained by Hardinge, was one of several Royal Navy vessels that took part in the "Lemalcha Incident," which was the search for the Lemalchi First Nations group from Kuper Island accused of the murder of a pair of Gulf Islands settlers,5 Frederick Marks and his daughter, Caroline Harvey. Marks and Harvey were on their way to Mayne Island from Waldron Island when wind blew their sloop off course to Saturna Island, where the murders took place. The Grappler, Forward, Topaze and Devastation were among the other notable vessels involved in the search.6
According to the May 11 1863 edition of The British Colonist, the Cameleon, which was commissioned in 1861, "[was] considered by all nautical judges to be a beautiful specimen of her class."7 The Cameleon was sold in 1883.8
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Cameleon, William Loney RN — Ships
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 277-278.
- 3. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 101.
- 4. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 114.
- 5. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 101.
- 6. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, 141-143.
- 7. H.M. Screw Steam Sloop Chameleon, The British Colonist, May 11, 1863, 3.
- 8. Davis, HMS Cameleon, William Loney RN — Ships
- Captain Cook
The Captain Cook was a Bombay-built copper-hulled snow, a type of brig, that weighed 344 tonnes.1 The Captain Cook and the Experiment were part of James Charles Stuart Strange’s trade and exploration voyage to the Northwest coast in 1785.2
The expedition, which sailed out of India in 1785, was plagued with problems.3 The Experiment was damaged in Indian waters, and so sought repairs in Batavia (Djakarta, Indonesia); moreover, many of the crew contracted scurvy.4 When the expedition reached Nootka Sound in June of 1786, it arrived too late in the season to trade.5 Strange sailed to China in September 1786, to sell the small amount of otter pelts he had been able to acquire.6
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809 (Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), 57.
- 2. Robin Fisher, Strange, James Charles Stuart Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- Cecil
According to
this document,
Cecil was an American Schooner that sailed from
San Francisco to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From May 18th – 26th of that year,
Cecil visited
Mitchell Inlet in a quest for gold but met with no success.
- Chatham
The Chatham was a survey brig, built in Dover, England, in 1788.1 It served as the armed tender to the Discovery during Captain Vancouver’s 1791 expedition to map the Pacific Northwest.2 Commanded by Captain William Robert Broughton, the Chatham surveyed what would, for a time, be called the Broughton Archipelago, in Queen Charlotte Sound; it surveyed the Columbia River up to Point Vancouver, 161km upstream.3 The Chatham returned to England in 1795 and was reportedly sold in Jamaica in 1830.4
- 1. Chatham, Ships of the Old Navy.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 89.
- 3. J. K. Laughton, Broughton, William Robert Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 4. Chatham, Ships of the Old Navy.
- HMS Clio, 1858-1919
Davis lists HMS Clio as a corvette class, screw-driven ship of 21 guns, with a length of 61 m and a displacement of 2,187 tonnes.1 She was built in Sheerness Dockyard in 1857,1 and launched from the same on 28 August 1858.3
Clio served twice on the British Columbia coast, the first from 1859-62 under the command of Captain Thomas Miller, and the second from 1864-68 under the command of Captian Nicholas Turnour.4 In the latter commission, the Clio became embroiled in a number of dramatic events, for example, in 1865, she destroyed the Kwakwaka'wakw village of Ku-Kultz, near Fort Rupert, when three men suspected of an earlier murder were not handed over.5
Clio is mentioned in several correspondence, including
this despatch, from 1859, in which
Newcastle reports that "Her Majesty's Government have ordered the "Topaze" and "Clio" to join the Squadron on the North West Coast of America."
Another document, from 1866, reports that Rear Admiral Denman "sent the "Clio" to afford protection and support to the British Settlers of Metlakahtla [Metlakatla],
British Columbia."
The Clio went on to serve at the Australian Station from 1870-74, then she returned to the Wales coast to serve as a training vessel until 1919, when she was finally broken up for scrap.6
- 1. Peter Davis, Clio, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 124.
- 3. Davis, Clio.
- 4. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- Colinda
According to
this despatch, the barque
Colinda, owned by
Mr. Tomlin of
London, was chartered by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1853 to carry supplies and new emigrants to
Victoria from England. This same despatch reports that off the coast of Chile, the passengers of
Colinda incited a mutiny and forced
Captain John Powell Mills to anchor at the Port of
Valdivia, and that the passengers were tried at
Valparaiso and acquitted based on lack of evidence. Apparently, they remained in Chile and refused to continue on under the command of
Mills.
This despatch, by
Douglas, makes an account of the mutiny. It repots that
Mills, who was also part owner of
Colinda, sold much of the cargo owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Moreover,
Mills refused to pay the HBC in full for the undelivered goods and was arrested upon landing at
Victoria.
Colinda eventually returned to
London under the command of
James M. Reid.
Mills’ account of the incident can be found in
this private correspondence. He claims that
Governor Douglas “seized the ‘
Colinda’ in the
Queens Name” and “converted [the ship] into a brothel for prostitutes and drunkards."
Douglas’ response to
Mills’ complaints can be found in
this despatch.
- HMS Collingwood, 1841-1867
HMS Collingwood was a Royal Navy second-rate sailing ship.1 From 1844-48 Collingwood was the flagship of Rear-Admiral George Francis Seymour in the Pacific.2
- Columbia
The bark Columbia was an HBC ship of 310 tonnes, 6 guns, and 24 crew.1 It has the distinction, according to Begg, of being one of the first few ships to enter Victoria harbour direct from England, the leading ship was the Vancouver, in 1845.2
An 1856 despatch notes that the
Columbia arrived in
Victoria, from
San Francisco, with “reinforcements of Troops with munitions of War," in answer, presumably, to ongoing conflicts with Indigenous groups.
- HMS Constance, 1846-1875
HMS Constance was a fourth-rate sailing ship of the Royal Navy.1 During her time in the Pacific Station, she was commanded by Captain Baldwin Wake Walker from 1846-47 and Captain George William Conway Courtenay from 1847-49.2 Constance was converted to a screw frigate in 1862.3
Constance is mentioned
in these extracts, which are not transcribed, in reference to letters received from
Captain Courtney, who was, apparently, "on board HMS 'Constance' at sea."
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Constance, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- Constitution
The Constitution, a wooden-propeller vessel, was built at New York in 1850 by Sam Ward and Rodman Price.1 In 1856, Hunt and Scranton purchased the Constitution in San Francisco, for use on the Olympia-Victoria route.2 However, Hunt and Scranton were unable to meet the operating costs of the vessel, so the United States Marshal sold the Constitution to Captain A.B. Grove for $10,500.3
In 1858, with the gold rush in full swing, Grove brought the Constitution to Puget Sound, to use on the Fraser River route until the gold fever abated; after which, Grove sold the Constitution, and its new owner converted it to a barkentine for use in the Puget Sound lumber trade.4
According to Lewis and Dryden, the Constitution was replaced by the Wilson G. Hunt in 1858;5 however, on May 20th, 1859, the British Colonist reports the arrival of the “Steamer Constitution” from Puget Sound, from which it had brought 70 head of cattle.6
- HMS Cormorant, 1842-1853
HMS Cormorant was a diminutive warship, relatively speaking, at 1,251 tonnes, 6 guns, and complement of 145 men.1 This side-wheel paddle sloop was built at and launched from Sheerness dockyard in 1842, and would serve on the Pacific Station, Valparaiso, from 1844-49.2 It has the distinction of being the first naval steam vessel to ply British Columbia waters, when, in 1846 it arrived, along with several other war vessels, to strengthen British naval presence on the North Pacific coast, in light of growing sovereignty-tensions with the United States.3
The
Cormorant is mentioned in several correspondence. For example, the transcribed enclosure in
this document mentions that the
Rosalind had arrived at "
Fort Victoria" on June 3rd, 1846, with "a Cargo of Coals" for the
Cormorant.
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 135.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1788-1846 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1975), 391.
- HMS Daedalus, 1826-1911
HMS Daedalus was a fifth-rate sailing ship of the Royal Navy; she was commanded by Captain George Greville Wellesley during her time in the Pacific Station.1
According to
this document, from 1850,
Daedalus carried then Governor of
Vancouver Island Blanshard to
Fort Rupert in search of four Indigenous men who murdered three British seamen.
This despatch details HMS
Daedalus's attack on the accused’s camp. The inhabitants of the camp fled before it was burned to the ground; it is unclear as to whether or not the murderers were ever apprehended.
- Damariscove
According to
this private correspondence,
Damariscove was owned by
Palmer &
Balch who operated a shipping company that ran between
Puget Sound and
San Francisco. She sailed to
Haida Gwaii in 1851 in search of gold. She did not stay long, having been warned by
Captain Mitchell of the ship
Una not to trust the residents.
Damariscove returned to
Olympia bearing news of the wreck of the ship
Georgiana on
Haida Gwaii.
Upon her return to Puget Sound, Damariscove was charted as a Revenue Vessel by the US Collector of Customs, Mr. Moses in order to rescue Georgiana’s remaining crew. It is not clear if they were successful in their attempts. Damariscove was also involved in the rescue of passengers from the wreck of the Hudson’s Bay Company ship Una.
- HMS Daphne, 1838-1864
HMS Daphne was a sixth rate, 18-gun sailing ship of the Royal Navy, and during her time in the Pacific she was commanded by Captain John James Onslow from 1842-47, and then by Captain Edward Gennys Fanshawe from 1848-52.1
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Daphne, William Loney RN — Ships.
- Decatur, 1838-1865
Decatur, spelled
Decator in
this despatch, was a sloop of war of the US Navy.
1 She took part in the so-called Indian Wars in the
Oregon Territory from 1855-1856.
2 She was named after Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820), a hero of the US Navy.
3 - 1. Decatur, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. USS Decatur, Naval History & Heritage Command.
- HMS Devastation
The Devastation, launched in 1841, was a steam-driven paddle-wheel sloop that measured 55m long and 11m wide,1 and had a builders measure of 960 metric tonnes.2 The vessel, and its commander while in the Pacific, Pike, were very active in a number of policing expeditions on the coast of Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia during the 1860's.
In August 1862 the HMS Devastation departed from Esquimalt for the Stikine River to investigate the increasing number of confrontations between settlers and the local First Nations. The vessel then continued on to Port Simpson, where it aided in the capture of two murder suspects.3
In August 1862 the Devastation, along with the Grappler, and Forward, also aided in the search for the murderers of Frederick Marks and his daughter, Caroline Harvey, around Kuper and Saturna Islands.4
In 1864 the Devastation was once again involved in a number of investigations; first, the suspicious death of colonial agent Banfield at Barkley Sound. Originally reported as having drowned, Pike discovered that Banfield had been stabbed to death by Klatsmick, an Ohiet chief.5 Pike and the Devastation would return to Barkley Sound later that year to investigate the “pillage” of the merchant sloop Kingfisher, and the murder of several of its crew—an event that was a part of a larger policing expedition called “the Ahousat incident."6
HMS Devastation was broken up in 1866.7
- 1. HMS Devastation, Britian's Fighting Navy Through the Ages.
- 2. Peter Davis, HMS Devastation, William Loney RN — Ships
- 3. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 151-152.
- 4. Ibid, 141-143.
- 5. Ibid, 114.
- 6. Ibid, 114-116.
- 7. HMS Devastation, Britian's Fighting Navy Through the Ages.
- Discovery
The HMS Discovery, a 29m, 303-tonne sloop, was built in 1789 at Randall & Brent’s in Rotherhithe shipyard.1 Captain Vancouver commanded the Discovery, as well as its armed tender the Chatham, on his 1791-1795 expedition to survey the Pacific Northwest coast, and to wrest control of Nootka Sound from the Spanish.2
The Discovery, which possessed 10 swivel guns, 10 four-pound guns, and a crew of 100 men, spent three years on the Northwest coast before it returned to England.3
The Discovery spent the remainder of its service as a bomb vessel, an army hospital ship, and, finally, as a convict hulk, before it was dismantled in 1834.4
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 162.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- HMS Driver, 1840-1861
HMS Driver was a first class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy commanded by Commander Charles Richardson Johnson in the Pacific Station.1
According to
this document, the Governor of
Vancouver Island,
Richard Blanshard, was first brought to
Victoria from Callao, Chile on board HMS
Driver in March, 1850.
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Driver, William Loney RN — Ships.
- Dryad
The Dryad was a 201-tonne brig, launched in 1825 and purchased in 1829 by the HBC, who employed it as a trade-vessel in the Pacific Northwest until it was sold in 1836.1
In 1834 the Dryad arrived at the mouth of the Stikine River under the command of Ogden, who intended to erect an HBC trading fort;2 however, the Russians had already “hurriedly erected” Fort St. Dionysius and claimed that the surrounding territory was off-limits to the HBC, despite the Convention of 1825, which gave the British the right to access the Stikine.3 Rather than risk conflict, Ogden headed south, to the Nass River, where he and the Dryad’s crew helped relocate Fort Simpson to its current location.4
The Akriggs state that before Ogden departed the site of old Fort Simpson he and his crew experienced hostilities with the First Nations people of the area; Ogden took two Aboriginal hostages aboard the Dryad until all HBC men were safely aboard the vessel.5 The Dryad then traded near Haida Gwaii, then the Queen Charlotte Islands, until it returned to the Columbia River in November of 1834.6
- 1. James R. Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1778-1841 (Montréal, QC: MicGill-Queens University Press, 1991), 312.
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1788-1846 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1975), 294.
- 2. Ibid, 279.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid, 280.
- 5. Ibid, 281.
- 6. Ibid.
- Eagle
According to
this document,
Eagle was an American Brigantine that sailed from the
Columbia River to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From May 2nd – June 7th of that year,
Eagle visited
Port McNeill in a quest for gold but met with no success.
- Eliza Anderson
The Eliza Anderson, a 43-metre long, 275-tonne sidewheeler, was built in 1859 by Samuel Farnam for the Columbia River Steam Navigation Company.1 The Eliza Anderson had a 66cm by 183cm vertical-beam engine and, at the time, was the largest low-pressure steam vessel in the Oregon Territory.2
The Eliza Anderson was in continual service for 10 years, and monopolized the Victoria and Puget Sound routes.3 In April of 1866, the British Colonist reports that the Eliza Anderson brought news to Victoria of "the total loss of the steamer Labouchere."4
The Olympia took over the Eliza Anderson's routes in 1870, but the Eliza Anderson continued to run as a spare vessel until 1877.5
From 1877 to 1882 the Eliza Anderson was “laid up,” and eventually sank while at a dock in Seattle; however, it would be later refitted and used on the New Westminster-Seattle route.6
- 1. E.W. Wright, ed., Lewis and Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR: The Lewis and Dryden Printing Company, 1895), 76-77.
- 2. Ibid, 77.
- 3. Ibid, 76.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Loss of the Steamer Labouchere, The British Colonist, April 20, 1866.
- 6. E.W. Wright, ed., Lewis and Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 77.
- 7. Ibid
- England
According to
this document,
England was a vessel from Liverpool and commanded by a
Captain Brown. In 1850, three British deserters from the Hudson’s Bay Company traveled to
Fort Rupert on the ship
England.
This document notes that the deserters were eventually caught and murdered by "natives of the northern part of
Vancouver's Island," who, according to
this document, had been mistakenly told by
George Blenkinsop that there would be a reward for "the white mens[sic] heads."
- Enterprise
According to
this despatch, the steamship
Enterprise departed from
Fort Langley, up the
Fraser River to
Fort Hope, under the command of
Colonel Moody, accompanied by "100 Seaman and Marines," in January of 1859.
The vessel and party were sent as a police force, and, according to Lillard, by the late summer 1864 the Enterprise accessed Sooke Inlet with approximately 100 commuters a day.1
- 1. Charles Lillard, Seven Shillings a Year: The History of Vancouver Island (Ganges: Horsdal and Schubart Publishers Ltd., 1986), 114.
- Euphrates
According to
this private correspondence,
Euphrates was a freight ship chartered by the British government in 1858 to carry men of the Royal Engineers and supplies to
Vancouver Island and the mainland. As indicated in
this document, Shaw, Savill and Company acted as brokers for
Euphrates.
On June 27, 1859, the British Colonist reports that "The Bark Euphrates" arrived in Esquimalt, from London, and that during the 160-day voyage, one Edward Ellingfield of Yarmouth was lost overboard, despite efforts to save him with "Hen-coops."1
- Europa
According to
this document, the
Europa was a British contract packet. Akrigg and Akrigg note that in May of 1835 the
Europa had been at the mouth of the
Nass River, trading blankets, rum, and tobacco for beaver skins.
1 - 1. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1778-1846 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1975), 290.
- Exact
According to
this private correspondence,
Exact was a US vessel. She sailed to
Haida Gwaii in December 1851 in search of gold. She was presumed shipwrecked by
Thomas Boys, from the evidence of pieces of a vessel that were found on the southwest side of
Vancouver Island. It is not clear from the despatches if she did, in fact, flounder.
Douglas, in
this correspondence, refers to
Exact’s return to
Victoria from
Gold Harbour, unsuccessful in her search for gold.
- Experiment
The Experiment was a Bombay-built copper-hulled snow, a type of brig, that weighed 98 tonnes.1 The Experiment and the Captain Cook were part of James Charles Stuart Strange’s 1785 trade and exploration voyage to the Northwest coast.2
The expedition, which departed from India in 1785, was plagued with problems.3 The Experiment was damaged in Indian waters and sought repairs in Batavia (Djakarta, Indonesia); moreover, many of the crew members contracted scurvy.4 The expedition reached Nootka Sound in June of 1786, too late in the season to trade. The expedition was considered a financial disaster.5
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809 (Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), 57.
- 2. Robin Fisher, Strange, James Charles Stuart Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- Firwood
According to
this private correspondence, the
Firwood was a screw steamer, dispatched in September 1858, to transport passengers and trade from
San Francisco to
Victoria, and further up the
Fraser River. Its presence, as a British-operated vessel, appears to have been necessitated by the number of competing American ships that were running the same route.
- HMS Fisgard, 1819-1879
HMS Fisgard was a 46-gun frigate-class vessel, launched from Pembroke Dockyards, England, on July 8, 1819.1 She was dismantled in the late 1870s, having sailed for over 60 years.2 In 1843 Captain John Alexander Duntze took the bridge and sailed her to the northwest Pacific shores.3
According to
a despatch sent by the officers in charge of
Fort Victoria, the
Fisgard anchored in the waters before
the Fort in May of 1846, with orders to remain on the coast until relieved. This imposing multi-gun vessel contributed to a growing British military presence on the coast at the time.
- 1. Peter Davis, Fisgard, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- HMS Forward, 1855-1869
HMS
Forward was a 4 gun, 232 tonne British screw steam vessel that, according to
this despatch, was stationed on the
Victoria and
San Francisco route prior to 1860.
1 The owners of the Forward were hoping to obtain the mail contract between Victoria and San Francisco, but the ship was withdrawn in 1860, due to its inability to compete with the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company.
It appears that, from
this document, and
another, the
Forward was converted to a gunboat.
Forward and her sister-ship,
Grappler, were converted for the sole purpose of duty on the Northwest coast, and each had a crew of 40 men.
2 Throughout its time on the West Coast,
Forward undertook a variety of tasks, including the conveyance of passengers and supplies, as well as acting as a police-force vessel.
One notable event recalls the editor of the Daily Evening Express being held captive in the Forward’s lower deck and exposed to much verbal abuse for printing unflattering comments concerning the conduct of Commander Lascelles, and the crew of the Forward during a policing mission.3 After several hours the Forward set out to sea and the editor escaped by jumping overboard, nearly drowning before being picked up and dropped back on shore.4
- 1. Forward, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 202.
- 3. Ibid., 287.
- 4. Ibid.
- HMS Ganges
HMS Ganges, Canopus class, 84 guns, 2284 tonnes, was the flagship of the Pacific Station. She was commanded for a time by Rear-Admiral Baynes. Built in Bombay, India, of teak, in 1821, it was commissioned on 31 May 1823 for service on the Jamaica Station; it served also in the South American, Lisbon, and Mediterranean stations before being recommissioned on 25 June 1857 as the Pacific flagship.
Ganges was the last flagship to sail around Cape Horn without benefit of steam power and arrived in Esquimalt on 17 October 1858. It remained in British Columbia between 1858 and 1860, returning to Falmouth, England, for use as a training ship from 1866 to 1906. In 1906, it was renamed the Tenedos III and became part of the Boy Artificers Establishment at Chatham, England. In 1910, it was moved to Devonport and renamed the Indus V.
She was renamed again in 1922 as Impregnable III, it was added to the Training Establishment for Boys at Devonport, before being sold in 1929 and finally broken up.
[This entry adapted from the following sources:
- Vancouver Province, 9 March 1930.
- The Story of H.M.S. 'Ganges', The Shotley Magazine: The Magazine of H.M.S. Ganges (Ipswich: The East Anglian Daily Times Company, 1933), 42-50.
]
- Georgiana
According to
this private correspondence, "
Georgiana of Sydney" was a 40-tonne sloop owned by
William Rowland of England.
Georgiana sailed to
Haida Gwaii in 1851 in search of gold. She was wrecked on the East side of
Haida Gwaii and the crew were held by the Indigenous people.
Damariscove was charted as a Revenue Vessel by the US Collector of Customs Mr. Moses in order to rescue Georgiana’s remaining crew. It is not clear from the despatches if the Damariscove was successful in her rescue attempts.
- Gomelza
According to
various despatches from 1859, the
Gomelza transported books and documents between the colonial Government in
British Columbia and
London.
- HMS Grappler, 1856-1883
Grappler was a 3-gun gunboat built in 1846; she arrived in Esquimalt from England, along with the Forward and the Termagant, on 12 July 1860, with Lieutenant Commander Alfred Herby at her helm.1
Grappler operated on the British Columbia coast from 1860-68, until she was sold at public auction and then converted into a freighter, whereafter, she sailed under several owners for the following 15 years.2
Prior to her conversion and sale,
Grappler had a rather storied history in the
Salish Sea. She was involved in the Admiralty's efforts to, as
this document puts it, "prevent the illicit traffic in spirits on the East Coast of
Vancouver Island," particularly for the Indigenous population, who had, according to the same correspondence, "committed outrages on White Men."
A later despatch, from 1865, notes the
Grappler's "alleged illegal seizure of a vessel suspected of smuggling."
Drama and controversy followed Grappler to her fiery fate on 29 April 1883, when she burned on route up the eastern coast of the Island and, according to Walbran's account, lost "a large number of persons, said to be seventy-two, principally Chinese passengers on their way to the canneries."3
- 1. John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 216.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 234-35.
- 3. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names, 216.
- Great Britain, 1843-1886
According to
this document,
Great Britain was a steam ship owned by Gibbs Bright and Company. They offered to bring British troops to
Vancouver Island in 1858, an offer which the Admiralty declined.
- HMS Grecian, 1838-1865
According to
this despatch, the
Grecian was a British bark tasked with transporting lighthouse apparatus from
London to
Vancouver Island, in order to construct lighthouses in the
Juan de Fuca Strait.
This despatch, and the included documents, note that lighthouse keepers
Roberts and
Davies, along with
Davies’ wife and children, sailed aboard the
Grecian, of which
Miller was captain.
In the August 7th, 1860 edition of the British Colonist, the editor notes that when the ship arrived at Victoria “the passengers and crew [spoke] in the severest terms of the conduct of captain Miller during the voyage.” Apparently, Miller was drunk for the majority of the trip, and while moored at Honolulu, the “British Consul” ordered him to remove all liquor from the ship, which he appeared to do; however, upon resuming the voyage, passengers and crew discovered in his cabin a plenitude of alcohols—two casks of ale, two casks of porter, and six and a half dozen casks of sherry wine—which they poured overboard.1 Miller responded in the August 8th edition of the British Colonist, by stating that at no time during the voyage was he unfit to captain the Grecian, though he did not deny being intoxicated while en route.2
- Harpooner
Harpooner was a barque or brigantine chartered by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1848 to bring settlers and supplies to the Pacific Northwest.1
She arrived in Victoria in 1849 carrying labourers, miners, carpenters, bakers, and men recruited by Captain Grant.2 John Muir and his family were on board Harpooner as was James Yates.3
The miners eventually went to Fort Rupert and the ship carried on to Fort Vancouver and Hawaii.4
- HMS Havannah, 1811-1905
HMS Havannah was a fifth-rate sailing ship of the Royal Navy.1 Early in her career, she took part in the Napoleanic Wars.2 She was commanded by Captain Thomas Harvey during her time in the Pacific station.3
- HMS Hecate, 1839-1865
HMS Hecate was used on the Pacific coast late in her career, and was sent to replace the duties performed by HMS Plumper in 1860.1
Hecate was a relatively nimble ship in her day, at 780 tonnes, and was powered by both paddle wheel and sail; she carried five guns.2 Commander Anthony Hoskins sailed her into Esquimalt harbour in 1860, then the majority of the Plumper's crew and officers transferred aboard for continued survey service.3
Hecate ran aground in 1861, near Cape Flattery, and was, eventually and after several repair stops along the way, relocated to England by 1864, where she would be decommissioned the following year.4
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 256.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- Hope
Charles T. Millard purchased the steamer Hope in 1860 to convey goods and passengers on the Fraser River route from New Westminster to Port Douglas,1 a route which the vessel remained on, under various captains, from 1860 to 1874.
According to the Nov 21 1860 edition of the British Colonist, the “new river steamer Hope performed the best day’s work that [had] yet been done on the Fraser.”2 The Colonist further elaborates that the Hope’s successful run is proof of the benefits of river trade and travel, compared to the “old dangerous mountain travel.”3
The January 28th 1876 edition of the British Colonist states that the Hope served for a time as a hotel at Wrangel when it was blown onto a hill during a storm on the 14th of January.4 Subsequently, after its grounding, the vessel does not appear to have been fit for duty, as the machinery from the Hope was up for auction in August, 1877.5
- 1. Thursday Morning, Sept. 27, 1860., The British Colonist, September 27, 1860.
- 2. Up River News., The British Colonist, November 21, 1860.
- 3. Up River News., The British Colonist, November 21, 1860.
- 4. Sitka and Cassiar., The British Colonist, January 28, 1876.
- 5. At Private Sale., The British Colonist, August 22, 1877.
- Imperial Eagle
The Imperial Eagle, originally the East India Company ship Loudoun, was a 20-gun vessel of 394 tonnes.1 Captain William Barkley commanded the Imperial Eagle in 1787, under the Austrian flag, in order to avoid an East India Company trading license, which was required of all British ships.2
In June of 1787 the Imperial Eagle reached Nootka Sound; Barkley was fortunate to find John Mackay, who shared with Barkley his geographic knowledge of Vancouver Island, as well as his knowledge of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, with whom Barkley wished to trade.3 Barkley traded successfully, particularly in Nootka Sound, Clayoquot Sound, and Barkley Sound, which Barkley named after himself.4
Barkley then re-discovered what is now Juan de Fuca Strait.5 Captain Cook had previously claimed the strait did not exist.6 Eventually, the Imperial Eagle arrived in China, in December of 1787, where its cargo was sold.7
- 1. J. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 33.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 59.
- 4. Barry M. Gough, Barkley, Charles William Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 5. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names, 295.
- 6. Barry M. Gough, Barkley, Charles William Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 7. J. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names, 33-34.
- HMS Inconstant, 1836-1862
HMS Inconstant was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, designed by Captain Hayes and launched on June 19th, 1836.1
A transcribed 1849 enclosure in
this document notes that the
Inconstant's captain at the time,
John Shepherd, refused passage to disgruntled HBC employees, who "were dissatisfied about the absence of their Employer," and wanted to, "in the character of Distressed British subjects," make for
San Francisco.
- USRC Jefferson Davis, 1853-1862
Jefferson Davis was a topsail schooner and one of six US Revenue Cutters of the Cushing Class.1
She was named in 1853 for the then US Secretary of War and future President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Finis Davis. Her home port was Olympia.2
According to
this despatch, USRC
Jefferson Davis was commanded in 1855 by "Commander Pease" and was involved in a dispute with
Douglas over the ownership of
San Juan Island.
- John Bright
On February 4th, 1869, the John Bright sailed out of Admiralty Inlet with a cargo of lumber and struck a reef near Estevan Point while caught in a gale.1 Twelve of the twenty-two people on board likely drowned; however, the ten that made it to shore were allegedly “shot, and their bodies were hacked to pieces and mutilated” by a number of Hesquiat First Nations individuals, who also plundered the vessel’s wreck.2
The master of the schooner Surprise—not to be confused with the side-wheel steamer Surprise—carried news of the act back to Victoria, where the local newspapers and public opinion demanded retribution.3 Governor Seymour was reluctant to act immediately and waited three months before he finally sent the HMS Sparrowhawk to investigate, after the Victoria Evening News accused Seymour of “disgraceful and criminal neglect.”4
The crew of the HMS Sparrowhawk discovered the remains of at least eight individuals, and the vessel’s surgeon determined that murder had indeed occurred in several cases.5 The destruction of a number of houses and canoes compelled the surrender of two culprits—Katkinna, a chief who confessed to the crime, and John Anietsachist, who continually claimed to be innocent.6 Both were convicted of murder at court in Victoria, and were subsequently executed in the presence of their entire tribe back at Hesquiat.7
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 125.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid, 126.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid, 126-127.
- 7. Ibid, 127.
- John L. Stephens, 1852-1879
Built in New York for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1852, the John L. Stephens, 275 feet long and 2,183 tonnes and was, apparently named for one of founders of the Panama Rail-Road.1
She was placed on the Panama to San Francisco run, arriving in San Francisco on 3 April 1852, where she remained in this service until October 1860.2 In 1864 she ran between San Francisco and the Columbia.3 In 1878, she was sold in San Francisco to Sisson, Wallace and Company, who sent her to Karluk, Alaska, as a floating cannery; she was retired upon her return to San Francisco and broken up in 1879.4
- 1. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), 233.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- John Stephenson
According to
this Public Offices document and the attached minutes and documents, the
John Stephenson was a vessel that, for a brief period, was believed to have gone missing while en route from
London to
Vancouver Island; however, the vessel did eventually arrive.
- Kingfisher
In August 1864, a group of 10 Ahousat First Nations individuals allegedly “pillaged and [burned]” the Kingfisher, a sloop involved in seal oil trade near the mouth of Matilda Creek, and murdered its crew.1
When news of the Kingfisher's fate reached Victoria, Rear-Admiral Denman sent the Devastation to investigate—the vessel arrived at Matilda Creek to find 195 Ahousat First Nations armed for battle.2
The events that would ensue, later called the “Ahousat Incident,” would result in, according to Gough, “the Royal Navy’s most extensive punishment [on the north west coast].”3 In total, the Royal Navy destroyed nine villages and 64 canoes; as well, at least 15 First Nations individuals were killed in the struggle.4
However, Chief Justice David Cameron acquitted the individuals arrested because he believed that he was not able to use the testimony of First Nations witnesses.5 Cameron, who was often under scrutiny as chief justice because of his lack of legal training, overlooked an 1843 imperial statute that allowed such evidence with crown consent.6
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 114-115.
- 2. Ibid, 113-114.
- 3. Ibid, 114.
- 4. Ibid, 121.
- 5. Ibid.
- Labouchere, 1858
This 1858 despatch reports that the HBC steamer
Labouchere will "start from the port of
London on Thursday morning the 2nd [September]" for
Vancouver Island. By 1859, she had arrived on the coast and began work as a trade vessel, and she was a skookum craft, indeed, built of Baltic oak and teak, and, no doubt, imposing at over 200 feet in length.
1 Labouchere was driven by a large paddle wheel, the engine for which could generate a respectable 180 horse power.
2 According to Middleton, the ship and crew were captured at some point by the "Tako," likely Tʼaaḵu Ḵwáan, a Tlingit People subgroup; apparently, the crew were able to talk their way out of further violence and the raiders left the ship.
3 A similar instance aboard the
Nanaimo Packet is noted in
this 1865 despatch.
Greater drama precluded the Labouchere's demise. She was refit in 1856, at considerable cost, for mail service between Vancouver Island and San Francisco, but on her first run she ran onto a reef in a fog near San Francisco.4 She reversed off the reef but soon flooded beyond hope, and in the scramble for the lifeboats Captain Mouatt was forced to shoot a man who had attempted to board a lifeboat before the women.5
The British Colonist reported that Eliza brought news of “the total loss of the steamer Labouchere" to Victoria in April of 1866, which, the paper adds, is an "announcement not so melancholy in its nature or so important to the interests of mankind" as this same ship's news that President Lincoln had been assassinated.6
- 1. Lynn Middleton, Placenames of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Victoria: Elldee Publishing Company, 1969), 120.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Singular Coincidence, The British Colonist, April 20, 1866.
- La Plata
This 1858 despatch reports that the La Plata is to be detained "until the arrival of the Queen's Messenger from Osborne," at the behest of Lytton. And, another 1858 despatch, in an enclosure, suggests that the La Plata was commanded at the time by one Captain Meller, who appears as one node in a web of communications critical to the conveyance of the Royal Engineers to the Vancouver Island.
On January 26th, 1867, The Lancet reports that another of the "Royal West Indian Mail Company's steam ships, the La Plata," arrived in Southampton from Saint Thomas bursting with yellow fever.1
Perhaps this is the same La Plata that The New York Times reported sunk in the Bay of Biscay in 1875.2 Boatswain Henry Lamont and quarter-master John Hooper were reported rescued from a makeshift raft three days after the La Plata foundered.3
The Ships List notes that the first Arabia, 1852, was renamed La Plata while under construction.4
- Lord Western, 1840-1853
Lord Western was a British Barque of 530 tonnes.1
In 1853 she was traveling from Victoria to San Francisco but was wrecked off Estevan Point on the west coast of Vancouver Island.2 Most of the crew made it back to Victoria on the ship's boats, except for Captain Parker and three other men, who were left behind. Douglas sent the Hudson’s Bay Company steam ship Otter to rescue the four men, who returned to Victoria on December 26th.3
This despatch, from 1854, describes in detail the
Lord Western's ordeal and demise.
- 1. Barrie H.E. Goult, First and Last Days of the 'Princess Royal, British Columbia Historical Quarterly 2 (1949): 107.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- Lotus
As mentioned in
Chartres Brew’s 1858 account of the wreck of the ship
Austria,
Lotus was on her way to Halifax when she met up with the ship
Maurice who had rescued the surviving crew and passengers of
Austria.
Brew and eleven other passengers, who wanted to proceed quickly to North America, were given passage by
Captain Trefry of the
Lotus.
- Marcella
According to
this document, marked as secret,
Marcella was "the only vessel sailing direct to
Vancouvers
Island," from "
London Docks," in late 1860, and it was slated to transport "the wives and families of the seven Men belonging to the detachment of Royal Engineers stationed in
British Columbia."
- Maria
According to
this despatch,
Maria replaced
Umatilla on the
Fraser River.
- Marquis of Bute
This despatch, by
Douglas, relates that the
Marquis of Bute was a British ship that visited
Victoria in 1855. Several of the crew robbed the ship and deserted. They fled to the United States where they were apprehended and then released by
Governor Stevens. The same correspondence goes on to discuss the costs incurred in the event.
- SS Mary Dare, 1850-1854
Mary Dare was a 149-tonne Hudson’s Bay Company brigantine.1 She arrived in Victoria in 1847, commanded at the time by James Cooper.2
This 1851 despatch reports that the master of the
Mary Dare discovered gold on
Haida Gwaii. Until returning to England in 1853,
Mary Dare ran supplies between
Fort Vancouver,
Victoria, and
Hawaii; during this time she was commanded by James Allen Scarborough and William Mouat.
3
- USS Massachusetts, 1849-1867
USS Massachusetts was a wooden steamship of the US Navy.1
She originally operated as a trans-Atlantic auxiliary packet ship and was later used to transport troops during the Mexican War.2 She took part in the Puget Sound War, and spent most of the years 1855-57 along the Pacific Coast of North America.3 She was converted into a barque for use as a storeship in 1863, and was eventually sold in 1867.4
- 1. Massachusetts, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- Maurice
In
this private correspondence,
Brew gives a lengthy description of his experiences during the burning and sinking of the
Austria, his carrier from England to
British Columbia.
Brew was among the few random survivors rescued by the
Maurice, which he describes as a French ship, of Nantes, captained by
Ernest Renaud, who is credited further for his "his tenderness and delicacy in dressing the injuries" of the rescued, particularly, three badly burned women.
- Medway, 1841-1861
According to
this private correspondence,
Medway was a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company wooden paddle steamer. In 1858,
Medway transported men of the Royal Engineers across the Isthmus of
Panama with the assistance of
Captain Hole.
- Mexican
According to
this document,
Mexican was a US schooner that sailed from
San Francisco to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From April 28th – May 8th of that year,
Mexican visited
Mitchell Inlet in a quest for gold but met with no success.
- HMS Modeste, 1837-1866
The HMS Modeste was an 18-gun wooden sloop; she sailed Victoria-area waters from 1844 to 1847.1 From 1837 to 1841 she was commanded by Commander Harry Eyres, off Spain, Mexico, the east coast of Africa, and China—she fought in the first Anglo-Chinese war.2
Commander Thomas Baillie sailed her throughout the Pacific from 1843 to 1845; from 1851 to 1853 Commander William Compton sailed her in Mediterranean waters, where she remained until 1854 under the command of Augustus Butler.3
- HMS Monarch, 1832-1866
HMS Monarch was a second-rate sailing ship of the Royal Navy.1 She spent most of 1854 in the Baltic fighting in the Russian/Crimean War, and in 1855 and 1856 Monarch visited Victoria, as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry William Bruce of the Pacific Squadron.2
This despatch reports that she formed "part of the Squadron employed in the Pacific,"
and another mentions
Bruce's arrival on the
Monarch at "
Esquimalt Port."
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Monarch, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- Nanaimo Packet
The Nanaimo Packet was a schooner that was taken into custody on 30 May 1869, because its captain had illegally provided alcohol to a group of First Nations.1 Authorities would later confiscate the vessel and fine its captain $500.2
- 1. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 374.
- 2. Ibid, 375.
- Nereid
The SS Nereid, a 249-tonne 10-gun ship, was launched in 1821 and purchased by the HBC in 1833.1 The HBC appointed William Brotchie as Nereid's commander in 1839, and it traded throughout the Pacific Northwest.2 The HBC sold Nereid in 1840.3
- 1. James R. Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1778-1841 (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1991), 312.
- 2. J. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 64.
- 3. Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods, 312.
- Norman Morison, 1849-1853
Norman Morison was a 529-tonne Hudson’s Bay Company ship.1 She arrived on the west coast in 1850, bringing supplies for both the Russian American Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, as well as labourers and their families.2 She made the trip from England to Victoria two more times between 1850-53.3
According to
this document, in 1850, three British seamen deserted from the Hudson’s Bay Company and left
Norman Morison while she was anchored in
Victoria. They fled to
Fort Rupert and were eventually caught and murdered by "natives of the northern part of
Vancouver's Island" who had mistakenly been told by
George Blenkinsop that there would be a reward for "the white mens[sic] heads."
- Orbit
Recovery was a 154-tonne brigantine bought by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852.1 She was built in 1845 and originally an American vessel named Orbit.2
This private correspondence reports that at the end of December, “an American vessel the
Orbit," was on route to
Honolulu from
Olympia when she ran into the “same gale which ruined the
Una." Apparently, the
Orbit was blown aground and lost its rudder; it sustained other damages. Thereafter,
Douglas “bought her & proceded [sic] to fit her out," and renamed her the
Recovery.
In 1852 she was sent to find gold at Haida Gwaii under the command of Captain John F. Kennedy.3 From 1852-58 she was commanded by William Mitchell who took her on various trading runs to Hawaii.4.
During the gold rush of 1858 she was stationed on the Fraser River as a guard ship and involved with issuing mining licenses.5. She was eventually sold to Lennard and Green of Portland, who used her for trade to Hawaii and China.6
- Ossipee
The Ossipee was a wooden sloop of war constructed in June of 1861 and launched in October of the same year. The vessel derives its name from a river that runs from the Ossipee Lake, in New Hampshire, to the Saco River, in Maine.1
They
Ossipee, which the author of
this Public Offices document refers to as the “Ossifree,” spent many years in the service of the U.S. Navy. While stationed in the Pacific, from 1866 to 1872, the
Ossipee attended to “American interests along the coasts of Mexico and Central America.”
2 On September 27, 1867, the Ossipee embarked on a journey from San Francisco to Sitka, Alaska, to convey the Russian commissioners to the ceremony in which Russia would transfer Alaska to the United States.3
The Ossipee sold at Norfolk on 25 March 1891.4
- 1. Ossipee, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- Otter, 1852-1861
According to
this despatch,
Otter was a Hudson’s Bay Company Steamship. In 1853 she was involved with the rescue of the crew of the
Lord Western, who were shipwrecked off the west coast of
Vancouver Island.
- Pacific, 1850-1875
The Pacific was a sidewheel steamship, 225 feet long, 1,004 tonnes, built by William H. Brown of New York, at a cost of $100,000.1 It launched 24 September 1850, and arrived in San Francisco on 2 July 1851.2 The Nicaragua Steamship Company operated it on the coast from 1853 to 1858, and the Merchants Accommodation Line ran it from 1858 to 1863, on the route of San Francisco to the Columbia River.3
On 18 July 1861 it sank in waters off Oregon but was raised and repaired.4 In 1872, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company bought the Pacific, selling it to Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins in 1875.5. On 4 November 1875, it collided with the sailing ship Orpheus, off Cape Flattery, and sank almost immediately.6. Only two survived of the nearly two hundred fifty people on board.7 This tragedy was made all the more grisly as bodies of the drowned washed up along the shores of Vancouver Island, with one young girl landing near her family home.8
On Tuesday morning, November 16, 1875, the British Colonist declared the wreck of the Pacific "one of the most terrible calamities the world has ever known."9 And, it would seem that the Orpheus fared better, but barely, as an auction notice for her salvage appears to the right of the Pacific report.10
- 1. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), 241.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 407-08.
- 8. Ibid., 408.
- 9. The Veil Lifted, The British Colonist, November 16, 1875.
- 10. Ibid.
- Palerma
According to
this document,
Palerma was a US brig that sailed from
San Francisco to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From April 29th – May 15th of that year,
Palerma visited
Mitchell Inlet in a quest for gold, but met with no success.
- Panama
The Panama, Capt. W.L. Dall, was one of the first steamers built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for the Pacific coastal trade.1 Built at a cost of $211,000 by William H. Webb in New York, and launched on 29 July 1848, it measured 200' by 34' by 20', with 888 tonnes displacement.2 It arrived at San Francisco on 4 June 1849 and served the San Francisco to Panama run until 1853. It made only one voyage in 1854 and in 1856-57 served as a spare steamer in Panama.3
From 1858 to 1861 the ship ran between San Francisco and Puget Sound; in February 1861 she was sold to Holladay and Flint.4 Holladay and Brenham gave the ship to Mexico in 1868 as part of a mail contract agreement; the Mexican government renamed her the Juarez and employed her as a revenue and transport steamer on the Mexican coast.5
In
this despatch from 1852,
Douglas reports on the arrival of the
Panama to
Victoria, driven by the "gold excitement throughout this Colony," with some 750 passengers on board.
- 1. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), 242.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- HMS Pandora, 1833-1862
HMS Pandora was a 319-tonne wooden sailing vessel.1 In 1836, she was commanded by Lieutenant commander Robert Wintle Innes, in Falmouth, until she was out of commission at Plymouth during 1843.2
From 1845 to 1848 she was employed as a survey ship under the command of Lieutenant James Wood, during the the Oregon boundary dispute with the United States.3 From 1850 to 1856 she served as a survey ship again, this time in Australia, under the command of Byron Drury.4
- 1. Peter Davis, Pandora, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- HMS Plumper, 1848-1865
This 43-metre vessel was common enough on the coast to have at least ten geographical features bear its name.1 Plumper was launched at Portsmouth in 1848, as a barque-rigged steam sloop, and its name was not a reference to the rotund, but, in the naval parlance of the times, to a sudden shot or heavy blow.2
The boat certainly made an impression on the coast, in more ways than name, as it appears in use, in a variety of capacities, in
dozens of despatches.
When Plumper first arrived in Victoria, she anchored in Esquimalt Harbour.3 Captain George Henry Richards was in command, and tasked with surveying the coast in greater detail, with particular scrutiny to be spent on the waterways pertinent to the maritime boundary question—largely, regions between the Haro and Rosario straits.4 Richards, apparently, grew tired of Douglas's other requirements for the vessel, such as policing and transport.5
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 464.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 101.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid., 102.
- HMS Portland, 1822-1862
HMS Portland was a fourth-rate wooden sailing ship of the Royal Navy.1 In the 1850s HMS Portland was Commanded by Captain Henry Chads and was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Fairfax Moresby in the Pacific.2
Portland was the first Royal Navy flagship to visit Victoria.3 The Oregon Treaty of 1846 contained ambiguity around the ownership of the San Juan Islands. HMS Portland’s visit to Vancouver Island was partially a display of power to deter US territorial claims in the area.4
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Portland, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Patrick Marioné, Portland, Age of Nelson.
- 4. Ibid.
- HMS President, 1829-1903
HMS President was a Royal Navy frigate of the fourth-rate.1 President was part of the Anglo-French squadron during the Crimean War, and from 1854-62 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry William Bruce in the Pacific, commanded at that time by Captain Charles Frederick.2
According to
this 1856 despatch,
President was sent to
Vancouver Island to ease the fears of the colonists regarding potential attacks from the Indigenous population. It is unclear from the despatches whether or not HMS
President ever arrived.
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Portland, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- Prince of the Seas
- Princess Royal, 1854-1872
Princess Royal was a Hudson's Bay Company ship, built upon recommendations by Simpson, who saw trade opportunity in spars from Fort Rupert, and a chance to build a boat that could enter Victoria harbour, fully loaded, unlike her predecessor, the Norman Morison.1
Simpson's new ship was built of oak and teak, and was copper-bottomed, 145 feet long and 29.5 feet wide, and she was scheduled to sail to Victoria in May of 1854, but due to delays, she left from England in June, with more than 100 passengers aboard.2 The journey is a snapshot of the arduous nature of such extended sea voyages of the era: babies were born or died along the way, there was a mild mutiny in protest of the meager rice rations, and many more died of illness.3 Princess Royal finally landed, in Nanaimo, in late November.4
She met her fate near Moose Factory, James Bay, when she sailed into a snowstorm and, eventually, grounded on a bar.5 Apparently, some Cree men in the area went on board the hulk to salvage tar-filled barrels to use as canoe sealant, but it was too cold to drain the barrels, so the men lit a fire, which spread to engulf the ship.6 The pack ice carried her burned skeleton to the sea the next Spring.7
- 1. Barrie H.E. Goult, First and Last Days of the 'Princess Royal,' British Columbia Historical Quarterly 1 (1939): 15-16.
- 2. Ibid., 16.
- 3. Ibid., 17-19.
- 4. Ibid., 20.
- 5. Ibid., 22.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. Ibid., 23.
- Providence
The HMS Providence was a 413-tonne, 33m long, sixth-grade sloop purchased by the Royal Navy in 1791.1 William Broughton commanded the Providence from October 1793 until it sank in 1797.2
The Providence was commanded by Broughton to meet Captain Vancouver on the Northwest coast, but Cook was gone by the time Broughton arrived.3 Broughton proceeded to Asia, where, for a period of four years, he surveyed the coast of Asia, as well as areas among the Kurile Islands, Japan, Okinawa, and Formosa.4
On 16 May, 1797, the Providence struck a coral reef somewhere between Formosa and Okinawa, and the crew was unable to save the vessel.5 Broughton received a court martial for the loss of the ship, though he would be acquitted later.6
- 1. J.J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy: An Historical Index (New York, NY: A.M. Kelley, 1969), vol 1, 442.
- 2. J.K. Laughton, Broughton, William Robert Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- HMS Pylades, 1854-1875
HMS Pylades was a Royal Navy screw-driven corvette-class vessel, which carried 21 guns.1 She was built in 1854, at Sheerness dockyard; thereafter, she was launched into the Baltic Sea, to fight in the Crimean War.2 Pylades served two commissions on the coast as part of a navy contingent sent to buttress British gold-claims in the 1850s.3
She arrived, along with HMS Tribune, at Esquimalt Harbour, in 1859 with a crew of “supernumerary marines," who were to assist the Royal Engineers until such time as needed for military defense.4
In
this despatch,
Douglas notes the arrival of
Pylades and her fighting crew, and professes "much satisfaction in having so effective a force available in case of Emergency."
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 482.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 154.
- 4. Ibid.
- Random
In 1864 an unknown culprit fired upon a pair of First Nations constables aboard the sloop Random near Port Simpson—one of the constables died.1
According to Gough, incidents such as this prompted Rear-Admiral Denman to advise the Lords of the Admiralty that a large force of small vessels would be essential to keep the peace in the area—not only among the First Nations, but also to prevent injustices experienced by First Nations individuals in the service of the The Crown at the hands of white settlers.2
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 117.
- 2. Ibid.
- Rosalind
According to
this document, sent from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1846, the
Rosalind was a "Brig" that was "chartered by Government at £250. stirling a month." On June 3rd, presumably in 1846, she delivered a "Cargo of Coals, which was landed there for the use of Her Majesty's Steam Vessel '
Cormorant.'"
- Royal Charlie
In 1860, while a number of different First Nations groups were camped at Victoria for various reasons, including trade, and general curiosity, a group of Haida First Nations fired upon the schooner Royal Charlie.1 Admiral Baynes sent two boats and 100 marines from the Ganges to confiscate the weapons of those involved.2
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 67-70.
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 206.
- San Jacinto
The San Jacinto derives its name from the San Jacinto River in Texas, which was the site of a decisive victory over the Mexican Army, on 21 April 1836, in the battle for Texas’s independence.1
The San Jacinto was built at the New York Naval yard in 1847 as “an experimental ship to test new propulsion concepts.” Finally launched in 1850, the San Jacinto had a long and notable career of service, despite a number of engine and machinery problems.2
After the vessel served in the West Indies in 1855, the San Jacinto ferried Townsend Harris, the American consul general to Japan, to Shimoda, Japan, where Harris became the first foreign diplomat allowed on Japanese soil, and also helped open Japan to foreign relations.3
Later in 1856, the San Jacinto served with the United States Navy’s East India Squadron in a civil war in Chinese waters, as well as in the Second Opium War.4
In 1859, while with the Africa Squadron, the San Jacinto aided in the efforts to curb the slave trade. Captain Charles Wilkes took over command of the San Jacinto in August 1861 prior to its journey back to the United States to join the Union Navy in the U.S. Civil War.5
While en route,
Wilkes intercepted the English Mail Packet
Trent, east of Havana, which carried a number of Confederate diplomats.
6 Douglas makes note of the incident in
this correspondence.
The vessel spent several more years in the service of the Union Navy. On 1 January 1865, the San Jacinto hit a reef in the Bahamas; while some of the equipment was salvaged, the vessel itself took too much damage. The San Jacinto’s hulk was sold on May 17, 1871.7
- 1.San Jacinto, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. Ibid.
- Santa Saturnina
The Santa Saturnina was a comparatively small sloop, at roughly 12m long and 3.5m wide.1 It was built in Nootka Sound in 1790.2 Scott notes that the Santa Saturnina was constructed from pieces of the Santa Gertrudis la Magna, thought to be the first European-built ship in the Pacific Northwest.3
In 1791, under the command of José María Narváez, the Santa Saturnina explored Barkley Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Haro Strait, and sailed within sight of Desolation Sound and Nanaimo Harbour.4
The Santa Saturnina draws its name from the “German martyr St Saturnina, patron saint of farmers and wine merchants.”5
- 1. John Crosse, "The Spanish Discovery of the Gulf of Georgia" British Columbia Historical News, 25 (1991-92) 30-32.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 524.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- Santiago
- Saratoga
The wooden sidewheel steamer Cortes, originally christened the Saratoga, was 220 feet long and 1,117 tonnes.1 It was built in New York in 1852 for Davis Brooks and Company at a cost of $198,000.2 It sailed for San Francisco on 10 July 1852 and operated between San Francisco and Panama for the New York and San Francisco Steamship Line until the following summer, when she was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt; he ran it between San Francisco and San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, until March 1855.3
In 1858 and 1859, it sailed between San Francisco and Panama for the New York and California Steamship Company, and in 1860 for the Atlantic and Pacific Steamship Company.4 The Pacific Mail Steamship Company purchased it in 1860 and continued it in the Panama service to February 1861, when it sold it to Flint and Holladay, who chartered her to China in 1862, where she remained until 1865, when it burned at Shanghai.5
- 1. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), 222.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- HMS Satellite, 1855-1879
HMS
Satellite was a corvette-class vessel of 1,326 tonnes, with 21 guns.
1 Prevost captained her for her time on the Pacific Station, from 1857-60, and
she appears in dozens of despatches, mostly in 1858.
2 She was launched from a Devonport dockyard in 1855 and sailed in South America and China, in addition to her work on the West Coast, where she acted, in 1858, as a guard-ship and licence-checker for miners on the Fraser River. She was broken up in 1879, but her memory lives on in the Salish Sea in at least three geographical place names: Satellite Channel, Passage, and Reef.3
- Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 526.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- HMS Scout
In August 1866, the H.M.S. Scout ferried Governor Kennedy on a tour around Vancouver Island in an attempt to establish peaceful relations with the First Nations groups on the west coast.1 The Scout once again served in this capacity in 1873, when the vessel conveyed Lieutenant-Governor Trutch and Attorney General McCreight to the Skeena during the “Skeena War” in an attempt to placate members of the Gitsegukla First Nation.2
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 123-124.
- 2. Ibid, 205.
- HMS Scylla
The HMS Scylla, a 1331-tonne corvette that possessed a twenty-one-gun armament at its launch in June 1856; however, the Royal Navy appears to have reduced its armament to sixteen.1
The vessel was part of the Royal Navy’s “Flying Squadron,” which, in May of 1870, resided for a period at Esquimalt that, at the time, was described as “Esquimalt’s finest hour as a British naval base.”2
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Scylla, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 390-391.
- Sea Nymph
According to the July 28, 1860 issue of the British Colonist, the Sea Nymph was a British barque, built in 1859, with a deck length of 120 feet, a beam of 24 feet, and a depth hold of 18 feet.1
According to
this document, the
Sea Nymph was bound for
British Columbia, a voyage upon which at least one passenger, a
Mr. Cadell, complained about the state of the ship and the treatment of the passengers. The
Sea Nymph, however, did not fall under the guidelines of the Passengers Act, so Government officials lacked power to intervene. The same despatch mentions that the owners appointed a "new Master," who saw that all passengers were comfortable, and ensured that the
Sea Nymph was in a proper state by the time she departed to sea.
- Sea Bird
The steamer Sea Bird, 225 feet long and 450 tonnes, was brought from New York to San Francisco in 1850-51.1 It was owned by Captain J.T. Wright and Sons and brought to the Fraser River in 1858 by Captain Francis Connor to transport miners to the gold fields.2
On her second trip up the Fraser to Hope, Sea Bird grounded on what is now called Sea Bird Island, a few miles below Hope.3 Every passenger but the cook escaped attack and robbery from local Indigenous residents.4. Following the plunder, the cook was taken to a naval hospital at Esquimalt, where he eventually died from his injuries.5. On 7 September 1858, the vessel caught fire and beached on Discovery Island, near Victoria, and burned to the water line.6
In
this despatch,
Douglas mentions the
Sea Bird as an American river steamer that, at the time, in 1858, would “ply with passengers," mostly miners, between “this Port [
Victoria] and
Fraser's River."
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 531.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 120.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 531.
- HMS Severn
According to
this document, as well as several others, the
Severn was an HBC vessel that was used to transmit supplies for the Fisgard lighthouse between
London and the
Vancouver Island colony.
- Shark
According to
this document,
Shark was a US schooner which brought Americans to
Fort Vancouver sometime before September 7th, 1846;
Shark was commanded by
Captain Howison.
1 The Shark became, on several occasions, a symbol of US naval power, and when she was sent to Honolulu for repairs, in 1846, it was to be that she would later sail up the Columbia River, ostensibly on an exploratory mission.2
Given tensions in Oregon Territory at the time, the Shark was likely sent to assert US trade and naval dominance. However, things did not go as planned for the mission. On September 10th, the Shark struck an uncharted shoal off the mouth of the Columbia, and was swept by the tide into a churn of waves.3 The ship was lost, but all crew survived; ironically, all hands chartered back to San Francisco on the Cadboro, an HBC ship, and one very much British.4
- 1. Shark, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- CSS Shenandoah
At its launch in Scotland in 1863, the CSS Shenandoah, which originally bore the name Sea King, was intended to be a British transport vessel;1 however, a US Confederate agent, through furtive and duplicitous means, was able to purchase the Sea King for use in the Confederate Navy.2
After sailors hurriedly prepared the Sea King for war and renamed it the CSS Shenandoah, the vessel headed for the shipping lanes between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia to disrupt American trade. The Shenandoah next moved into the North Pacific, where, in the summer of 1865, it preyed on American whaling vessels.3
Unaware that the Civil War had ended in the aftermath of the Confederate surrender earlier that year, the
Shenandoah’s captain, Waddel, continued his mission into June of 1865.
4 In August 1865,
Vancouver Island governor, Kennedy, received a letter from the US consul, which was included in the documents enclosed with
this despatch, that informed him of the
Shenandoah’s continued “warlike activities” despite the end of the war.
Also in August 1865, having now learned that the war had indeed ended, Waddel steered the Shenandoah on a route back to England, and surrendered the ship upon arrival.5 At the close of the Civil War, the Shenandoah was the only Confederate ship to circle the globe, and was the last vessel to surrender.6
- 1. Shenandoah, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 2. Kennedy Hickman, ,Military History.
- 3. Shenandoah, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Kennedy Hickman, ,Military History.
- Shubrick
According to
this document, on August 11, 1859,
Rear Admiral Baynes was invited to conference on the US steamer
Shubrick, by
Lieutenant Colonel Casey.
Baynes declined the meeting on the
Shubrick, but extended an invitation to
Casey to come aboard his own ship, HMS
Ganges.
The
Shubrick is mentioned also in
this despatch, in which Governor Seymour was forced to send a request to its Commander not to fire a salute, as he lacked the ability to return the compliment due to a lack of supplies.
- Skiddy, 1820-1859
Little information is available on this vessel while it was called the Skiddy, a New York pilot boat; however, it was purchased by the US Navy in January 1853 and renamed the Fennimore Cooper—it was used as a tender on a surveying expedition to the Bering Strait, North Pacific, and China Seas.1
According to
this private correspondence, the
Fennimore Cooper was a US surveying schooner, that was scheduled to make a stop in Japanese waters sometime in late 1858. The final destination for the
Fennimore Cooper is not specified in the despatch, but its stop in Japan was for the purpose of delivering
Joseph Hui, whom
Rowlandson recommends as a prospective "interpreter & to
Lord Elgins Japan Expedition."
- SS Sonora, 1853-1868
The SS Sonora, built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in October 1853, was a wooden sidewheel steamer, 269 feet long and 1,617 tonnes, at a cost of $302,000.1 It operated on the run from Panama to San Francisco between May 1854 and May 1863; in 1865 it made one more voyage to Panama, to deliver troops.2 In 1868, she was dismantled and broken up in Sausalito.3
An enclosure in this 1858 despatch reports that "Captain Grant of the Royal Engineers," and a contingent of Engineers, transfered to the Sonora, bound for San Francisco.
- 1. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), 247.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- Southern Eagle
According to
this private correspondence, from 1858,
Edward Hammond King wrote to the colonial office that he would be “embarking in the ‘
Southern Eagle’" for
San Francisco.
- HMS Sparrowhawk
The Sparrowhawk, a 613-tonne gunvessel launched in 1856, saw considerable action as a police vessel in the Pacific Northwest from 1865 to 1872.1 Among the notable cases in which the Sparrowhawk was involved were the Kincolith Murders and the John Bright Affair.
In 1868, hostilities between the Nisga’a and Tsimshian First Nations resulted in several deaths, including three members of the Kincolith Christian mission.2 In May 1869, Governor Seymour, aboard the Sparrowhawk, arrived at Kincolith, and oversaw traditional negotiations of peace between the two First Nations groups on the vessel’s deck.3 Before the vessel departed, Seymour assured the chiefs that if any further violence ensued, the matters would be dealt with in accordance with British law.4 Upon the return trip to Esquimalt, Governor Seymour suddenly took ill and died near Bella Coola.5
The crew of the Sparrowhawk also investigated the alleged murder of those aboard the vessel John Bright, and the pillage of the vessel’s wreck by individuals from the Hesquiat First Nation. Katkinna, a chief who confessed to the crime, and John Anietsachist were tried and executed for the crime.6
The Sparrowhawk sold in 1872, and the new owners then sold its engines and converted it to a sailing vessel. The Sparrowhawk made several voyages to China before it was lost in the China Sea during a typhoon. The vessel’s engines served in the Moodyville sawmill well into the 20th century.7
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 559.
- 2. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 195-196.
- 3. Ibid, 197.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 559.
- 6. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, 127.
- 7. John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 467.
- HMS Speedy
According
this despatch, in November 1861, the
Speedy conveyed a shipment of rifles to the government on
Vancouver Island for the use of a volunteer rifle corps.
- Sulphur
The HMS Sulphur, a 369-tonne 10-gun bomb vessel, was launched in January of 1826 and disposed of in 1857.1 The Royal Navy sent the vessel to survey the Pacific coast in 1835;2 it arrived in Nootka Sound in October, 1837.3
In 1839, under the command of Captain Edward Belcher, the Sulphur “narrowly [escaped] destruction” on what would later be named Peacock Spit, as it surveyed the bar in the Columbia River with its escort, the Starling.4 Captain Belcher would later admit he was given “secret instructions” to collect information on the dispute between the British and the United States over the Oregon Territory .5
Beginning in 1841, the Sulphur participated in several naval engagements in China, before it returned to England,6 where it was used in harbour service until it was dismantled in 1857.7
- Surprise
The Surprise first plied west-coast waters in early 1858, as a miner-transport from Victoria to the Fraser River.1 This side-wheel steamer made almost thirty trips, with 500-600 miners aboard each time.2
According to one account, she made the run, against a six-knot current, from Fort Langley to Fort Hope in roughly twenty hours.3 She was purchased from New York in 1852 by Captain Edgar Wakeman, who had a rather uncomfortable four-month journey to the west coast.4 Following her time in the Salish Sea, she worked for a short time in San Francisco until she sailed for China, where she ended her days.5
This vessel is not to be confused with a second Surprise, a trade and sealing schooner built in Puget Sound in 1859, which wrecked off Sooke Harbour in 1874, on a reef to bear later its namesake.6
- 1. E.W. Wright, Ed., Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: The Lewis and Dryden Printing Company, 1895), 72.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 120.
- 4. Wright, Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 72.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 575.
- Susan Sturges
According to
this document,
Susan Sturges was an American Schooner that sailed from
San Francisco to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From April 20th – May 11th of that year,
Susan Sturges visited
Mitchell Inlet in a quest for gold, but met with no success. She did, however, bring back a batch of spars, cut from
Haida Gwaii timbers, which made
Douglas bristle: here was a US ship taking liberties with what he considered British resources.
1 Greater drama ensued on another trip to the same region in Fall of the same year. The boat was plundered and burned by the Masset Haida, but accounts of the nature and details of the assault are divided.2 Captain Rooney, commander at the time, and his trade-contact Chief Edenshaw relate that the Masset swarmed the boat and that Edenshaw's wife came between Rooney and a musket barrel, thus preventing the assailant's shot, then Edenshaw ushered Rooney to a safe cabin.3 Then Edenshaw, to keep up appearances, joined in the looting, apparently to give back to Rooney the more critical objects Rooney would require, such as his chronometer.4
The Masset version is that Edenshaw merely pretended to befriend the White traders in order to subdue their defenses, and that it was another Masset chief, Scowell, that rescued Rooney and his men.5 Neither story alters that fact that the Susan Sturges met her fiery fate that day.
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 576.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 51.
- 4. Ibid., 52.
- 5. Ibid.
- HMS Sutlej
The Sutlej, a 75m-long, 3470-tonne steam vessel that boasted an armament of 35 guns,1 served as the flagship of the Royal Navy’s Pacific Fleet from 1863 to 1866.2 Originally a sailing vessel at the time of its launch in 1855, and switched to steam power in 1860,3 the Sutlej left Plymouth on 11 December 1862, and reached Esquimalt in June of the following year.4
The Sutlej saw its first major action in the Pacific during the “Chilcotin Uprising,” which arose from the alleged murder of 14 men at work on Waddington’s Road at the hands of a group of Chilcotin First Nations individuals.5 On June 18, 1864, the Sutlej ferried Kingcome, Governor Seymour, Brew, and a rifle corps to Bentinck Arm, where the search for the culprits began.6 On September 29, Begbie tried and executed Chilcotin Chiefs Klatsassin and Telloot, along with three other individuals found guilty of the murders.7
The Sutlej played a larger role in the “Ahousat Incident” that took place in August of 1864. The “Ahousat Incident” was the search for a group of Ahousat First Nations individuals who allegedly pillaged the sloop Kingfisher, and murdered its crew near Matilda Creek. The Sutlej, along with the Devastation, was responsible for much destruction of First Nations villages and property in the search that would ultimately be unsuccessful.8
The vessel, after which Pender named several British Columbia features, including Sutlej Channel, Sutlej Point, and Sutlej Reef,9 was broken up in 1869.10
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 576.
- 2. John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 478.
- 3. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 576.
- 4. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names, 478.
- 5. .P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 297-300.
- 6. Ibid, 300.
- 7. Ibid, 305.
- 8. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 114.
- 9. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names, 479.
- 10. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 576.
- HMS Swift, 1835-1866
HMS Swift was a Packet Brig of the Royal Navy; she was commanded in the Pacific by Commander William Cornwallis Aldham.1
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Swift, William Loney RN — Ships.
- Swiss Boy
According to
this despatch from 1859, a sodden and unfit-for-sea
Swiss Boy, a US merchant brig mastered by "
Mr. David K. Welden," entered
Barclay Sound, and was, as
Douglas relates, abandoned and thought to be "plundered" by "the natives."
The Swiss Boy had set off from Puget Sound, bound for San Francisco, with shipment of lumber, when, after taking on water, the ship was beached for repairs.1 On February 1st 1859, while beached, the Swiss Boy was boarded by Huu-ay-aht, and Tseshaht First Nations peoples; the masts, rigging, and sails were damaged, and the cabins and sailors were "plundered."2 The crew was only able to survive and escape by the assistance of "a highly intelligent and widely respected Makah or Cape Flattery chief, pilot and interpreter called Swell."3
The so-called Swiss Boy affair was investigated by Prevost, from the HMS Satellite, who was able to recover some of the missing material, and question those involved in the incident, who asserted that they had believed the Swiss Boy to be their property due to her location and "disabled state."4
- 1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 111.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- Tartar
According to
this despatch, as well as
this despatch, the
Tartar was a British vessel that sailed from Portsmouth on October 27th 1860, to
Victoria, with £6900 in sterling silver coins, which were to be delivered to the governor of
British Columbia.
- Tepic
According to
this document,
Tepic was an English brig that sailed from
San Francisco to
Haida Gwaii in 1852. From April 21st – May 15th of that year,
Tepic visited
Mitchell Inlet in a quest for gold, but met with no success.
- HMS Termagant, 1847-1867
The HMS
Termagant was 210 foot wooden screw frigate, with a builders measure of 1560 tonnes and a 24 gun armament.
1 According to
this despatch, the screw frigate
Termagant was to accompany two gun boats, presumably the
Forward and the
Grappler, from
St. Vincent to the service of West Coast waters, in 1859. The
Termagant, however, was destined for "the general service" at "the Station" at the River Plate, or Río de la Plata, on the eastern coast of Argentina.
Akrigg and Akrigg write that after the Termagant delivered the HMS Forward, and HMS Grappler to Esquimalt, she was dispatched for a tour of the Gulf Islands to Burrard Inlet with HMS Plumper, when she was “caught in the tiderips” and damaged her copper sheathing, and planking, and was freed from the rocks with several trees still caught in her rigging.2 The damage was so severe that she could not be fully repaired in Nanaimo and was forced to head for a drydock at San Francisco, "still leaking rather badly."3
In
this despatch, the
Termagant is mentioned as being moored in
Esquimalt Harbour, along with the vessels
Ganges,
Satellite,
Topaze,
Alert, and
Plumper, as well as the gunboats
Grappler and
Forward.
- 1. Peter Davis, Termagant, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 2. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 202.
- 3. Ibid.
- HMS Termagant, 1822-1824 [renamed Herald, fate: 1862]
HMS Herald was launched at Kochi, India, in 1822 as HMS Termagant, at which time she was a 28-gun, 454-tonne fighting vessel.1 In 1824, she was transformed into an 8-gun survey ship and renamed Herald.2
As Herald, she was commanded by Kellet for survey work off Central America in 1848 until, suddenly, Kellett was ordered to sail her to the Arctic Ocean as part of the search party for the missing Franklin expedition; indeed, Kellett would make three attempts to rescue Franklin, from 1848-50, but to no avail.3 In 1851, Kellett returned the Herald to England, whereafter, Captain Henry Denham employed her to survey the Fijian Islands until she was decommissioned in 1862.4
This document, from 1846, mentions that the
Herald, along with the
Pandora, was to provide "a Survey of the
Southern Shore of
Vancouvers Island."
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 259.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- Thames City, 1856
According to
this despatch,
Thames City was a freight ship of 557 tonnes chartered by the British government in 1858 to carry 119 men of the Royal Engineers and supplies to
Vancouver Island and the mainland. Also on board were
Wymond Ogilvy Hamley, customs collector, as indicated in
this document, and the
Reverend James Gammage as indicated in
this despatch.
After rounding
Cape Horn,
Thames City arrived safetly in
Esquimalt Harbour on
April 12th, 1859.
This document finds the ship, as well as the
Briseis, entangled in a brokarage dispute at
Victoria, one that threatens the landing of the Royal Engineers to move to the cheaper port at
Fraser River. An enclosure in the same despatch argues that the brokers at
Victoria—Shaw, Savill and Company—could not accept lower terms for service to
Fraser River due to risks of crew desertion and added insurance costs.
- HMS Thetis, 1846-55
HMS Thetis, named for the Greek sea nymph,1 was a 5th-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. From 1851-53 she was commanded on in the Pacific by Captain Kuper.2
HMS
Thetis gave her name to many places on and around
Vancouver Island including
Thetis Island, Lake, Cove, and anchorage.
3 She was part of a force, led by
Douglas, that went to
Cowichan Bay to arrest
Peter Brown's murderers, an incident that features
in several despatches.
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 588.
- 2. Peter Davis, HMS Thetis, William Loney RN — Ships.
- 3. Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames, 588.
- Topaze, 1858-1884
The HMS Topaze was a 235 foot British steam frigate, with a builders measure of 2659 tonnes.
1 According to
various despatches, the
Topaze was a gunboat, but served also as a survey vessel. According
this document, from October 1859, the
Topaze was ordered to the Pacific Station at
Valparaiso, along with the
Clio.
In
this despatch, the
Topaze was ordered to join British naval forces on the "North West Coast of America." The
Topaze appears to have remained in service at
Esquimalt Harbour in several capacities, until at least November 1866.
- 1. Peter Davis, Topaze, William Loney RN — Ships.
- Tory, 1834
According to
this despatch,
Tory sailed from England to
Vancouver Island, arriving in June, 1851. On board were aproximately 120 people, mostly employees of the Hudson's Bay Company and their families. Included in this group were
Edward E. Langford,
James Cooper, and
Mr. Blenkhorne.
This document notes that the
Tory's journey to
Victoria took seven months. According to
Moresby, the colonists, "the greater part being servants of the Hudson's Bay Company," were brought to the island to establish farms in
Victoria,
Esquimalt, and
Metchosin.
This Tory is not to be confused with the barque of the same name that carried settlers to New Zealand in 1841. This latter ship was owned by the New Zealand Company and was wrecked in the Philipines on January 23rd, 1841.1
- 1. A.H. McLintock, Ed., An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Volume 3 (Wellington: R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1966), 249.
- Traveller
According to
this document,
Traveller brought ammunition and guns to
CH Mason, acting governor of
Washington Territory, from
Governor Douglas in 1855.
- RMS Trent, 1841-1865
The RMS Trent was part of the first Royal Mail fleet, and was launched on October 2, 1841; she weighed 1856 tons.1
It was hardly an effecient craft: she was once reported to have made only “119 miles on 33 tons of coal” in one day.2
The Trent was involved in the “Trent Affair,” which began on November 8, 1861, when the USS San Jacinto removed two Confederate agents from the Trent on the open sea, a day’s sail from Havana, Cuba.3
Douglas mentions the dramatic incident in
this confidential letter. He writes that the
Trent “was boarded some time last month, on the high seas by an armed party detached from the United States Corvette "
Jacinto" under the Command of
Commodore Wilkes.”
Douglas recognizes the political gravity of the boarding, and warns that “complications may grow out of so rash and insolent an act, Endangering our friendly relations with the United States,” who were roughly seven months into their Civil War.
- 1. T.A. Bushell, Royal Mail, 1839-1939 (London: Trade and Travel Publications Ltd., 1939), 253.
- 2. Howard Robinson, Carrying British Mails Overseas (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1964), 228.
- 3. Ibid., 228-30.
- HMS Tribune, 1853-1866
HMS
Tribune was a 2,034-tonne steam frigate of the Royal Navy.
1 She was involved in both the Second Opium War and the Crimean War.
2 In 1858, HMS
Tribune and HMS
Pylades were sent, as confirmed in
this despatch, from China to
Victoria in order to strengthen the local naval presence, in light of the increasing population and US tensions over the boundary dispute.
3 As confirmed in
this despatch,
Tribune arrived in
Esquimalt Harbour on February 13th, 1859.
This depatch reports that she transported seven officers and one hundred and sixty non-commissioned officers and privates of the Royal Marines.
Later that year, under the command of
Captain Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby,
Tribune was involved in the diplomatic clashes of the
San Juan Island's "Pig War," evidence for which can be found in
this despatch, from August 1st, 1859, and
this despatch from August 8th of the same year.
Tribune returned to the Pacific Station for a second commission from 1864-66, after which she was dismantled.
4 - 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 602.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- HMS Trincomalee, 1817 - present
Trincomalee served on the Pacific Station from 1853-56, but its fame was rich enough that a fourteen-year restoration project finds it preserved today in Hartlepool, England, where she is a tourist attraction.1 Physically, she was impressive: a 24-gun, 1,312-tonne frigate sailing ship built of Malabar teak at Mumbai—2then Bombay—under the supervision of master shipbuilder Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia.3
She is mentioned in
several despatches, most notably perhaps in her capacity as an imposing presence during what
Douglas describes as "a very large assemblage of the native tribes" at
Victoria, who were, in his view, "well armed and equipped for war."
This same despatch goes on to report that, in light of Douglas's concerns, Captain Houstoun, commander at the time, agreed to waylay the Trincomalee's eventual departure for San Francisco until the threat of hostilities subsided.
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 603.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. HMS Trincomalee 1817, HMS Trincomalee—Construction, HMS Trincomalee Trust.
- Triumph, 1861-1869
This vessel had several lives and political allegiances. She was built in Scotland in 1861 as the merchant steamship Fingal.1
As Fingal, she ran a blockade at Savannah, Georgia in November of 1861, during the American Civil War, and was captured and converted into the CSS Atlanta: an “ironclad ram” built to attack Federalist warship blockades at ports and rivers along the same coast.2
As CSS Atlanta, she was forced to surrender after running aground during a battle in Wassau Sound, whereafter she was taken into Union service as the USS Atlanta.3
She was decommissioned at Philadelphia in June, 1865; however, she was apparently sold into service again in 1869 as the Hatian warship Triumph, a name she carried to her fate when she disappeared somewhere off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in December of that year.4
- SS Una, 1849-1851
Una was a 135-tonne brigantine bought in London by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1849, for £950, roughly $90,000 CAD in current money.1
In 1851, as recounted in
this 1852 despatch, and
another in 1853,
Una traveled to
Mitchell Inlet,
Haida Gwaii where she discovered gold. On her return, she was wrecked during a storm in
Neah Bay, near
Cape Flattery. The Indigenous people in the area plundered the ship and then set fire to her. The US schooner
Susan Sturges rescued
Una’s crew as well as part of her cargo.
- Venture
The Venture, later named Umatilla, was a stern-wheel steamship built by Thompson & Co at Five Mile Creek, near the Columbia River; she was 110 feet long and 22 feet wide.1
Her trial trip on the Columbia was indeed rife with trials, as she went over Cascade Rapids stern first and, eventually, caught up on a rock.2 Of the forty passengers, one man jumped overboard in a panic, and was lost to the frothy wash. She was floated off of her perch and bought by Ainsworth, Leonard & Green, who repaired her hull, renamed her Umatilla, and had her towed by the Columbia up to Victoria.3 From there, Ainsworth captained her on the Fraser for one trip only, before trading her for the steamer Maria, which had been barged up from San Francisco—upon which the Umatilla was loaded and towed to the same city.4
Among her more notable exploits, Umatilla was the first steamboat, on July 21st, 1858, to drive all the way up the Fraser River to Fraser Canyon,5 which she did once only due to the strain of the journey, and she was the first steamer to go over the Cascade rapids.6
In
this 1858 despatch,
Douglas mentions that he transferred to the
Umatilla during an expedition, which carried "a force of Thirty-five non-commissioned officers and men," to report on the state of affairs at
Fraser River.
- 1. E.W. Wright, Ed., Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: The Lewis and Dryden Printing Company, 1895), 72.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. G.P.V. Akrigg and H.B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 121.
- 6. Wright, Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 72.
- HMS Virago, 1842-1876
HMS Virago was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy. She was part of the 1854 Anglo-French squadron during the Crimean War.1
Virago is described
in several despatches, and from these, it appears she was sent to further Colonial coal interests, particularly at
Haida Gwaii. She served, also, as a temporary prison to one "Seakai," a man described in
this despatch as a "minor Chief," who was, apparently, involved in the sack and plunder of the
Susan Sturges.
- 1. Peter Davis, HMS Virago, William Loney RN — Ships.
- William Allen
This private correspondence describes the
William Allen as an "American Schooner." This same despatch notes her arrival to
Victoria on the 23rd of July, 1854, and that "the Collector of Customs denied Compliance with the application [to ply the coast] under the plea of the Schooner being a foreign bottom." A customs kerfuffle ensued, as referenced further in
this despatch, and
this despatch.
- Brig William
The
William, as noted in
this correspondence, was a British Brig that was wrecked near
Barkley Sound on January 1, 1854.
Captain John McIntosh, thought to be intoxicated at the time, perished in the wreck. The 14 survivors were taken to
Sooke under the guide of aboriginals.
1 The wreck of the William and the subsequent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding it led to the creation by Governor Douglas of a Vice Admiralty Court and the appointment of David Cameron as acting judge. It was later determined that Douglas did not have the authority to establish a Vice Admiralty Court.
- Wilson G. Hunt, 1849-1890
Wilson G. Hunt was a steamer built in New York in 1849; her original purpose was to ferry passengers and wares to Coney Island.1 However, she made her way to San Francisco in 1850 and was put immediately into river trade, much to the delight of her owners, who cleared one million dollars in a single year.2
She moved North to
Victoria in 1858, and ran the
New Westminster route for a time, afterwards, she replaced the
Constitution, which plied the
Puget Sound.
3 This 1869 despatch, for example, describes the "
Wilson G. Hunt" as a "a regular trader between
Victoria and the Ports on
Puget Sound."
From there, she was bought by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and placed on the Columbia, or Cascade, route under Captain John Wolf, where she ran until 1869, lucrative all the while.4 In the Autumn of her exemplary service, she was purchased by Captain John Irving, who had her brought back up the coast to work the Fraser River region, in unabashed competition with the HBC's Enterprise, but in 1881, she was sold to J. Spratt, and then back to Irving in 1890, her final year.5 She was dismantled and her iron parts sold to Cohn & Co. in San Francisco, and her hull burned, which would have taken considerable time as she was 185 feet long and nearly 26 feet wide.6
