The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Alice
James Cooper constructed the Alice, a 44-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 Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 132.