USS activeActive
According to this despatch, activeActive was a US paddle steamer. In 1856, a group of Indigenous people associated with the
British colony were mistaken as hostile by the commander of the activeActive and taken into custody. Douglas intervened, the group was released and their weapons
returned.
This 1857 despatch reports that the activeActive arrived in Victoria, carrying the American Boundary Commissioner Archibald Campbell,
who was to discuss boundary issues with the British Commissioner Captain Prevost.
The activeActive was part of the highly competitive Victoria - Portland - San Francisco
run and it became part of the North Pacific Transportation Company's fleet in the
1850s and 60s.1 An advertisement poster from 1867 lists the activeActive as part of California Steam Navigation Company's steamship line.2
- 1. Will Lawson, Pacific Steamers (Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., 1927), 198-199.
- 2. California Steam Navigation Company, University of Washington Libraries.
Mentions of this vessel in the documents
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Douglas, Sir James to Labouchere, Henry 19 May 1856, CO 305:7, no. 7189, 41.
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The Colonial Despatches: Active Pass
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Douglas, Sir James to Labouchere, Henry 29 June 1857, CO 305:8, no. 8654, 77.