Colonial Despatches

lord_westernLord Western was a British Barque of 539 tonnes.1

In 1853 it 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 otterOtter to rescue the four men, who returned to Victoria on December 26th.3

This despatch, from 1854, describes in detail the lord_westernLord 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.