Colonial Despatches

Recovery was a 154-tonne brigantine bought by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1852.1 It 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 it ran into the same gale that 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 it the Recovery.

In 1852 it was sent to find gold at Haida Gwaii under the command of Captain John F. Kennedy.3 From 1852-58 it was commanded by William Mitchell who took it on various trading runs to Hawaii.4

During the gold rush of 1858 it was stationed on the Fraser River as a guard ship and involved with issuing mining licenses.5 It was eventually sold to Lennard and Green of Portland, who used it for trade to Hawaii and China.6

• 1. Judith Hudson Beattie and Helen M. Buss, eds., Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003), 413.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.
• 6. Ibid., 414.