Colonial Despatches

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 (1822), The Victorian Royal Navy (website). http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1911
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Patrick Marioné, Portland, Age of Nelson.
• 4. Ibid.