The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
HMS Scout
In August 1866, the HMS Scout ferried Governor Kennedy on a tour around Vancouver Island in an attempt to establish
peaceful relations with the First Nations groups on the west coast.1 The Scout once again served in this capacity in 1873, when the vessel conveyed Lieutenant-Governor
Trutch and Attorney General McCreight to the Skeena during the “Skeena War” in an
attempt to placate members of the Gitsegukla First Nation.2
1. Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 123-124.