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SS Beaver off the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, 1836
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The SS Beaver sidewheeler, the first steamship off the coast of British Columbia, 1836. The weather is rough and stormy, similar to what it often encountered. Reference was supplied by the Maritime Museum in Victoria. Built in 1835 the Beaver was, according to one marine historian, one of the most historic vessels ever built. Indeed, the whole history of the British Columbia coast, for half a century, is linked to the career of this sturdy pioneer steamboat. Referred to by one archivist as possibly the sturdiest craft of her size as was ever afloat, the Beaver was the steamer-flagship of the Hudsons Bay Company of England, and truly ruled the rugged coastline of the Pacific Northwest until 1888. Built in England, the Beaver undertook a week's steam trials in the English Channel on June 25th, 1835 and passed them with flying colours. She subsequently made the long 225 day journey around the Horn with her machinery and paddlewheels dismantled. She was rigged as a brigantine and proved to be an excellent sea vessel. She sailed up to Fort Vancouver on April 10th, 1835, and raised steam in the following May. For the next 52 years she navigated the waters of the Pacific Northwest, first as a trading vessel and eventually as a freighter and tug. She was the first steamship in the north Pacific. On December 21, 1870, the Beaver was taken out of commission and handed over to the Hudsons Bay Company. Four years later she was auctioned off and finished her career as a tug and supply vessel until she was wrecked off Prospect Point in 1888. |
