Beaver (steamship)

The "Beaver" was the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

The Beaver was built in London of British oak, elm, greenheart and teak, copper fastened and sheathed. Her length was 101 feet, beam over the paddle boxes 33 feet. Launched 9 May 1835.... left London on 29 August under the command of Captain David Home, and with the company's barque, Columbia, built at the same time and commanded by Captain Darby. The Beaver was outfitted as a brig for the passage out, paddles unshipped, and came out via Cape Horn under sail alone. After calling at Juan Fernandez and Honolulu, she arrived off the Columbia River 18 March 1836.... anchored off Fort Vancouver 10 April. Here the paddles were shipped and boilers and engines connected.Launched in Blackwall London, the "Beaver" was used to service trading posts maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company between the Columbia River and Russian America (Alaska) and played an important role in helping maintain British control in British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858-59. In 1862 she was chartered by the Royal Navy to survey and chart the coast of the Colony of British Columbia. She was finally sold by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1874. Loggers bought her and used her for a towboat and served until 25 July 1888 when she went aground, due to an inebriated crew, on rocks at Prospect Point in Vancouver's Stanley Park. The wreck finally sank in July 1892 from the wake of the passing steamer Yosemite, and only after enterprising locals stripped much of the wreck for souvenirs. The Vancouver Maritime Museum houses a collection of "Beaver" remnants. The site of the sinking has been commemorated with a plaque. Divers surveyed the wreck in the 1960s, but it had mostly disintegrated due torot and currents.

Statistics

*Power: 2 x 35hp (26 kW) Boulton & Watt steam engines driving two 13' (4m)- diameter paddlewheels
*Builder: Green, Wigram & Green, Blackwall Yard, London, England

See also

* William Henry McNeill
* Steamboats of the Columbia River
* List of steamboats on the Columbia River
* List of ships in British Columbia

Image Gallery

External links

* Horner, John B. (1921). " [http://books.google.com/books?id=J8IdAAAAMAAJ Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature] ". The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland
* [http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/page212.htm An article on the "Beaver" from the Vancouver Maritime Museum.] Pethick, Derek, The SS Beaver. 1974