The Beaver was the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Launched 2 May, 1835, the Beaver was used to service trading posts maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company between Puget Sound and Alaska. In 1862 she was chartered by the Royal Navy to survey and chart the coast of what is now the province of British Columbia. She was finally sold by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1874, and served until 25 July, 1888 when she went aground on rocks at Prospect Point in Vancouver, British Columbia's Burrard Inlet. The wreck finally sank in July, 1892, but the site of the sinking, just offshore from Vancouver's Stanley Park, is commemorated by a plaque.

Statistics

• Length: 100' 9"
• Beam: 20'
• Draught: 8' 6"
• Displacement: 109 Tons
• Power: 2 x 35 horsepower Boulton & Watt steam engines driving two 13' diameter paddlewheels
• Builder: Green, Wigram & Green, Blackwall Yard, London, England

External links

• An article on the Beaver from the Vancouver Maritime Museum

Victorian era merchant ships of Canada | Victorian era merchant ships of the United States | Shipwrecks of the Canadian Pacific coast