Beaver (steamship) - Service in Canada

Service in Canada

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 also provided assistance to the Royal Navy at Bute Inlet during the Chilcotin War.

Initially she had a rectangular boiler, generating steam pressure at under 3 psi, and was fed by seawater. Boulton and Watt engines are not pressure engines, rather they are vacuum engines. . The salt water played havoc with the boilers as the salinity rusted the wall thickness of the boiler which would rot out. The Beaver had to have a new boiler every seven years or so and went through multiple installations over her career. Over time the boiler pressure was upped, and the large 42 inch cylinders were replaced with 36 inch diameter ones.

The Beaver played roles in the establishment of coal mines at Fort Rupert, and later in 1853, Nanaimo. The Beaver helped the Hudson's Bay Company establish Fort Victoria as a post in 1843. It would also ferry dignitaries like the Governor back and forth between the two colonies of New Caledonia.

In her later life the Beaver burned coal and would hire young Natives of the Squamish nation to work the holds as coal passers. She was finally sold by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1874.