Beaver National Historic Event
Vancouver, British Columbia
Address :
Multiple plaque locations - Fort Langley and Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1923-05-25
Other Name(s):
-
Beaver
(Designation Name)
Importance:
First steam vessel on the Pacific Northwest Coast
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Parking lot in front of Visitor Centre, Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada 23433 Mavis Avenue, Langley, British Columbia
The Beaver, the first steamship on the North Pacific Ocean, was a wooden paddle boat of 190 tons built in England, in 1835, for the Hudson's Bay Company. For over twenty years she was supply ship to Company posts on the Northwest Coast. During and after the 1858 gold rush she carried freight and passengers between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Subsequently chartered to the British Admiralty, she was used as a hydrographic survey ship between 1863-70. Sold in 1874, and in her final years used as a towboat, she was wrecked here at Prospect Point, at the entrance to Vancouver Harbour, in 1888.
Original Plaque: Prospect Point, Stanley Park National Historic Site of Canada Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia
Here, on 26th July, 1888, the Steamer "Beaver" was wrecked.
This historic vessel was built for the Hudson's Bay Company at Blackwall, England, in 1836, sailed for this coast immediately and was the pioneer steamship of the Pacific Ocean.
The story of the "Beaver" is the story of the early development of the western coast of Canda.