The Beaver 1834

The Beaver, The Hudson’s Bay Company’s 1835 Steam Ship, by Howard Smith, 2009, Mixed media Wood burn with acrylic and ink , Dimensions of the original are 9.5” x 12” x 1/2"

The Beaver was the first power ship to arrive on the West Coast of British Columbia. She became a very special ship, mainly because she survived for over fifty years becoming a legend in a new land that needed to create its own new legends. By luck rather than intent documentation on the Beaver has survived the passage of some 160 years. Beaver’s work on the Pacific Coast ended when she was wrecked at the entrance to Burrard Inlet (Vancouver Harbour) in 1888 ending her long career on the coast as the first steamship on the coast, the base ship for the Royal Navy’s hydrographic surveys, as a towboat and a general freighter.