[Illustration: THE LAST OF THE OLD “BEAVER.”]
On March 13th, 1843, the _Beaver_ arrived at Camosun with Factor Douglas and some of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s people to found the Fort Victoria, and the first salute which echoed in what is now Victoria harbour, was fired on the 13th of June, when the fort was finished and the company’s flag hoisted.[65] “The old steamer _Beaver_,” as she was called, continued her rounds under different owners with remarkable regularity and success until the fatal trip in July, 1888, when she went on the rocks near the entrance to Vancouver harbour, and was totally wrecked.
[Illustration: THE STERNWHEELER “NELSON,” AT NELSON, B. C.]
It was fourteen years after the arrival of the _Beaver_ before much effort was made at steam-boating in these waters. About that time several small steamers were built on the Columbia River. In 1852 the Hudson’s Bay Company had another vessel built at Blackwall: this was the _Otter_, a screw steamer of 220 tons, with a pair of condensing engines by Penn, of Greenwich, which took the first prize at the London Exhibition in 1851. The _Otter_ left London in January 1853, and arrived at Victoria five months later. The year 1858 witnessed a boom in steam navigation, consequent upon the rush and wild excitement of gold-seekers to the Fraser River and Cariboo. “The _Surprise_ first woke the echoes in the grand mountain gorges in the wild regions of Fort Hope with the shrill scream of the steam-whistle, and astonished the natives with her wondrous power in breasting successfully the fierce current of the now world-renowned Fraser. That wild and unearthly yell of the imprisoned steam escaping into the free air of heaven must have astonished the denizens of those mountain fastnesses and startled man and beast into the belief that some uncanny visitor, not of earth, had dropped in upon their solitude.” The _Surprise_ was followed by a fleet of small steamboats built in the United States. Among those were the _Ranger_ and _Maria_—mere steam launches of about 40 feet in length. The _Maria_ was brought up from San Francisco in a barge. The first boat built in British Columbia was the _Governor Douglas_, a good-sized sternwheeler which commenced to ply between Victoria and the Fraser River in 1859. Among the other notable boats were the Seabird and the _Eliza Anderson_. The former carried immense crowds, but drew too much water for the river trade. The latter was a side-wheeler, built in Portland, 140 feet long, and of registered tonnage, 279. On her arrival at Victoria in 1859 she commenced a career of money-making which has seldom been equalled. After these appeared the _Umatilla_, _Enterprise_ and _Colonel Moody_, the last-named being the fastest yet built for this route. All the light-draught boats were then, as they are now, stern-wheelers. About this time another and larger vessel arrived from London, the _Labouchere_, a side-wheel steamer, of 680 tons register, 202 feet long, 28 feet beam, and 15 feet hold. She continued running up north until 1865, when she was granted a subsidy of $1,500 a trip to carry mails between Victoria and San Francisco, but was lost on her first voyage. In 1861 more steamboats were built than in any previous year. Nearly a dozen were added to those already plying on the rivers and lakes, and the subsequent progress in steam navigation was continuous. The entrance of mining prospectors into the Kootenay country in 1886 led to the necessity of increased transportation on the Columbia River, which has gone on increasing until now on that river and the Kootenay lakes there are some of the finest river steamers in the Dominion, fitted with every comfort and appliance that experience can suggest. The development of the coast wise trade has also led to the building of special steamers both in British Columbia and also in England. The coal mines at Nanaimo and the Comox district also find employment for a large quantity of steam tonnage.[66] The aggregate amount at the four ports of Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Westminster for 1895 was: Arrivals, 1,496,409 tons; departures, 1,513,233 tons. There are at present registered in British Columbia 161 steamboats with a tonnage of 24,153.