American Historical Ephemera & Photography

8 1/4 x 6 in. albumen photograph on mount with printed title and caption. Framed, 18 x 15 1/2 in. (not examined out of frame, wear including light soiling and some image loss to upper edge and lower left edge, spotting to mount), with thick nautical rope attached decoratively to frame perimeter. Titled "'Beaver'" and captioned, "The Pioneer Steamer, now lying on the rocks in the Narrows, Burrard Inlet, B.C., the first to ply on the Pacific waters. Sailed from the Thames and rounded the Horn in 1835." Printed article affixed to verso tells the history of the steamer and features pencil inscription at bottom reading "Launched by King William the 4th." 

The steamer Beaver was originally owned and operated by the Hudson's Bay Company, being the first of her kind of operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America, first commanded by Captain Horne, then Captain McNeil, running fur trading routes off the west coast of Canada. She ran aground on the rocks in Burrard Inlet at Prospect Point in Vancouver's Stanley Park in 1888.