The pioneer steamship of the Northern Pacific was the _Beaver_, whose history from first to last was a very romantic one. This vessel was built at Blackwall, on the Thames, by Messrs. Green, Wigram and Green, for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and was launched in 1835 in the presence of 150,000 spectators, including William IV. and many of the English nobility. Cheers from thousands again greeted her in answer to the farewell salute of her guns when she sailed away for the New World. The _Beaver_ was a side-wheel steamer, 101.4 feet long, 20 feet beam, and 11 feet deep; tonnage, 109. Her machinery, made by Boulton & Watt, was placed in position, but the paddle-wheels were not attached. She was rigged as a brig, and on August 27th sailed for the Pacific under canvas, in command of Captain Home, with the barque _Columbia_ as her consort. On March 19th, 1836, the _Beaver_ dropped anchor at the mouth of the Columbia River, having made the voyage in 204 days. In her log-book it is recorded on May 16th: “Carpenters stripping paddle-wheels. At 4 p. m. engineers got up steam, tried the engines, and found to answer very well; at 5 o’clock, came to anchor, and moored in our old berth; at 8 o’clock all hands were mustered to ‘splice the main brace’”—a nautical phrase used in reference to the custom, less common now than then, of celebrating particular events by serving out a liberal supply of rum. The _Beaver_ went into service without delay, running up and down the coast, in and out of every bay, river and inlet between Puget Sound and Alaska, collecting furs and carrying goods for the company’s posts. [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.]