Accident to the Beaver

A Sailing ship in a bottle, from early 1900’s

In 1850, the Chilkat First Nations, who lived in Lynn Canal, did not cross Chilkat Pass into the Yukon River on their annual trading expedition with the Northern Tutchone [Selkirk First Nations] and other First Nations who lived along that river. Until now, I had no idea why: I thought it could be part of the epidemics of the time which sickened them, preventing them from walking over the steep mountain trail into the upper Yukon River. And if that was the cause, then measles was a likely culprit: after all, a crew member aboard the steamer Beaver had measles, and wherever the Beaver traded, measles sickened members of local First Nations communities.

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The measles crossed the continent, from east to west, and arrived at Sutter’s post, on the Sacramento River, in 1846 or 1847. It spread north to the Columbia basin in the summer of 1847, hopping a ride with a group of Indigenous men who had traded at Sutter’s post. The disease spread rapidly through the Indigenous communities in the Columbia basin, and eventually reached as far north as Fort Alexandria, on the Fraser River, in late winter 1847-1848. It sickened many, but killed no one (as far as A.C. Anderson knew), and it mostly disappeared from that post in the spring. But Anderson heard that the disease still raged at Kamloops and Fort Colvile, to the south.  

The measles also travelled up the coast: In January 1848, the illness struck hard at the northwest coast post of Fort Simpson, and 250 First Nations people died. In February 1848, Indigenous men carrying letters from Fort Nisqually brought the news of the Waiilaptu Massacre to Fort Victoria, and Roderick Finlayson also heard that “the measles are very prevalent about [Forts] Vancouver & Nisqually.” In March the disease appeared among the Songhees people that surrounded the Vancouver’s Island fort. In early April it was sickening residents of Fort Victoria, and in mid-April, men in a canoe came from Fort Langley with the news that many were sickened at that place. Shortly after that, the Beaver arrived from Fort Simpson, carrying the news that “measles appears to have carried off many during the winter in the North.” The Beaver must have spent her winter at Fort Simpson in 1847, and not at Fort Nisqually.

In November 1849 the measles reached Fort Stikine, an HBC fort at the mouth of the Stikine River. Over the winter of 1849-1850, the contagious diseases [a mix of measles and dysentery] devastated the Tlingit people on the coast: one of the persons the measles killed was Seix, the Stikine chief who intimidated Robert Campbell in 1837, and chased Peter Skene Ogden away from the mouth of the Stikine River in 1834.

From Fort Stikine, the disease could have moved inland with First Nations men who attended the massive rendezvous held every summer on the upper Stikine River, which was attended by both the Tlingits from the coast, and the Tahltan people in the interior. It is not hard to imagine the measles spreading from the Tahltans who lived near Dease Lake [northern BC], to the Kaska Dene on the upper Liard River and the E’spatotena Kaska at Frances Lake and Pelly Banks, before finally reaching the Pelly River. However, an easier and simpler explanation might be that the Interior Tlingit men who passed through Fort Selkirk in May 1850, on their way to the coast, returned to the Yukon River in summertime, carrying the diseases with them. 

But I didn’t have the impression it was measles on the Yukon River, although some illness was definitely sickening people up there. Robert Campbell thought it was mumps, and as a Scotsman he would have recognized that disease. So did measles reach the Yukon River? I do not know.

But the other thing that happened that summer is very interesting and quite unusual: the Beaver did not trade with the Chilkats that summer. A modern researcher (and I don’t remember who) said that the Beaver’s absence on the northwest coast was the reason for the Tlingit Chilkats not crossing over the pass into the Yukon River basin on their annual trading journey. I thought that was possible, and so I have been looking for this story for quite some time.

I finally found it, in The Fort Victoria Letters, 1846-1851.

Here is the story as I discovered it: and I might find out more as I work my way through the chapter of the book I am now writing. 

On March 9 [1850], “About 10 am, the Beaver left for Fort Simpson & Fort Rupert having Chief Factor [John] Work & family, with Mr. [George] Blenkinsop as passengers. About noon a boat having an English flag flying entered the harbour, which proved to belong to H.M. Steam Sloop Driver, Captain Johnstone [Johnson], which anchored off point Ogden. About 11 1/2 am Governor [Richard] Blanshard of this Island as passenger on board  the Driver & takes up his residence at this place.”

Not that he had a residence at the place: it would not be ready for the next month or so. As a result, he stayed aboard the Driver as it travelled to Fort Nisqually, and then up the east side of Vancouver’s Island to Fort Rupert, a coal mining post on the north east coast of Vancouver’s Island. On his return to Fort Victoria on April 3, Blanshard reported that the steamer Beaver had struck a rock off Beaver Harbour, but that little damage had been done.

Clearly, Governor Richard Blanshard really had no idea how much damage had been done: The captain of the Driver must have carried letters south to Fort Victoria, which advised James Douglas of the seriousness of the accident that had just occurred to the Beaver. On that same day, Douglas wrote a letter to the London Committee which advised them that:

Captain [William Henry] McNeill reports that the Company’s Steam vessel Beaver met with a serious accident on her return to Fort Simpson, having ran foul of a rock off Beaver harbour going full speed. She was hawled [sic] on the beach, in that harbour, and it took eight days to repair her, so that she could proceed on the voyage. She was making one inch of water per hour, when she arrived at Fort Rupert. Her main keel is supposed to be split, and must be well looked to when she is repaired at Sitka. We expect her here about the 10th Inst….

The work to be done at Sitka must already have been arranged: that is, the replacing of her copper sheathing, which would have been wearing thin over the years. On May 15, 1850, Douglas reported from Fort Victoria that: “The damage caused by the accident which occurred to this vessel off Beaver Harbour, as communicated in a former letter, was temporarily repaired at Fort Simpson…

and she is considered capable of getting through the work proposed, previous to her final repairs at Sitka. Chief Factor Work in reference to that accident, remarks that no blame can be attached to Captain [Charles] Dodd nor any one on board, as the Officers were on deck, and there was no break on the rock nor even sea-weed to indicate the danger. 

The Steam vessel was again dispatched on a voyage to Forts Rupert and Langley, with the Barque Cowlitz in tow on the 15th Ultimo [April]. They will proceed direct to Fort Rupert, to land the provisions and trading goods for the year, the timber for a miners gin, a reinforcement of one Officer and sixteen men, 13 head of neats [neat cattle]…. They will afterwards call at Fort Langley, to land the Outfits of New Caledonia, Fort Colvile, Thompson’s River, and for the servants sale shop. They will afterwards return to this place with all the Frasers River Salmon on hand.

Oh, dear — this is when the Cowlitz “grounded on a bar in passing out of Frasers River and has sustained serious injury chiefly in consequence of her position, when aground: having sixteen feet of water under the stern, while from the stern to the after part of the fore chainwales, she was firmly fixed in the sand; with only a few inches of water. She was making half an inch of water an hour on her arrival.” This is the end of the Cowlitz: she returned to London to be sold, and was replaced by the Norman Morison.

But at this moment in time, the newly-damaged Cowlitz is being towed around by the recently damaged Beaver. But in this same letter, written on July 3, 1850, Douglas reports that:

The Steam Vessel left this on the 22nd June, [1850] on her return to Fort Simpson and will from thence proceed to Sitka to undergo repairs. 

She would have reached Sitka in early July, 1850. We hear nothing of the Beaver at all, until February 24, 1851, when Douglas reports that: “The Steam Vessel Beaver arrived here from Fort Simpson, on the 16th inst. [February] and on the 17th the Mary Dare cast up from the Sandwich Islands…

the Steam Vessel has been completely repaired at Sitka. Almost the only defects found were about the bows, a part of the Main Keel 10 ft. long was replaced; and also the felt, sheathing and Copper. She was carefully caulked and is now considered capable of running 10 Years longer, without under-going any extensive repairs. 

So, it is clear that the Beaver did not visit the Chilkats on Lynn Canal this summer. That might be the reason the Chilkats did not visit their trading partners on the Yukon River, because of having none of the trading goods they would have received from the Beaver. Or it might be the measles that severely sickened the Chilkats that year — or it might have a combination of the two. I do not know. But I did enjoy locating and learning this story at last.

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved. 

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