Log of the Steamer Beaver 2

A Sailing ship in a bottle, from early 1900’s. This is not the Steamer Beaver, but it might represent the HBC ships Columbia, or Vancouver.

This is the continuation of the Log of the Steamer Beaver, a steamship that came from the London Docks on the Thames River to Fort Vancouver, under sail, in 1835 and 1836. It is an amazing journey to follow, even though the journals are only partially recovered. Much is missing from the story, and I am attempting to fill in the gaps with quotes and information from Thomas Lowe’s journal of his journey on the HBC ship Vancouver, from Gravesend to the Sandwich Islands in 1841 and 1842. So let us begin from Gravesend, on the Thames, where we left the Beaver and its crew in the last post, found here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/steamship-beaver/

On August 28, at 4 am, the ship, sailing under the control of a pilot, had “weighed anchor and proceeded toward Gravesend. 7 am., anchored off Gravesend. People employed the rest of the day fitting steering halyards, blocks, and gear.” On August 29 the wind was from the east: that is, blowing down the full length of the Lower Thames estuary. The Steamer Beaver‘s journal continues:

People variously employed. 3pm., Weighed anchor and found the stock gone. Dropped down to the head of Lea Reach.

I haven’t discovered in any of the maps available where Lea Reach was, but the Lea River flowed into the Thames from the north, and on its way to the Thames estuary it supplied London with much of its drinking water. As you see, the Steamer Beaver had lost its anchor stock: the stock of the anchor is the crossbar at the top end of the stock anchor (the typical anchor of the time), which has a shank, two arms with flattened ends called palms, at the bottom of the anchor. The stock, or crossbar, is at the top end of the shank, close to where the chain is attached. It prevents the anchor from lying flat on the bottom of the anchorage, so that its arms have to dig in and prevent the ship from drifting with wind or tide. (I think I’m right here: you can correct me if I am not).

The journal of the Steamer Beaver continues: 

August 30. Commenced with foggy weather and light airs from the north. 3.30 am., sent to Gravesend for an anchor stock. 7 am., Weighed anchor and proceeded down Lea Reach, wind east. At noon brought up in the lower part of the reach. 6 pm., Weighed anchor and proceed down the channel. 10 pm., anchored off the lower part of the wharf in six fathoms.

So let’s see what landmarks they might have passed. In 1841, Thomas Lowe tells us that the Vancouver sailed past “the Nore and Sheerness, and after proceeding slowly all day, moored for the night in North Foreland Bay, waiting the return of the Tide and daylight.” The Nore Light Vessel lay on the eastern extremity of the Nore Sand, 41 nautical miles from London Bridge. In 1792 the anchorage at the Nore was from 6 to 9 fathoms, and the anchorage of the Little Nore, to the east I presume, was nearly a mile from Sheerness Point. The Nore light was the first sea light that ships passed as they left the port of London.

Sheerness was a city at the mouth of the River Medway, a river which flowed into the Thames from the South, almost due south of the Nore Light. When they reached what Lowe called North Foreland Bay, the Vancouver was just outside the mouth of the Thames River, on the south side of the river mouth.

But the Steamer Beaver anchored just off the wharf — which wharf? Well, it was probably the Sheerness Pier, opened in 1835 and described by the National Piers Society, as “a very handsome pier or jetty, extending nearly five hundred yards over the bed of the Medway and beyond low water. Its main purpose was to enable steam packets to land and embark passengers at all times…” 

So in 1841, the Vancouver travelled further than the Steamer Beaver had done: but of course I haven’t told you yet that the Beaver was accompanied by the Columbia (of the same class of ship as the Vancouver). The Columbia would prove to be a much slower sailer than the Steamer Beaver: Perhaps the Columbia was already holding back the Beaver. But why?

Well, in 1835, the Columbia was captained by a man named William Darby, who on this journey would later be accused of being a drunkard and a thief by his second officer. If the Columbia also seems to be slower than the Vancouver in our story (and she will), in 1841-2 the captain of the Vancouver was Alexander Duncan, who was a superb sea-captain.

So we will attempt, in this series of posts, to discover whether or not the Vancouver was a faster sailer than the Columbia, or whether the Steamer Beaver (tho’ rigged as a sailing ship) was faster than both of them. From Sheerness Pier, the Beaver and the Columbia sailed for the Downs, bypassing Thomas Lowe’s North Foreland Bay, where the Vancouver would anchor on her first day away from Gravesend in 1841. From the Beaver‘s journal:

August 31. Commenced with fresh breeze from the northeast. 6 am., Weighed anchor and proceeded towards the downs. At noon, arrived in the downs and the pilot left us. This day’s log contained only twelve hours.

It is probably important to tell you now, that Thomas Lowe was only eighteen years old when he wrote his London Ship journal; he was a passenger aboard the Vancouver; and he did not know the Latitude and Longitude of the Vancouver at any point in time. He was joining the HBC fur trade as a clerk, she he travelled in the upper decks of the ship, and he also had access to Captain Alexander Duncan. Because of all this, he kept an excellent journal, even if it was not the official journal of the ship.

I note, too, that in 1841, the pilot also left the Vancouver at the Downs, so this was probably normal practice. The sea log: the normal sea log contained twenty four hours, and I think it ran from noon to noon. At the moment I do not know if the Steamer Beaver, and the Columbia, remained at the Downs for twenty four hours and sailed on September 1, and frankly I doubt they spent a lot of time there. Nevertheless, the next entry is dated September 1, 1835. So it seems (to me) that each day’s journey runs from noon on the day before the entry is dated, all the way to noon on the day of the entry. 

But first: the Downs. I always thought that downs in England were grassy highlands, bare of trees for the most part, where the race-horses trained. (Obviously, I read too many Dick Francis stories!) The Downs at the mouth of the Thames River are not highland meadows, however. It’s not even land, but a narrow strip of deep water that lies between the English coast and the Goodwin Sands, massive sandbars that lie offshore from the town and port of Deal, in Kent. The Goodwin Sands provide a naturally sheltered anchorage for hundreds of ships, large and small, and have done so for hundreds of years. In 1784, William Pitt set all the boats in the Deal anchorage ablaze because he suspected that some of the English luggers were involved in smuggling. (Of course they were.) 

The next entry in the log of the Steamer Beaver is this:

September 1. Commenced with moderate breeze from the east. At noon set the larboard fore-top-mast, lower and topgallant sail. 6 pm., shortened sail for the Columbia; Dungeness light bore E. by N., 8 miles. At 10 took in the steering sails, Beachy Head light bearing N.N.W. Midnight, Beachy Head light N.E. 1/2 E, distant about four leagues. 2 am. Set the steering sails larboard side. 10 am., Signal from the Columbia, wishing to speak [to] us. Dungeness light bore E. by N. 8 miles. Hove to for her and she reported the death of Mr. Carney, her chief mate.

As she sailed away from the Downs in 1841, the Vancouver was sailing at 8 knots per hour. According to Thomas Lowe’s journal, she too sailed past the Cliffs of Dover, the town of Dungeness, and Beachy Head. Dungeness was a hamlet, but also a headland with a wide pebbled beach which was dangerous to ships. It is Britain’s only desert! And, at 162 meters tall, it is also the highest chalk headland in Great Britain, and stands near Eastbourne, England.

The Steamer Beaver‘s journal reads: “September 2. Moderate breeze and clear weather; obliged to carry easy sail to keep in company with the Columbia. 4 pm., Set the starboard steering sails. 8 am., Set the starboard steering sails. [That might be a typo on my part, but it might also mean 8 am. on the following morning]. People employed in setting up topmast and topgallant rigging. Latitude 49 degrees, 46 minutes.

The lines of latitude are horizontal mapping lines on the earth’s surface, known as “parallels” of latitude because they run parallel to each other. Latitude lines are a numerical way to measure how far north or south of the equator a place or a ship is located. The equator is marked as 0 degrees latitude, and the North pole as 90 degrees North latitude. I live in Victoria, B.C., which is at 48 degrees N latitude. Because that 48 degrees is closer to 0 than the 49 degrees, 46 minutes N. Latitude taken for the present location of the steamer Beaver, that means that I live in a place that is almost two degrees closer to the equator than the location of the Beaver at that time. So, as we sail south down the Atlantic Ocean, we will see the Latitude number lower until they reach 0 degrees, and then they will rise again.

September 3. Commenced with fresh breeze and clear weather [at noon]. 5.30 pm., Sent the royal up and set the sail. 8 pm., Shortened sail for the Columbia. Midnight, light wind, variable winds and clear weather. 11 pm., Take in the topgallant steering sail. Latitude 48 degrees, 55 minutes. Longitude, 7 degrees, 44 minutes West.  

Now we have a Longitude measurement. Longitude lines are the vertical mapping lines on Earth, and are known as Meridians. Think of an orange and its segments: segments that run up down through the North and South Poles. They represent the lines of Longitude, which are measurements taken to show how far East or West a place or a ship is from the Prime Meridian — the line that runs through the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The measurement above means that the ship is now 7 degrees, 44 minutes West of the Prime Meridian, and the numbers will only go higher the further west the ship travels. 

There are 180 vertical longitude lines west of the Prime Meridian, and 180 vertical longitude lines to the east of the Prime Meridian. As we proceed through this sea journey, we will see the Longitude number rise the further they sail toward the West. I don’t, however, think that they cross the 180 degree line in Longitude, and so we will not need to deal with the single vertical line called the International Date Line, which lies directly opposite the Prime Meridian. On maps it lurches all over the centre of the Pacific Ocean, curving to pass between Alaska and Russia, and zigzagging to keep all the island land masses that belong together, together. This is the line that separates two calendar dates. If you are travelling east you subtract a day as you cross it: travelling west you add a day. The International Date Line is a political animal that can be moved around at the whim of a government. However, do not despair! The Nautical Date Line also exists, and it follows the 180 degrees meridian from the North Pole straight to the South Pole. It does not move at all: and that is the line that mariners and others use to locate themselves on the earth’s surface. 

Clear as mud? We may have some difficulty in future posts. I noticed that either the sea captain, or more likely the transcriber of the Steamer Beaver‘s journal, did not use North and South Longitude when copying out the journal. We may have some difficulty discovering whether they are in the North Atlantic still, or the south. I don’t yet know when they crossed the equator in the Atlantic, and there were traditions that sailors celebrated as they sailed across that not-so-imaginary line. The trade winds blew between certain latitudes and not at others, so we will have to guess at that experience as well. I wish we had the full journal, but we do not.

By the way, my next book, The HBC Brigades, will (with luck) be published in May, 2024. I may be a little busy for a while!

When the next journal entry is published, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/beavers-log/ 

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024!!!! All rights Reserved. 

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