HBC Ships in the Pacific
I have accidentally discovered that some of the HBC ships that ran up and down the Pacific Coast were larger than I expected them to be! As you see in…
Read moreConstructing Fort Victoria
There is actually very little information on the actual work of constructing Fort Victoria, on the southern coast of the HBC’s Vancouver’s Island, and Roderick Finlayson’s journals may give us…
Read moreJohn McLoughlin in 1841
Fort Vancouver’s Chief Factor, John McLoughlin, had little to do with the building of Fort Victoria, and nothing at all to do with its management, in spite of the fact…
Read moreThe building of Fort Victoria
In summer 1843, Fort Victoria was built on Camosun Harbour or Inlet, on the southern end of Vancouver’s Island. Although it was at first sometimes called Fort Albert, that name…
Read moreFort Durham’s Closure
Clerk Thomas Lowe finally arrived at Fort Durham (sometimes called Fort Taku) in April 1842, and his letters now tell the story of what happened at this turbulent northwest coast…
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