The Labouchere was a paddle steamer in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, built in 1858 at Green's in Blackwall, London, England. [1] Under the command of Captain J. Trivett it was mostly in service in British Columbia and the rest of the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s and 1860s, including the Stikine lisière in Russian America. In 1859, its then-captain John Swanson was elected by a "celebrated" majority of one (there was only one qualified elector) in the colonial riding of Nanaimo for the Legislative Assembly of the Colony of Vancouver Island. [2]
In 1862 the Labouchere, while trading in Russian America (now Alaska), was nearly captured by aboriginal people presumably of the Tligit tribe, as reported by George Davidson, Assistant United States Coast Survey: "In May, 1862, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred of the Indians on the west side of Chatham Strait, and about twenty-five miles north of Icy Strait, seized the captain and chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Labouchere, of seven hundred tons, on the quarter-deck, and taking possession of the vessel drove the crew forward. But parleying took place, and the crew having a large gun trained aft, agreed to fire off their rifles, the Indians afterwards doing the same, and finally leaving the vessel, which at night quietly steamed away and was afraid to return for a year. It is but just to the Indian chiefs to say that when the vessel returned they covered her deck with fine sea-otter and other skins as a present to the captain and trader and a token of peace." [3]
By 1865-66 the Labouchere served the San Francisco to Victoria run. On its second run on that route, under the command of W.A. Mouat and carrying 100 passengers and cargo on behalf of Faulkner, Bell & Co., the Labouchere was grounded in heavy fog off Point Reyes after disembarking San Francisco on 14 April 1866 and, after backing off the reef and staying offshore overnight, sank on the morning of the 15th. One of eight lifeboats was swamped, incurring the loss of two lives. Those in the lifeboats were picked up by Rescue ; 23 men who had stayed on board were rescued by the Italian fishing vessel Andrew just before the Labouchere sank beneath the waves. [4]
Labouchere Channel and Labouchere Point, on the northeast end of King Island in the Dean Channel area of the Central Coast of British Columbia, near Bella Coola, and Labouchere Passage near Drury Inlet farther south, are named after the Labouchere. The vessel was named for Henry Labouchere who was colonial secretary from 1855 to 1858. [5] : 147 Labouchere Bay on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska was named for the sidewheeler Labouchere.
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.
The Inside Passage is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeastern Alaska in the United States, through western British Columbia in Canada, to northwestern Washington state in the United States. Ships using the route can avoid some of the bad weather in the open ocean and may visit some of the many isolated communities along the route. The Inside Passage is heavily travelled by cruise ships, freighters, tugs with tows, fishing craft, pleasure craft, and ships of the Alaska Marine Highway, BC Ferries, and Washington State Ferries systems. Coast Guard vessels of both Canada and the United States patrol and transit in the Passage.
SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with SS Princess Adelaide, SS Princess Alice, and SS Princess Mary, Princess Sophia was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911.
The Farallon Steamship Disaster was the wreck of a wooden Alaska Steamship Company passenger liner, SS Farallon, that hit Black Reef in Cook Inlet in the Territory of Alaska on 5 January 1910. All on board evacuated to a nearby island, where most had to survive for a month in a mid-winter climate before they were rescued. Six other survivors survived an attempt to row across Shelikof Strait in search of rescue for the stranded men.
De Courcy Island is one of the Gulf Islands of the coast of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located between the Pylades and Stuart Channels approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) southeast of Nanaimo and approximately 38 km (24 mi) west of Vancouver.
SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons, one year after the construction of her sister ship Caracas. She was a 1,598-ton vessel, 252 feet (77 m) in length. In 1897, Valencia was deliberately attacked by the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next year, she became a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast and served periodically in the Spanish–American War as a troopship to the Philippines. Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906. As her sinking killed 100 people, some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.
Johnstone Strait is a 110 km (68 mi) channel along the north east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Opposite the Vancouver Island coast, running north to south, are Hanson Island, West Cracroft Island, the mainland British Columbia Coast, Hardwicke Island, West Thurlow Island and East Thurlow Island. At that point, the strait meets Discovery Passage which connects to Georgia Strait.
Discovery Passage is a strait that forms part of the Inside Passage between Vancouver Island and the Discovery Islands of British Columbia. The strait is considered the most important natural passage for vessels' entering or leaving the Salish Sea from the north.
Active Pass is a strait separating Galiano Island in the north and Mayne Island in the south in the southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. It connects the Trincomali Channel in the west and the Strait of Georgia in the east. The pass stretches 5.5 km from northeast to southwest with two roughly right-angle bends, one at each end.
The Queen Charlottes Gold Rush was a gold rush in southern Haida Gwaii of what is now the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1851.
The steamboat George E. Starr operated in late 19th century as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet and also operated out of Victoria, B.C. Geo. E. Starr also served for a time in California and on the Columbia River.
Sechelt was an American steamship which operated from 1893 to 1911 on Lake Washington, Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, mostly as a passenger ferry with routes between Washington state and British Columbia. For most of her career, she was called Hattie Hansen. She became well known following her unexplained sinking with no survivors near Race Rocks Lighthouse in 1911.
TSMV Shanklin was a passenger ferry that operated between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight between 1951 and 1980. Renamed Prince Ivanhoe she went on to become a pleasure cruiser in the Bristol Channel but in 1981 sank off the Welsh coast on her first season.
USC&GS Carlile P. Patterson was a survey ship of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in operation between 1883 and 1918. Subsequently, she had a brief period of naval service and fifteen seasons as a merchant vessel before she was wrecked on the Alaska coast in 1938.
Fitz Hugh Sound, sometimes spelled Fitzhugh Sound, is a sound on the British Columbia Coast of Canada, located between Calvert Island and the mainland.
William Alexander Mouat was a British seafarer. Born in London, he spent much of his career with the Hudson's Bay Company in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. He became master of several merchant ships including the Otter and the Labouchere. His last posting was at Fort Rupert where he died in a canoe accident. He was married to Mary Ann Ainsley and they had eight children.
SS (RMS) Mona's Isle (III), No. 76304, the third ship in the company's history to be so named, was a paddle steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company until she was purchased by The Admiralty in 1915.
Stuart Channel is a strait in the Gulf Islands region of the Gulf of Georgia, separating Vancouver Island on the west from Thetis, DeCourcy and Penelakut (Kuper) Islands on the east. Ladysmith Harbour and the town of Chemainus face onto it from Vancouver Island. It is crossed by a BC Ferries route serving Thetis and Penelakut Islands.
SS Coast Trader was built as the cargo ship SS Holyoke Bridge in 1920 by the Submarine Boat Company in Newark, New Jersey. The Coast Trader was torpedoed and sank 35 miles (56 km) south west of Cape Flattery, off the Strait of Juan de Fuca in U.S. state of Washington by the Japanese submarine I-26. Survivors were rescued by schooner Virginia I and HMCS Edmundston. She rests on the ocean floor at.
38°05′N123°01′W / 38.083°N 123.017°W