Throughout 2021 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back feature portrayed events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project. The S.S. Beaver, pictured in the 1856 cityscape, was the first steam-operated vessel in Puget Sound. She was owned by the British Hudson’s Bay Company and plied the waters of our sound and all the way to Alaska, until she foundered in 1888. The Vancouver (B.C.) Maritime Museum has a display with several of her salvaged parts.
SS Beaver off Victoria, 1880s, courtesy Vancouver Maritime Museum
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2021