Page:Lewis & Dryden's marine history of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/441

 of A. E. Cann, captain ; Henderson, first officer ; Albert Ross, chief engineer. Captain Cann is still in charge, and James Scott succeeded Ross. The lightship was located a few miles west of the whistling buoy, remaining; there until 1894, when it was moved about two miles south, bringing it nearer to the track of vessels approaching the Columbia River. The presence of this sentinel of the deep has practically closed that long list of disasters to vessels caught in the northerly current and swept to destruction on the weather beach while approaching the Columbia in bad weather. The immense strength of the lightship has been thoroughly tested by many violent storms since she went into commission, but she has held her place and come through the fiercest gales uninjured.

The old steamer Isabel, which the Dunsmuirs had been operating on the east coast route out of Victoria, was replaced in 1892 by the Joan, a band.some propeller about one hundred and fifty feet long and thirty feet

beam, with engines sixteen and thirty-two by twenty-four inches. The steamer was placed in command of Captain Butler, who remained with her until 1894, when he was appointed regular pilot in the Victoria district and was succeeded by Capt. W. D. Owen. Another pioneer of even greater age than the Isabel was relegated to the rear in 1892, the Government steamer Sir James Douglas having a successor in the Quadra, which arrived from Scotland, January 4th, in charge of J. A. Walbran, commander ; Gage, first officer; Hodgert, chief engineer. The Quadra is two hundred and twelve feet long, twenty-one feet beam, and thirteen feet six inches hold, with a twelve-foot propeller, and was put in commission with James Gaudin, captain, and W. G. Owen, first officer. A few months later Walbran resumed command, which he has since retained, with Gordon F. Grant, engineer. The Union Steamship Company increased their fleet in 1892 with the Coquillam, a steel propeller one hundred and twenty-seven feet long, twenty-two feet beam, and nine feet six inches hold, net registered tonnage 165, with engines thirteen and one-fourth and twenty-six by eighteen inches. The vessel was shipped from Scotland in sections and put together in Vancouver under the supervision of H. Darling. She is a very economical freighter, having a speed of nine mites per hour on a coal consumption of four tons in twenty-four hours. She was sent north as a tender to the sealing fleet in June and was seized by the United States Government, who confiscated her (see steamer Coquillam, Chapter XXI). The steamer Courser was launched at Westminster in February for Captain Cooper, who intended her for the Chilliwack trade. The Queen, a square-built vessel sixty feet long and twelve feet beam, with machinery from the Lady Dufferin, was built at Kamloops for local service. She was owned by J. E. Saucier, and Capt. James Ritchie was in command. She went skyward in a terrible explosion, July 4, 1894 (see wreck of steamer Queen). The Lower Fraser River Transportation Company was organized at New Westminster by Capt. Richard H. Baker, Joseph B. Oliver, D. Hennesey and Captain Holman. They constructed the sternwheeler Telephone in February, 1892, and, on finding her too small, a year later completed the steamer Edgar, which Captain Baker has since handled.

While the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's steamships were by far the finest of their class, and had immense carrying capacity, several other large steamships found profitable employment in the trade in which that