''Columbia'' was a barque launched in 1835 in London for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

(HBC). She served in the service of the

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold ...

of the HBC on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

and elsewhere in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

in the 1830s and 1840s.''British Columbia: From the Earliest Times to the Present'', Alexander Begg, p. 139
/ref> ''Columbia'' first appeared in ''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

'' (''LR'') in 1836 with Darbey, master, and Hudson's Bay Company, owner.''LR'' (1836), seq.№C637.
/ref> On her maiden voyage, in 1835, she served as escort to the ''

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

.'' Her voyages included the coast of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and the Sandwich Islands. She made six voyages out of London in all, and spent part of 1846–1847 in Fort Victoria, British Columbia. ''Columbia'' was sold in 1850. Various letters addressed to sailors serving aboard the barque ''Columbia'' survive in the book ''Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57''.

Citations and references

Citations References * 1835 ships Age of Sail merchant ships of England Oregon Country History of Washington (state) Pre-Confederation British Columbia Barques Hudson's Bay Company ships {{BritishColumbia-transport-stub

See also

Citations and references