''Columbia'' was a

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

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 di ...

(HBC). She served in the service of the

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company bet ...

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 ...

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. Thou ...

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 a ...

.'' Her voyages included the coast of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and the

Sandwich Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Ku ...

. 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