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Coal Markets DevelopAfter 1835, when visiting First Nations at Fort McLoughlin told the local blacksmith of coal to be found on the shores of northeast Vancouver Island, the HBC and British Royal Navy sent successive parties to investigate the area. Following a boundary dispute with the United States in 1846, the Navy sought to assert control over the island. Fort Rupert was built on the south shore of Beaver Harbour, near the reported coal seams.4 John Muir (Sr.) and his family were recruited from Scotland to settle the new site and develop the seams.5 The HBC must have shown such great interest in this site because coal was becoming a valued commodity on the Pacific coast. More and more ocean-going fleets were converting their boats from sail to steam. The first paddle steamer was built in Britain in 1815.6 This and other early steamships were mostly just curiosities, but their benefits as more reliable transport than sailboats soon became clear. Where doldrums stranded sailboats in the tropics, steamships could carry on at full speed. Steamships could also travel through narrow channels and against ocean currents, such as through Johnstone Strait, off the east coast of northern Vancouver Island.7
Among the fleets converting to steam power was the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The Company had recently been awarded a contract to deliver mail between Panama and the Oregon coast. Henry Aspinwall, the Company’s owner, had built three new paddlewheelers for this purpose. These new ships needed regular supplies of coal to operate. While most coal at the time was delivered on empty vessels returning from Britain,8 Aspinwall was interested in finding a closer source.9 Aspinwall must have been delighted to learn that the HBC had begun to mine coal on Vancouver Island. He soon contracted the HBC to supply his mail ships with one thousand tons of the black fuel.10 The HBC had found its first major coal buyer. Many other steamships from San Francisco soon followed suit. This city had grown significantly since the California Gold Rush in 1849. News of gold deposits in Washington Territory and the Fraser Valley sparked another rush of immigrants in 1855 and 1858 respectively.11 The fortune-seeking men needed supplies, most of which arrived from San Francisco by steamship.12 The HBC supplied many of these merchant ships with as much coal as it could mine. The Hudson Bay Company's greatest coal-buying customer was the British Royal Navy. The Navy, then at the height of its supremacy, had established a base at Esquimalt, just west of Fort Victoria. Its new fleet of steam vessels needed coal in great quantities to travel to other British colonies such as Hong Kong. With a ready supply of coal on Vancouver Island, the Royal Navy could increase its presence throughout the Pacific.13
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Introduction | Elk Valley | The Kootenay Smelters | The Missing Link | Heat and Electricity | Pacific Steamships | The Strikebreakers on Vancouver Island
© MM Fernie & District Historical Society.
