S.S. Beaver Artifact Rediscovered

Forest industry historian Neil Malbon is the Curator and Collections Manager at the Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan BC. He is professionalizing the management of a huge collection of artifacts, buildings, equiment, rail rolling stock and engines and an archive. Its a big job especially since the backlog is about 50 years worth of acquisitions. Not surprisingly he is finding new treasures all the time. Recently he sent me some fascinating detail on authentication measures he undertook to identify a remnant of the steam sidewheeler Beaver – the same vessel that was famously wrecked at what is now Stanley Park in Vancouver harbour.

Wood remnant purportedly from the S.S. Beaver. (Photo from the Forest Discovery Centre collection.)

This remnant was acquired by the late Gerry Wellburn and was on loan to the Royal British Columbia Museum for several years. Last June (2021), when volunteers were organizing / assessing one of their storage bays they came across the rib. Staff member Lorraine Bayford sent the rib to the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria to a specialist who began tests on it.

End grain prepared for study. (Photo from the Forest Discovery Centre collection.)

Description of artifact: A piece of wood approximately 4 feet long and 8x8 inches in cross–section, weighing 94 lbs. Wood is very dark. The artifact appears to have been a structural member of something (has been shaped as a piece of something, holes that would have held fasteners, there are two large metal screws broken off in it) rather than a piece of lumber that was being transported as cargo.

Microscopic view of sample (Photo from the Forest Discovery Centre collection.)

They sent it on to the curator of the Canadian Forest Service xylarium in Quebec for identification. The wood turned out not to be greenheart, but a species of ebony! Apparently it is not possible to differentiate between ebony species anatomically, so the identification is only to genus, (Diospyros). They sent a sample of the Laval University for carbon dating. Their results indicated that the artifact dates to 370 years (+/- 20) before present, or around 1672. The piece is old enough to have been used in the Beaver if they did in fact use ebony in her construction.

These results are tantelizing but far from conclusive evidence of provenence. However this is more than anyone has done previously. There are enough wheels and pieces of wood from the wreck to rebuild it several times over. Perhaps some of this material should be tested also!