Maggs Bros.

The image of the HMS Calypso is inscribed on the verso “B.B. from A.C. Wishing him a Happy Near Year and many happy returns. Jan 1 1859.”

Launched in May 1845, the Calypso was a 20 gun sixth rate Royal Navy Ship based at the Pacific station. It fell under the command of Captain Frederick Byng Montresor in November, 1857. In August 1858, Montresor was ordered to take the Calypso to Esquimalt on the southern tip of Vancouver Island) to deal with unrest between American miners and the Nlaka’pamux near Fraser River, which was in the midst of a gold rush. Alarm was caused by reports that 42 miners had been murdered by the Nlaka’pamux. This number was later disputed, however a short lived war broke out. Though generally overlooked by historians this was an important event in the establishment of British Columbia. Montresor was later promoted to Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies and Cape of Good Hope station. We have another image of the Calypso (in a different location) in stock by the same artist and so believe he was a member of the crew.

Although in a similar style, the smaller watercolour of Kealakekua Bay is possibly in another hand (the caption on the back is initialled “B.P.U.”). Kealakekua Bay is now inextricably linked with Capt. James Cook, who first anchored there in January 1778, thus marking its European discovery, and died there a year later.