Captain McNeil and His Wife the Nishga Chief: from Boston fur trader to Hudson's Bay company trader

By: Smith, Robin PercivalISBN: 0-88839-472-1/9780888394729Binding: Trade Paper Size: 8.5" X 5.5"Pages: 256Photos: 33Illustrations: 0Publication Date: 2001 PR Highlights: Life and times of the dteamship Captain McNeil.PHOTO Highlights: 16 page b/w historical photo section.Description: The historical recount of the life and times of Captain McNeill, a long-standing captain in the pioneering days of the fur trade. McNeill was the captain of the Honourable Hudson's Bay steam ship SS Beaver.The historical recount of the life and times of Captain McNeill, a long-standing captain in the pioneering days of the fur trade. McNeill was the captain of the Honourable Hudson's Bay steam ship SS Beaver. William McNeill was born in Boston in 1803. At eleven years old, he chose a life at sea, and began gaining his experience to rise to the rank of master of a vessel, which required skill in mathematics and an understanding of the cosmos for navigation. William was a red-head, tall and heavy set. His temper was on a short fuse and, when threatened, he was aggressive in his action, impetuous, blusterous and a little given to exaggeration. He was not fond of waiting to see how things might turn out. William was probably first mate at fifteen years of age on the brigantine Paragon and a master mariner at twenty-one. By the time he joined the Hudson's Bay Company, he was a competent and experienced master mariner and fur trader. Follow his historical immigration to Canada to become one of the most feared and serviceable trading captains of the Honorable Hudson's Bay Co. Author Biography:Robin Percival Smith was born in 1929, within the sound of London's famed Bow Bells and was educated in England, at Oakley Hall School at Cirencester, St. Johns School at Leatherhead, Gonville and Caius College (1950), Cambridge and the Westminster Hospital Medical School. He emigrated to Canada in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was posted to Vancouver in 1958. He practised family medicine in the city of Richmond from 1961 to 1971, then accepted a position as Staff Pysician with the Student Health Service at the University of British Columbia. He became interested in women's health, researching and writing a number of articles on screening for various conditions. His work on intrauterine contraception and post coital contraception led to his involvement with the Canadian Committee for Fertility Research and the World Health Organization. In 1981 he was appointed Director of the Student Health Service. He retired from medical practice in 1989 to devote unlimited time to his passion for sailing on the west coast of Canada aboard his sailing vessel, Tremethick II.