page_title: HMS Plumper (1848)
section_title: Third commission (1857–1861)
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Plumper (1848) / Career / Third commission (1857–1861)
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS Plumper at Port Harvey, Vancouver Island from a drawing by E P Bedwell
context_page_description: HMS Plumper was an 8-gun wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy, the fifth and last ship to bear the name. Launched in 1848, she served three commissions, firstly on the West Indies and North American Station, then on the West Africa Station and finally in the Pacific Station. It was during her last commission as a survey ship that she left her most enduring legacy; in charting the west coast of British Columbia she left her name and those of her ship's company scattered across the charts of the region. She paid off for the last time in 1861 and was finally sold for breaking up in 1865.
context_section_description: For her third commission, the Plumper was converted to a survey ship, and it is probable that her armament was increased at this time to 12 guns. Her captain from 1857 until January 1861 was Captain George Henry Richards. She was used to survey the coast of British Columbia, in particular the Fraser River, Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound, Sunshine Coast, Victoria and Esquimalt. The Plumper, having embarked a company of Royal Marines, was involved in the Pig War crisis between the United States and Britain in 1859; along with Tribune, which was commanded by Captain Geoffrey Hornby, the Plumper and HMS Satellite were dispatched by Governor James Douglas to prevent American soldiers from erecting fortifications on San Juan Island and bringing in reinforcements.
  Francis Brockton was the ship's engineer under Captain Richards when, in 1859, Brockton found a vein of coal in the Vancouver area. After the discovery, which Richards reported to Governor James Douglas, Richards named the area of the find Coal Harbour and named Brockton Point, at the east end of what is now Stanley Park in Vancouver, after Francis Brockton.
  Commander Anthony Hoskins brought HMS Hecate out to the Pacific Station and swapped commands with Richards, taking command of the Plumper in January 1861. He then returned to the United Kingdom, paying the ship off at Portsmouth on 2 July 1861.
caption: HMS Plumper at Port Harvey, Vancouver Island from a drawing by E P Bedwell
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