The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Mitchell, Captain William
d. 1876-01-13
In 1836, William Mitchell left Aberdeenshire to join the Hudson's Bay Company.1 He started as a first officer aboard the Sumatra and worked on various vessels over the next 24 years.2
Before moving on to command the Recovery, Mitchell was in command of the Una during the wreck at Neah Bay in July 1852.3 In this letter from Staines to Boys, Staines discusses how poor Mitchell had nearly lost his life, and never got over the loss of the Una and its cargo.
Mitchell was master of the Recovery from 1852 until 1859, when he spent a year in charge at Fort Rupert. He retired in 1862 and died in Victoria on January 13, 1876.4 His obituary remembers him as popular in [the] community with both young and old and for having always a kind word for everybody.5