Talk:HMS Forward

Item for HMS Forward (1855)

The Forward was one of the vessels in what is known as the Lamalchi War or Lamalcha War, between the Royal Navy and certain indigenous groups in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. Just now I came across an item about one of the conflicts:

Back on Kuper Island, Florence James and I went for a walk along a beautiful curving beach at the south end of the island, at the bottom of a long and bone-jarring dirt road. The place appears on the marine charts as Lamalchi Bay. It's known to old Kuper Islanders as Hwlumelhtsu, which means "lookout place". There was once a large Hul'qumi'num village here.

On April 20, 1863, the British gunship Forward arrived at Hwlumelhtsu and bombarded the village, concentrating its cannon fire on a fortified blockhouse with musket loopholes in its timbers. But village marksmen had taken up positions on the two points of land at either side of the mouth of the bay, and they strafed the decks of the Forward with musket fire from both sides. Three hours later, the Forward retreated. The only recorded death was that of a 16-year-old sailor, Charles Gliddon, who took a musket ball in the head.

In some accounts, the Lamalchi people were piratical outcasts who brought misfortune upon themselves by murdering white settlers that Hul'qumi'num people had welcomed into their territories, and also by murdering the great Cowichan chief Tzouhalem and the Lyackson chief Ashutsten. In other accounts, the Lamalchis were engaged in a just war of resistance against invasion, and their village was brutally shelled and their warriors hunted down like dogs and hanged.

In either case, it was on that April afternoon in 1863 that treaty-making came to an end in British Columbia. There had been a handful of land-settlement agreements on Vancouver Island, but after the "Lamalchi War", the Crown abandoned its duty to reconcile settler and aboriginal interests. That is B.C.'s distinct legacy, the wound that Gordon Campbell's "new relationship" is supposed to heal. It's what has made this province so haunted. It is in all our cartographies. Sometimes the place name is Lamalchi Bay, and sometimes it's Hwlumelhtsu. But always, there is a gently curving beach, an unspeakably beautiful place, and a place of great sorrow.

From an article in the Georgia Straight by Terry Glavin, which I'm about to use for updating various articles such as Kuper Island, where this incident took place. There's more to the story of the Forward of course, but I thought this episode notable enough to warrant inclusion of this excerpt here for anyone caring to write a full article on the vessel.Skookum1 (talk) 15:50, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

The Forward was also the vessel on which Governor Frederick Seymour arrive in BC in 1864 - see here and is the mamesake of Forward Harbour, British Columbia. Also as explained here names in the vicinity of Forward Harbour were given in honour of her officers/crew and their families.Skookum1 (talk) 15:56, 6 May 2009 (UTC)