The First Ship Built on the Pacific

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 2

Captain John Meares commanded vessels trading between China and the Pacific Coast of North America. They were British ships, but in order to evade the monopoly of the South Sea Company and the East India Company, which controlled British trade in the Pacific, they sailed under Portuguese colours. In 1788 Meares built and launched a small schooner at Friendly Cove. This vessel, the North-West America, was the first ship built on the coast north of Mexico. Spain claimed these waters as part of her territory, and seized this and other vessels belonging to Meares and his associates. Out of this incident arose an international dispute which almost led to war, but which was settled by the treaty known as the Nootka Convention in 1791. See British Columbia, the Making of a Province, by F. W. Howay.