She was the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America, and made remote parts of the west coast of Canada accessible for maritime fur trading.

Beaver served trading posts maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company between the Columbia River and Russian America (Alaska) and played an important role in helping maintain British control in British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858–59.

In 1862 the Royal Navy chartered her to survey and chart the coast of the Colony of British Columbia.

A consortium that became the British Columbia Towing and Transportation Company in 1874 purchased her,[1] and used her as a towboat until 25 July 1888.

On that day an inebriated crew ran her aground on rocks in Burrard Inlet at Prospect Point in Vancouver's Stanley Park.