Imperial Eagle, originally named Loudoun (also spelled Louden, Loudin, and Lowden), was a 400-ton (bm) British merchant ship, launched in 1774 at Liverpool.

This maritime fur trading system had originated from the voyages of James Cook, which unexpectedly had revealed the value of sea otter pelts in China.

Although Imperial Eagle was British-owned and operated, the ship masqueraded as a vessel of the fictitious Austrian East India Company, and sailed under the flag of Austria.

In fact the ship was owned by various British supercargoes, including some in China and several East India Company directors in England.

[14] In the late 18th century a number of independent British traders, notably John Meares, sailed under false flags in order to evade paying for the required licenses.

John Meares wrote about it in his Voyages, but his account is full of inaccuracies and most of the references to Imperial Eagle are deliberately misleading.

Charles Barkley was persuaded to resign his position with the East India Company in order to command the ship for its private fur trading venture.

[3] In March 1787 Barkley anchored Imperial Eagle in Nootka Sound, a port commonly used by fur trading vessels.

[6] Barkley stayed at Nootka Sound for some time and acquired about 700 prime sea otter pelts and many more of inferior quality.

[13] Some time after Barkley's arrival, two more fur trading ships entered Nootka Sound—Prince of Wales under James Colnett, and Princess Royal under Charles Duncan, both owned by the King George's Sound Company.

In his journal Colnett wrote that the time Barkley saved in not acquiring the licenses allowed him to arrive at Nootka Sound first.

[3][21] In July, continuing south in clear weather, Barkley found the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

[22] The veracity of Juan de Fuca's claim had long been scoffed at by geographers[22] and is doubted by most historians to the present day.

[6] Frances Barkley wrote about the discovery in her diary: "In the afternoon, to our great astonishment, we arrived off a large opening extending to the eastward, the entrance of which appeared to be about four leagues wide, and remained about that width as far as the eye could see, with a clear easterly horizon, which my husband immediately recognized as the long lost strait of Juan de Fuca, and to which he gave the name of the original discoverer, my husband placing it on his chart.

"[23] Barkley perhaps thought Tatoosh Island was the pinnacle reported by Juan de Fuca as located at the entrance to the strait.

Fellow fur-trader Charles Duncan, who learned about the strait from Barkley, assumed the island was Juan de Fuca's pillar.

In September, Barkley anchored Imperial Eagle off a small island—probably today's Destruction Island,[9] about 40 mi (64 km) south of Cape Flattery.

Barkley sent six men ashore with the ship's boat to obtain fresh water, from the mouth of the Hoh River or someplace nearby.

[13] While in Macau, Frances Barkley's Hawaiian maidservant Winée left Imperial Eagle, being ill and wanting to return to Hawaii.

[13] After selling his furs in China, Barkley acquired a new cargo and sailed Imperial Eagle to the island of Mauritius, then a French colony.

While at Macau the ship's Austrian disguise was changed to Portuguese, and Imperial Eagle sailed to Mauritius under the flag of Portugal.

[15] Barkley was planning to sail to Calcutta, India, and outfit the ship for the second of three projected fur-trading voyages to the Pacific Northwest.

[6] In Mauritius he learned that the East India Company was taking legal action against the owners of Imperial Eagle for operating without a license.

The various owners of the ship, including John Meares, decided to avoid trouble by breaking their ten-year contract with Barkley and selling Imperial Eagle.

Meares, however, with the greatest effrontery, published and claimed the merit of my husband’s discoveries therein contained, besides inventing lies of the most revolting nature tending to vilify the person he thus pilfered."

Other maritime fur traders such as George Dixon and Robert Haswell, condemned Meares for failing to properly credit Barkley's discoveries.