William Henry McNeill

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William Henry McNeill, (7 July 1803 – September 4, 1875), was best known for his 1830 expedition as the captain of the brig Llama, which sailed from Boston, 12,000 miles around Cape Horn, to the Pacific Northwest on a fur trading expedition.

Boston merchants owned the brig whose cargo consisted of trading merchandise. The Hudson's Bay Company had purchased the Llama and its cargo and retained McNeill as captain. In order to work for the company, he was required to become a British subject.

In 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company vessel, S.S. Beaver, the first steamship on Puget Sound, arrived at Fort Vancouver. McNeill took over as captain of the Beaver and remained so until 1851.

On May 11, 1841, along with Alexander Caulfield Anderson, McNeill greeted U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition when Wilkes anchored his sailing ship, USS Porpoise in southern Puget Sound near Fort Nisqually, a Hudson's Bay Company trading post near the present town of Dupont, Washington.

On 14 March, 1843 Captain McNeill anchored off Vancouver Island in McNeill Bay to scout the location for Fort Victoria.

In 1849, McNeill built and commanded Fort Rupert, near modern-day Port Hardy.

McNeill retired from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1861, retiring to his farm on Vancouver Island near Victoria, British Columbia. He died of pneumonia there in 1875.