Gunboat Frontier presents a different interpretation of Indian-white relations in nineteenth-century British Columbia, focusing on the interaction of West Coast Indians with British law and authority. This authority was exercised by officers, seamen, marines, and ships of the Royal Navy on behalf of the colonial governments of Vancouver Island and British Columbia and, after 1871, of Canada.

Barry Gough presents new historical evidence provided by the Admiralty Papers, an important source of information about nineteenth-century Northwest Coast Indian life. Drawing on these and other archival and governmental records, he chronicles encounters between the Royal Navy and the Indians over missions, piracies, Native slavery, liquor trafficking and crimes against persons and property, leading to the final cases of 'gunboat diplomacy' used against local Indians in the late 1880s.