Survey of the Pacific Northwest

George Vancouver · 1791 CE – 1795 CE · Earth

Take back the Nootka territory from Spain and settle whether a Northwest Passage opens on the Pacific coast.

Historical context

Britain and Spain had nearly gone to war in 1790 after Spanish officers seized British ships and a trading post at Nootka Sound, and Vancouver sailed to take the place back and to settle whether a passage for commerce led inland from the Pacific coast. What he produced, in the words of his biographer W. Kaye Lamb, was the longest surveying expedition in history, drawn from open boats a bay at a time.

The voyage, step by step

1. The Discovery sails

   April 1791

   In April 1791 Vancouver leaves Falmouth with the Discovery and the armed tender Chatham for a voyage of four and a half years.

2. King George Sound

   September 1791

   In September 1791 the ships survey and name a fine harbour on the little-known south-west corner of New Holland.

3. Dusky Sound

   November 1791

   In November the ships put into the New Zealand fjord where Vancouver had anchored eighteen years earlier with Cook.

4. Into Puget Sound

   May 1792

   In May 1792 the boats push into a great inland sea of channels and islands, and Vancouver gives his lieutenant’s name to its southern reach.

5. Negotiations at Nootka

   August 1792

   In August 1792 Vancouver meets the Spanish commander Bodega y Quadra to settle what Spain must hand back.

6. Round the island

   1792 CE

   Working north through the inside channels and out into Queen Charlotte Sound, the ships prove that Nootka stands on an island.

7. The last blank closed

   1794 CE

   In May 1794 Vancouver’s boats reach the head of Cook Inlet and find shoals and a few small streams: a closed inlet, not a passage.

8. Home, and forgotten

   October 1795

   The Discovery reaches the Thames in October 1795 after four years and a half, and Vancouver begins a narrative he will not finish.

Outcome

Traced the continental shore from 30° north to Cook Inlet in three seasons and showed that no passage navigable for ships led inland from it.

George Vancouver

British navigator whose voyage of 1791–1795 settled the shape of the Pacific Northwest coast from California to Alaska.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• George Vancouver — Wikipedia
• A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World, volume 1George Vancouver · G. G. and J. Robinson · 1798

Continue exploring

• The open-boat voyage to TimorWilliam Bligh · 1789 CE
• The voyage of the Boussole and the AstrolabeJean-François de La Pérouse · 1785 CE – 1788 CE
• Second voyageJames Cook · 1772 CE – 1775 CE
• First Pacific voyageJames Cook · 1768 CE – 1771 CE