Captain George Vancouver RN (June 22, 1757 – May 12, 1798) was an officer of the Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of North America, including the Pacific coast along the Canadian province of British Columbia and the modern day American states of Washington and Oregon. He also explored the southwest coast of Australia and negotiated agreements with Kamehameha I.
Vancouver followed the coasts of what is now Washington and Oregon northward. In April 1792 he encountered American Captain Robert Gray off the coast of modern Oregon just prior to Gray's sailing up the Columbia River. Then in June he named Burrard Inlet after his friend Sir Harry Burrard. In October 1792, he sent Lieutenant William Robert Broughton with several boats up the Columbia River. Broughton got as far as the Columbia River Gorge, sighting and naming Mount Hood. Vancouver also entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island and the mainland. He intended to explore every bay and outlet in this region, and many times had to use boats, as the inlets were often too narrow for his ships. He met a Spanish exploring party led by Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes y Flores, and for some time they explored Puget Sound (after Peter Puget) together.
Afterwards, Vancouver went to Nootka on Vancouver Island, then the region's most important harbour, where he was to get any British buildings or lands returned by the Spanish. The Spanish commander, Bodega y Quadra, was very cordial and he and Vancouver exchanged the maps they had made, but no agreement was reached; they decided to await further instructions. After a visit to Spanish California, Vancouver spent the winter in further exploration of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
The next year, he returned to British Columbia, and proceeded further north. He got to 56°N, but because the more northern parts had already been explored by Cook, he sailed south to California, hoping to find Bodega y Quadra and fulfill his mission, but the Spaniard was not there. He again spent the winter in the Sandwich Islands.
In 1794, he first went to Cook Inlet, the northernmost point of his exploration, and from there followed the coast south to Baranov Island, which he had visited the year before. He then set sail for Britain by way of Cape Horn, thus completing a circumnavigation.
Vancouver determined that the Northwest Passage did not exist at the latitudes that had long been suggested. Various locations around the world have been named after George Vancouver, including Vancouver Island and the cities of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vancouver, Washington.
Vancouver faced difficulties when he returned. Naturalist Archibald Menzies (politically well-connected) complained that his servant had been pressed into service during a shipboard emergency; sailing master Joseph Whidbey had a competing claim for pay as expedition astronomer; and Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford, whom Vancouver had disciplined for numerous infractions and eventually sent home in disgrace, challenged him to a duel. Vancouver was attacked in the newspapers and assaulted on the street by Pitt; his career was effectively at an end. One of Britain's greatest navigators, Vancouver died in obscurity. His modest grave lies in St. Peters churchyard, Petersham.
It is commonly believed that the name is derived from van Coevorden, meaning "from Coevorden", a city in the northeast of the Netherlands. This theory was suggested by Adriaan Mansvelt, the Consul General of the Netherlands based in Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1970s. It is known that a number of businessmen from the Coevorden area relocated to England in the 18th Century. Some of them were known as van Coevorden. Others adopted the surname Oxford, as in oxen crossing, which is approximately the English translation of Coevorden. Information presented by the city of Vancouver during the Expo '86 World's Fair, sanctioned Mansvelt's theory as historical fact. However, the documents cited in support are inconclusive. An alternative theory claims that Vancouver is a misspelling or anglicized version of van Couwen, a Dutch family name.
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