George Vancouver

British navigator and explorer

• Born: June 22, 1757
• Birthplace: King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
• Died: May 10, 1798
• Place of death: Petersham, England

Vancouver surveyed and mapped the west coast of North America, studied and charted the Hawaiian Islands and befriended the region’s indigenous peoples, established Great Britain’s claim to western Canada, and determined that the elusive Northwest Passage through North America did not exist.

Early Life

George Vancouver was born in a seaport town on the east coast of England. His father was an affluent customs official at this busy trading center. Vancouver was the sixth child and third son of his parents, but little more is known of his youth. Living only five miles from the North Sea, he probably was familiar with ships, sailors, and ocean travel. Descriptions of him are rare, but drawings show him as a compact man fashionably comfortable in his Royal Navy uniform.

In 1771, the thirteen-year-old Vancouver entered the Royal Navy, where he would spend twenty-five years. Entering as a “young gentleman” made him a future candidate for midshipman and later training as a ship’s officer. Vancouver, who had learned basic reading and math before enlistment, spent his formative years aboard a ship, where he was taught navigation, surveying, and astronomy. He was fortunate to be chosen by Captain James Cook as part of the crew on Cook’s second voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean. Vancouver’s presence on this voyage set him on the course of his life’s work.

Aboard the Resolution with Cook, Vancouver attended to his assigned duties, showing skill, initiative, and enthusiasm. When the ship had reached its southernmost point while searching for the fabled southern continent, Vancouver climbed out onto the bowsprit so he could claim he had been closer to Antarctica than any person alive. By the age of twenty-three, Vancouver had traveled many seas and had seen many foreign countries.

Life’s Work

From 1776 to 1780, Vancouver, now a midshipman, sailed on the Discovery on Captain Cook’s third and fateful voyage to the South Seas. Cook discovered Hawaii for the Western world on January 18, 1778, but during his stay in the islands, he was killed by local inhabitants. Vancouver was an eyewitness to the incident and was instrumental in retrieving stolen articles and Cook’s body, which was taken back to England on the Discovery. After completing his midshipman training, Vancouver served on Royal Navy ships in the North Sea and the Caribbean Sea for a decade, surveying, mapping, and charting the area. He was promoted to first lieutenant and took part in a sea battle against Spain in the West Indies in 1782. By the time he was made a captain at the age of thirty-two, he had sailed the seven seas and visited lands that few of his countrymen could even imagine existed.

In 1789, Vancouver was given command of an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. His ship was the Discovery, a newly built namesake of Cook’s ship. Vancouver’s expedition was charged with four tasks: to receive property in Canada that Spain had taken from the British, according to a treaty signed by both nations; to survey the west coast of North America; to try one last time to locate the western end of the Northwest Passage; and to complete Cook’s survey of the Hawaiian Islands.

Discovery, accompanied by a small ship called Chatham, sailed on April 1, 1791, around South America and on to Australia and New Zealand, reaching Tahiti in December. The next stop was the Hawaiian Islands, where the expedition was to meet a storeship bringing them provisions. It never arrived, and they had to buy their food from indigenous peoples who wanted firearms as payment. Vancouver steadfastly refused to sell or barter any firearms and forbade his crew to do so. He followed with great interest the course of events in Hawaii, just then enduring a civil war. Part of Vancouver’s instructions had been to make friends with the local peoples, which he did. He also recognized the value and strategic location of these islands and knew Great Britain would benefit if it could gain control of them.

In March, 1792, Discovery and Chatham sailed two thousand miles to the northwest coast of North America, reaching Cape Mendocino in April. After taking on provisions, the expedition surveyed the rugged coastline, locating inlets, bays, rocks, reefs, and other hazards to navigation and making detailed charts of the area. Heading north, the ships reached a complex of bays and rivers that Vancouver named Puget Sound after one of his officers, Peter Puget. This survey was difficult and time-consuming. When finished, they sailed back into the Straits of Juan de Fuca and then around the big island off the west coast, later called Vancouver Island in honor of the explorer, who had proved it was an island, not part of the continent. On this voyage, Vancouver sighted the summit of a tall mountain and named it Mount Rainier after Peter Rainier, a fellow navigator. He reiterated Great Britain’s claim to the whole area.

In August, 1792, Vancouver sailed into Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island and met with the Spanish, who had disputed the ownership of the area with Great Britain and relinquished the land in a peace settlement. His next search was for a group of islands that the Spanish called Los Majos, or Islas de Mesas. Vancouver did not find them where the Spanish said they were and deduced that the Spanish had seen the Hawaiian Islands but had the location wrong.

In Hawaii for the second time to spend the winter of 1792-1793, Vancouver became friendly with Kamehameha, who now ruled most of the islands. He instructed the new king on European strategy, tactics, and weapons as well as other aspects of European life. The following summer, Discovery and Chatham sailed back to the area known as British Columbia, searching for the west end of the fabled Northwest Passage. Traders, explorers, and European governments had long hoped it existed, but no one had found a trace of it. He went as far north as Cook Inlet in Alaska, where his men clashed with indigenous peoples on the lower peninsula and killed almost a dozen of them. Vancouver had not seen a passage, and as he left the area, he concluded that it did not exist.

Back in Hawaii for the third and last time in the winter of 1793-1794, Vancouver and Kamehameha made a formal agreement: The Hawaiian ruler ceded his island to Great Britain. This event was important to Vancouver and may have been suggested by him. Its meaning to the Hawaiian king is still disputed. The cession was never acted upon by the British. If it had been, the history of the United States, Hawaii, and the world would have been different.

Vancouver arrived home on Discovery on October 15, 1795, with Chatham arriving a day later. Discovery was decommissioned, and Vancouver went on leave. In London, he cleared up business he had been unable to do for three years and began to prepare the journals of his voyage for publication. However, a scandal erupted and ended his navy career: Vancouver was accused of flogging an officer whom he had subsequently discharged. The man was now a baron and had important and influential friends. Vancouver was devastated. No evidence of a flogging existed, and Vancouver was never charged with any crime; however, in the eighteenth century, the man with a noble title and powerful friends was always right. Vancouver’s reputation was damaged beyond repair.

Vancouver never recovered from the scandal, and it may have aggravated his chronic illness, the cause of which is unknown. Some sources say he suffered from tuberculosis; others postulate Hanson’s disease, a condition of the thyroid. He died in 1798, just forty years old. By his death, he had completed five books detailing his voyage and was halfway through the sixth and last. Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World, with maps and drawings, was published in 1798. It did not receive much attention because England and Europe were involved in a war with France and soon were fighting Napoleon. Later, the work was reprinted in three volumes.

Significance

George Vancouver’s contributions to the world are in several fields: exploration, political history, and geography. He explored some of the more inaccessible areas of the Pacific Ocean. He settled conflicts with Spain and made a bid to take control of the Hawaiian Islands. He mapped the west coast of the North American continent, providing the only accurate information on the region. Fifty years later, his surveys were used extensively in a dispute between the United States and Great Britain over who “owned” Oregon, Washington, and western Canada.

In the nineteenth century, he was often overlooked by historians who concentrated on Captain Cook, but modern historians have given him his proper place in the company of explorers. Vancouver’s survey was the most arduous ever undertaken, the accuracy of his notations was remarkable, and his descriptions of the terrain were realistic and precise. One hundred years later, his charts were still the best and most trusted by those who sailed the west coast of North America, Canada, and Alaska.

He was a true and loyal Englishman, a remarkable member of the Royal Navy, and a splendid ambassador for his nation. His sailing and surveying skills were never surpassed, and his ability to handle people and political situations calmed many explosive situations in the Pacific Ocean and the Northwest. Both of these areas would grow and become even more important in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Bibliography

Anderson, Bern. The Life and Voyages of Captain George W. Vancouver, Surveyor of the Sea. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 1960. A complete coverage of the life and career of Vancouver. It explains the background to events in the life of an eighteenth century sailor and the political atmosphere in which he lived. The author justifies many of Vancouver’s actions, perhaps to make up for the injustices done to him in his final years.

Batman, Richard. The Outer Coast. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. This work shows the impact of men such as Vancouver, describing his detailed surveys on the discovery and exploration of California and the west coast of the United States when it was still a remote frontier. The book places Vancouver in perspective beside contemporary explorers such as La Perouse and Otto von Kotzebue.

Fisher, Robin, and Hugh Johnston, eds. From Maps to Metaphors: The Pacific World of George Vancouver. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1993. Collection of papers delivered at a 1992 conference about Vancouver’s explorations. Some of the topics discussed are his survey methods, the health of Vancouver and his crew, and the political relationship between Pacific explorers and American Indian leaders.

Godwin, George. Vancouver, a Life. New York: D. Appleton, 1931. This work covers all aspects of Vancouver’s life, not just his life at sea. It provides detailed information on his parents and his youth in a seaport town, his voyages, his triumphs, and his troubles before his death.

Raban, Jonathan. Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. Raban sailed along the Inside Passage from Seattle to Juneau, describing his experiences and the stories of others who made the same trip. He recounts Vancouver’s voyage, explaining how he risked mutiny for banning his men from visiting prostitutes.

Vancouver, George. Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World. 3 vols. London: G. G. & J. Robinson, 1798. Vancouver’s observations are acute, provide much detail, and are often enlightening. The atlas of maps is valuable.