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Wikipedia

George Vancouver

May 06, 2023

Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what are now the Canadian province of British Columbia as well as the US states of Alaska, Washington and Oregon. He also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia.

George Vancouver
A portrait from the late 18th century by an unknown artist believed to depict George Vancouver
Born(1757-06-22)22 June 1757
King's Lynn, Norfolk, Great Britain
Died10 May 1798(1798-05-10) (aged 40)
Petersham, Surrey, Great Britain
AllegianceGreat Britain
Service/branchRoyal Navy
RankCaptain
Commands heldHMS Discovery (Vancouver Expedition, 1791–1795)
Signature

Vancouver Island, the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Vancouver, Washington in the United States, Mount Vancouver on the Canadian–US border between Yukon and Alaska, and New Zealand's fourth-highest mountain, also Mount Vancouver,[1] are all named after him.

Early life

George Vancouver was born in the seaport town of King's Lynn (Norfolk, England) on 22 June 1757 - the sixth and youngest child of John Jasper Vancouver, a Dutch-born deputy collector of customs, and Bridget Berners. He came from an old respected family. The surname Vancouver comes from Coevorden, Drenthe province, Netherlands (Koevern in Dutch Low Saxon).

In 1771, at the age of 13, Vancouver entered the Royal Navy as a "young gentleman", a future candidate for midshipman.[2] He was nominally an able seaman (AB) but, in reality, sailed as one of the midshipmen[3] aboard HMS Resolution, on James Cook's second voyage (1772–1775) searching for Terra Australis. He also sailed with Cook's third voyage (1776–1780), this time aboard Resolution's companion ship, HMS Discovery, and was present during the first European sighting and exploration of the Hawaiian Islands.[4] Upon his return to Britain in October 1780 Vancouver was commissioned as a lieutenant and posted aboard the sloop HMS Martin – initially on escort and patrol duty in the English Channel and North Sea. He accompanied the ship when it left Plymouth on 11 February 1782 for the West Indies. On 7 May 1782 he was appointed fourth lieutenant of the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Fame, which was at the time part of the British West Indies Fleet and assigned to patrolling the French-held Leeward Islands. Vancouver subsequently saw action at the Battle of the Saintes (April 1782), wherein he distinguished himself. Vancouver returned to England in June 1783.[5]

In the late 1780s the Spanish Empire commissioned an expedition to the Pacific Northwest. In 1789 the Nootka Crisis developed, and Spain and Britain came close to war over ownership of Nootka Sound on contemporary Vancouver Island, and – of greater importance – over the right to colonise and settle the Pacific Northwest coast. Henry Roberts had recently taken command of the survey ship HMS Discovery (a new vessel named in honour of the ship on Cook's voyage) with the prospect of another round-the-world voyage, and Roberts selected Vancouver as his first lieutenant, but they both were then posted to other warships due to the crisis. Vancouver went with Joseph Whidbey to the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Courageux. When the first Nootka Convention ended the crisis in 1790, Vancouver was given command of Discovery to take possession of Nootka Sound and to survey the coasts.[6][7]

Explorations

 
Life-sized gilded statue of George Vancouver on the British Columbia Legislative Buildings in Victoria, British Columbia

Vancouver Expedition

Main article: Vancouver Expedition

Departing England with two ships, HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham, on 1 April 1791, Vancouver commanded an expedition charged with exploring the Pacific region. In its first year the expedition travelled to Cape Town, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii, collecting botanical samples and surveying coastlines along the way. He formally claimed at Possession Point, King George Sound Western Australia, now the town of Albany, Western Australia for the British. Proceeding to North America, Vancouver followed the coasts of present-day Oregon and Washington northward. In April 1792 he encountered American Captain Robert Gray off the coast of Oregon just prior to Gray's sailing up the Columbia River.

Vancouver entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island and the present-day Washington state mainland, on 29 April 1792. His orders included a survey of every inlet and outlet on the west coast of the mainland, all the way north to Alaska. Most of this work was in small craft propelled by both sail and oar; manoeuvring larger sail-powered vessels in uncharted waters was generally impractical and dangerous.

Vancouver named many features for his officers, friends, associates, and his ship Discovery, including:

After a Spanish expedition in 1791, Vancouver was the second European to enter Burrard Inlet on 13 June 1792, naming it for his friend Sir Harry Burrard. It is the present day main harbour area of the City of Vancouver beyond Stanley Park. He surveyed Howe Sound and Jervis Inlet over the next nine days.[9] Then, on his 35th birthday on 22 June 1792, he returned to Point Grey, the present-day location of the University of British Columbia. Here he unexpectedly met a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores. Vancouver was "mortified" (his word) to learn they already had a crude chart of the Strait of Georgia based on the 1791 exploratory voyage of José María Narváez the year before, under command of Francisco de Eliza. For three weeks they cooperatively explored the Georgia Strait and the Discovery Islands area before sailing separately towards Nootka Sound.

After the summer surveying season ended, in August 1792, Vancouver went to Nootka, then the region's most important harbour, on contemporary Vancouver Island. Here he was to receive any British buildings and lands returned by the Spanish from claims by Francisco de Eliza for the Spanish crown. The Spanish commander, Juan Francisco 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. At this time, they decided to name the large island on which Nootka was now proven to be located as Quadra and Vancouver Island. Years later, as Spanish influence declined, the name was shortened to simply Vancouver Island.[10]

While at Nootka Sound Vancouver acquired Robert Gray's chart of the lower Columbia River. Gray had entered the river during the summer before sailing to Nootka Sound for repairs. Vancouver realised the importance of verifying Gray's information and conducting a more thorough survey. 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.[11]

Vancouver sailed south along the coast of Spanish Alta California, visiting Chumash villages at Point Conception and near Mission San Buenaventura.[12] In November, he entered San Francisco Bay, later visiting Monterey; in both places, he was warmly received by the Spanish.[13] Vancouver spent the winter in continuing exploration of the Sandwich Islands, the contemporary islands of Hawaii.

Further explorations

The next year, 1793, he returned to British Columbia and proceeded further north, unknowingly missing the overland explorer Alexander Mackenzie by only 48 days. He got to 56°30'N, having explored north from Point Menzies in Burke Channel to the northwest coast of Prince of Wales Island. He sailed around the latter island, as well as circumnavigating Revillagigedo Island and charting parts of the coasts of Mitkof, Zarembo, Etolin, Wrangell, Kuiu and Kupreanof Islands.[14] With worsening weather, he sailed south to Alta California, hoping to find Bodega y Quadra and fulfil his territorial mission, but the Spaniard was not there. The Spanish governor refused to let a foreign official into the interior. Vancouver noted that the region's "only defenses against foreign attack are a few poor cannons".[13] 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. Boat parties charted the east coasts of Chichagof and Baranof Islands, circumnavigated Admiralty Island, explored to the head of Lynn Canal, and charted the rest of Kuiu Island and nearly all of Kupreanof Island.[14] He then set sail for Great Britain by way of Cape Horn, returning in September 1795, thus completing a circumnavigation of South America.

Later life

 
In The Caneing in Conduit Street (1796), James Gillray caricatured Pitt's street corner assault on Vancouver

Impressed by the view from Richmond Hill, Vancouver retired to Petersham, London.[15]

Vancouver faced difficulties when he returned home to England. The accomplished and politically well-connected naturalist Archibald Menzies 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, proceeded to harass him publicly and privately.

Pitt's allies, including his cousin, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, attacked Vancouver in the press. Thomas Pitt took a more direct approach; on 29 August 1796 he sent Vancouver a letter heaping many insults on the head of his former captain, and challenging him to a duel. Vancouver gravely replied that he was unable "in a private capacity to answer for his public conduct in his official duty," and offered instead to submit to formal examination by flag officers. Pitt chose instead to stalk Vancouver, ultimately assaulting him on a London street corner. The terms of their subsequent legal dispute required both parties to keep the peace, but nothing stopped Vancouver's civilian brother Charles from interposing and giving Pitt blow after blow until onlookers restrained the attacker. Charges and counter-charges flew in the press, with the wealthy Camelford faction having the greater firepower until Vancouver, ailing from his long naval service, died.

Death

Vancouver, at one time amongst Britain's greatest explorers and navigators, died in obscurity on 10 May 1798 at the age of 40, less than three years after completing his voyages and expeditions.[16] No official cause of death was stated, as the medical records pertaining to Vancouver were destroyed; one doctor named John Naish claimed Vancouver died from kidney failure, while others believed it was a hyperthyroid condition.[17] His grave is in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Petersham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. The Hudson's Bay Company placed a memorial plaque in the church in 1841.[18] His grave in Portland stone, renovated in the 1960s, is now Grade II listed in view of its historical associations.[18][19]

Legacy

Navigation

Vancouver determined that the Northwest Passage did not exist at the latitudes that had long been suggested. His charts of the North American northwest coast were so extremely accurate that they served as the key reference for coastal navigation for generations. Robin Fisher, the academic vice-president of Mount Royal University in Calgary and author of two books on Vancouver, states:

He put the northwest coast on the map...He drew up a map of the north-west coast that was accurate to the 9th degree, to the point it was still being used into the modern day as a navigational aid. That's unusual for a map from that early a time.[20]

However, Vancouver failed to discover two of the largest and most important rivers on the Pacific coast, the Fraser River and the Columbia River. He also missed the Skeena River near Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia. Vancouver did eventually learn of the river before he finished his survey—from Robert Gray, captain of the American merchant ship that conducted the first Euroamerican sailing of the Columbia River on 11 May 1792, after first sighting it on an earlier voyage in 1788. However it and the Fraser River never made it onto Vancouver's charts. Stephen R. Bown, noted in Mercator's World magazine (November/December 1999) that:

How Vancouver could have missed these rivers while accurately charting hundreds of comparatively insignificant inlets, islands, and streams is hard to fathom. What is certain is that his failure to spot the Columbia had great implications for the future political development of the Pacific Northwest....[21][22]

While it is difficult to comprehend how Vancouver missed the Fraser River, much of this river's delta was subject to flooding and summer freshet which prevented the captain from spotting any of its great channels as he sailed the entire shoreline from Point Roberts, Washington, to Point Grey in 1792.[23] The Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, with the 1791 Francisco de Eliza expedition preceding Vancouver by a year, had also missed the Fraser River although they knew from its muddy plume that there was a major river located nearby.[23]

Indigenous peoples

Vancouver generally established a rapport with both Indigenous peoples and European trappers. Historical records show Vancouver enjoyed good relations with native leaders both in Hawaii – with King Kamehameha I as well as the Pacific Northwest and California.[24] Vancouver's journals exhibit a high degree of sensitivity to the indigenous populations he encountered. He wrote of meeting the Chumash people,[12] and of his exploration of a small island on the Californian coast on which an important burial site was marked by a sepulchre of "peculiar character" lined with boards and fragments of military instruments lying near a square box covered with mats.[24] Vancouver states:

This we naturally conjectured contained the remains of some person of consequence, and it much excited the curiosity of some of our party; but as further examination could not possibly have served any useful purpose, and might have given umbrage and pain to the friends of the deceased, should it be their custom to visit the repositories of their dead, I did not think it right that it should be disturbed.[24]

Vancouver also displayed contempt in his journals towards unscrupulous western traders who provided guns to natives, writing:

I am extremely concerned to be compelled to state here, that many of the traders from the civilised world have not only pursued a line of conduct, diametrically opposite to the true principles of justice in their commercial dealings, but have fomented discords, and stirred up contentions, between the different tribes, in order to increase the demand for these destructive engines... They have been likewise eager to instruct the natives in the use of European arms of all descriptions; and have shewn by their own example, that they consider gain as the only object of pursuit; and whether this be acquired by fair and honourable means, or otherwise, so long as the advantage is secured, the manner how it is obtained seems to have been, with too many of them, but a very secondary consideration.[24]

Robin Fisher notes that Vancouver's "relationships with aboriginal groups were generally peaceful; indeed, his detailed survey would not have been possible if they had been hostile."[24] While there were hostile incidents at the end of Vancouver's last season – the most serious of which involved a clash with the Tlingit people at Behm Canal in southeast Alaska in 1794 – these were the exceptions to Vancouver's exploration of the US and Canadian Northwest coast.[24]

Despite a long history of warfare between Britain and Spain, Vancouver maintained excellent relations with his Spanish counterparts and even fêted a Spanish sea captain aboard his ship Discovery during his 1792 trip to the Vancouver region.[20]

Namesakes

Ship and cadet units

Places

Many places around the world have been named after George Vancouver, including:

Australia
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
  • Vancouver Road in Ham, London, near Petersham, his place of burial
United States

Memorials

 
Grave of George Vancouver in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Petersham, London
 
Statue of George Vancouver in King's Lynn, his birthplace.

Many collections were made on the voyage: one was donated by Archibald Menzies to the British Museum 1796; another made by surgeon George Goodman Hewett (1765–1834) was donated by Augustus Wollaston Franks to the British Museum in 1891. An account of these has been published.[25]

250th birthday commemorations

 
1980 Commemorative Statue to Capt. George Vancouver by Vancouver artist Alan Chung Hung

Canada Post issued a $1.55 postage stamp to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Vancouver's birth, on 22 June 2007. The stamp has an embossed image of Vancouver seen from behind as he gazes forward towards a mountainous coastline. This may be the first Canadian stamp not to show the subject's face.[26]

The City of Vancouver in Canada organised a celebration to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Vancouver's birth, in June 2007 at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.[27] The one-hour festivities included the presentation of a massive 63 by 114 centimetre carrot cake, the firing of a gun salute by the Royal Canadian Artillery's 15th Field Regiment and a performance by the Vancouver Firefighter's Band.[27] Vancouver's then-mayor, Sam Sullivan, officially declared 22 June 2007 to be "George Day".[27]

The Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Elder sɁəyeɬəq (Larry Grant) attended the festivities and acknowledged that some of his people might disapprove of his presence, but also noted:

Many people don't feel aboriginal people should be celebrating this occasion...I believe it has helped the world and that's part of who we are. That's the legacy of our people. We're generous to a fault. The legacy is strong and a good one, in the sense that without the first nations working with the colonials, it [B.C.] wouldn't have been part of Canada to begin with and Britain would be the poorer for it.[27]

Origins of the family name

There has been some debate about the origins of the Vancouver name. It is now commonly accepted that the name Vancouver derives from the expression van Coevorden, meaning "(originating) from Coevorden", a city in the northeast of the Netherlands. This city is apparently named after the "Coeverden" family of the 13th–15th century.[28]

In the 16th century, a number of businessmen from the Coevorden area (and the rest of the Netherlands) moved to England. Some of them were known as Van Coeverden. Others adopted the surname Oxford, as in oxen fording (a river), which is approximately the English translation of Coevorden. However, it is not the exact name of the noble family mentioned in the history books that claim Vancouver's noble lineage: that name was Coeverden not Coevorden.

In the 1970s, Adrien Mansvelt, a former consul general of the Netherlands based in Vancouver, published a collation of information in both historical and genealogical journals and in the Vancouver Sun newspaper.[29][30][31] Mansvelt's theory was later presented by the city during the Expo 86 World's Fair, as historical fact. The information was then used by historian W. Kaye Lamb in his book A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World, 1791–1795 (1984).[32]

W. Kaye Lamb, in summarising Mansvelt's 1973 research, observes evidence of close family ties between the Vancouver family of Britain and the Van Coeverden family of the Netherlands as well as George Vancouver's own words from his diaries in referring to his Dutch ancestry:

As the name Vancouver suggests, the Vancouvers were of Dutch origin. They were descended from the titled van Coeverden family, one of the oldest in the Netherlands. By the twelfth century, and for many years thereafter, their castle at Coevorden, in the Province of Drenthe, was an important fortress on the eastern frontier. George Vancouver was aware of this. In July 1794, he named the Lynn Canal "after the place of my nativity" and Point Couverden (which he spelt incorrectly) "after the seat of my ancestors". Vancouver's great grandfather, Reint Wolter van Couverden, was probably the first of the line to establish an English connection. While serving as a squire at one of the German courts he met Johanna (Jane) Lilingston, an English girl who was one of the ladies in waiting. They were married in 1699. Their son, Lucas Hendrik van Couverden, married Vancouver's grandmother, Sarah. In his later years he probably anglicized his name and spent most of his time in England. By the eighteenth century, the estates of the van Couverdens were mostly in the Province of Overijssel, and some of the family were living in Vollenhove, on the Zuider Zee. The English and Dutch branches kept in touch, and in 1798 (the date of Vancouver's death) George Vancouver's brother Charles would marry a kinswoman, Louise Josephine van Couverden, of Vollenhove. Both were great-grandchildren of Reint Wolter van Couverden."[33]

In 2006 John Robson, a librarian at the University of Waikato, conducted his own research into George Vancouver's ancestry, which he published in an article in the British Columbia History journal.[34] Robson theorises that Vancouver's forebears may have been Flemish rather than Dutch; he believes that Vancouver is descended from the Vangover family of Ipswich in Suffolk and Colchester in Essex. Those towns had a significant Flemish population in the 16th and 17th centuries.[35]

George Vancouver named the south point of what is now Couverden Island, Alaska, Point Couverden during his exploration of the North American Pacific coast, in honour of his family's hometown of Coevorden.[36] It is located at the western point of entry to Lynn Canal in southeastern Alaska.[37]

Works by George Vancouver

The Admiralty instructed Vancouver to publish a narrative of his voyage which he started to write in early 1796 in Petersham. At the time of his death the manuscript covered the period up to mid-1795. The work, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World, was completed by his brother John and published in three volumes in the autumn of 1798.[38] A second edition was published in 1801 in six volumes.[17][39]

  • A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean: And Round the World, Volume 1
  • A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean: And Round the World, Volume 2
  • A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean: And Round the World, Volume 3

A modern annotated edition (1984) by W. Kaye Lamb was renamed The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791–1795, and published in four volumes by the Hakluyt Society of London, England.

See also

References

  1. ^ Reed, A. W. (2010). Peter Dowling (ed.). Place Names of New Zealand. Rosedale, North Shore: Raupo. p. 430. ISBN 9780143204107.
  2. ^ Landauer, Lyndall Baker (2013). "George Vancouver". In Magill, Frank N. (ed.). Dictionary of World Biography: The 17th and 18th Centuries. Vol. 4. London: Routledge. p. 1355. ISBN 9781135924140.
  3. ^ Robson, John (2014). "George Vancouver (1757-1798) Part 1: Introduction and early career". Cook's Log. 37 (1): 28 – via Captain Cook Society.
  4. ^ "Chart of the NW Coast of America and Part of the NE of Asia with the Track of his Majesty's Sloops 'Resolution' and 'Discovery' from May to October 1778". World Digital Library. 1778. from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  5. ^ Sue Bigelow (20 June 2013). "Captain George Vancouver: original documents". City of Vancouver Archives. from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  6. ^ King, Robert J. (2010). "George Vancouver and the contemplated settlement at Nootka Sound". The Great Circle. 32 (1): 6–34.
  7. ^ Allen, Richard Edward (1982). A Pictorial History of Vancouver, Book 1. Josten's Publications.
  8. ^ Wing, Robert; Newell, Gordon (1979). Peter Puget: Lieutenant on the Vancouver Expedition, fighting British naval officer, the man for whom Puget Sound was named. Gray Beard Publishing. ISBN 0-933686-00-5.
  9. ^ Little, Gary. George Vancouver (1757–2007). 250th Birth Anniversary, Survey of the Southwest Coast of BC, June 1792 9 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791–1795, Volume 1. W. Kaye Lamb (ed.). Hakluyt Society. 1984. ISBN 978-0-904180-17-6. p. 247
  11. ^ Etulain, Richard W. (2004). Western Lives: A Biographical History Of The American West. UNM Press. pp. 97–101. ISBN 978-0-8263-3472-5. from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  12. ^ a b McLendon, Sally and Johnson, John R. (1999). Cultural Affiliation and Lineal Descent of Chumash Peoples in the Channel Islands and the Santa Monica Mountains 31 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History pp. 139–40 (98–99) Accessed 18 June 2010
  13. ^ a b Rolle, Andrew (1987). California: A History (4th ed.). Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-88295-839-9. OCLC 13333829.
  14. ^ a b Vancouver, George; Vancouver, John (1801). A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean, and round the world. London: J. Stockdale. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  15. ^ . Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  16. ^ Cave, Edward ("Sylvanus Urban") (1798). "Obituary of Remarkable Persons with Biographical Anecdotes". The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Vol. 68. London: John Nichols. p. 447.
  17. ^ a b "George Vancouver (1757–1798) part five: after the voyage". The Captain Cook Society. from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  18. ^ a b Boyes, Valerie; Wintersinger, Natascha (2014). Encountering the Unchartered and Back – three explorers: Ball, Vancouver and Burton. Museum of Richmond. pp. 9–10.
  19. ^ Historic England. "Tomb of Captain George Vancouver in the Churchyard of St Peter's Church (1380182)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  20. ^ a b Pynn, Larry (30 May 2007) "Charting the Coast," The Vancouver Sun, p.B3
  21. ^ Brown, Stephen R. (1999). . Mercator's World. 4 (6). Archived from the original on 19 June 2003.
  22. ^ "Vancouver". BC Geographical Names.
  23. ^ a b Hume, Stephen (17 November 2007) "The Birth of Modern British Columbia Part 7", The Vancouver Sun, p. D9
  24. ^ a b c d e f Pynn, Larry "Peaceful Encounters" (29 May 2007), The Vancouver Sun, p. B3
  25. ^ King, J. C. H. (1994). "Vancouver's Ethnography: A Preliminary Description of Five Inventories from the Voyage of 1791–95". J Hist Collections. 6 (1): 35–38. doi:10.1093/jhc/6.1.35.
  26. ^ Pynn, Larry (24 May 2007) Mystery man: The Canada Post stamp honouring Captain George Vancouver has created a buzz with collectors 10 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Vancouver Sun
  27. ^ a b c d Pynn, Larry (23 June 2007) "Native elder embraces captain's legacy", The Vancouver Sun, p. B9
  28. ^ G.H. Anderson (1923). Vancouver and his Great Voyage – The Story of a Norfolk Sailor. King's Lynn: Thew & Son – via State Library of Victoria.
  29. ^ Mansvelt, Adrien (February 1975) "The Vancouver – Van Coeverden Controversy". The British Columbia Genealogist Vol 4 No. 1,2,3
  30. ^ Mansvelt, Adrien (February 1973). "Vancouver: A lost branch of the van Coeverden Family" (PDF). BC Historical News. British Columbia Historical Association. 6 (2): 20–23. (PDF) from the original on 23 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  31. ^ Mansvelt, Adrien (1 September 1973) "Solving the Captain Vancouver mystery" and "The Original Vancouver in Old Holland", The Vancouver Sun
  32. ^ Lamb, W. Kaye A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World, 1791–1795 31 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. London, Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson
  33. ^ The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791–1795, Volume 1. W. Kaye Lamb (ed.). Hakluyt Society. 1984. ISBN 978-0-904180-17-6. p. 3
  34. ^ Robson, John (2006). "Origins of the Vancouver Name" (PDF). British Columbia History. British Columbia Historical Federation. 39 (4): 23–24. ISSN 1710-7881. (PDF) from the original on 4 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  35. ^ Baecklandt, David, "Was George Vancouver Flemish?", The Brussels Journal, 21 February 2010.
  36. ^ History of Metropolitan Vancouver 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine; chuckdavis.ca
  37. ^ Couverden Island 3 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine. dnr.state.ak.us
  38. ^ "Review of new books". The Scots Magazine. 1 September 1799. pp. 33–38 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  39. ^ "Vancouver's voyage round the world". London Courier and Evening Gazette. 7 November 1801. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.

Further reading

  • Godwin, George. "Captain George Vancouver, 1757–1798." History Today (Sep 1957) 7#9 pp 605–609.
  • Bown, Stephen R. Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver (Douglas & McIntyre 2008).
  • Godwin, George. Vancouver A Life: 1757–1798 (D. Appleton and Company, 1931).
  • The Life and Voyages of Captain George Vancouver by Bern Anderson. Published by University of Washington Press, 1966.
  • Captain Vancouver: A Portrait of His Life by Alison Gifford. Published by St. James Press, 1986.
  • Journal of the Voyages of the H.M.S. Discovery and Chatham by Thomas Manby. Published by Ye Galleon Press, 1988.
  • Vancouver's Voyage: Charting the Northwest Coast, 1791–1795 by Robin Fisher and Gary Fiegehen. Published by Douglas & McIntyre, 1992.
  • On Stormy Seas, The Triumphs and Torments of Captain George Vancouver by B. Guild Gillespie. Published by Horsdal & Schubart, 1992.
  • Captain Vancouver: North-West Navigator by E.C. Coleman. Published by Tempus, 2007.
  • Sailing with Vancouver: A Modern Sea Dog, Antique Charts and a Voyage Through Time by Sam McKinney. Published by Touchwood Editions, 2004.
  • The Early Exploration of Inland Washington Waters: Journals and Logs from Six Expeditions, 1786–1792 edited by Richard W. Blumenthal. Published by McFarland & Company, 2004.
  • A Discovery Journal: George Vancouver's First Survey Season – 1792 by John E. Roberts. Published by Trafford Publishing, 2005.
  • With Vancouver in Inland Washington Waters: Journals of 12 Crewmen April–June 1792 edited by Richard W. Blumenthal. Published by McFarland & Company, 2007.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vancouver, George" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 883.
  • Laughton, John Knox (1899). "Vancouver, George" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • David, Andrew C. F. "Vancouver, George (1757–1798)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28062. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Vancouver.
 
Wikisource has original works by or about:
George Vancouver
  • Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  • Works by George Vancouver at Faded Page (Canada)
  • George Vancouver (1757–1798), Explorer, illustrations in the National Portrait Gallery.
  • The True Meaning of Vancouver 12 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine – Etymology of his name.
  • interactive Google map showing the path Vancouver followed during his 11-day survey of the southwest coast of British Columbia
  • Coevorden: What connection does Vancouver have with Coevorden, an industrial town of about 20,000 in the northeast Netherlands? 10 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine- The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website. (Retrieved on 11 June 2007)
  • Vancouver History – Including historic street video of Vancouver from 1907.
  • Works by George Vancouver at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  

May 06, 2023
george, vancouver, captain, june, 1757, 1798, british, royal, navy, officer, best, known, 1791, 1795, expedition, which, explored, charted, north, america, northwestern, pacific, coast, regions, including, coasts, what, canadian, province, british, columbia, w. Captain George Vancouver 22 June 1757 10 May 1798 was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791 1795 expedition which explored and charted North America s northwestern Pacific Coast regions including the coasts of what are now the Canadian province of British Columbia as well as the US states of Alaska Washington and Oregon He also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia George VancouverA portrait from the late 18th century by an unknown artist believed to depict George VancouverBorn 1757 06 22 22 June 1757King s Lynn Norfolk Great BritainDied10 May 1798 1798 05 10 aged 40 Petersham Surrey Great BritainAllegianceGreat BritainService wbr branchRoyal NavyRankCaptainCommands heldHMS Discovery Vancouver Expedition 1791 1795 SignatureVancouver Island the city of Vancouver in British Columbia Vancouver Washington in the United States Mount Vancouver on the Canadian US border between Yukon and Alaska and New Zealand s fourth highest mountain also Mount Vancouver 1 are all named after him Contents 1 Early life 2 Explorations 2 1 Vancouver Expedition 2 2 Further explorations 3 Later life 4 Death 5 Legacy 5 1 Navigation 5 2 Indigenous peoples 5 3 Namesakes 5 3 1 Ship and cadet units 5 3 2 Places 5 3 2 1 Australia 5 3 2 2 Canada 5 3 2 3 New Zealand 5 3 2 4 United Kingdom 5 3 2 5 United States 5 3 3 Memorials 5 4 250th birthday commemorations 6 Origins of the family name 7 Works by George Vancouver 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life EditGeorge Vancouver was born in the seaport town of King s Lynn Norfolk England on 22 June 1757 the sixth and youngest child of John Jasper Vancouver a Dutch born deputy collector of customs and Bridget Berners He came from an old respected family The surname Vancouver comes from Coevorden Drenthe province Netherlands Koevern in Dutch Low Saxon In 1771 at the age of 13 Vancouver entered the Royal Navy as a young gentleman a future candidate for midshipman 2 He was nominally an able seaman AB but in reality sailed as one of the midshipmen 3 aboard HMS Resolution on James Cook s second voyage 1772 1775 searching for Terra Australis He also sailed with Cook s third voyage 1776 1780 this time aboard Resolution s companion ship HMS Discovery and was present during the first European sighting and exploration of the Hawaiian Islands 4 Upon his return to Britain in October 1780 Vancouver was commissioned as a lieutenant and posted aboard the sloop HMS Martin initially on escort and patrol duty in the English Channel and North Sea He accompanied the ship when it left Plymouth on 11 February 1782 for the West Indies On 7 May 1782 he was appointed fourth lieutenant of the 74 gun ship of the line HMS Fame which was at the time part of the British West Indies Fleet and assigned to patrolling the French held Leeward Islands Vancouver subsequently saw action at the Battle of the Saintes April 1782 wherein he distinguished himself Vancouver returned to England in June 1783 5 In the late 1780s the Spanish Empire commissioned an expedition to the Pacific Northwest In 1789 the Nootka Crisis developed and Spain and Britain came close to war over ownership of Nootka Sound on contemporary Vancouver Island and of greater importance over the right to colonise and settle the Pacific Northwest coast Henry Roberts had recently taken command of the survey ship HMS Discovery a new vessel named in honour of the ship on Cook s voyage with the prospect of another round the world voyage and Roberts selected Vancouver as his first lieutenant but they both were then posted to other warships due to the crisis Vancouver went with Joseph Whidbey to the 74 gun ship of the line HMS Courageux When the first Nootka Convention ended the crisis in 1790 Vancouver was given command of Discovery to take possession of Nootka Sound and to survey the coasts 6 7 Explorations Edit Life sized gilded statue of George Vancouver on the British Columbia Legislative Buildings in Victoria British Columbia Vancouver Expedition Edit Main article Vancouver Expedition Departing England with two ships HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham on 1 April 1791 Vancouver commanded an expedition charged with exploring the Pacific region In its first year the expedition travelled to Cape Town Australia New Zealand Tahiti and Hawaii collecting botanical samples and surveying coastlines along the way He formally claimed at Possession Point King George Sound Western Australia now the town of Albany Western Australia for the British Proceeding to North America Vancouver followed the coasts of present day Oregon and Washington northward In April 1792 he encountered American Captain Robert Gray off the coast of Oregon just prior to Gray s sailing up the Columbia River Vancouver entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island and the present day Washington state mainland on 29 April 1792 His orders included a survey of every inlet and outlet on the west coast of the mainland all the way north to Alaska Most of this work was in small craft propelled by both sail and oar manoeuvring larger sail powered vessels in uncharted waters was generally impractical and dangerous Vancouver named many features for his officers friends associates and his ship Discovery including Mount Baker after Discovery s 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker the first on the expedition to spot it Mount St Helens after his friend Alleyne Fitzherbert 1st Baron St Helens Puget Sound after Discovery s 2nd lieutenant Peter Puget 8 who explored its southern reaches Mount Rainier after his friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier Port Gardner and Port Susan Washington after his former commander Vice Admiral Sir Alan Gardner and his wife Susannah Lady Gardner Whidbey Island after naval engineer Joseph Whidbey Discovery Passage Discovery Island Discovery Bay Port Discovery and Discovery Park Seattle After a Spanish expedition in 1791 Vancouver was the second European to enter Burrard Inlet on 13 June 1792 naming it for his friend Sir Harry Burrard It is the present day main harbour area of the City of Vancouver beyond Stanley Park He surveyed Howe Sound and Jervis Inlet over the next nine days 9 Then on his 35th birthday on 22 June 1792 he returned to Point Grey the present day location of the University of British Columbia Here he unexpectedly met a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes y Flores Vancouver was mortified his word to learn they already had a crude chart of the Strait of Georgia based on the 1791 exploratory voyage of Jose Maria Narvaez the year before under command of Francisco de Eliza For three weeks they cooperatively explored the Georgia Strait and the Discovery Islands area before sailing separately towards Nootka Sound After the summer surveying season ended in August 1792 Vancouver went to Nootka then the region s most important harbour on contemporary Vancouver Island Here he was to receive any British buildings and lands returned by the Spanish from claims by Francisco de Eliza for the Spanish crown The Spanish commander Juan Francisco 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 At this time they decided to name the large island on which Nootka was now proven to be located as Quadra and Vancouver Island Years later as Spanish influence declined the name was shortened to simply Vancouver Island 10 While at Nootka Sound Vancouver acquired Robert Gray s chart of the lower Columbia River Gray had entered the river during the summer before sailing to Nootka Sound for repairs Vancouver realised the importance of verifying Gray s information and conducting a more thorough survey 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 11 Vancouver sailed south along the coast of Spanish Alta California visiting Chumash villages at Point Conception and near Mission San Buenaventura 12 In November he entered San Francisco Bay later visiting Monterey in both places he was warmly received by the Spanish 13 Vancouver spent the winter in continuing exploration of the Sandwich Islands the contemporary islands of Hawaii Further explorations Edit The next year 1793 he returned to British Columbia and proceeded further north unknowingly missing the overland explorer Alexander Mackenzie by only 48 days He got to 56 30 N having explored north from Point Menzies in Burke Channel to the northwest coast of Prince of Wales Island He sailed around the latter island as well as circumnavigating Revillagigedo Island and charting parts of the coasts of Mitkof Zarembo Etolin Wrangell Kuiu and Kupreanof Islands 14 With worsening weather he sailed south to Alta California hoping to find Bodega y Quadra and fulfil his territorial mission but the Spaniard was not there The Spanish governor refused to let a foreign official into the interior Vancouver noted that the region s only defenses against foreign attack are a few poor cannons 13 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 Boat parties charted the east coasts of Chichagof and Baranof Islands circumnavigated Admiralty Island explored to the head of Lynn Canal and charted the rest of Kuiu Island and nearly all of Kupreanof Island 14 He then set sail for Great Britain by way of Cape Horn returning in September 1795 thus completing a circumnavigation of South America Later life Edit In The Caneing in Conduit Street 1796 James Gillray caricatured Pitt s street corner assault on Vancouver Impressed by the view from Richmond Hill Vancouver retired to Petersham London 15 Vancouver faced difficulties when he returned home to England The accomplished and politically well connected naturalist Archibald Menzies 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 proceeded to harass him publicly and privately Pitt s allies including his cousin Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger attacked Vancouver in the press Thomas Pitt took a more direct approach on 29 August 1796 he sent Vancouver a letter heaping many insults on the head of his former captain and challenging him to a duel Vancouver gravely replied that he was unable in a private capacity to answer for his public conduct in his official duty and offered instead to submit to formal examination by flag officers Pitt chose instead to stalk Vancouver ultimately assaulting him on a London street corner The terms of their subsequent legal dispute required both parties to keep the peace but nothing stopped Vancouver s civilian brother Charles from interposing and giving Pitt blow after blow until onlookers restrained the attacker Charges and counter charges flew in the press with the wealthy Camelford faction having the greater firepower until Vancouver ailing from his long naval service died Death EditVancouver at one time amongst Britain s greatest explorers and navigators died in obscurity on 10 May 1798 at the age of 40 less than three years after completing his voyages and expeditions 16 No official cause of death was stated as the medical records pertaining to Vancouver were destroyed one doctor named John Naish claimed Vancouver died from kidney failure while others believed it was a hyperthyroid condition 17 His grave is in the churchyard of St Peter s Church Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames England The Hudson s Bay Company placed a memorial plaque in the church in 1841 18 His grave in Portland stone renovated in the 1960s is now Grade II listed in view of its historical associations 18 19 Legacy EditNavigation Edit A statue of George Vancouver in front of Vancouver City Hall Vancouver determined that the Northwest Passage did not exist at the latitudes that had long been suggested His charts of the North American northwest coast were so extremely accurate that they served as the key reference for coastal navigation for generations Robin Fisher the academic vice president of Mount Royal University in Calgary and author of two books on Vancouver states He put the northwest coast on the map He drew up a map of the north west coast that was accurate to the 9th degree to the point it was still being used into the modern day as a navigational aid That s unusual for a map from that early a time 20 However Vancouver failed to discover two of the largest and most important rivers on the Pacific coast the Fraser River and the Columbia River He also missed the Skeena River near Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia Vancouver did eventually learn of the river before he finished his survey from Robert Gray captain of the American merchant ship that conducted the first Euroamerican sailing of the Columbia River on 11 May 1792 after first sighting it on an earlier voyage in 1788 However it and the Fraser River never made it onto Vancouver s charts Stephen R Bown noted in Mercator s World magazine November December 1999 that How Vancouver could have missed these rivers while accurately charting hundreds of comparatively insignificant inlets islands and streams is hard to fathom What is certain is that his failure to spot the Columbia had great implications for the future political development of the Pacific Northwest 21 22 While it is difficult to comprehend how Vancouver missed the Fraser River much of this river s delta was subject to flooding and summer freshet which prevented the captain from spotting any of its great channels as he sailed the entire shoreline from Point Roberts Washington to Point Grey in 1792 23 The Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest with the 1791 Francisco de Eliza expedition preceding Vancouver by a year had also missed the Fraser River although they knew from its muddy plume that there was a major river located nearby 23 Indigenous peoples Edit Vancouver generally established a rapport with both Indigenous peoples and European trappers Historical records show Vancouver enjoyed good relations with native leaders both in Hawaii with King Kamehameha I as well as the Pacific Northwest and California 24 Vancouver s journals exhibit a high degree of sensitivity to the indigenous populations he encountered He wrote of meeting the Chumash people 12 and of his exploration of a small island on the Californian coast on which an important burial site was marked by a sepulchre of peculiar character lined with boards and fragments of military instruments lying near a square box covered with mats 24 Vancouver states This we naturally conjectured contained the remains of some person of consequence and it much excited the curiosity of some of our party but as further examination could not possibly have served any useful purpose and might have given umbrage and pain to the friends of the deceased should it be their custom to visit the repositories of their dead I did not think it right that it should be disturbed 24 Vancouver also displayed contempt in his journals towards unscrupulous western traders who provided guns to natives writing I am extremely concerned to be compelled to state here that many of the traders from the civilised world have not only pursued a line of conduct diametrically opposite to the true principles of justice in their commercial dealings but have fomented discords and stirred up contentions between the different tribes in order to increase the demand for these destructive engines They have been likewise eager to instruct the natives in the use of European arms of all descriptions and have shewn by their own example that they consider gain as the only object of pursuit and whether this be acquired by fair and honourable means or otherwise so long as the advantage is secured the manner how it is obtained seems to have been with too many of them but a very secondary consideration 24 Robin Fisher notes that Vancouver s relationships with aboriginal groups were generally peaceful indeed his detailed survey would not have been possible if they had been hostile 24 While there were hostile incidents at the end of Vancouver s last season the most serious of which involved a clash with the Tlingit people at Behm Canal in southeast Alaska in 1794 these were the exceptions to Vancouver s exploration of the US and Canadian Northwest coast 24 Despite a long history of warfare between Britain and Spain Vancouver maintained excellent relations with his Spanish counterparts and even feted a Spanish sea captain aboard his ship Discovery during his 1792 trip to the Vancouver region 20 Namesakes Edit Ship and cadet units Edit HMCS Vancouver Halifax class frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy Named for the city which is named for the man TS Vancouver Australian Navy Cadets 47 RCSCC CAPTAIN VANCOUVER Royal Canadian Sea Cadets 1 Archived 19 December 2012 at the Wayback MachinePlaces Edit Many places around the world have been named after George Vancouver including Australia Edit Vancouver Peninsula Cape Vancouver and Vancouver Breakers in King George Sound Western AustraliaCanada Edit Mount Vancouver in Yukon and neighbouring Alaska eighth highest mountain in Canada Vancouver British Columbia a major city on the mainland in southwestern British Columbia the province s largest city Vancouver Maritime Museum Vancouver Bay British Columbia in Jervis Inlet East of Powell River named after Vancouver when Capt George H Richards resurveyed the area in 1860 Vancouver Island in British Columbia off the southwest coast of the mainland North America s largest Pacific Island and location of the provincial capital at Victoria on its southern tip New Zealand Edit Mount Vancouver the sixth highest mountain in New Zealand Vancouver Arm of Breaksea Sound Fiordland South IslandUnited Kingdom Edit Vancouver Road in Ham London near Petersham his place of burialUnited States Edit Vancouver Washington a city in southwest Washington across the Columbia River from Portland Oregon Fort Vancouver a Hudson s Bay Company trading post established in 1825Memorials Edit Grave of George Vancouver in the churchyard of St Peter s Church Petersham London Statue of George Vancouver in King s Lynn his birthplace Statues of Vancouver are located in his birthplace of King s Lynn in front of Vancouver City Hall and on top of the dome of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings The Vancouver Quarter Shopping Centre bears his name in King s Lynn Canada Post issued a pair of 14 cent stamps to mark the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook s arrival at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island on 26 April 1978 George Vancouver was a crewman on this voyage Gate to the Northwest Passage a commemorative statue by Vancouver artist Alan Chung Hung was commissioned by Parks Canada and installed at the mouth of False Creek in Vanier Park near the Vancouver Maritime Museum in 1980 Canada Post issued a 37 cent stamp inscribed Vancouver Explores the Coast on 17 March 1988 It was one of a set of four stamps issued to honour Exploration of Canada Recognizers The George Vancouver Rose named in his honour and hybridised by Agriculture and Agri Food Canada First Capital Connect named Class 365 unit 365514 Captain George Vancouver operating on the route between King s Lynn and London Virgin CrossCountry named Class 221 unit 221129 George Vancouver in 2003 it was denamed on transfer to Arriva CrossCountry in 2007 A commemorative monument is located on the beach in North Kihei Maui Hawaii commemorating George Vancouver s contribution of coffee and root vegetables to the islands of Hawaii inscribed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau 2 December 1967 Statue of George Vancouver 2000 Vancouver WashingtonMany collections were made on the voyage one was donated by Archibald Menzies to the British Museum 1796 another made by surgeon George Goodman Hewett 1765 1834 was donated by Augustus Wollaston Franks to the British Museum in 1891 An account of these has been published 25 250th birthday commemorations Edit 1980 Commemorative Statue to Capt George Vancouver by Vancouver artist Alan Chung Hung Canada Post issued a 1 55 postage stamp to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Vancouver s birth on 22 June 2007 The stamp has an embossed image of Vancouver seen from behind as he gazes forward towards a mountainous coastline This may be the first Canadian stamp not to show the subject s face 26 The City of Vancouver in Canada organised a celebration to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Vancouver s birth in June 2007 at the Vancouver Maritime Museum 27 The one hour festivities included the presentation of a massive 63 by 114 centimetre carrot cake the firing of a gun salute by the Royal Canadian Artillery s 15th Field Regiment and a performance by the Vancouver Firefighter s Band 27 Vancouver s then mayor Sam Sullivan officially declared 22 June 2007 to be George Day 27 The Musqueam xʷme8kʷey em Elder sɁeyeɬeq Larry Grant attended the festivities and acknowledged that some of his people might disapprove of his presence but also noted Many people don t feel aboriginal people should be celebrating this occasion I believe it has helped the world and that s part of who we are That s the legacy of our people We re generous to a fault The legacy is strong and a good one in the sense that without the first nations working with the colonials it B C wouldn t have been part of Canada to begin with and Britain would be the poorer for it 27 Origins of the family name EditThere has been some debate about the origins of the Vancouver name It is now commonly accepted that the name Vancouver derives from the expression van Coevorden meaning originating from Coevorden a city in the northeast of the Netherlands This city is apparently named after the Coeverden family of the 13th 15th century 28 In the 16th century a number of businessmen from the Coevorden area and the rest of the Netherlands moved to England Some of them were known as Van Coeverden Others adopted the surname Oxford as in oxen fording a river which is approximately the English translation of Coevorden However it is not the exact name of the noble family mentioned in the history books that claim Vancouver s noble lineage that name was Coeverden not Coevorden In the 1970s Adrien Mansvelt a former consul general of the Netherlands based in Vancouver published a collation of information in both historical and genealogical journals and in the Vancouver Sun newspaper 29 30 31 Mansvelt s theory was later presented by the city during the Expo 86 World s Fair as historical fact The information was then used by historian W Kaye Lamb in his book A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World 1791 1795 1984 32 W Kaye Lamb in summarising Mansvelt s 1973 research observes evidence of close family ties between the Vancouver family of Britain and the Van Coeverden family of the Netherlands as well as George Vancouver s own words from his diaries in referring to his Dutch ancestry As the name Vancouver suggests the Vancouvers were of Dutch origin They were descended from the titled van Coeverden family one of the oldest in the Netherlands By the twelfth century and for many years thereafter their castle at Coevorden in the Province of Drenthe was an important fortress on the eastern frontier George Vancouver was aware of this In July 1794 he named the Lynn Canal after the place of my nativity and Point Couverden which he spelt incorrectly after the seat of my ancestors Vancouver s great grandfather Reint Wolter van Couverden was probably the first of the line to establish an English connection While serving as a squire at one of the German courts he met Johanna Jane Lilingston an English girl who was one of the ladies in waiting They were married in 1699 Their son Lucas Hendrik van Couverden married Vancouver s grandmother Sarah In his later years he probably anglicized his name and spent most of his time in England By the eighteenth century the estates of the van Couverdens were mostly in the Province of Overijssel and some of the family were living in Vollenhove on the Zuider Zee The English and Dutch branches kept in touch and in 1798 the date of Vancouver s death George Vancouver s brother Charles would marry a kinswoman Louise Josephine van Couverden of Vollenhove Both were great grandchildren of Reint Wolter van Couverden 33 In 2006 John Robson a librarian at the University of Waikato conducted his own research into George Vancouver s ancestry which he published in an article in the British Columbia History journal 34 Robson theorises that Vancouver s forebears may have been Flemish rather than Dutch he believes that Vancouver is descended from the Vangover family of Ipswich in Suffolk and Colchester in Essex Those towns had a significant Flemish population in the 16th and 17th centuries 35 George Vancouver named the south point of what is now Couverden Island Alaska Point Couverden during his exploration of the North American Pacific coast in honour of his family s hometown of Coevorden 36 It is located at the western point of entry to Lynn Canal in southeastern Alaska 37 Works by George Vancouver EditThe Admiralty instructed Vancouver to publish a narrative of his voyage which he started to write in early 1796 in Petersham At the time of his death the manuscript covered the period up to mid 1795 The work A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World was completed by his brother John and published in three volumes in the autumn of 1798 38 A second edition was published in 1801 in six volumes 17 39 A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean And Round the World Volume 1 A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean And Round the World Volume 2 A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean And Round the World Volume 3A modern annotated edition 1984 by W Kaye Lamb was renamed The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791 1795 and published in four volumes by the Hakluyt Society of London England See also EditEuropean and American voyages of scientific explorationReferences Edit Reed A W 2010 Peter Dowling ed Place Names of New Zealand Rosedale North Shore Raupo p 430 ISBN 9780143204107 Landauer Lyndall Baker 2013 George Vancouver In Magill Frank N ed Dictionary of World Biography The 17th and 18th Centuries Vol 4 London Routledge p 1355 ISBN 9781135924140 Robson John 2014 George Vancouver 1757 1798 Part 1 Introduction and early career Cook s Log 37 1 28 via Captain Cook Society Chart of the NW Coast of America and Part of the NE of Asia with the Track of his Majesty s Sloops Resolution and Discovery from May to October 1778 World Digital Library 1778 Archived from the original on 5 June 2013 Retrieved 27 June 2013 Sue Bigelow 20 June 2013 Captain George Vancouver original documents City of Vancouver Archives Archived from the original on 13 September 2016 Retrieved 8 August 2016 King Robert J 2010 George Vancouver and the contemplated settlement at Nootka Sound The Great Circle 32 1 6 34 Allen Richard Edward 1982 A Pictorial History of Vancouver Book 1 Josten s Publications Wing Robert Newell Gordon 1979 Peter Puget Lieutenant on the Vancouver Expedition fighting British naval officer the man for whom Puget Sound was named Gray Beard Publishing ISBN 0 933686 00 5 Little Gary George Vancouver 1757 2007 250th Birth Anniversary Survey of the Southwest Coast of BC June 1792 Archived 9 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791 1795 Volume 1 W Kaye Lamb ed Hakluyt Society 1984 ISBN 978 0 904180 17 6 p 247 Etulain Richard W 2004 Western Lives A Biographical History Of The American West UNM Press pp 97 101 ISBN 978 0 8263 3472 5 Archived from the original on 10 June 2016 Retrieved 2 January 2016 a b McLendon Sally and Johnson John R 1999 Cultural Affiliation and Lineal Descent of Chumash Peoples in the Channel Islands and the Santa Monica Mountains Archived 31 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History pp 139 40 98 99 Accessed 18 June 2010 a b Rolle Andrew 1987 California A History 4th ed Arlington Heights IL Harlan Davidson pp 78 79 ISBN 0 88295 839 9 OCLC 13333829 a b Vancouver George Vancouver John 1801 A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean and round the world London J Stockdale Retrieved 2 January 2016 Three Intrepid Explorers Discovery Richmond Archived from the original on 28 February 2014 Retrieved 30 January 2014 Cave Edward Sylvanus Urban 1798 Obituary of Remarkable Persons with Biographical Anecdotes The Gentleman s Magazine and Historical Chronicle Vol 68 London John Nichols p 447 a b George Vancouver 1757 1798 part five after the voyage The Captain Cook Society Archived from the original on 7 March 2016 Retrieved 25 February 2016 a b Boyes Valerie Wintersinger Natascha 2014 Encountering the Unchartered and Back three explorers Ball Vancouver and Burton Museum of Richmond pp 9 10 Historic England Tomb of Captain George Vancouver in the Churchyard of St Peter s Church 1380182 National Heritage List for England Retrieved 3 March 2014 a b Pynn Larry 30 May 2007 Charting the Coast The Vancouver Sun p B3 Brown Stephen R 1999 In the Most Faithful Manner Mercator s World 4 6 Archived from the original on 19 June 2003 Vancouver BC Geographical Names a b Hume Stephen 17 November 2007 The Birth of Modern British Columbia Part 7 The Vancouver Sun p D9 a b c d e f Pynn Larry Peaceful Encounters 29 May 2007 The Vancouver Sun p B3 King J C H 1994 Vancouver s Ethnography A Preliminary Description of Five Inventories from the Voyage of 1791 95 J Hist Collections 6 1 35 38 doi 10 1093 jhc 6 1 35 Pynn Larry 24 May 2007 Mystery man The Canada Post stamp honouring Captain George Vancouver has created a buzz with collectors Archived 10 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver Sun a b c d Pynn Larry 23 June 2007 Native elder embraces captain s legacy The Vancouver Sun p B9 G H Anderson 1923 Vancouver and his Great Voyage The Story of a Norfolk Sailor King s Lynn Thew amp Son via State Library of Victoria Mansvelt Adrien February 1975 The Vancouver Van Coeverden Controversy The British Columbia Genealogist Vol 4 No 1 2 3 Mansvelt Adrien February 1973 Vancouver A lost branch of the van Coeverden Family PDF BC Historical News British Columbia Historical Association 6 2 20 23 Archived PDF from the original on 23 August 2016 Retrieved 8 August 2016 Mansvelt Adrien 1 September 1973 Solving the Captain Vancouver mystery and The Original Vancouver in Old Holland The Vancouver Sun Lamb W Kaye A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World 1791 1795 Archived 31 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine London Printed for G G and J Robinson The Voyage of George Vancouver 1791 1795 Volume 1 W Kaye Lamb ed Hakluyt Society 1984 ISBN 978 0 904180 17 6 p 3 Robson John 2006 Origins of the Vancouver Name PDF British Columbia History British Columbia Historical Federation 39 4 23 24 ISSN 1710 7881 Archived PDF from the original on 4 August 2016 Retrieved 7 August 2016 Baecklandt David Was George Vancouver Flemish The Brussels Journal 21 February 2010 History of Metropolitan Vancouver Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine chuckdavis ca Couverden Island Archived 3 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine dnr state ak us Review of new books The Scots Magazine 1 September 1799 pp 33 38 via British Newspaper Archive Vancouver s voyage round the world London Courier and Evening Gazette 7 November 1801 p 1 via British Newspaper Archive Further reading EditGodwin George Captain George Vancouver 1757 1798 History Today Sep 1957 7 9 pp 605 609 Bown Stephen R Madness Betrayal and the Lash The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver Douglas amp McIntyre 2008 Godwin George Vancouver A Life 1757 1798 D Appleton and Company 1931 The Life and Voyages of Captain George Vancouver by Bern Anderson Published by University of Washington Press 1966 Captain Vancouver A Portrait of His Life by Alison Gifford Published by St James Press 1986 Journal of the Voyages of the H M S Discovery and Chatham by Thomas Manby Published by Ye Galleon Press 1988 Vancouver s Voyage Charting the Northwest Coast 1791 1795 by Robin Fisher and Gary Fiegehen Published by Douglas amp McIntyre 1992 On Stormy Seas The Triumphs and Torments of Captain George Vancouver by B Guild Gillespie Published by Horsdal amp Schubart 1992 Captain Vancouver North West Navigator by E C Coleman Published by Tempus 2007 Sailing with Vancouver A Modern Sea Dog Antique Charts and a Voyage Through Time by Sam McKinney Published by Touchwood Editions 2004 The Early Exploration of Inland Washington Waters Journals and Logs from Six Expeditions 1786 1792 edited by Richard W Blumenthal Published by McFarland amp Company 2004 A Discovery Journal George Vancouver s First Survey Season 1792 by John E Roberts Published by Trafford Publishing 2005 With Vancouver in Inland Washington Waters Journals of 12 Crewmen April June 1792 edited by Richard W Blumenthal Published by McFarland amp Company 2007 Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Vancouver George Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 27 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 883 Laughton John Knox 1899 Vancouver George In Lee Sidney ed Dictionary of National Biography Vol 58 London Smith Elder amp Co David Andrew C F Vancouver George 1757 1798 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 28062 Subscription or UK public library membership required External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Vancouver Wikisource has original works by or about George Vancouver Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online Works by George Vancouver at Faded Page Canada George Vancouver 1757 1798 Explorer illustrations in the National Portrait Gallery The True Meaning of Vancouver Archived 12 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine Etymology of his name interactive Google map showing the path Vancouver followed during his 11 day survey of the southwest coast of British Columbia Coevorden What connection does Vancouver have with Coevorden an industrial town of about 20 000 in the northeast Netherlands Archived 10 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website Retrieved on 11 June 2007 Vancouver History Including historic street video of Vancouver from 1907 Works by George Vancouver at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title George Vancouver amp oldid 1152207397, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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