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Vancouver (GEORGE an English navigator)

GEORGE, an English navigator; born about 1758. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1771; accompanied Cook on his second and third voyage (1772-1774 and 1776-1779); was made 1st lieutenant in 1780; and served in the West Indies till 1789. In 1790 he was put in command of a small squadron sent to take over Nootka from the Spaniards, and was also charged to ascertain if there was a N. W. passage. He sailed in the "Discovery," April 1, 1791, spent some time at the Cape, and afterward made for Australia and New Zealand, the coast of which he surveyed.

He then went N. and received formal surrender of Nootka, and spent the three summers of 1792-1794 in surveying the coast as far N. as Cook's Inlet, wintering at the Sandwich Islands. On his return voyage he visited the chief Spanish settlements on the W. coast of South America, and reached England in 1795, where a narrative of his voyage was published in 1798. Vancouver Island was named after him. He died near London, May 10, 1798.