Vancouver Expedition

The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy. The British expedition circumnavigated the globe and made contact with five continents. The expedition at various times included between two and four vessels, and up to 153 men, all but 6 of whom returned home safely.

Several previous voyages of exploration including those of Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook, and the Spanish Manila-Acapulco galleons trade route active since 1565, had established the strategic and commercial value of exploring and claiming the Pacific Ocean access, both for its wealth in whales and furs and as a trade route to the Orient. Britain was especially interested in improving its knowledge of the Southern Pacific whale fisheries, and in particular the locations of the strategically positioned Australia, New Zealand, the legendary (and non-existent) Isla Grande, and the Northwest Passage. A new ship was purchased, fitted out, and named HMS Discovery after one of Cook's ships. Her captain was Henry Roberts and Vancouver his 1st Lieutenant.

Plans changed when the adventurer John Meares reported that the Spanish had impounded his ship and seized hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of goods at Nootka Sound. Although it is now known that his claims of loss were somewhat exaggerated, Britain had recently waged war against Spain and seemed ready to resume hostilities; the Parliament readied the fleet in the Nootka Crisis. Roberts and Vancouver left Discovery to serve in the Channel Fleet while Discovery became a depot ship for processing those taken in by the press gang. The Spanish backed down from their earlier stance in the Nootka Sound Convention, whose terms resulted in inconsistent instructions for the British and Spanish officers sent to implement them.

Vancouver returned to Discovery as the expedition's commander. Vancouver understood from the discussions he had with ministers and officials in London prior to his departure that his task was to receive back from the Spanish commander at Nootka Sound land and property confiscated from the British fur traders in July 1789 and to establish a formal British presence there to support and promote the fur trade. Proposals to establish a British settlement on the Northwest Coast had been discussed in commercial and official circles in the 1780s, encouraged by the success of the similar project at Botany Bay and Norfolk Island. During the war scare with Spain that resulted from the arrest of the British fur traders at Nootka Sound, plans were made for a small party of convicts and marines to be sent from New South Wales to make a subsidiary settlement on the Northwest Coast: one of the ships to be used for this task was to have been the Discovery, which Vancouver afterwards commanded during his expedition. He believed that once he had accepted restitution of Nootka Sound and its associated territory he was to make preparations for founding a British colony there that, at least initially, would have had a close connection with the New South Wales colony. Supplies and materials for establishing the colony were sent on the Daedalus storeship. He was also instructed "to receive back in form a restitution of the territories on which the Spaniards had seized, and also to make an accurate survey of the coast, from the 30th degree of north latitude northwestward toward Cook's River; and further, to obtain every possible information that could be collected respecting the natural and political state of that country." These explorations were in part to discover water communication into the North American interior (whether a Northwest Passage or, more likely, navigable rivers existed) and to facilitate the research of the expedition's politically well-connected botanist, Archibald Menzies. A change to a more conciliatory British policy toward Spain after he left England in April 1791, a result of challenges arising from the French Revolution, was not communicated to Vancouver, leaving him in an embarrassing situation in his negotiations with the Spanish commander at Nootka. Although Vancouver and Bodega y Quadra were friendly with one another, their negotiations did not go smoothly. Spain desired to set the Spanish-British boundary at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Vancouver insisted on British rights to the Columbia River. Vancouver also objected to the new Spanish post at Neah Bay. Bodega y Quadra insisted on Spain retaining Nootka Sound, which Vancouver could not accept. In the end the two agreed to refer the matter to their respective governments.

Following the Mutiny on the Bounty, the Admiralty had ordered the precaution that ships not make such long voyages alone;^{[citation needed]} therefore the armed tender HMS Chatham was assigned to the expedition. The chartered merchant ship, Daedalus, would rendezvous at Nootka Sound a year later with supplies. The expedition was supposed to take two or three years.

The Muster of the expedition lists 153 men. Most were naval officers or sailors, many of whom would distinguish themselves in future service, including Peter Puget, Joseph Baker, Joseph Whidbey, William Broughton, Zachary Mudge, Thomas Manby, and Robert Barrie. There was a large detachment of Marines; whether these were to assist with exploration in hostile territory or to discourage mutiny is not recorded. Two 16-year-old aristocrats, the Honorable Thomas Pitt (nephew of the British Prime Minister, William Pitt The Younger) and the Honorable Charles Stuart (son of a Marquis), were brought aboard as able seamen; they proved troublesome.

Among the supernumeraries were Menzies (who kept a meticulous journal of the expedition) and his servant John Ewin (or Ewing). A Hawaiian man named Towereroo, whom Captain Charles Duncan had brought to England, was put on Discovery that he might return home. Finally, the Muster includes a Widow's Man, rated able seaman, but in fact merely an accounting fiction.

On 1 April 1791, Discovery and Chatham set sail from Falmouth, England. They reached Santa Cruz in Tenerife on 28 April; this was intended as a rest stop and opportunity to study the botany of the region, but ended in a drunken brawl in which several members of the crew were thrown into the bay or suffered injuries.