Cape Scott is on northwestern tip of Vancouver Island. This exposed cape looks west to the open Pacific and north, across Queen Charlotte Sound, to Haida Gwaii, or the Queen Charlotte Islands. It was named after David Scott (1746-1805), Mumbai merchant, fur-trade financier, and, later in his career, chairman
of the East India Company.1
Merchant-vessel Captains Lowrie and Guise named the point in 1786 while on a Scott-funded expedition to the region.2 In the late 1800s, Cape Scott was the site of an unsuccessful Danish settler colony.3 Cape Scott is now part of the Cape Scott Provincial Park, established in 1973.4
1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 107.