Fitzhugh's Sound is located between the British Columbia mainland and Calvert Island. It was named in 1786 by Captain James Hanna of the Sea Otter, after he became the first European to come
to British Columbia to trade furs and to map out this area. The name continued to be used by Captain Vancouver in 1792.1 Hanna named the area Fitzhugh's Sound after a British East India Company merchant
who often traded with his ship -- William Fitzhugh. Fitzhugh was also a partner of
Captain John Mears on a similar expedition to that of Hanna's in British Columbia in the same year, 1786. Interestingly, in the late 1700s, Captain Duncan refers to the sound as “Sir Charles
Middleton Sound”; although this was most likely a name he gave himself and which never
stuck.2
A lighthouse which was erected on the western side of Addenbroke Island, was meant
to help seamen designate the narrowest part of Fitzhugh's Sound. The lighthouse still
operates today.3