Desolation Sound is located off of the northeast end of
Strait of Georgia, its entrance just east of Cortes Island. In the early summer of 1792,
Vancouver anchored near the Sound while he sent smaller boats to survey the surrounding waters.
1With the exception of visits with Spanish explorers
Alcalá-Galiano and Valdés,
Vancouver had a miserable time of his stay, mostly due to what he saw as the
gloomy
and
forlorn
surroundings of both land and sea, and so he named it according to his mood, which
was presumably one of desolation by the time he weighed anchor.
2