Orcas is a horseshoe-shaped island in the
San Juan group, Washington State, and its name arises from complex and murky origins. Middleton
writes that Francisco de Eliza, a Spanish explorer, named it after the ship Boca de
Horcasitas, and as it was anglicized and truncated, “Horcasitas” lost its H and became
Orcas. However, Brokenshire is convinced that another Spaniard on the same voyage, Pantoja,
named the island in reference to the volume of killer whales, or “orcas” in Spanish,
that surrounded his longboat during his surveys in the area.
Both sources agree that
Captain Kellett did the work to restore the name Orcas to the Island in 1847, as it had been known
for a time as Hull Island, a mantle given by US explorer
Wilkes during his expedition to the region from 1838-1842.