Vancouver, Captain George
b. 1757-06-22
d. 1798-05-10
During the 1770s, George Vancouver received his training as a seaman and a hydrographic surveyor under the guidance of Captain James Cook. After Cook's final expedition returned in 1780, Vancouver spent the next decade serving on Royal Navy ships in the Caribbean. At the end of 1790, an influential patron arranged for Vancouver's appointment as captain and commander of an expedition to the Northwest coast of North America to settle the question of a Northwest passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. After a one-year transit, the expedition reached the coast in 1792 and surveyed every inlet between California and Alaska during three seasons, wintering in the Sandwich Islands. The survey was carried out with remarkable accuracy. When Vancouver returned to England in 1795, allegations of misconduct spread by dissatisfied crew members with powerful connections dampened the recognition of his achievement. He retired and prepared his journals for publication which appeared after his death.
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Cook, James

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Caribbean