SOURCES CONSULTED:
Exploring Hood Canal ACCOUNT OF VANCOUVER & MENZIES' DISCOVERY of Hood Canal in 1792
Capt. George Vancouver’s 1798 publication “A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World. Vol. I” G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row and J. Edwards, Pall-Mall: London Archives of British Columbia’s Memoir No. V. 1923 “Menzies’ Journal of Vancouver’s Voyage: April to October, 1792” edited by C.F. Newcombe
Stella Wenstob | Journal excerpts & images
Etching of view of Mount Rainier from South part of Admiralty Inlet (1798)
The Spring of 1792 brought new eyes to the Salish Sea. Thirty-four-year-old Captain Vancouver commanded the HMS Discovery and the armed tender HMS Chatham to the Pacific Northwest coast on a multi-purpose mission for the British crown. His mission was primarily to oversee the cessation of the Spanish presence on the Northwest Coast and their fort San Miguel at Nootka Sound (Vancouver Island, Canada). However, this expedition was as much about exploration and research as it was about politics. At this time, it was not known that Vancouver Island was indeed an island. The Juan de Fuca Straits was rumored to be the opening of the legendary Northwest Passage connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic. Vancouver and his crew were the first to survey and chart Hood Canal and Puget Sound.
Vancouver and the Spanish Explorer Quadra shared the credit for the exploration and charting off the inland passage which established Vancouver Island (to acknowledge this it was known originally as Vancouver and Quadra’s Island) as separate from the mainland. Also aboard employed as the ship's surgeon was Dr. Archibald Menzies who had his own orders from the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew to collect and record plant specimens encountered during their voyage. Menzies had a small greenhouse on the quarter-deck of the HMS Discovery for his plant specimens. Many species on the coast, such as the Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are named in his honor. Although they did not find the opening to the Atlantic, they did lay the groundwork for newcomers thereafter. In early May of 1792, Captain Vancouver, Dr. Menzies, Lt. Peter Puget and Master James Johnstone (of the Chatham) and
three unnamed “gentlemen” left the HMS Discovery and the HMS Chatham at anchor in Discovery Bay under the care of the Lt. W.R. Broughton to survey ahead by long boat. They charted and named Port Townsend, Mount Rainier, Admiralty Inlet, Foulweather Bluff and many other places. The following passages are an abridged account of Captain Vancouver’s and Dr. Menzies’ short sojourn down Hood Canal beginning at Oak Cove, just south of Port Townsend.
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1792
Vancouver – "As my intentions were not to depart from the continental boundary, the western arm [modern day Hood Canal] was the first object of our examination; and we directed our course towards a high lump of land that had the appearance of an island, entertaining little doubt of finding a way into the south eastern, or main arm, south of the supposed long low island.
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