22d June, 1757 English explorer George Vancouver was born

On the 22d of June, 1757 was born George Vancouver, who went down in history as the great navigator and explorer.

At age 14, he began working on the ship of James Cook and took part in the 2d (1772-1775) and 3rd (1776-1780) travel around the world.

In 1791 George Vancouver led the grand naval expedition on the ship "Discovery", the aim of which was to research and map Pacific Ocean. Under his leadership have been mapped and studied in detail the Sandwich Islands, the west coast of South America, the Pacific coast of North America between 30 ° and 60 ° N, as well as the neighboring islands, located between 39 ° and 51 ° north latitude (now there are Oregon, California and Washington, the Canadian province of British Columbia).

In 1792 Vancouver began exploring the coast of Cape Mendocino (39 ° 20'severnoy latitude) to the Strait of Juan de Fuca (48 ° 30 'north latitude), and he was the first European who managed to go to the mouth of the Columbia River. He charted a detailed map of the island, and later this island was named after Vancouver.

It is known that for three years Vancouver managed to map the coast between 39 ° 20 'to 60 ° N. During his research, he was willing to use the instructions of Russian researchers, whom he met on the shores of the Gulf of Alaska. Moreover, in his possession were old Russian secret maps, which he obtained with the help of Admiralty and British secret agents, close to the court of Catherine II. Vancouver used as well instructions and materials of Spanish sailors. Despite this, maps compiled by Vancouver had significant gaps. It turned out that during later expeditions of Russian sailors who discovered a number of islands, bays, rivers, straits between 56 ° and 58 ° N. However, this can be explained by irregularities of the coast in the area.

When he returned to England after four years of sailing George Vancouver was busy describing his journey. The members of the team returned in good condition, but George Vancouver was sick and couldn’t recover. He died in May 1798 at the age of 40, and has not completed his work.

In 1798 his work entitled "Journey of discovery in the North Pacific Ocean" with an atlas was published in London. His brother, John, with Lieutenant Peter Puget, who has made significant additions to the material, had completed the book of Vancouver.

In honor of George Vancouver are named cities in the United States and Canada, and an island off the west coast of Canada.