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Page 6 West Vancouver Historical Society September 1999 FEATURE PRESENTATION REPORT Retracing Captain George Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery By: Anne Vemon Raymond Crome, author, historian and sailor, together with his friend historian, renowned painter and sailor John Horton, is involved in the production of a book about Captain George Vancouver and his remarkable voyages of discovery on the west coast of the Americas over 200 years ago. He shared Vancouver's exploits with us. Raymond Crome does not usually talk publicly about the coastal voyages which he and John Horton have been making for several years. Mr Horton is usually the speaker, but he was unable to be with us at our Society meeting because on that same evening he was attending a Lifeboat Institution meeting in England and actually having dinner with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth! George Vancouver served with the Royal Navy for 22 years - some of them as an officer under the command of that famous explorer. Captain Cook. In the space of 5 years, with his ship "Discovery", Vancouver circumnavigated the globe and mapped the west coast of the American continent from southern California to northern Alaska. Until the recent onset of sattelite navigation, which completely changed sailing habits, these charts were still in use 200 years later. Considering that the instruments Vancouver had at his command were very basic this was a considerable feat. Naval life was tough in Vancouver’s time. The "Discovery" - a Whitby collier - was only 55 feet long and carried a crew of 85 and the "Chatham" was even smaller! The ships encountered all kinds of weather -calm, fogs and fierce storms - and they sailed day and night, always having to deal with unchartered rocks and strong currents. Their orders were not only to map the coastline but to find a route which could be sailed from the west coast to the Great Lakes in the east of Canada. It was not possible to sail the ships into all the inlets and bays they encountered so "Discovery" and "Chatham" anchored safely offshore and the officers and crew embarked in pinnaces (small rowing boats) and rowed up and down the coast carrying out their duties and collecting fresh food and water and, sometimes, having to replace the masts which took so much punishment in the storms which came roaring over the Pacific Ocean. There were other adventurers on the coast at that time and Vancouver and his crews met up with Russians and Spaniards as well as the aboriginal population and, mostly, they got on well, sometimes sailing in company with Spanish ships. In Nootka Sound, for example, the Spanish had set up a settlement with houses, a hospital and cannons overlooking the ocean. However there was a time when Nootka was not so friendly. A British trader from Canton decided to bring 3 ships and extra crews over to set up and work his own trading post. The Spaniards were incensed, impounded the ships and took the seamen prisoner, sending them to a Mexican gaol. The Navy were not pleased and only some excellent diplomacy avoided a war. ....’’Naval life was tough in Vancouver’s time...” One of the diplomats who was involved in this action was called St. Helen which led to the naming of a local mountain - Mount St. Helens. Vancouver named many of the bays, islands and headlands after people he admired - usually naval officers with whom he had served in the past. Unfortunately Captain Vancouver fell foul of an aristocratic bully who had been a midshipman on his crew. On his return to England this "gentleman" used his influence against the captain and his last few years must have been diffucult. Vancouver did not live to see his journals in print - they were published a year after his death in 1701 - but his name and work live on. Both Raymond Crome and John Horton have been fascinated by Captain George Vancouver's exploits and so for several years they have sailed in ‘ the "Artist's Life", a barge which was originally built for the American Admiral Nimitz and which now serves as a voluntary lifeboat in BC waters -hence John's dinner invitation! We wish them every success with their book.