{"id":200555,"date":"2021-01-08T14:47:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T19:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csce.dev\/en\/?post_type=historic_site&p=200555"},"modified":"2022-07-07T10:36:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T14:36:13","slug":"captain-george-vancouvers-survey-and-mapping-of-the-west-coast-of-north-america","status":"publish","type":"historic_site","link":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/historic-site\/captain-george-vancouvers-survey-and-mapping-of-the-west-coast-of-north-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain George Vancouver\u2019s Survey and Mapping of the West Coast of North America"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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This Historic Project is commemorated jointly by CSCE, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) and the AIC (<\/em>Asociaci\u00f3n de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Espa\u00f1a<\/em> \u2013 Spanish Civil Engineering Association)<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Vancouver\u2019s map of Vancouver Island. (Source: Oregonencyclopedia.org\/Library of Congress, G420.V22)<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Site Location: West Coast of North America.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Location: In storage at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden Ave, Vancouver, BC. Lat.: 49\u00b0 \u2013 16\u2019 \u2013 39\u201d N; Long.: 123\u00b0 \u2013 8\u2019 \u2013 50\u201d W. (GPS: 49.277517, -123.147183). From Trans-Canada Highway 1, take Exit 27, East 1st<\/sup> Avenue. Travel 5.5 km west, as East 1st<\/sup> Avenue turns into Terminal Avenue, and turn left (south) on Quebec Street. After 0.5 km, turn right (west) on East 2nd<\/sup> Avenue, and continue west for 2.4 km as East 2nd<\/sup> Ave. becomes West 6th<\/sup> Ave. Bend right to enter West 4th<\/sup> Ave and, after 0.9 km, turn right (north) on Burrard Street. After 0.5 km, turn left (west) on Cornwall Avenue and, after 0.2 km, turn right (north) on Cypress Avenue. Continue straight through one roundabout 0.4 km, and, at the second roundabout, take the first exit east onto McNicholl Avenue. After 0.1 km, turn left (north) on Chestnut Street \u2013 the Vancouver Marine Museum is 0.2 km away on the left.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Description: Captain George Vancouver left England with the HMS Discovery and the HMS Chatham in 1791, tasked with exploring the Pacific region. In the first year, the expedition collected botanica samples and surveyed coastlines at Cape Town, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii. He then sailed east to North America and followed the coasts of present-day Oregon and Washington northward. He entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 29 April 1792 and from there surveyed the west coast of the mainland to Alaska. Returning south that June, he met a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcal\u00e1 Galiano and Cayetano Vald\u00e9s y Flores who showed him their crude chart of the Strait of Georgia made by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Narv\u00e1ez a year earlier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The chronometers used by Captain George Vancouver on his Pacific voyage. (Source: Vancouver Museum, H. Tabbers, neg. no. 487-33).<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Captain George Vancouver (1758-1798). (Source: Wikimedia Commons)<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Historic Significance: Vancouver\u2019s voyage, 1791 -1795, resulted in the most accurate and detailed map of its time for the entire west coast of North America, and proved conclusively the absence of a Northwest Passage through the continent. Vancouver was the first European to discover and map Puget Sound and to prove the insularity of Vancouver Island. His survey of coastal British Columbia and southern Alaska benefited from information received from contemporary Spanish explorers. Vancouver\u2019s charts, used by mariners late into the 19th century, and those of the Spaniards served as important references during settlement of the international boundary disputes between Great Britain and the United States in 1846 and 1872.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Plaque detail. (Source: CSCE)<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Plaque Wording: International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. VANCOUVER\u2019S MAPPING OF THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. The voyage of Captain George Vancouver, 1791-1795, resulted in the most accurate and detailed map of its time for the entire west coast of North America, and proved conclusively the absence of a Nortwest Passage through the continent. Vancouver was the first European to discover and map Puget Sound and to prove the insularity of Vancouver Island. His survey of coastal British Columbia and southern Alaska benefited from information received from contemporary Spanish explorers. American Society of Civil Engineers. Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Asociaci\u00f3n de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Point de Rep\u00e9re Historique International de G\u00e9nie Civil. LA CARTOGRAPHIE DE VANCOUVER DE LA C\u00d4TE OUEST DE L\u2019AM\u00c9RIQUE DU NORD. Le voyage du Capitaine George Vancouver, de 1791 \u00e0 1795, a pemis de dresser la carte la plus precise et la plus d\u00e9taill\u00e9e, pour l\u2019\u00e9poque, de la c\u00f4te Ouest de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique du Nord. Ses relev\u00e9s ont prove de fa\u00e7on concluante l\u2019absence du fameux passage du Nord-Ouest \u00e0 travers le continent. Vancouver \u00e9tait le premier europ\u00e9en \u00e0 d\u00e9couvrir et \u00e0 dresser la carte du d\u00e9troit de Puget Sound, et \u00e0 etablir que l\u2019\u00eele de Vancouver \u00e9tait bien une \u00eele. Ses relev\u00e9s des c\u00f4tes de la Columbie-Britannique et du Sud de l\u2019Alaska ont \u00e9t\u00e9 dresses avec l\u2019aide des explorateurs espagnols de l\u2019\u00e9poque. American Society of Civil Engineers. La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 canadienne de genie civil. Asociaci\u00f3n de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Unveiling Ceremony: (5:00 pm, Sunday August 9, 2009)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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From left: Alistair MacKenzie, Chair, CSCE National History Committee; David Gilbert, ASCE History and Heritage Committee; Andrea Reimer, Councillor, City of Vancouver; Wayne Klotz , ASCE President; Professor Nobuyuk Tamai, President of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR); and, Wes Wenhardt, Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum. (Source: D. Gilbert)<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Link to Online Documentation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Junius Rochester, Vancouver, George (1758-1798), HistoryLink.org, 2003.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Vancouver Maritime Museum homepage.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Biography of George Vancouver<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This Historic Project is commemorated jointly by CSCE, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) and the AIC (Asociaci\u00f3n de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Espa\u00f1a \u2013 Spanish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22598,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","classification":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/200555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/historic_site"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/200555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211055,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/200555\/revisions\/211055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"classification","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classification?post=200555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}