CAPTAIN JAMES COOK

(1728-1779)

Captain James Cook made 3 voyages to the Pacific - the first in 1768-1771, the second in 1772-1775 and the third in 1776-1780. He was killed by natives in Hawaii in February, 1779, on his third voyage, but his crew brought his ships the 'Resolution' and 'Discovery' back to England in 1780.

It was on his first voyage in his ship 'Endeavour' that he discovered New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, and it was on his third voyage that he discovered Kerguelen's Island in the southern Indian Ocean and went on to survey the northwest coast of America and Alaska.

After each of the three voyages, Cook's surveys were redrawn, engraved and published both in London and Paris, and the following list represents a selection of the original published engravings.

 For Captain Cook Listings click below

JEAN FRANCOIS GALAUP,
COMTE DE. LA PEROUSE

(1741-1788)

La Perouse, as he is known in navigational circles, was a French aristocrat, navigator and explorer who spent 4 years, from 1785-1788, exploring the islands in the Pacific Ocean, China & Japan, Hawaii, Australia and the western coast of North America. He set out from Brest (France) in June of 1785 with 2 Frigates belonging to the King of France, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, and for 4 years he kept a journal, drew surveys and sent letters home detailing his discoveries. However, in the early months of 1788 all communication from the expedition ceased and the French Government assumed, rightly, that La Perouse and his ships had perished somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The fate of the expedition was not established until many years later when pieces of the ships were found amidst the islands off the eastern coast of Australia.

In 1797 the French Edition of “A Voyage Round the World Performed in the years 1785, 1786, 1787 & 1788 by the Boussole and Astrolabe under the Command of J. F. G. De La Perouse” was published in Paris; and one year later, in 1798 G.G. & J. Robinson of Paternoster Row in London, published an English Edition.

The following list of charts represents a selection of the original published engravings from both the French and English Editions

For La Perouse Listings click below

CAPT. JOHN MEARES

1746-1801

Capt. John Meares was a former British Navy lieutenant when he undertook his first voyage to the Pacific Northwest in 1786 and 1787, in order to enter the fur trade which at that time had been dominated by the Russians. He set sail from Calcutta, India in his vessel the ‘Nootka’ and made the mistake of spending the winter in Snug Corner Cove at 57°N, where he was iced in from November to May and finally rescued with his mutinous crew, by two English navigators, Captains Portlock & Dixon, who warned him off the coast as he didn't have a South Seas licence necessary at that time for trading in the Pacific. Having reached Macao and Canton in China in 1788 Meares set sail again for the Pacific Northwest with two ships the “Iphegenia” & “Felicia”, and under the Portuguese flag. He brought with him some Chinese workmen who built a warehouse and a schooner in Nootka on Vancouver Island (British Columbia.) However, intending to build a permanent British settlement at Nootka, Meares ran into opposition from Spain which had already claimed the territory. However, the ensuing controversy was settled amicably between Britain and Spain resulting in the Nootka Convention whereby both countries would continue to trade in the regions formerly occupied by Spain. The surveys & drawings completed by John Meares on his two voyages were published first in London in 1790 and the French edition came out in 1794.

For John Meares Listings click below

CAPT. GEORGE VANCOUVER

1758-1798

Capt. George Vancouver was an English navigator & explorer who served as a midshipman under Capt. James Cook on Cook's 2nd and 3rd voyages to the Pacific. In 1791, Vancouver was given command of an expedition of discovery to the northwest coast of America & on April 1st he set sail in HMS ‘Discovery’ a new ship of 530 tons accompanied by a second ship HMS ‘Chatham’ of 135 tons. Sailing via the Cape of Good Hope the ships continued to the southwest coast of Australia and then to New Zealand, and then continuing on across the Pacific they sailed to Tahiti where they stopped for 3 weeks before sailing on to Hawaii, finally catching a glimpse of the California coast near Cape Mendocino in April 1792. They explored the Juan de Fuca Strait & Puget Sound, which Vancouver named for Lieut. Peter Puget of the ‘Discovery’. He also charted a large island off the mainland which he named for himself - Vancouver Island. Anchoring in the island's primary harbor of Nootka he accepted the articles of cession of the territory from the Spanish before returning to Hawaii for the winter months. As the weather improved, Vancouver returned to America's northwest coast in 1793 and 1794 for additional charting, finally returning to England in 1795. His charts & surveys were considered to be of very high quality and were published as a group in 1798 under the title “A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and round the world with Atlas.”

For Vancouver Listings click below

GEORGE , LORD ANSON  
(1697-1762)

In 1740 George Anson, a Post-Captain in the Royal Navy was made a Commodore and given command of the “Centurion” a 4th rate ship of 250 guns plus a small squadron of 6 ships, and sent to the Pacific by the British Admiralty to intercept and capture the Spanish treasure galleons trading between Acapulco in Mexico across the Pacific to Manila in the Philippines. Britain was at war with France and Spain & although Anson met with very bad weather rounding Cape Horn and along the coast of South America, losing some of his Squadron en route, by the summer of 1743 he sighted the large Spanish treasure ship, the Nuestra Senora de Covadonga off the Philippines. After only a 90 minute battle, the Spaniard surrendered and Anson captured treasure valued at more than 500 English pounds, which made him wealthy for life. Upon his return to England he was made an Admiral and a Peer of the Realm.

For Anson's charts see South America listings, Pacific and World listings

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WILLIAM DAMPIER
(1652-1715)

Capt. William Dampier began life as a buccaneer in the Caribbean & the Pacific learning seamanship and teaching himself cartography and surveying during his three round-the-world voyages. After his voyages he published books with maps and illustrations that were enormously popular and his scientific observations on trade winds,currents, storms and weather conditions were considered so acute that they wers studied & used by Capt. James Cook, Admiral Nelson and Charles Darwin on their own voyages across the Oceans & in the Caribbean and South Seas. Dampier was a strange mixture of buccaneer, hydrographer & naturalist, coupled with a fine intellect & a natural interest in the world around him. Throughout all his buccanering adventures Dampier kept a diary and in 1697 his first book “A New Voyage Round the World” was published by J & J Knapton in London, which was republished in many editions to 1703, and was a resounding success. In the volume he recounts his rescue of Alexander Selkirk from Juan Fernandes Island in the Pacific, who became the model for Daniel Defoe's “Robinson Crusoe.” In later years Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the world's great poets, who had a vast knowledge of travel literature was quoted as sqying “Old Dampier, a rough sailor, but a man of exquisite mind.”

For Dampier's charts see Australia - New Zealand, Caribbean, World, Southeast Asia,
Pacific & Mexico & Mexico & Central America

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