QUEEN CHARLOTTE in Cloak Bay.
1787

Watercolor 14" x 21"


On board the RESOLUTION in 1778, when James Cook visited the Northwest Coast, were several men who would later play important roles in the exploration and opening of the coast. As well as George Vancouver there was Nathaniel Portlock, master’s mate, and George Dixon, armourer’s mate.

In 1785 a group of London merchants formed the King George’s Sound Company and obtained a five year license to trade from the South Sea Company. They acquired two ships, and hired Portlock and Dixon to sail them on a trading venture to the Northwest Coast. Nathaniel Portlock was given overall command and the 320 ton KING GEORGE, and George Dixon the 200 ton snow QUEEN CHARLOTTE. The two ships sailed from England in August 1785 and were in the Hawaiian Islands in May and June of the next year acquiring fresh provisions. They first sighted the American shore in mid July near the approaches to Cook Inlet. The ships spent the summer of 1786 on the north coast and arrived back in Hawaii on November 14 to spend the winter in the islands.

They were back in Alaska the following April, anchoring first off Montague Island in the entrance to Prince William Sound. There George Dixon, while surveying in the ship’s boats, was told by natives of a European ship that had spent the winter in the sound. It was the NOOTKA on which John Meares had nearly lost his ship and crew to cold and scurvy. The providential arrival of the KING GEORGE and QUEEN CHARLOTTE saved Meares and what remained of his crew.

While in Prince William Sound the two ships were beached for repairs, then left to pursue separate trading opportunities. Portlock concentrated on the Alaskan coast, trading leisurely with good results. Dixon took the QUEEN CHARLOTTE south, visiting and naming Port Mulgrave [Yakutat Bay], Norfolk Sound [Sitka Sound], Port Banks, and Forrester Island. At the end of June they found a large opening which they named Dixon Straits, now Dixon Entrance, where the Alaska - British Columbia border now runs. On July 1st. they were off Langara Island, named by Pérez in 1774. Dixon spent several profitable days anchored between Graham Island and Langara Island. He called it Cloak Bay for the large number of prime pelts he acquired there. Cloak Bay became one of the prime destinations for traders heading for the coast.

Dixon continued south from Cloak Bay, keeping close to shore, and trading with the Haida who came off to the ship in their canoes. On July 25 he came to the end of the land, Cape St.James, and heading north up the east coast surmised correctly that he had been sailing around an archipelago. The islands now bear the name of his ship, Queen Charlotte Islands.