LANDFALL. DISCOVERY & CHATHAM off California.
April 17, 1792

Oil on canvas 24" x 36"


The second official British expedition sent to the Northwest Coast was assigned to Captain George Vancouver. After war with Spain was averted by the signing of the Nootka Convention, he was given the task of meeting a Spanish commissioner at Nootka to settle the damage claims arising from the 1789 seizure of three British ships. His second assignment was to chart the coast from California to Alaska, the land claimed by Spain but disputed by Britain. He was also expected to find the entrance to the Northwest Passage if it existed. His three years spent surveying the eastern shore of the Pacific produced a set of charts that were not improved on for another hundred years, and proved conclusively that no navigable passage to the Atlantic existed in temperate latitudes.

The DISCOVERY and CHATHAM sailed from Falmouth on April 1st. 1791. After stops at Cape Town, southern Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii the two ships made landfall on the California coast just south of Cape Mendochino. It was April 17, 1792. The days before sighting land had been squally with poor visibility, and unsure of their exact position they had been proceeding with caution.

On April 17th, “soon after mid-day we passed considerable quantities of drift wood, grass, sea weed, &c. Many shags, ducks, puffins, and other aquatic birds were flying about; and the colour of the water announced our approach to soundings. These circumstances indicated land not far off, although we were prevented seeing any object more than three miles distant, by the weather, which had become very thick and rainy. Being anxious to get sight of the land before night if possible, we stood to the eastward with as much sail as we could carry, and at four in the afternoon reached soundings at the depth of 53 fathoms, soft brown sandy bottom. The land was now discovered bearing by compass from E.N.E. to E. by S. at a distance of about two leagues, on which the surf broke with great violence. We stood in for the shore under our topsails for about an hour, and perceived the coast to extend from N. to S.E. The nearest shore was about two miles distant. The rain and fog with which the atmosphere was now loaded, precluded our seeing much of this part of the coast of New Albion. The shore appeared straight and unbroken, of a moderate height, with mountainous land behind.......”

From: A Voyage of Discovery...Captain George Vancouver