George Vancouver

Vancouver, George (1757–98), English explorer. He took part in Captain Cook's voyages (1772–80) and in 1791–94 led an expedition that explored the Pacific and surveyed the American coast from San Luis Obispo, Calif., to British Columbia. He made surveys of Vancouver Island and the Strait of Georgia, visited Cook's Inlet, Alaska, and failed to find a Northwest Passage. The city of Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada, was named after him in 1886.