Nootka Sound
French:Baie de Nootka
Mowichat (Nuu-chah-nulth)
Clouds over Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound Location in British Columbia Show map of British Columbia Nootka Sound Nootka Sound (Canada) Show map of Canada
Map of Nootka Sound
Location	Vancouver Island,British Columbia
Coordinates	49°41′N126°33′W / 49.683°N 126.550°W /49.683; -126.550
Type	Sound
Ocean/sea sources	Pacific Ocean
Settlements	Gold River,Tahsis,Yuquot,Zeballos

Nootka Sound (French:Baie de Nootka) is asound of thePacific Ocean on the rugged west coast ofVancouver Island, in thePacific Northwest, historically known asKing George's Sound. It separatesVancouver Island andNootka Island,^[1] part of theCanadian province ofBritish Columbia. It played a historically important role in themaritime fur trade.

The inlet is part of the traditional territory of the indigenousNuu-chah-nulth people. They call itMowichat.^[2]John R. Jewitt is an Englishman who describes the area in some detail in a memoir about his years as a captive of chiefMaquinna from 1802 to 1805.

On August 8, 1774, theSpanish Navy shipSantiago, underJuan Pérez, entered and anchored in the inlet. Although the Spanish did not land, natives paddled to the ship to tradefurs forabalone shells fromCalifornia.^[3] Pérez named the entrance to Nootka SoundSurgidero de San Lorenzo. The wordsurgidero means "source". WhenEsteban José Martinez arrived in 1789 he gave Nootka Sound the namePuerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca. To the Spanish establishment at Friendly Cove he gave the nameSanta Cruz de Nuca.^[4]

In March 1778, CaptainJames Cook of theRoyal Navy landed on Bligh Island and named the inlet "King George's Sound". He recorded that the native name wasNutka or Nootka, apparently misunderstanding his conversations atFriendly Cove/Yuquot; his informant may have been explaining that he was on an island (itchme nutka, a place you can "go around"). There may also have been confusion withNuu-chah-nulth, the natives' autonym (name for themselves). It may also have simply been based on Cook’s mis-pronunciation of Yuquot, the native name of the place.^[5] The earlier Spanish and British names for the Sound swiftly went out of use.

At the time, the Spanish monopolized the trade betweenAsia and North America, and had granted limited licenses to thePortuguese. TheRussians had established a growingfur trading system inAlaska. The Spanish began to challenge the Russians, with Pérez's voyage being the first of many to thePacific Northwest.^[6] The British also became increasingly active in the region.

The next European to visit Nootka Sound after James Cook was the British traderJames Hanna in August 1785. Hanna tradediron bars for furs. He sold the furs in China for a handsome profit,^[7] beginning an era of theMaritime Fur Trade.

In 1786 another maritime fur trader,James Strange, visited Nootka Sound. One of his crew,John Mackay, volunteered to remain at Nootka and work to establish relationships until Strange returned the next year. But Strange never returned. When the traderCharles Barkley arrived at Nootka in the summer of 1787, he was surprised to find John Mackay who, over the year, had learned the Nuu-chah-nulth's language and customs, adapted himself to their ways, and married a young native girl.^[8] At first Mackay was welcomed and befriended by Maquinna, but after unknowingly breaking a taboo he was exiled from Maquinna's house and forced to survive on his own. Barkley took Mackay on board his ship,Imperial Eagle.^[9]

Starting in 1774 Spain sentseveral expeditions to Alaska to assert its long-held claim over the Pacific Northwest which dated back to the 16th century. During the decade 1785–1795 British merchants, encouraged bySir Joseph Banks and supported by their government, made a sustained attempt to develop British fur trade in the area, despite Spain's claims and navigation rights. The endeavours of these merchants did not last long in the face of Spain's opposition. The challenge was also opposed by Japan holding obdurately to national seclusion.^[10] In 1789 Spain sent Sub-LieutenantEsteban José Martinez, commandingPrincesa andSan Carlos, to enforce Spanish sovereignty and defend its claims. He arrived in February 1789 and established a settlement and builtFort San Miguel. The shipIphigenia Nubiana, under CaptainWilliam Douglas and owned byJohn Meares, was impounded^[11] and the Spanish navy seized two other British ships, includingPrincess Royal. Two American ships in the area were allowed to sail as the United States was Spain's ally (Spain had helped the US in itsWar of Independence). However, the American shipFair American, underThomas Humphrey Metcalfe, was seized and taken toSan Blas, before being released. The capture of the British ships led to theNootka Crisis and near war between Britain and Spain. The British challenged Spanish claims to allegedly "un-colonized" land on thePacific coasts of North and South America. The firstNootka Convention (1790) gave both countries the right to settle along the Pacific coasts, interrupting the Spanish monopoly for the first time in over two centuries. The British quickly sponsored theVancouver Expedition of exploration. Difficulties in implementing the terms led to a second, and then a third Nootka Convention (1794).^[12]

The Nootka Sound controversy also played a part in theFrench Revolution. TheSpanishBourbon monarchy asked for French support in the dispute in the event that it led to war between Spain and Great Britain. TheFrench Bourbon kingLouis XVI wanted to back Spain against Great Britain, but his right to enter France into an alliance on his own prerogative was disputed by theNational Assembly. The Assembly maintained that the King's right to determineforeign policy and declare war was subject to the sovereignty of the people. Eventually the Assembly ruled that a proposal for adeclaration of war could be initiated by the king, but had to be ratified by the Assembly; this was a major blow to the monarchy.

The Scottish political reformerThomas Muir had been banished toPort Jackson inBotany Bay in Australia for 14 years for the crime ofsedition in 1793. He managed to escape having only spent 13 months there, on board the American merchant shipOtter. After a highly adventurous voyage across the as yet largely uncharted Pacific Ocean to Vancouver Island,Otter finally dropped anchor in Nootka Sound on 22 June 1796.

In conversation with José Tovar, thepiloto (master) ofSutil, a Spanish vessel at anchor in the Nootka Sound, Muir learned to his dismay of the presence in neighbouring waters ofHMS Providence, the Britishsloop-of-war underWilliam Robert Broughton. This vessel had visited Port Jackson in Australia shortly before Muir’s escape and, since Broughton had almost certainly become acquainted with the captain or members of the crew, his life was now in real danger.

To be captured while under sentence of transportation meant immediate execution. Once again Muir’s extraordinary luck held out. While a student at Glasgow, he had acquired a fluent command of Spanish and he was now able to persuade Tovar to break his regulations regarding the admission of foreigners into Spanish territory. Changing vessels he sailed with Tovar down thePacific West Coast to the port ofMonterey in SpanishLas Californias.

The chronicles ofPierre François Péron describe Muir's escape from Australia and the voyage across the Pacific to Nootka Sound, and then as far as Monterey, California.

Nootka Sound has not been the scene of any major international disagreements in modern history.^[11][13]

The climate of the land around the bay isoceanic (Cfb), but with a wet fall, winter, and spring season and a strong dry-summer trend. Winters are chilly and summers are short and mild.

In 2001, a two-year-old maleorca, later namedLuna, was seen alone in Nootka Sound as far inland as themarina atGold River, British Columbia.^[15] Presumed to be anorphan separated from his pod, Luna became a local and international celebrity as a result of his playful and curious behaviour towardstug boats and recreational watercraft on Nootka Sound, and with people, including young children, on the Gold River dock.^[15] The popularity of Luna made Nootka Sound and Gold River an international attraction from early 2002 through March 2006 when Luna was killed in an accidental collision with the propeller of theVancouver-based tugboat,General Jackson, on Mooyah Bay in Nootka Sound.^[15][16][17]

It is mentioned in the former unofficialnational anthem of English-speaking Canada, "The Maple Leaf Forever", to represent the western extent of Canada's "fair dominion".

Nootka Sound is referred to in the 2017FX/BBC One dramaTaboo and is a central part of the storyline. The Nootka trading post becomes an issue of contention between theUnited States, theBritish Crown, theEast India Company and the protagonistJames Keziah Delaney, who has inherited the trading post from his father.

• Bligh Island Marine Provincial Park
• History of the west coast of North America
• Nootka Convention
• Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest
• Vancouver Expedition

• Harboard, Heather (1996).Nootka Sound and the Surrounding Waters of Maquinna. Surrey, UK: Heritage House Publishing Company Limited.ISBN 1-895811-03-1.
• Jewitt, John Rodgers (1896).The adventures of John Jewitt: only survivor of the crew of the ship, Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island. Clement Wilson.Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection.
• Jones, Laurie. Nootka Sound Explored. Campbell River: Ptarmigan Press, 1991.ISBN 0-919537-24-3.
• King, Robert J. (1997)."'A regular and reciprocal System of Commerce' — Botany Bay, Nootka Sound, and the isles of Japan",The Great Circle (Journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History) vol. 19, no. 1. pp. 1–29.
• King, Robert J. (2008). "William Bolts and the Austrian Origins of the Lapérouse Expedition",Terrae Incognitae, vol. 40, pp. 1–28; presented at the Canadian Nautical Research Society Conference, Churchill, Manitoba, 2–7 August 2007.
• Manning, William Ray (1966) [1905].The Nootka Sound Controversy. Part XVI of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1904, Washington: Government Printing Office. Reprint: Ann Arbor: University Microfilms Inc. pp. 279–478.
• Sánchez Joseph P. (April 1980). "Pedro de Alberni and the Spanish Claim to Nootka: The Catalonian Volunteers on the Northwest Coast".The Northwest Pacific Quarterly.71:2. pp. 72-77.JSTOR 40490023.

• Nootka Sound region
• British colonization of the Americas
• Fur trade
• Sounds of British Columbia
• Spanish history in the Pacific Northwest

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