The Far West Coast: Points and Sounds of Loyalty and Remembrance

Charts made by great eighteenth century navigators, such as George Vancouver and James Cook, may seem flat and lifeless legacies, perpetuating the names of British nobility and Admiralty; but charts that reflect imperial aspirations can also reveal personal emotions. Behind the surveying, naming, and mapping of coastal features one can discern how the lives of these two men were geographically intertwined in a deeply personal way. Close reading of charts and journals reveals Vancouver’s profound personal regard for Cook, and the permanent sense of loss that marked Vancouver’s adult naval career. In the cartographic legacy, this obscure emotional bond still transcends time and space.