George Dixon (Navigator)

George Dixon (* 1755 ?; † 1800 ) was a British navigator , officer and explorer .

Dixon served under Captain Cook on his third expedition, where he got to know the commercial opportunities on the northwest coast of America. After Cook's expedition ended, Dixon became a captain in the Royal Navy .

From the autumn of 1785 to 1788 he led, together with Nathaniel Portlock, the command of the ships HMS King George and HMS Queen Charlotte in the service of the King George's Sound Company of London . In the summers of 1786 and 1787 he explored the coasts of what is now British Columbia ( Canada ), where he planned to open a fur trade. He spent one winter in the Hawaiian Islands , where he was the first European to visit Moloka'i Island . His main discoveries were the Queen Charlotte Islands , Queen Charlotte Sound , Port Mulgrave, Norfolk Bay, and the Dixon Entrance .

After being in China selling his cargo of furs, he returned to England in 1788 and published Voyage of Meares (1790), The Navigator's Assistant (1791) and in 1799 the book A Voyage Round the World, but More Particlarly to the North -West Coast of America .

There was controversy between Dixon and John Meares , another seafarer who is said to have passed a book of Dixon's discoveries as his own. The dispute ended with Dixon and Meares denouncing each other publicly in pamphlets. In retrospect, Dixon was right in his view.

NB

There existed a George Dixon, the navigation in Gosport ( England ) taught and a treatise entitled The Navigator's Assistant in 1791 wrote. It is not clear if they are the same person.

literature

• Voyage of Captains Portlock and Dixon, to King George's Sound and around the world. Printed and sold by Joseph and James Crukshank, Philadelphia PA 1803.

Web links

• George Dixon . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).