Captain George Vancouver fully explored the island in 1792. In May of that year, Royal Navy officers and members of Vancouver's expedition, Joseph Whidbey (master of HMS Discovery) and Peter Puget (a lieutenant on the ship), began to map and explore the areas of what would later be named Puget Sound. After Whidbey circumnavigated the island in June 1792, Vancouver named the island in his honor. By that time, Vancouver had claimed the area for Britain. On 4 June 1792, the King's Birthday, near Possession Point at the southern end of Whidbey Island, Vancouver took formal possession of all the coast and hinterland contiguous to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, including Puget Sound, under the name of New Georgia.W. Kaye Lamb (ed.), The Voyage of George Vancouver, 1791–1795, London, Hakluyt Society, 1984, Vol.1, p. 569; also Freeman M. Tovell, ‘The Other Side of the Coin: the Viceroy, Bodega y Quadra, Vancouver, and the Nootka Crisis’, BC Studies, no. 93, 1992, p. 19.
Captain George Vancouver fully explored the island in 1792. In May of that year, Royal Navy officers and members of Vancouver's expedition, Joseph Whidbey (master of HMS Discovery) and Peter Puget (a lieutenant on the ship), began to map and explore the areas of what would later be named Puget Sound. After Whidbey circumnavigated the island in June 1792, Vancouver named the island in his honor. By that time, Vancouver had claimed the area for Britain. On 4 June 1792, the King's Birthday, near Possession Point at the southern end of Whidbey Island, Vancouver took formal possession of all the coast and hinterland contiguous to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, including Puget Sound, under the name of New Georgia.W. Kaye Lamb (ed.), The Voyage of George Vancouver, 1791–1795, London, Hakluyt Society 1984, Vol.1, p. 569; also Freeman M. Tovell, ‘The Other Sid,e of the Coin: the Viceroy, Bodega y Quadra, Vancouver, and the Nootka Crisis’, BC Studies, no. 93, 1992, p. 19.