Life in the Royal Navy (1755-1767)

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Olaf Janzen
When Cook first visited the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's West Coast in June 1767, the three largest islands had *already* been named Pearl, Tweed, and Guernsey. This had been done in the summer of 1764 when Hugh Palliser (then serving as Commodore and civil governor of Newfoundland) visited that part of his jurisdiction in his flagship "Guernsey", together with other ships of his squadron ("Pearl" and "Tweed"; "Zephyr joined a few days later). "Guernsey's" master, Joseph Gilbert, prepared charts of the bay, and it was at this point that the three largest islands were named after Palliser's three principal ships. These charts are nowhere close to being as meticulous and accurate as Cook's 1767 work, but they were typical of the charts which were customarily drawn by sailing masters when visiting new places that were unfamiliar to them.