In the 1850s Captain George Richards of the Royal Navy began surveying the marine areas around the Gulf Islands and named Mayne Island after his lieutenant, Richard Charles Mayne. Mayne not only explored and surveyed the B.C. coast aboard the Plumper (1857-1860) with Captain Richards and aboard the Hecate (1861), he reported on a journey in the districts bordering the Thompson, Fraser and Harrison Rivers, and he provided a 'sketch' of the country between Jervis Inlet and Port Pemberton, on the 'Lilloet River'. Mayne was investigating the feasibility of an overland route to the Cariboo goldfields from the head of Jervis Inlet. [See Alfred Waddington] In addition, he explored the feasibility of a road connecting Nanaimo to the Alberni Canal. His major publication was Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Mayne published his scientific work with the Royal Geographical Society of London. Educated at Eton, he served in the Crimea before first visiting Vancouver Island in 1849. After surveying Vancouver Island and the West Coast, he went to Australia and New Zealand, later surveying the Straits of Magellan. He died in 1892.

BOOKS:

Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island: An Account of their Forests, Rivers, Coasts, Gold Fields and Resources for Colonisation (London: John Murray, 1862)

[BCBW 2003] "Early B.C." "1850-1900" "Maritime" "History of B.C."