Dionisio Alcalá Galiano was a Spanish naval officer, cartographer, and explorer. He mapped various coastlines in Europe and the Americas with unprecedented accuracy using new technology such as chronometers. He commanded an expedition that explored and mapped the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia, and made the first European circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. He reached the rank of brigadier and died during the Battle of Trafalgar.
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano
Jaime Alcalá Galiano, direct descendant of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, at the Galiano Is. memorial stone now located at the Galiano Museum site.
Almudena Alcalá-Galiano with local historian, Andrew Loveridge, at the Dionisio Alcalá-Galiano memorial.
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
Terra satellite image of Vancouver Island, 2003
A Kwakwakaʼwakw wedding ceremony in 1914
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano was the first European to circumnavigate Vancouver Island
The Great Seal of the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies was designed by Benjamin Wyon, Chief Engraver of Her Majesty's Seals, c. 1849. The symbolic badge he designed was the basis for the flag of Vancouver Island, which is still unofficially flown today.