William Robert Broughton
William Robert Broughton (* 1762 in Gloucestershire, England; † March 14, 1821 in Florence) was a British naval officer. He commanded the HMS Chatham as part of the expedition of George Vancouver on the west coast of North America at the beginning of the 1790s.
Life
Broughton joined in 1774 as a midshipman in the Royal Navy and was on June 17, 1775 involved from the sea at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Soon after, he fell into American captivity, but was released in December 1776 and was until 1778 in the waters at the North American east coast in use. After several years of service in and around India Broughton received in 1790 in command of the brig HMS Chatham, which accompanied the HMS Discovery of George Vancouver on his expedition to the Pacific.
On November 23, 1791, the crew of HMS Chatham sighted the islands snare. Whatever did the the HMS Discovery under Vancouver. Six days later, named after the ship Chatham Islands. In October 1792, now the expedition in the Pacific Northwest had arrived, Broughton was commissioned with several boats the lower reaches of the then recently discovered by Robert Gray Columbia River to explore. Broughton and his companions came to the Columbia River Gorge, where they were the first Europeans discovered the Mount Hood.
End of 1792 sent him back to England Vancouver to deliver messages and to request new commands related to the transfer of Nootka Sound. He crossed the North American continent and came to Veracruz, where he continued his journey. The promoted to Captain Broughton was given command of the HMS Providence, a former ship of William Bligh in October 1793.
Broughton was sent back to North America to support Vancouver. However, he did not find Vancouver before at the meeting point, as this had its surveys now completed. Instead Broughton led exploratory trips in the Asian part of the Pacific by, in particular to Hokkaido (where he discovered along the way the Millennium Atoll Iceland ).
In Macao, where the crew wintered, Broughton bought a schooner, which proved to be a stroke of luck, as the Providence in 1797 ran on a reef off the island of Miyako- jima and sank. The crew of the Providence continued to travel in the schooner and returned in February 1799 returned to England. Broughton continued to serve in the Royal Navy and rose to the Commodore. He later settled in Italy, where he died at the age of 58 years.
Broughton's records served eleven years after his trip from the west coast of North America to Mexico as a basis for the planning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Named after him include the Kuril island Ostrov Broutona and the Broughton Archipelago in the Queen Charlotte Strait between Vancouver Iceland and the mainland of British Columbia.