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For other uses of the word Nootka, see Nootka (disambiguation).

Nootka Sound, marked in a NASA map of Vancouver Island.

Ships of Meares arriving at Nootka Sound in 1788

Nootka Sound is a complex inlet or sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. As a strait it separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island.

The inlet was first settled by the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth people. They called it Mowichat.^[1] On August 8, 1774, the Spanish Navy ship Santiago entered the inlet; her commander Juan Pérez named it Surgidero de San Lorenzo but made no landings. In March 1778, Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy landed on Bligh Island and named the inlet King Georges Sound. He recorded that the native name was Nutka or Nootka, apparently misunderstanding his conversations at Friendly Cove/Yuquot whose resident may have been explaining he was on island ("itchme nutka", a place you can "go around"). There may also be some confusion with Nuu-chah-nulth, the natives' names for themselves; the earlier Spanish and British names for the Sound swiftly disappeared.

At the time, trade between Asia and North America was a Spanish monopoly, with limited licenses granted to the Portuguese. In 1788, the British trader John Meares used Portuguese-flagged ships with English crews to establish a post on Nootka Sound from which to engage in highly profitable fur trade with China. While Meares was away, Esteban José Martinez, commanding the Princesa and the San Carlos, arrived in February 1789 with orders to enforce Spanish sovereignty. He established Fort San Miguel, let be two American ships (who were not considered threats), and impounded Meares' holding and Portuguese-flagged ship, the E figenia Nubiana.^[2] This led to the Great Spanish Armament crisis, questioning all Spanish claims to hitherto unsettled land on the Pacific coasts of North and South America. The first Nootka Convention (1790) gave both countries the right to settle along the Pacific coasts, breaking the Spanish monopoly; this led to the Vancouver Expedition of exploration. Difficulties in implementing the terms led to a second, and then a third Nootka Convention (1794).

The Nootka Sound controversy also played a part in the French Revolution. The Spanish Bourbon Monarchy asked for French support in the dispute, in the event that it led to war between Spain and Great Britain. The French Bourbon king Louis XVI wanted to back Spain against Great Britain, but his right to enter France into an alliance on his own prerogative was disputed by the National Assembly. The Assembly maintained that the King's right to determine foreign policy and declare war was subject to the sovereignty of the people. Eventually the Assembly ruled that a proposal for a declaration of war could be initiated by the king, but had to be ratified by the Assembly; this was a major blow to the monarchy.

For 20 years, Nootka Sound was a center of world events; since then, it has lapsed into obscurity.^[2][3]

• History of the west coast of North America
• Nootka Convention
• Vancouver Expedition

• Jewitt, John Rodgers (1896). The adventures of John Jewitt : only survivor of the crew of the ship, Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island. Clement Wilson. Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection

• Harboard, Heather. Nootka Sound and the Surrounding Waters of Maquinna. Surrey: Heritage House Publishing Company Limited, 1996. ISBN 1-895811-03-1.
• Jones, Laurie. Nootka Sound Explored. Campbell River: Ptarmigan Press, 1991. ISBN 0-919537-24-3.
• Manning, William Ray. The Nootka Sound Controversy. Part XVI of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1904, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905, pp. 279-478. Reprint: Ann Arbor: University Microfilms Inc., 1966.

Coordinates: 49°47′N, 126°38′W