Dundas Island (french: île Dundas) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

on the

North Coast of British Columbia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located on the west side of

Chatham Sound , image = Looking Northeasterly across Chatham Sound.png , alt = Looking Northeasterly across Chatham Sound , caption = Looking Northeasterly across Chatham Sound , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetr ...

to the northwest of

Prince Rupert Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalr ...

. It is the largest of a group of islands known as the Dundas Islands.

History

The island and its archipelago were named in 1792 by Captain

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

in honour of the Rt. Hon.

Henry Dundas Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811), styled as Lord Melville from 1802, was the trusted lieutenant of British Prime Minister William Pitt and the most powerful politician in Scotland in the late 18t ...

(1742–1811),

Treasurer of the Navy The Treasurer of the Navy, originally called Treasurer of Marine Causes or Paymaster of the Navy, was a civilian officer of the Royal Navy, one of the principal commissioners of the Navy Board responsible for naval finance from 1524 to 1832. T ...

, 1783–1801, who was granted the title of

Viscount Melville Viscount Melville, of Melville in the County of Edinburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Origins The title was created on 24 December 1802 for the notable lawyer and politician Henry Dundas. He was created Baron Dunira, '' ...

in 1802 and also named ''Baron Dunira''. The Dundas islands were originally perceived by Vancouver to be one island which he named Dundas's Island. Among the smaller islands of the group are Baron Island, Dunira Island, Melville Island and other small islands and islets on the west side of

between

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

and

Caamaño Passage Caamaño Passage (french: passage Caamaño) is a strait on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, located between Dundas and Zayas Islands on the west side of Chatham Sound near Prince Rupert. It was named for Jacinto Caamaño Jacinto C ...

s. Dundas Island in Nunavut, northern Canada is also named after Dundas. Dundas' son,

Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville (14 March 1771 – 10 June 1851) was a British statesman, the son of Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount. Dundas was the Member of Parliament for Hastings in 1794, Rye in 1796 and Midlothian in 1801. He was a ...

is the namesake of Melville Island in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and also Melville Island in Australia, which was the site of the short-lived

Fort Dundas Fort Dundas was a short-lived British settlement on Melville Island between 1824 and 1828 in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia. It was the first of four British settlement attempts in northern Australia before Goyder's survey an ...

References

* Islands of British Columbia North Coast of British Columbia {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub