Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel y Vandewalle (September 6, 1732 in

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

– January 15, 1795 in San Fernando, Cádiz) was a Spanish navigator and cosmographer.Luisa Martín-Merás Verdejo, «Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel y Vandewalle»
in ''Diccionario Biográfico Español''. Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 2018.

Biography

He studied experimental physics and then joined the army, which he subsequently left. In 1755 Jorge Juan asked Tofiño to join the faculty of the Academy of Marines at Cádiz (''Academia de Guardia Marinas de Cádiz'') as a mathematics instructor, while also allowing Tofiño to join the Armada as a second lieutenant (''alférez de navío''). In 1768 Tofiño was named Director of the Academy and in 1773, was named Director of the Academies of Ferrol and Cartagena as well. He participated in the expeditions against Algiers (1773) and the

Great Siege of Gibraltar The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of the American Revolution. It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants. The American war had end ...

(1782). He acquired the rank of Brigadier of the Armada in 1784, and in 1789 the rank of Rear Admiral. He planned the initial construction, and worked at, the Royal Institute and Observatory of the Armada (''Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada'') of the Company of Marines, publishing observations with great scientific skill, like the transit of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

by the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, taking advantage of an eclipse on 3 June 1796. Tofiño went to sea and the result of this was several works, including ''Derrotero de las costas de España en el mar Mediterráneo y África'' (1787) (''Pilot's Log-book of the Coasts of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea and Africa''); his ''colección de cartas esféricas de las costas de España y África...'' (1788) (''Collection of Nautical Charts of the Coasts of Spain and Africa'') and the ''Derrotero de las costas de España en el Océano Atlántico y de las islas Azores o Terceras, para inteligencia y uso de las cartas esféricas'' (1789) (''Pilot's Log-book of the Coasts of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean and of the Azores, for the use and understanding of nautical charts''). Due to an error in transcription on one of Tofiño’s maps, the island of Mogro (Santander) came to be called

Mouro Island Mouro Island ( es, Isla de Mouro), originally Mogro Island (), is a small uninhabited island in the Bay of Biscay, located off the Magdalena Peninsula. It lies close to the entrance to the Bay of Santander near the city of Santander, Cantabria al ...

Tofino Inlet Tofino ( ) is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Penins ...

, from which the town of

Tofino Tofino ( ) is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Penins ...

got its name, was named in 1792 by the Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdés, in honor of Admiral Tofiño, under whom Galiano had learned

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

.Dionisio Alcalá Galiano: The Canadian Adventure of a Spanish Naval Hero
Malaspina University-College

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tofino de San Miguel, Vicente 1732 births 1795 deaths Spanish navigators Spanish explorers of North America Spanish explorers of South America Spanish history in the Pacific Northwest Spanish admirals 18th-century Spanish people