Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel y Vandewalle (September 6, 1732 – January 15, 1795) was a

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation ...

officer, 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 expedition against Algiers (1775) and the

Great Siege of Gibraltar The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Enlightenment in Spain, Spain and Kingdom of France, France to capture Gibraltar from the Kingdom of Great Britain, British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the largest ba ...

(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 often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

by the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, 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 (), originally Mogro Island or Peña de Mogru (), 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, Spain, Santa ...

Tofino Inlet Tofino ( , Nuu-chah-nulth language, Nuu-chah-nulth: ''Načiks'') is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia. The District ...

, from which the town of

Tofino Tofino ( , Nuu-chah-nulth language, Nuu-chah-nulth: ''Načiks'') is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia. The District ...

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 , '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 imagined reality) can ...

.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 maritime navigators Spanish explorers of North America Spanish explorers of South America Spanish admirals 18th-century Spanish military personnel