In 1857, Royal Navy Captain George Richards of the HMS Plumper (remember that name for later) named it after Lieutenant Richard Charles Mayne (who also just happened to be the son of the first commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police). For a time, Mayne Island was unofficially known as “Little Hell” during the 19th century gold rush, owing to its rather unsavoury reputation as a key crossroads for miners dreaming of getting rich quick while travelling to and from the inland Cariboo region in the 1860’s.