Descubierta and Atrevida The Descubierta and Atrevida were twin corvette s of the Spanish Navy , custom - designed as identical special exploration and scientific research vessels . Both ships were built at the same time for the Malaspina Expedition . Under the command of Alessandro Malaspina ( " Descubierta " ) and José de Bustamante y Guerra ( " Atrevida " ) the two vessels sailed from Spain to the Pacific Ocean , conducting a thorough examination of the internal politics of the American Spanish Empire and the Philippines . They explored the coast of Alaska and worked to reinforce Spain ' s claim to the Pacific Northwest in the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis . After crossing the Pacific Ocean , the government in the Philippines examined . Exploration and diplomatic reconnaissance followed , with stops in China , New Zealand , Australia , and Tonga . Under Malaspina ' s supervision and according to his specifications the " Descubierta " and " Atrevida " were constructed at the La Carraca shipyard in Cadiz by the shipbuilder Tómas Muñoz . Both vessels were long with a beam of , a depth of hold of , and a tonnage of 306 " toneladas " . The complement of both the " Descubierta " and the " Atrevida " was 104 . Their armament consisted of fourteen 6 - pounder and two 4 - pounder cannons . They were launched together on 8 April 1789 . Malaspina Expedition . Malaspina ' s expedition was the most important voyage of discovery dispatched by Spain in the 18th century . It had two primary goals , the first being to increase geographic and scientific knowledge in general , the second being to check on the status of Spain ' s vast empire , especially along the west coast of North America , where the Russians and the British were expanding their influence . Modeled after the voyages of James Cook , the Malaspina expedition was conducted in a highly scientific manner . Numerous scientists from many fields were among the crew . Indigenous peoples , such as the Tlingit and Tongan , were studied by the expedition ' s ethnographers . The " Descubierta " and " Atrevida " sailed from Cadiz on 30 July 1789 , stopping first at Montevideo on the Río de la Plata , then sailing south along the coast of Patagonia and visiting the Falkland Islands ( " Islas Malvinas " ) . After rounding Cape Horn the expedition stopped at several Chilean ports and surveyed the Juan Fernández Islands . The two corvettes sailed north separately , surveying and mapping the coast between Peru and Mexico , where they arrived at the end of March 1790 . In Mexico Malaspina received instructions from the Spanish king , Carlos IV requiring a change of plans . Instead of sailing to the Hawaiian Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula , Malaspina was to sail to Alaska and survey the coast between Mount Saint Elias and Nootka Sound , on Vancouver Island , in order to prove or disprove the existence of a Northwest Passage supposedly located in that area . Accordingly , the two corvettes sailed from Acapulco on 1 May 1791 , and arrived at Yakutat Bay by the end of June . Staying at Yakutat Bay for about a month , the scientists made detailed ethnographic studies of the local Tlingit people . Surveys along the coast of Alaska revealed no hint of the fabled Northwest Passage . On July 27 Malaspina and Bustamante headed south to Nootka Sound , arriving there on 12 August 1791 . They remained at Nootka Sound for about a month . Detailed surveys were made of the area , while the ethnographers studied the Nuu - chah - nulth ( Nootka ) people . Leaving Nootka Sound , Malaspina and Bustamante sailed the " Descubierta " and " Atrevida " south to Monterey , Alta California . There Malaspina learned from Juan Carrasco that an inland sea had been discovered near Nootka Sound . It was the Strait of Georgia . Malaspina knew that an exploration voyage had to be dispatched immediately . He gave two of his officers , Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores , command of two newly constructed " goletas " ( schooner s or brig s ) , and instructed them to thoroughly explore the new discovery . Malaspina himself supervised the final construction and fitting out of the two " goletas " , called the " Sutil " and the " Mexicana " . The Malaspina expedition crossed the Pacific Ocean , from Acapulco to Manila in the Philippines , by way of the Mariana Islands . Coastal surveys were done and a side - trip to Macao was made . Then the two corvettes sailed southwest , landing at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides , then continuing on to southern New Zealand . After a visit to Dusky Sound , previously explored by Cook , the Spaniards explored Doubtful Sound , which no European had visited before . From New Zealand the expedition sailed west to Port Jackson , Australia ( today part of Sydney ) . They arrived in March 1793 , about five years after the British first colonized Australia . The Malaspina expedition stayed for about a month . Relations with the British colonists were warm and friendly . The Spanish conducted scientific experiments , including astronomical and hydrographic observations , and the collection of many specimens of flora , fauna , and minerals . They also observed the British settlement , taking special note of any potential threat to Spanish interests in the Pacific . Malaspina was concerned that the increasing British presence in the Pacific might jeopardize Spanish trade between the Americas and the Philippines , which the Manila galleon s had carried out for over two centuries with virtually no outside interference . The Spanish corvettes left Port Jackson on 11 April 1793 and sailed northeast to Tonga , then known as the Friendly Islands . Cook had visited the southern Tongan islands in 1773 . Malaspina opted to visit the northern archipelago now known as Vavaʻu . After the stay in Tonga the expedition sailed to Peru , then back around Cape Horn and on to Spain , arriving in Cadiz on 21 September 1793 after a voyage of over four years . Aftermath . In Spain Malaspina ' s involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the government culminated in Malaspina ' s arrest , imprisonment , and eventually banishment . Most of the material collected by the expedition was put away and didn ' t see the light again until late in the 20th century .