George Dixon ( Royal Navy officer ) George Dixon ( 1748 – 1795 ) was an English sea captain , explorer , and maritime fur trade r . George Dixon was " born in Leath Ward , a native of Kirkoswald " . The son of Thomas Dixon , he was baptised in Kirkoswald on 8 July 1748 . He served under Captain Cook in his third voyage , on , as armourer . In the course of the voyage he learned about the commercial possibilities along the North West Coast of America . History has not served Dixon well ; for he is the least known of those who served and or were taught by Captain Cook and is only rarely mentioned in history books and when he is , he is relegated to a minor figure who is overshadowed by Cook and William Bligh , another officer on Cook ' s ill - fated third trip . In 1782 , George Dixon was engaged by William Bolts . The " Wiener Zeitung " newspaper of 29 June 1782 carried a report from Fiume that , “ in the early days of this month , Mr . von Bolts , Director of the Triestine East India Company , together with the English captain , Mr . Digson , arrived in this city ” . George Dixon wrote in the introduction to his account of the voyage he made for the Etches Company to the North West Coast in 1785 - 1788 : So early as 1781 , William Bolts , Esq ; fitted out the Cobenzell , an armed ship of 700 tons , for the North - West Coast of America . She was to have sailed from Trieste ( accompanied by a tender of forty - five tons ) under Imperial colours , and was equally fitted out for trade or discovery : men of eminence in every department of science were engaged on board ; all the maritime Courts of Europe were written to , in order to secure a good reception for these vessels , at their respective ports , and favourable answers were returned ; yet , after all , this expedition , so exceedingly promising in every point of view , was overcome by a set of interested men , then in power in Vienna . The Triestine Society sent the " Cobenzell " in September 1783 on a commercial voyage to the Malabar Coast and China by way of the Cape of Good Hope . After leaving Trieste , she proceeded to Marseilles , where she took in the principal part of her cargo and departed that port in December . Apparently , Bolts still wished to carry out his North West Coast venture in connection with this voyage , and asked George Dixon to participate . However , Dixon went back to England , where he attempted to interest Sir Joseph Banks and English merchants in the North West Coast fur trade . This resulted in the formation of the Etches consortium , of which Dixon became a member with appointment as captain of the " Queen Charlotte " . The similarity is notable between the plan of the consortium and that elaborated by Bolts , which was apparently communicated to them by Dixon . In 1785 , Dixon became a partner in Richard Cadman Etches and Company , commonly called the King George ' s Sound Company to develop fur trade in present day British Columbia and Alaska . In September 1785 Dixon and fellow trader Nathaniel Portlock sailed from England . Portlock was in command of the larger vessel , the 320 bm " King George " , with a crew of 59 . Dixon ' s was in command of the 200 bm " Queen Charlotte " , with a crew of 33 . Dixon and Portlock sailed together for most of their three year voyage . In the summers of 1786 and 1787 , Dixon explored the shores of present - day British Columbia and southeastern Alaska . He spent the intervening winter in the Hawaiian Islands , where he became the first European to visit the island of Molokai . He anchored in Kealakekua Bay , where Cook had been killed , but did not come ashore . His chief areas of exploration were the Queen Charlotte Islands and Queen Charlotte Sound , Yakutat Bay ( Port Mulgrave ) , Sitka Sound ( Norfolk Bay ) , and the Dixon Entrance . While not the first European to explore the region of the Queen Charlotte Islands , he was the first to realize they were islands and not part of the mainland . After visiting China and selling his cargo , he returned to England in 1788 and published , in 1789 , " A Voyage Round the World , but More Particularly to the North - West Coast of America " . The book was a collection of descriptive letters by William Beresford , his cargo officer , and valuable charts and appendices by Dixon . There was a controversy between Dixon and John Meares , another explorer who had published a book claiming credit for discoveries Dixon thought were made by others . This controversy resulted in three pamphlets by Dixon and Meares denouncing each other . In retrospect , history seems to support Dixon ' s view that Meares was dishonest . In 1789 Dixon met with Alexander Dalrymple , the Examiner of Sea Journals for the East India Company and an influential advocate of maritime exploration , and the Under - Secretary of the Home and Colonial Office , Evan Nepean . He urged on Nepean the need to take up Dalrymple ’ s plan for a settlement on the North West Coast to prevent the Russians , Americans or Spanish from establishing themselves there . Dixon was afraid that if nothing was done the coast and its trade would be lost to Britain . On 20 October 1789 , he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks regarding the expedition being fitted out under the command of his former shipmate , Henry Roberts , for discovery in the South Seas . He offered suggestions on the type of vessels that would be suitable and proposed the Queen Charlotte Islands as the best place to form a settlement on the North West Coast . There was a George Dixon who taught navigation at Gosport , England and wrote a treatise entitled " The Navigator ' s Assistant " in 1791 . This may or may not be the same George Dixon . Dixon arrived in Bermuda with his wife , Ann , via New York in February 1794 . His intention was to revert to his original training and work as a silversmith / jeweller . This is borne out by an advertisement in " The Bermuda Gazette " in April 1794 announcing his intentions : “ George Dixon , jeweller from London ” . " The Bermuda Gazette " soon reported that Dixon ' s wife Ann , " lately from England " , died in childbirth in May 1794 : she was buried at St George , Bermuda on 20 May 1794 . Dixon was left with his only child , Marianna . He himself died shortly afterwards on 11 November 1795 , as confirmed by a notice in the " Cumberland Pacquet " in February 1796 : “ [ died ] November 11 at Bermuda , Capt Dixon , the circumnavigator , a native of Kirkoswald in this county ” . The orphaned Marianna Dixon married a Bermudian merchant , Charles Bryan Hayward , in 1814 .