Strait of Juan de Fuca

Uncommon card · No. 148072

The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about 96 miles (83 nmi; 154 km) long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre of the Strait. It was named in 1787 by the maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of Imperial Eagle, for Juan de Fuca, the Greek navigator who sailed in a Spanish expedition in 1592 to seek the fabled Strait of Anián. Barkley was the first recorded person to find the strait, unless Juan de Fuca's story was true. Samuel Bawlf posited in 2003 that "Fuca's story was nothing more than a fabrication designed to extract money from the English government". The story would have been based on Francis Drake's 1579 exploration of the Northwest Passage at its western end. Drake would therefore have been more than likely the first European to ever sight the entry of the strait but would also have been the first to...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo