Cayetano Valdés
Spanish explorer and admiral
1767 CE to 1835 CE
Cayetano Valdés y Flores Bazán (1767-1835) is a commander of the Spanish Navy, explorer, and captain general who serves in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, fighting for both sides at different times due to the changing fortunes of Spain in the conflict.
He takes part in a number of naval battles, including the Great Siege of Gibraltar, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, and the Battle of Trafalgar.
He is an explorer, most notable in the Pacific Northwest, where he and Dionisio Alcalá Galiano conduct the first circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, in partial cooperation with George Vancouver.
Over his long career, he achieves the highest ranks in the Spanish Navy, eventually being named Captain General of Cadiz and Captain General of the Spanish Navy.
World
Northern Oceania
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These are Sutíl, commanded by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, and Mexicana, under Cayetano Valdés y Flores.
Both are officers of Malaspina's.
The ships were to have been commanded by two pilots of San Blas, Mexico, but Malaspina had arranged for his own officers to replace them.
On June 12, Vancouver, along with Puget and some of the crew, had sailed north from Birch Bay in Discovery’s two smaller sailing yawls.
In four days they find and chart a number of points and inlets, such as Point Roberts, Point Grey, Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound, and the Jervis Inlet.
On June 13, near Point Roberts, Chatham encounters the Sutil and Mexicana, both vessels built for exploring the newly discovered Strait of Georgia, carried out in 1792 under Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, on the Sutil, and Cayetano Valdés y Flores, on the Mexicana.
The two expeditions cooperate in surveying the complex channels between the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Strait, in the process proving the insularity of Vancouver Island.
The Spanish explorers Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés enter and anchor on June 14, 1792, in the north arm of the Fraser River, becoming the first Europeans to find and enter it.
The existence of the river, but not its location, had been deduced during the 1791 voyage of José María Narváez, under Francisco de Eliza.