James Colnett

James Colnett (1753 – 1 September 1806) is an officer of the British Royal Navy, an explorer, and a maritime fur trader.

He serves under James Cook during Cook's second voyage of exploration.

Later he leads two private trading expeditions that involve collecting sea otter pelts in the Pacific Northwest of North America and selling them in Canton, China, where the British East India Company maintains a trading post.

Wintering in the recently discovered Hawaiian Islands is a key component of the new trade system.

Colnett is remembered largely for his involvement in the Nootka Crisis of 1789—initially a dispute between British traders and the Spanish Navy over the use of Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island that becomes an international crisis that leads Britain and Spain to the brink of war before being peacefully resolved through diplomacy and the signing of the Nootka Conventions.

Due to Colnett's central role in the initial incident that sparks the international crisis, Colnett's account of his second fur trading voyage, including the events at Nootka Sound in 1789, is published in 1940.

His first trading voyage journal remains unpublished until 2005.

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