| Feature Type: | Bay - Water area in an indentation of the shoreline of a sea, lake, or large river. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | W side of Tsimpsean Peninsula just NW of Prince Rupert, Range 5 Coast Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 54°21'20"N, 130°28'06"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 103J/8 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Adopted 28 June 1946 on C.3702, as labelled on early British Admiralty Charts, and on BC map 3M, 1916, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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"Mr. Tolmie, in his diary under date of 1834, mentions the bay as having been named by the officers of the Hudson's Bay service, after Captain Alexander Duncan, in command in 1834 of the Hudson's Bay Company's brig Dryad. In 1862, Captain Richards, HM surveying vessel Hecate, adopted the name already given many years previously, in honour of William Duncan, who re-established in that year the old Indian village of Metlakatla with Indian converts from Port Simpson, and was residing there when the survey of Duncan Bay and Metlakatla Harbour was made. [see Duncan Island for additional information about William Duncan, missionary.] Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971) |
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"Captain Duncan was an old British tar with a heart full of generosity for his friends and a fist full of bones for his enemies: a hearty, five foot nine inch, burly, stout-chested Englishman, whom it was always pleasant to see and hear. He was everywhere an accomplished seaman, on the quarter-deck or with his quadrant, but especially in... prophetic knowledge of the weather...he had no superiors." (Travels in California and Scenes in the Pacific Ocean, by Thomas J. Farnham; published in New York, 1847, pp 7 and 8.]" Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971) |
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"...Captain Alexander Duncan...entered the HBC maritime service in 1838, initially commanding the barque "Vancouver" and later the famous steamboat "Beaver"... " Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997 |