Adopted 10 August 1944 on Chart #3565 as established on map 2C, 1919 (L.I. 16 August 1944). Named after one of Captain Vancouver's vessels.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff, file S.3.44 & D.2.44.

Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Discovery was the ship that took Captain George Vancouver on his journey of exploration to the Pacific Northwest in 1791-95. The 303-tonne, 29-m sloop carried 10 four-pound guns, 10 swivel guns and a crew of 100, and was named after one of Captain James Cook's vessels. It was built in 1789 in Southeast London at the Rotherhithe shipyard of Randell and Brent and was originally to have been commanded by Captain Henry Roberts on a voyage to study the South Pacific whaling industry, with Vancouver as 1st Lieutenant. Trouble with Spain cancelled that expedition, and Vancouver received a commission to chart the Pacific Northwest coast and take possession of Nootka Sound from the Spanish. The Discovery, together with the armed tender Chatham, travelled south and east, doing survey work in Australia and New Zealand en route, and stopping at Tahiti and Hawaii. After three seasons in the Pacific Northwest and two winters in Hawaii and South California, the ship and its crew headed home, stopping for repairs in Chile on the way. In 1797 the Discovery was converted to a bomb (or mortar) vessel and took part in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen. It became an army hospital ship at Sheerness in 1807, a convict hulk at Woolwich in 1818, and Deptford in 1824, and was broken up in 1834. Port Discovery, an early stopping place of Vancouver on the south shore of Juan de Fuca Straight in Washington state, is also named for this vessel. Discovery Island, a former Songhees First Nations village site and now a provincial marine park, was probably named by Captain Henry Kellett of Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Herald, who surveyed the area in 1846; Vancouver himself never examined this part of Vancouver Island.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 162