Chatham Sound
Feature Type:Sound (1) - Large body of water from which two or more inlets, arms or channels branch off.
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Relative Location: Between Dundas Islands, Stephens Islands and Tsimpsean Peninsula, Range 5 Coast Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 54°22'29"N, 130°35'29"W at the approximate centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 103J/7
Related Maps:
Origin Notes and History:

Adopted 7 March 1933 on Geological Survey sheet 278A, Prince Rupert; confirmed 3 April 1952 on 103 J, and 8 July 1954 on 103J/1.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"Chatham Sound, British Columbia and Chatham Strait, Alaska....The former was named (according to Vancouver when he arrived in the neighbourhood in July 1793) by some previous visitors (doubtless by Captain Duncan in 1788), and the latter by Vancouver in August 1794, after John Pitt, second earl of Chatham, who from July 1788 to December 1794 was First Lord of the Admiralty.... son of William Pitt, famous British statesman, and brother of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England for many years......". [see Walbran for additional biographical information.]

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)