Queen Charlotte Sound (Canada)

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There is also a Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand.

Queen Charlotte Sound as delineated by BCGNIS, along with Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance. Red dots indicate capes and points, gray text indicates island names. The international boundary between Canada and the United States follows Portland Canal to "Point B", thence to Cape Muzon. The "A-B Line" portion of the boundary is disputed.

Queen Charlotte Sound is a sound of the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia, Canada, between Vancouver Island in the south and the Queen Charlotte Islands in the north. It merges with Hecate Strait in the north and Queen Charlotte Strait in the south.^[1]

Queen Charlotte Sound is part of the Inside Passage shipping route.

According to the BCGNIS, the northern boundary of Queen Charlotte Sound is defined as a line running from the southernmost point of Price Island to Cape St James on Kunghit Island, the southernmost point of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The western boundary is a line from Cape St James to Cape Scott at the north end of Vancouver Island. The southern boundary runs along the coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Cape Sutil, then to Cape Caution on the mainland. An older definition placed the northern boundary as a line from the southernmost point of Aristazabal Island to Cape St James.^[2]

Queen Charlotte Sound was named for Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III. There is some uncertainty over who gave the name. It might have been the British fur trader James Strange, or according to George Vancouver, Mr. S. Wedgeborough, commander of the Experiment in 1786. Vancouver adopted the name in his maps and journals. For some time Queen Charlotte Strait was also called Queen Charlotte Sound, until 1920 when the BCGNIS and Hydrographic Service distinguished between Queen Charlotte Sound and Queen Charlotte Strait.^[3]