Dobson was listed as being 21 years old and coming from Clapham when he joined the Discovery. He was born on 13 August 1771 and baptised on 08 September 1771 at St. John Horsleydown, Southwark, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Dobson.

Thomas James Dobson joined the Discovery on 10 September 1792 at Nootka Sound from the Daedalus storeship. A letter written by Thomas New, master of the Daedalus, suggests Dobson was a close friend of New's son who also joined the Discovery at that time. Dobson was the only person who could read and write Spanish so he proved invaluable in the negotiations between Vancouver and Bodega y Quadra. He served as a midshipman for three years on the voyage.

Dobson kept a log during the voyage Adm 51/4534 pt. 7 Discovery covers 15 Mar. 1794 to 02 Dec. 1794 and Adm 51/4534 pt. 8 Discovery covers 02 Dec. 1794 to 01 Jul. 1795. These are also entitled no. 2 and no.3. Nos. 1 and 4 are missing.

The Discovery was Dobson's first service on a Royal Navy ship so he needed three more years service to qualify as a lieutenant. He, therefore, joined the Princess Augusta yacht on his return to Britain. He then joined, in May 1796, HMS Glenmore under Captain George Duff. He spent 20 months in the North Sea. In March 1798 Dobson joined the Cambridge for seven months under Captain Richard Boger. He was listed as a supernumerary.

Dobson was commissioned lieutenant on 09 November 1798. He was still present as such in a listing in 1805 and in that year was a lieutenant on board HMS St. Albans under Captain John Temple. There is a will for a Thomas Dobson of St. Paul's, Deptford proven 27 February 1813 (PROB 11/1541). Nothing else is known about him.

John Miller Garnier was born at Rookesbury Park near Wickham in Hampshire on 15 October 1774 and baptised on 25 October 1774 at Wickham. He was the fourth son of George Charles Garnier and his wife Margaret (née Miller). Charles Garnier often entertained literary celebrities such as Garrick, Churchill and Sotheby at Rookesbury. John's older brother, Thomas, was Dean of Winchester from 1840 until 1872.

Garnier joined the Royal Navy on board HMS Dido in October 1787 under Captain Charles Sandys. Garnier spent three years on the Dido, which Sandys took to Nova Scotia in April 1788. Captain Edward Buller assumed command in July 1790 in Halifax. In December 1790, Garnier then joined HMS Hector, commanded by Captain George Montagu. Garnier moved to the Chatham for Vancouver's expedition on 06 March 1791 as a midshipman until 01 February 1794. He then became clerk. On 29 September 1795, Garnier resumed as a midshipman. He spent the whole voyage on Chatham. He does not feature in the record of the voyage, nor does he appear to have kept a log.

After the voyage with Vancouver, Garnier passed his lieutenant's examination and was commissioned on 09 November 1795. He served on HMS Namur from 1796 and joined HMS Sans Pareil in 1797 under Captain William Browell (colleagues James Johnstone and Alexander Menzies from the Vancouver expedition were also on board for part of this time).

Garnier was promoted to commander on 27 August 1800. Shortly after, in early 1801, Captain John Miller Garnier was in command of HMS Hawk in the Leeward Islands in the West Indies. They took part in the landings, which led to the surrender of the Danish and Dutch possessions in the West Indies in the spring of that year. Afterwards Captain Garnier was given an acting order and rear admiral Duckworth's first lieutenant, George William Blamey, was appointed to succeed him on the Hawk. Garnier was appointed to HMS Southampton in May 1801 and made a captain on 03 August 1801.

However, Garnier died of yellow fever in the West Indies on 28 October 1801. Two of his brothers, George and Henry, also died from yellow fever in the West Indies. Garnier left no will.

The German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, encountered Garnier and described the meeting in Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, 3:

Augustus Boyd Grant joined the Chatham on 14 March 1791 as a midshipman. He is listed as being 18 years old and from Dublin when he joined. Puget had great problems with Grant and he was discharged into the Daedalus at Hawai'i on 08 February 1794.Nothing else is known about him (11 February 2005).

The entry on James Hanson has been compiled with help from Lesley McLean, for which many thanks.

James Hanson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1767, the son of Hargreaves and Lettice Hanson. His older brother, John Hanson, was a lawyer and is known for being the solictor and business agent of George, Lord Byron, the poet. The acquaintance with the Byrons began in 1788 prior to the poet's birth, as the midwife and the nurse were recommended by John Hanson's wife. While the poet was still a boy, he spent a most of his holidays at the Hanson home in Earls Court, London, and became close to Hanson's children. One of the sons, Hargreaves, would be Byron's contemporary at Harrow while Byron would give away the daughter, Mary Anne, at her marriage to the Earl of Portsmouth. James Hanson and Byron would have been well-known to each other.

Apparently, Byron was born with a caul (the inner membrane enclosing the foetus, which envelops the head of the newly born child). It was superstitiously regarded as a good omen and supposed to prevent drowning. Byron's caul was sold by Mrs. Mills, the nurse who attended Mrs. Byron to James Hanson but, unfortunately for Hanson, it did not work as he would die by drowning in a shipwreck.

James Hanson entered the Royal Navy on HMS Crocodile in October 1780. The ship's captain was James King, who had just returned from Cook's third voyage to the Pacific. Hanson remained with the Crocodile for 18 months before accompanying King to HMS Resistance. 21 months later Hanson moved to HMS Europa under Captain Michael de Courcy in January 1784 but only remained there for three weeks. Three months on HMS Antelope under Lieutenant Robert Cauzor followed and Hanson had left the ship before she sank in a hurricane off Jamaica in July 1784.

His next ship was the Janus, captain by John Packenham, on which he served for two years. In August 1787 he joined the Porcupine under.Captain Lambert Brabazon. Hanson passed his lieutenant's examination in March 1788. He was selected for the expedition to the Northwest Coast of America. On 17 November 1790 he became a lieutenant and joined the Chatham on 28 December in that rank as second-in-command to William Broughton, the ship's commander.

After the storeship Daedalus arrived at Nootka and Vancouver learned of the death of its commander, Richard Hergest, Hanson was appointed as the replacement agent (or commander) in his place on 29 August 1792. Hanson took the Daedalus across to New South Wales on two occasions before returning to Britain. No log or journal for Hanson from his time with Vancouver has been located.

Hanson was promoted to commander on 24 July 1795 and that year was in command of the Etrusco storeship. He remained with her until he took charge of the Favourite sloop in July 1797 and sailed her to the West Indies in January 1798. In November 1799, Hanson commissioned HMS Brazen. His appointment was noted by Byron in a letter to John Hanson:

The Brazen had been the French privateer, l'Invincible General Bounaparte, that had been captured in April 1799. Operating in the English Channel, Hanson took a prize off the Isle of Wight and sent it into Portsmouth. The following morning, 26 January 1800, Brazen was driven by a gale on to the Ave Rocks near Newhaven and was destroyed. Only one man survived and Hanson was among the dead. He left no will. There is now an obelix to Hanson's memory and the other men who died, in the churchyard of St. Michael, Newhaven.

At some time after Vancouver's voyage Hanson had married. His widow, Louisa Hanson (nee Cremer), thought to be originally from Lopham in Norfolk, was in an advanced state of pregnancy. She offered a reward for the recovery of the captain's body, which could be identified by his arm having an anchor picked out in gunpowder. Louisa Hanson gave birth at Dartford in Kent on 05 May 1800 to a son, James Hawsey Hanson. Sadly, the son died on 17 May 1802. Louisa Hanson died in Bexley, Kent in 1884, aged 103 and having been a widow for 84 years. She had only been married for 18 months when she was widowed at the age of 20, and she drew a Navy pension for over 80 years. This may be the longest recorded pension in Naval history.

Joseph Whidbey called the southern point of Gray's Harbor on the Washington coast Point Hanson but the name was not retained and it is now known as Point Chehalis. However, an island deep in Queen Charlotte Sound, north of Vancouver Island, was named by Captain Richards in 1860 and is still known as Hanson Island.

Edwin Charlton Harris joined the Royal Navy in October 1788 as an AB on board HMS Narcissus under Captain Philip d'Auvergne. After 14 months he moved to HMS Diana under Captain Thomas Russell still as an AB. However he only remained on the Diana for a month before joining the Discovery in February 1790. Harris was listed as being 19 years old and coming from London when he joined the Discovery. There is a birth record for an Edwin Harris who was born on 02 February 1771 and baptised on 10 April 1771 at Old Church, St. Pancras, London, the son of Thomas and Jane Harris.

Harris served as a midshipman, AB and master's mate on the voyage, all the time on the Discovery. His log from the voyage is missing. He immediately sat passed his lieutenant's examination on his return and was commissioned lieutenant on 06 November 1795. He was still on the Navy List as a lieutenant in 1805.

Harris served on the sloop Beever firstly under Commander Samuel Warner who had commissioned her in October 1795 and then from July 1796 under Commander Richard Browne. Harris transferred to the sloop Cyane in 1798 under Commander Robert Manning and sailed to the West Indies. Later that year he was on HMS Solebay under Captain Stephen Poyntz in the West Indies. His last service appears to have been on HMS Atlas from January 1799 under Captain Shuldham Peard and from April 1799 under Captain Theophilis Jones through to 1801.

In 1804, he sent a note to the Admiralty from 12 Frederick Place Hampstead indicating his inability to serve. Harris wrote his will at the same time and states he was attached to HMS Scout. He is supposed to have died in 1816 but there is some confusion with regards Edwin Harris. The list of sea officers records him as being Edwin Charlton Harris and records him as dying in 1816. A marriage record also exists for an Edwin Charlton Harris marrying Charlotte Fox on 02 May 1814 at St. James, Westminster and together they had a daughter, Elizabeth Maria, baptised 12 April 1815 at St. Mary, Lambeth.

However, there is a will (see below) for a lieutenant Edwin Charles Harris. It was written in 1804 and has him attached to HMS Scout. In it, Harris leaves his estate to his wife, Elizabeth Harris. The will was proven fourteen years later on 04 May 1818 (PROB 11/1604). It is probable that Edwin Charlton Harris and Edwin Charles Harris were one and the same. His first wife, Elizabeth, may have died and he had not written a new will mentioning his second wife, Charlotte, and their child before he died.

Notes for the will.
The will was written in 1804, fourteen years before it was proven in 1818.

Thomas Heddington was born on 01 June 1774 and baptised on 29 June 1774 in Chatham. He was the son of Thomas and Mary Heddington. The elder Thomas Heddington had married Mary Moulden on 13 August 1765 at St. Nicholas, Rochester. Mary Moulden was baptised on 03 June 1744 at St. Clements, Sandwich, the daughter of William Moulden, a naval officer who had been a close friend of Robert Palliser Cooper.

Heddington joined the navy in 1786 and, prior to joining the Chatham, he served on the Invincible, Pegase (as Surgeons servant) and Castor. Thomas Heddington joined the Chatham on 01 February 1791 as a midshipman. He spent the whole voyage on Chatham in that position. He was skilled as an artist and he drew several of the landscape drawings that survive from the voyage. Heddington kept a log during the voyage (Adm 55/15 Chatham covers 01 Feb. 1791 to 13 Jan. 1793 and Adm 55/16 Chatham covers 14 Jan. 1793 to 02 Jul. 1795).

After the voyage, Heddington was promoted lieutenant on 06 November 1795 and appointed to HMS Kangaroo. In 1798 he was on HMS Saturn. He was not destined for life at and began a series of land-based positions. He was placed in charge of Hawkesley Signal Station, outside Birmingham, until becoming a commander on 25 September 1806. His career remained on shore and he was given positions during the Napoeonic Wars as agent for prisoners of war at Great Yarmouth, Valleyfield and Edinburgh. Near the end of the war, Heddington was a Regulating Captain in the impress service at King's Lynn. At the end of the war, he was on half-pay.

Heddington asked unsuccessfully for work in the Coastguard service in 1832. He was promoted to captain on the retired list in 1851 and died in Exeter on 02 April 1852 aged 77. Heddington married Fanny Bailey between 1841 and 1851. She had been his neighbour at Topham near Exeter in Devon. Fanny Heddington was 35 years younger than her husband. Fanny unsuccessfully applied for a widow's pension in 1860. The Admiralty had been unaware of his death until then and still listed him. Fanny Heddington died in Wandsworth in 1879. There were no children.

James Johnstone was born in the Scottish Border region about 1759. He joined the navy in February 1779 as captain's servant on HMS Keppel, a 14 gun sloop recently commissioned by Lieutenant Richard Whitworth. A year later he moved to the recently capture French frigate, HMS La Fortunée, which was commissioned by Captain Hugh Christian in April 1780. La Fortunée sailed to New York and on to the West Indies before returning to Portsmouth. In May 1781 she sailed to Jamaica before taking part in the battle off Chesapeake Bay. In October 1782 Johnstone transferred to HMS Formidable under Captain James Samber. Samber took the ship to New York then West Indies and finally back to Portsmouth.

Johnstone joined HMS Queen in August 1783. She had been recommissioned in the April by Captain John Wainwright but Johnstone only remained with her for two months. In the October he joined HMS Assistance which had been recommissioned that year by Captain William Bentinck. It was flying the broad pennant of Sir Charles Douglas.

Also on board the Assistance was Archibald Menzies, the surgeon's second mate, with whom Johnstone would form a lifelong friendship. Johnstone was appointed master in 1785 and received his master's certificate after the voyage in 1786. He and Menzies were discharged on 22 August 1786 at Chatham. Johnstone passed his lieutenant's examination in the September but he would not receive his commission for another seven years.

Johnstone signed on as mate of the Prince of Wales under James Colnett for a private commercial sea otter fur trading voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, which left Britain in October 1786. Menzies was also on board. In January 1789, Johnstone assumed command of the Prince of Wales in Macao when Colnett opted to take another ship, the Argonaut, back to the American coast. Johnstone took the ship back to Britain, arriving in July 1789. Rejoining the navy, Johnstone was appointed to superintend a division of ships in ordinary at Plymouth.

On 03 January 1791, James Johnstone joined Vancouver for his forthcoming expedition to the Northwest Coast of America as master of Vancouver's companion vessel, the Chatham. His old friend, Archibald Menzies, would join him on the voyage. Another friendship would develop with Adam Brown from Chatham's crew. Johnstone's experience of the coast and of surveying in small boats made him indispensable member of the expedition and he carried out many of the arduous surveys.

He kept a log of which only a part survives (Adm 53/335 Chatham, 02 Jan. 1791-20 May 1792). He also made some drawings and charts. Johnstone Strait, north of Vancouver Island, is named for him as are Johnstone Bay and Johnstone Point in or near Prince William Sound.

After the voyage, Johnstone, who had been acting lieutenant on the Chatham since 11 June 1793, was confirmed in that rank. He is believed to served on HMS Shannon in early 1796 before returning to HMS Formidable now under Captain George Murray. In 1796, Johnstone moved to HMS Sans Pareil under Captain William Browell and in 1798 they sailed to the West Indies. Menzies was also on board.

In September 1801, the 18-gun ship-sloop Lark, under acting-commander lieutenant James Johnstone, was near Cuba, when it fell in with and captured the Spanish privateer-schooner Esperanza. Johnstone was promoted commander on 22 June 1802 and had command of the Shark sloop in 1802. He recommissioned the Ceres as a slop ship at the Nore in 1803 and was in charge of the Alert sloop from July 1804 in the North Sea.

Johnstone was in command of HMS Curieux from July 1805. He captured two Spanish privateers: the Brilliano in November 1805 and the Baltidore in February 1806. Johnstone was promoted captain in 22 January 1806 and was appointed to HMS Leopard in 1808. On 06 May, Leopard was part of a convoy to the Cape of Good Hope and continued to the East Indies where it acted as flagship of Vice-Admiral Albermarle Bertie. In April 1810, Johnstone and the Leopard were part of a force that attacked the Ile de France (Mauritius).

In 1810, Johnstone transferred to HMS Scipion under Rear Admiral Stopford who took over the East Indies station. Stopford, with a fleet of Royal Navy ships and East India Company vessels captured the island of Java on 18 September 1811. Johnstone became Commissioner of the Navy in Bombay in 1811 but, in 1817, when he was to succeed Peter Puget (a colleague from the Vancouver expedition) in a similar role in Madras, his health failed. He returned to Britain with Puget.

Johnstone went to live in Paris. He died in London at Menzies's home on 01 April 1823. In his will proven 21 November 1823 (PROB 11/1677), Johnstone named his old friends, Menzies and Brown, as his executors. As well as leaving items to them he also left items to his half-brother Thomas Johnstone, a minister in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and to his sister, Mary Clark (married to John Clark) of Annan.