Country Canada | Province British Columbia | |
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The Chatham Islands are a group of islands off the east coast of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada. All of the islands above the high tide mark (except the Alpha Islets ecological reserve) are in Chatham Islands Indian Reserve No. 4, under the control of the Songhees First Nation. Chatham Islands foreshore - defined as the land between low tide and the beginning of land based vegetation - is provincial Crown Land.
Map of Chatham Islands, Juan de Fuca, BC, Canada
The Chatham Islands were named in 1846 by surveyors in honour of HMS Chatham, the escort ship of HMS Discovery, the ship of 18th-century British Explorer Captain George Vancouver on his voyage to chart the coastline of British Columbia between 1792 and 1794 (the Vancouver Expedition). The adjacent Discovery Island was named after the Discovery.