Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dixon, George
DIXON, GEORGE (d. 1800?), navigator, served as a petty officer of the Resolution during Cook's last voyage [see Cook, James]. He would seem to have afterwards had the command of a merchant ship, and in May 1785 was engaged by the King George's Sound Company, formed for the development and prosecution of the fur trade of the north-western parts of America. Dixon was appointed to command the Queen Charlotte, and sailed from St. Helen's on 17 Sept. 1785 in company with the King George, whose captain, Nathaniel Portlock [q. v.], had been his shipmate in the Resolution, and was now the commander of the expedition. Doubling Cape Horn and touching at the Sandwich Islands, they sailed thence on 13 June 1786, and on 18 July made the coast of America, near the mouth of Cook's River, in lat. 59° N. In that neighbourhood they remained some weeks, and then worked their way southwards towards King George's, or, as it is now more commonly called, Nootka Sound, off which they were on 24 September; but being prevented by baffling winds and calms from entering the Sound, they returned to the Sandwich Islands, where they wintered.
On 13 March 1787 they again sailed for the coast of America, and on 24 April anchored off Montague Island. Here on 14 May the two vessels separated, it being considered more likely to lead to profitable results if they worked independently. During the next three months Dixon was busily employed southward as far as King George's Sound, trading with the natives, taking eager note of their manners and customs, as well as of the trade facilities, and making a careful survey of the several points which came within his reach. Cook had already denoted the general outline of the coast, but the detail was still wanting, and much of this was now filled in by Dixon, more especially the important group of Queen Charlotte Islands, which, in the words of their discoverer's narrative, ‘surpassed our most sanguine expectations, and afforded a greater quantity of furs than perhaps any place hitherto known.’ It may be noticed, however, that though he sighted and named Queen Charlotte's Sound, he missed the discovery that it was a passage to the southward; but indeed he made no pretence at finality. The first object of the voyage was trade, and as the Queen Charlotte Islands seemed to more than answer all immediate wants, he was perhaps careless of other discoveries, and, ‘while claiming to have made considerable additions to the geography of this coast,’ contented himself with the remark that ‘so imperfectly do we still know it that it is in some measure to be doubted whether we have yet seen the mainland. Certain it is that the coast abounds with islands, but whether any land we have been near is really the continent remains to be determined by future navigators.’ An examination of Dixon's chart shows in fact that most of his work lay among the islands. On leaving King George's Sound the Queen Charlotte returned to the Sandwich Islands, whence she sailed on 18 Sept. for China, where it had been agreed she was to meet her consort. On 9 Nov. she anchored at Macao, and at Whampoa on the 25th was joined by the King George. Here they sold their furs, of which the Queen Charlotte more especially had a good cargo, and having taken on board a cargo of tea they dropped down to Macao and sailed on 9 Feb. 1788 for England. In bad weather off the Cape of Good Hope the ships parted company, and though they met again at St. Helena, they sailed thence independently. The Queen Charlotte arrived off Dover on 17 Sept., having been preceded by the King George by about a fortnight.
Of Dixon's further life little is known, but he has been identified, on evidence that is not completely satisfactory, with a George Dixon who during the last years of the century was a teacher of navigation at Gosport, and author of ‘The Navigator's Assistant’ (1791). Whether he was the same man or not, we may judge him, both from the work actually performed and from such passages of the narrative of his voyage as appear to have been written by himself (e.g. the greater part of letter xxxviii.), to have been a man of ability and attainments, a keen observer, and a good navigator. He is supposed to have died about 1800.
[A Voyage round the World, but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America, performed in 1785–88 … by Captain George Dixon (4to, 1789). This, though bearing Dixon's name on the title-page, was really written by the supercargo of the Queen Charlotte, Mr. William Beresford. Another 4to volume with exactly the same general title was put forth in the same year by Captain Nathaniel Portlock, but the voyages, though beginning and ending together, were essentially different in what was, geographically, their most important part; Meares's Voyages, 1788–9, from China to the North-West Coast of North America (4to, 1790).]