Victor Suthren (born March 2, 1942) is a Canadian writer and novelist with an interest in colonial and maritime history.
Born in Montreal, Suthren was educated at Bishop's University (BA, 1965) and Concordia University (MA, 1970). He joined the Civil Service and rose to serve as Director General of the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa (1986-1997) before leaving to pursue a writing career. A former university naval reservist, he was appointed an Honorary Captain(N) in the Royal Canadian Navy (1997-2014), attached to the office of the Commander of the RCN. For this service he received the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has been President of the international Captain Cook Society since May 2023, [1] and has been an occasional film adviser and oceanic "tall ship" sailor in the replica of HM Bark "Endeavour" and other ships. From 1983 to 1993 he sang in the chorus and in some minor lead roles with the Ottawa Savoy Society's Gilbert and Sullivan productions. In 1969 he married Lindsay Scott of Montreal and they have three children. [2]
Set in mid-18th century
Starts in 1739
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission.
Commodore Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer. Having enlisted in the French navy at the age of 15, he had a successful career and in 1785 was appointed to lead a scientific expedition around the world. His ships stopped in Chile, Hawaii, Alaska, California, Macau, the Philippines, Korea, Russia, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, and Australia before wrecking on the reefs of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands.
Jeffrey A. Carver is an American science fiction author. He was born in Cleveland, graduated from Brown University, and lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts with his family. His 2000 novel Eternity's End was a nominee at the 2001 Nebula Awards; in 2022 he was honored with the Helicon Lifetime Achievement Award.
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French military officer, explorer and nobleman. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the flowering plant Bougainvillea are named in his honour.
Louis Applebaum was a Canadian film score composer, administrator, and conductor.
HMS Dolphin was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1751, she was used as a survey ship from 1764 and made two circumnavigations of the world under the successive commands of John Byron and Samuel Wallis. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the world twice. She remained in service until she was paid off in September 1776. She was broken up in early 1777.
Isaac Smith (1752–1831) was a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and cousin of Elizabeth Cook wife of Captain James Cook, with whom he sailed on two voyages of exploration in the South Pacific. Smith was the first European to set foot in eastern Australia and the first to prepare survey maps of various Pacific islands and coastlines including Tierra del Fuego in South America.
Rear Admiral Leonard Warren Murray, CB, CBE was an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy who played a central role in the Battle of the Atlantic, and was the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of operations during World War II.
Hyacinthe Yves Philippe Potentien, baron de Bougainville was a French naval officer. He was the son of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. He became Rear-Admiral on 1 May 1838.
Léonard Victor Joseph Charner was an Admiral of the French Navy. As a commander of French naval forces in Asia from May 1860 to September 1861, including the Second Opium War and the Cochinchina campaign, he was a significant participant in the establishment of French Indochina.
HMS Hesper was a British Royal Navy 18-gun ship-sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1809 at Dartmouth. Her original builder, Benjamin Tanner, became bankrupt during her construction, so John Cock completed her. In 1810 she was reclassed as a 20-gun sixth-rate ship ; in 1817 she was again re-rated, this time as 26 guns. She served primarily in the Indian Ocean. In 1810 she participated in the Invasion of Isle de France. The next year Hesper participated in the capture of Java, which she followed in 1812 by capturing Timor. She was sold in 1817.
François-Gabriel d'Angeac, Knight of Saint-Louis, was an officer in the French colonial regular troops and the first French governor of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
The 1757 Battle on Snowshoes was a skirmish fought between Rogers' Rangers and Canadien and Indian troops during the French and Indian War on January 21, 1757. The battle was given this name because the British combatants wore snowshoes.
Vice-Admiral Harold Taylor Wood Grant, was a Canadian naval officer and a post-war Chief of the Naval Staff. The son of Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, MacCallum Grant, Harold Grant entered the Royal Canadian Navy as a cadet in 1914. He spent most of the First World War in training until 1917, when he became a midshipman aboard a British Royal Navy ship. Considered an above average officer, he was earmarked for early promotion during the interwar period and by 1938, commanded the destroyer HMCS Skeena.
This is a bibliography of works on the military history of Canada.
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were a means of expanding colonial empires, establishing new trade routes and extending diplomatic and trade relations to new territories, but with the Enlightenment scientific curiosity became a new motive for exploration to add to the commercial and political ambitions of the past. See also List of Arctic expeditions and List of Antarctic expeditions.
Matavai Bay is a bay on the north coast of Tahiti, the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia. It is in the commune of Mahina, approximately 8 km east of the capital Pape'ete.
Events from the year 1729 in France
Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, most commonly refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. The term South Sea may also be used synonymously for Oceania, or even more narrowly for Polynesia or the Polynesian Triangle, an area bounded by the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand and Easter Island. Pacific Islanders are commonly referred to as South Sea Islanders, particularly in Australia.
Victor Suthren, "A Museum of Tolerance", Maclean's Magazine, March 17, 2003.