DIXON

dixon, george (1755?-1800), english navigator. he served under captain cook in his third expedition, during which he had an opportunity of learning the commercial capabilities of the north-west coast of north america. after his return from cook's expedition he became a captain in the royal navy. in the autumn of 1785 he sailed in the "queen charlotte," in the service of the king george's sound company of london, to explore the shores of the present british columbia, with the special object of developing the fur trade. his chief discoveries were those of queen charlotte's islands and sound (the latter only partial), port mulgrave, norfolk bay, and dixon's entrance and archipelago. after visiting china, where he disposed of his cargo, he returned to england (1788), and published (1799) _a voyage round the world, but more particularly to the north-west coast of america_, the bulk of which consists of descriptive letters by william beresford, his supercargo. his own contribution to the work included valuable charts and appendices. he is usually, though not with absolute certainty, identified with the george dixon who was author of _the navigator's assistant_ (1791) and teacher of navigation at gosport.