The “explorer” was cast as a heroic figure in the popular imagination, regardless of how the king or financiers might have felt about the outcome of the exploits of exploration. Many of the expeditions that reached the Pacific Northwest were full of brave adventurers, but captains were usually trained by navy life and held to discipline and decorum. Tales of their travels made them into thrilling characters of mythic proportions, who sailed and paddled off into danger and the unknown without a care for their own safety. Some received the accolades and rewards all hoped were their due, but others returned home to suspicious governments and jealousy. Some survived to tell of their adventures, but many were laid to rest at the furthest reaches of their expeditions.
Statues, busts, portraits, knick-knacks, and souvenir charts were created for sale and display during the 18th century. Ceramics manufacturers in England produced earthenware figures of sailors, and companies hoping to interest buyers in their commemorative collectables issued special-edition porcelain figurines, mugs, and bronze medallions with the likeness of Captain Cook.
Long after the 18th century and its explorers had passed, many towns and sites erected monuments to the expeditions and captains that gave them their names and brought the Pacific Northwest to the attention of the rest of the world. A simple memorial to Vitus Bering and other sailors lost in the North Pacific was erected in Petropavlovsk, Russia. A golden statue of Captain Vancouver sits atop the buildings of the Provincial Capital in Victoria, British Columbia, and plaques and statuary in honour of Spanish Captain Bodega y Quadra sit in parks and ocean-side esplanades. The Pacific winter camp of the Lewis and Clark expedition at Fort Clatsop was recreated in the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park in Oregon, U.S.A. Alexander Mackenzie even made his own monument upon reaching the Pacific coast, writing “Alexander Mackenzie From Canada By Land 22 July 1793” in vermillion and grease on a rock near Bella Coola.
