Thorne Bay Island Retreat

Caamaño Point is on the southern tip of Cleveland Peninsula, at the right hand of the Channel. You see it coming up to starboard. It was recorded as Cabo Caamaño by Jacinto Caamaño in 1792, and accepted as such by George Vancouver the following year. It also appears as Punta Caamaño in some maps. Jacinto Caamaño Moraleja (1759-1825?) was the leader of the last great Hispanic exploration of Alaska. He was a Knight of the Military Order of Calatrava. Born in Madrid, he came from an aristocratic Galician family, whose homestead was near Santiago de Compostela. His father was Juan Fernández de Caamaño, and his mother, Mariana Moraleja Alocen. He entered the Navy (Armada) as an adventurer at 18, and two years later he was an Ensign (Alférez de navio).
A few years later he formed part of a politico-commercial expedition to Constantinople to establish business relations with Turkey, Poland, and Russia. After a quick trip to Cuba in 1787, he was sent to the Pacific Coast of Mexico, based in San Blas, the headquarters for the exploration of the Pacific Northwest. Alongside went his brother-in-law, Francisco de Eliza, who would distinguish himself as Governor of Nootka in Vancouver Island. On their ship to Mexico was the recently named Viceroy of New Spain, Don. Juan Vicente de Güemes, Count of Revillagigedo. On February 3, 1790, Caamaño took part on an expedition to the Pacific Northwest. He was commanding the Nuestra Señora del Rosario (also known as the Princesa), a 189-ton frigate built in San Blas for the exploration of the North. He did not go beyond Nootka on this voyage, but on his next one, (1792), came as far as Bucareli Bay commanding the frigate Aránzazu, a ship built at Cavite in the Philippines. This expedition did a thorough study of the coast from Bucareli to Nootka, marking the map of Alaska and British Columbia with many names which are there today.
Having successfully completed his trip to Alaska, Caamaño was sent, after a brief stay in San Blas, across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines. From 1794 to 1807 he served at various posts between México and Perú, having married on one of those trips the Ecuadorian, Francisca de Arteta Santistevan, who gave him eight children. In 1820 he was still living in Guayaquil, the birthplace of his youngest daughter, but nothing is known of the date and place of his death. Some of his descendants (the Staggs Caamaño) live nowadays in Arizona.