First Approaches to the Northwest Coast chronicles the fierce late-eighteenth-century maritime competition among global empires striving to chart and claim the treacherous Pacific seaboard of North America. Pethick's narrative closely tracks the perilous navigational challenges faced by early explorers as they probed the fog-shrouded coastal inlets of present-day Washington and British Columbia while searching for the fabled Northwest Passage. By anchoring pivotal geopolitical events—most notably the Nootka Crisis—directly to the remote, deepwater harbors of Vancouver Island and the formidable entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the author grounds grand imperial strategies in specific local topographies. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how the rugged maritime edge of the Pacific Northwest served as a formidable geographic barrier that simultaneously lured and thwarted the first waves of European and American colonial expansion.

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