Dr. Barry M. Gough

DNG lifetime member, Barry M. Gough is a distinguished Canadian is a biographer and global maritime and naval historian who is a lifetime member of the the Drake Navigators Guild (DNG) and reviewed, conducted, and supported DNG related research. 

Gough was raised in Canada where he graduated from Victoria High School in 1956. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, he went on to earn his master’s degree at the University of Montana in Missoula and his PhD at King’s College, London. 

Gough initially proceeded upon an academic career and initially taught at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.  In 1972 Gough moved to Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and worked in various capacities which included professor, research professor, and assistant dean of arts.  When he retired in 2004, he was appointed University Professor Emeritus.

With the majority of his study applied toward maritime and naval history, he has written about both Canadian and international historical matters.  Gough is a Fellow of the Society for the History of Discoveries, Fellow of Kings College London, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and Archives Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge.  Additionally, he is past president of the Canadian Nautical Research Society.  Gough was a founding member and past president of the North American Society for Oceanic History.  

He has 22 published books and authored hundreds of articles.  Most notably, his book Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon won the Mountbatten Literary Award bestowed by the British Maritime Foundation.  Books authored by Gough include:

      • Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America (2007)

     • Britannia's Navy on the West Coast of North America, 1812–1914 (2016)

      • Juan de Fuca’s Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams (2014)

      • Churchill and Fisher: Titans at the Admiralty (2015)

      • Possessing Meares Island (2022)

Image Courtesy of Dr. Barry Gough