Keats Island (British Columbia)

Keats Island
Keats Island (center) from the BC Ferry
Coordinates: 49°24′N 123°27′W / 49.400°N 123.450°W / 49.400; -123.450Coordinates: 49°24′N 123°27′W / 49.400°N 123.450°W / 49.400; -123.450
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	Howe Sound
Area
• Total	6 km2 (2.3 sq mi)
• Land	6 km2 (2.3 sq mi)
Elevation	242 m (795 ft)
	Exact population is suppressed in Canada Census, because the population is so small.
Time zone	PST (UTC−8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC−7)
Area code(s)	604, 778

Keats Island is an inhabited island located in Howe Sound near Vancouver, British Columbia. Around eighty people live on Keats Island year-round.

Keats Island is one of the smaller islands in Howe Sound, located offshore from the community of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast and directly west of Bowen Island.

Other than a few cleared fields, the entire island is covered in forest. There are several beaches scattered around the island, and a prominent rocky outcrop called Salmon Rock at the Southwest tip.

Like many of the features in Howe Sound, Keats Island was named by George Henry Richards, who surveyed the British Columbia Coast from 1857 to 1862, first in HMS Plumper (which is commemorated by the name of Plumper Cover) until 1861, and then in HMS Hecate. Keats Island is named after Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, a British Admiral. Admiral Keats served under Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and was famous for sailing HMS Superb through a blockade at Gibraltar in 1801 during the Napoleonic wars. In 1813 Admiral Keats was also a governor of the Island of Newfoundland. Keats Island is the only large island in Howe Sound named for an officer who did not take part in the Battle of Trafalgar, as his ship was undergoing refit at the time. However, he had already established his fame in the Second Battle of Algeciras.