History
The first European visitor to the Channel Islands was Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. He made no specific mention of this island.
Sixty years later, the island was named by Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino, who visited the island on December 4, 1602, the feast day dedicated to Saint Barbara.
In 1852, Charles Melville Scammon, in the brig Mary Helen, hunted northern elephant seals and sea lions on Santa Barbara Island. In December 1934, the steam-schooner California spent a week anchored off the island, processing blue, fin, and sperm whales caught by her two steam-driven whale catchers Hawk and Port Saunders.
Read more about this topic: Santa Barbara Island
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