Francisco Antonio Mourelle

[1] Mourelle served the Spanish navy in the Guyanas, Trinidad, and the Antilles before becoming stationed at New Spain's Pacific Ocean naval base at San Blas, Mexico in 1774.

Captain James Cook made use of the information in Mourelle's journal during his travels in the Pacific Northwest.

Leaving San Blas on February 11, 1779, the expedition reached 61 degrees north and Hinchinbrook Island at the head of the Gulf of Alaska.

Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identify Niutao as the island that Mourelle named on May 5, 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called The Mystery of Gran Cocal.

He commanded a squadron in 1818 that was to put down a rebellion in the Rio de la Plata, but the endeavor never got underway.