Francisco Vidal Gormaz

Francisco Vidal Gormaz (July 1, 1837 in Santiago, Chile – February 5, 1907) was a Chilean naval officer and hydrographer who explored the coasts of Chile including some river systems and lakes. During the 1850s he explored and surveyed several times Maullín River with Francisco Hudson. Before being lost at sea in 1859 Hudson is thought to have been a major influence on Vidal Gormaz. His explorations of the southern Patagonian archipelagoes made him critical of the work of Robert FitzRoy and Charles Darwin whom according to him had failed acknowledge the importance of the Patagonian islands.