Alcatraz Island Juan Manuel Diaz, who charted San Francisco Bay and named one of the three islands he identified as "La Isla de los Alcatraces," which translates as "The Island of the Gannets" but is commonly believed to translate as "The Island of the Pelicans (Spanish for Pelicans is Pelicanos)," from the archaic Spanish "" ("pelican"). Over the years, the Spanish version "Alcatraz" became popular and is now widely used. In August 1827, French Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly wrote "... running past Alcatraze's (Pelicans) Island ... covered with a countless number of these birds. A gun fired over the feathered legions caused
June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt to death by guards because he wouldn't help investigators locate his brothers. A 2014 study of the ocean currents by scientists at Delft University and the research institute Deltares indicates that if the prisoners left Alcatraz at 11:30 pm on June 11, they could have made it to Horseshoe Bay just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and that any debris that were released into the bay would have floated into the direction of Angel Island, consistent with where the paddle and belongings of the prisoners' was actually found. A 2015 History Channel documentary presented further circumstantial evidence gathered over