Chatham Sound, inlet of the eastern North Pacific Ocean, west-central British Columbia, Canada. An eastern extension of Dixon Entrance between the Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) and Dall Island, the sound stretches north from Porcher Island for 40 miles (65 km) to the mouth of Portland Inlet. From 8 to 15 miles in width, it flows between Dundas Island (west) and the Tsimpsean Peninsula. The Skeena River enters just south of the port of Prince Rupert. The sound may have been named (1788) by British Capt. Charles Duncan after the 2nd earl of Chatham.