 There was already an important trade centre on the site of Port Moresby when the English Captain John Moresby of HMS "Basilisk" first visited it.He sailed through the Coral Sea at the eastern end of New Guinea, saw three previously unknown islands, and landed there.At 10 a.m. on 20 February 1873, he claimed the land for Britain and named it after his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby.